The Top 10 Opening Scenes in Cinema
By James Oliver
It's always a treat to settle down to a film and find yourself gripped from the opening frame. What follows is a list of some of the best starts in cinema. These sequences don't just grab your attention: they also inaugurate the ideas, motifs and approaches of the film that follows. And all of them make you want to know what happens next.
What better place to start than at the end?
NB. We've limited ourselves to choosing from titles currently available in the UK
10. Melancholia
Although Lars von Trier presents himself as a prize clot (claiming to be a Nazi at Cannes? Naughty Lars!), let there be no doubt of his ability to open a film. His most recent starts with this dazzling montage depicting the end of the world. At once technically assured and emotionally affecting, it reminds us why, in spite of his occasional silliness, Von Trier can't be ignored.
Buy the DVD for £6.99 / Buy the Blu-ray for £8.99
9. Fellini's 8½
What better way to begin a film about fantasy and escape than with a fantastic escape? Here's Marcello Mastroianni trapped in the world's worst traffic jam and finding an ingenious shortcut. It's probably lazy to describe this flamboyant daydream as 'Felliniesque' but there's only one director who could have come up with this sequence. Let us be grateful that he did.
8. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
Aren't Soviet films supposed to be thoroughly grim affairs? Drab settings, tortured characters and usually featuring tractors? If so, nobody told Sergei Parajanov: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is possessed of exuberance, colour and experimentation – and there's not a tractor in sight. This opening scene loudly announces the film's unconventional and sometimes outlandish approach.
7. A Clockwork Orange
Duhn-DUHN duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh. Duhn-DUHN! Sorry. Got a bit carried away there. Few filmmakers have married music to images as well as Stanley Kubrick and this shot is arguably his best effort – Henry Purcell (by way of Walter/ Wendy Carlos), coupled to a slow pull back to reveal Malcolm McDowell and his droogs in the Korova milk-bar. Altogether now! Duhn-DUHN!
Buy the DVD for £7.99 / Buy the Blu-ray for £23.49
6. Werckmeister Harmonies
We've used this clip from Bela Tarr's Werckmeister Harmonies before, as one of our Top 10 Spectacular Long Takes, but this masterful opening shot is good enough to be recycled: a demonstration of planetary movement in a bar that's almost a perfect short film in it's own right. As mentioned on its last outing, the great thing about the clip is that it is the ideal introduction for the film that follows: if you like this, then you'll love the rest of it.
5. The Social Network
One of the most acclaimed openings of recent times is this talkative two-hander from 'the Facebook movie', showcasing the brilliant rat-a-tat rhythms of screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (the best dialogue-ist around right now). Irritatingly, copyright restrictions mean we can't show you the full clip but hey! who needs actors when you have crude computer reconstructions! (It says much about Sorkin's talent that the scene remains eminently watchable even in this bastardised format.)
Buy the DVD for £6.49 / Buy the Blu-ray for £13.99
4. By the Bluest of Seas
Boris Barnet is only just beginning to get the acclaim that he deserves in the west. If you want to see what we've been missing then take a look at this rhapsody of water, bodies, music and light. Two sailors are washed in on the tide and arrive at a collective farm (OK, it's another Soviet film), where they both fall for the same gal. It's an immersive, sensual film – just like this clip.
3. Once Upon a Time in the West
A sequence that only Sergio Leone could have directed, a scene about boredom that is never remotely boring. Three gunfighters arrive at a station and settle down to wait for the train. Nothing much happens for nearly ten minutes – one of them is bothered by a fly, another cracks his knuckles while the third is troubled by dripping water – and yet Leone's absolute control (and Ennio Morricone's ingenious sound design) means it's riveting. Believe it or not, Leone wanted it longer still!
Buy the DVD for £5.99 / Buy the Blu-ray for £11.99
2. A Matter of Life and Death
“This is the universe. Big, isn't it?” Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger specialised in memorable beginnings – think of the pilgrims in A Canterbury Tale or the in-shot credits of I Know Where I'm Going! But this is their finest opening, a guided tour of the cosmos that leads us to a single doomed aeroplane, using special effects that still seem magical.
1. The Godfather Trilogy
The opening scene of The Godather: Part I is one of the most compelling sequences ever committed to celluloid and a brilliant introduction to the movie we're about to watch: Francis Ford Coppola establishes the rhythm, style and a fair few of the film's themes in the first thirty seconds of this magisterial scene. If the mark of a great opening is the ability to draw you in, then no-one has ever done better than this. The rest of the film is pretty good as well.
Buy the DVD for £23.49 / Buy the Blu-ray for £34.99
What did you think of the selection? Let us know below
Film Listing
Boris Barnet, 1936
£19.99
By the Bluest of Seas (Hyperkino Edition)
A beautiful film from Barnet that encourages you to forget any stereotypes you mi...
Lars von Trier, 2011
£6.99
Melancholia
An apocalyptic study of depression, a 'psychological disaster movie', Lars von Trier's Melancholi...
Stanley Kubrick, 1971
£7.99
A Clockwork Orange
Kubrick's controversial screen version of the novel by Anthony Burgess remains a shockingly viole...
Bela Tarr, 2000
£6.99
Werckmeister Harmonies
Bela Tarr's extraordinary and original film takes place in the bitter cold of the Hungarian plain...
Federico Fellini, 1963
£13.99
Fellini's 8 1/2
Long regarded as Fellini's finest work, it is also one of the great films about the moviemaking p...
Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1946
£5.99
A Matter of Life and Death
A World war II airman, shot down but accidentally missed by Death, falls in love ...
Francis Ford Coppola, 1972-90
£23.49
The Godfather Trilogy - The Coppola Restoration
All three instalments of The Godfather Trilogy, directed and co-written by Franci...
Sergio Leone, 1969
£5.99
Once Upon A Time In The West
Sergio Leone's epic spaghetti Western, Once Upon a Time in the West stars Henry F...
Sergei Paradjanov, 1964
£7.99
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors was the first major work by the controversial Russ...
Lars von Trier, 2011
£8.99
Melancholia
An apocalyptic study of depression, a 'psychological disaster movie', Lars von Trier's Melancholi...
Stanley Kubrick, 1971
£23.49
A Clockwork Orange (Special Edition)
Kubrick's controversial screen version of the novel by Anthony Burgess remains a ...
Sergio Leone, 1969
£5.99
Once Upon a Time in the West (Collector's Edition)
Sergio Leone's epic spaghetti Western, Once Upon a Time in the West stars Henry F...
Francis Ford Coppola, 1972-90
£34.99
The Godfather Trilogy - The Coppola Restoration
All three instalments of The Godfather Trilogy, directed and co-written by Franci...
Sergio Leone, 1969
£11.99
Once Upon a Time in the West
Sergio Leone's epic spaghetti Western, Once Upon a Time in the West stars Henry F...
David Fincher, 2010
£6.49
The Social Network
David Fincher's The Social Network, based on the creation of 'Facebook' is one of the first great...
Francis Ford Coppola, 1972-90
£156.49
The Godfather 40th Anniversary Collection
All three instalments of The Godfather Trilogy, directed and co-written by Franci...
Francis Ford Coppola, 1972-90
£21.99
The Godfather Trilogy
All three instalments of The Godfather Trilogy, directed and co-written by Francis Ford Coppola a...
Stanley Kubrick, 1971
£9.49
A Clockwork Orange (Double Play)
Kubrick's controversial screen version of the novel by Anthony Burgess remains a ...
