great movie credit sequences

Vertigo is good. Saul Bass, I believe. He did other Hitchcock stuff but this is my favourite. He uses those mathematical-shapes-whose- name-I-can't-remember but those and the zooming-in on the eye give the film the right atmosphere from the start.

Saul Bass stuff is good. Also did 'The Man With The Golden Arm'. You can see Quicktime videos of some of his sequences here.

I don't really remember what was actually going on in the action of the 'Short Cuts' one (helicopters spraying bugs?) but I loved the way the credits sparkled.

You can't really knock the 'Reservoir Dogs' titles, even if they have been referenced to death.

The Avengers credit title sequence was excellent, though quite possibly in relation with the rest of the movie. The overture at the beginning of West Side Story is also a masterpiece of minimalism (though not as much as the similar idea to blank screen which Dancer In The Dark did.)

Bond movies are always worth a guffaw on this front. Especially if you think writhing is sexy.

Monty Python's QUEST FOR THE HOLY GRAIL - all that stuff about mooses!

Seven and the Umbrellas of Cherbourg

I thought that was a sequel to Seven and the Ragged Tiger.

I knew i was going to get that . Well Smart guy How would you puncuate that .

Inverted commas? Italics? But don't, cause then it would give 'smart guy' Baran no opening.

The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg and Seven.

Unless the order there was a reason. Initially I liked being called Smart Guy Baran until I was reminded of the terrible kids sitcom of the same name with smug insufferable pint sized genius. Oh. I see.

Other groovy Saul Bass movie title sequences - 'Spartacus', 'The Age of Innocence', 'Anatomy of a Murder'. Is Bass the ONLY brand name in his field?

Liked the opening credits of 'Existenz' when I watched them on Saturday, and the ones for 'Dead Ringers' are good as well. The credits for 'Ed Wood' are beautifully done, and really help to establish the mood of the film. Have always enjoyed the way that Godard fucks around with the credits in films like 'Made In USA'. And when I was little I used to think the 'Pink Panther' credits were terribly sophisticated....

Longest gap between start of movie and rolling of credits - 'The Last Movie' by Dennis Hopper? And best pre-credits sequence - 'Once Upon A Time In The West', deffo.

Seven and The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg.

Too late now, if the Crouch End ever make an album, we all know what it will be called.

I think they should make a sequel to Seven called The Ragged Tiger.

I like the simplicity of the opening titles to Sneakers when everyones name comes up as an anagram. Especially when the deal with the X in dead River Pheonix's name.

(That is indeed the way they deal with it. They merely mis-spell his name.)

Also, is Saul Bass the only individual of note who did both promo posters and title sequences for the same films?

As far as end credits go, the simple RKO radio players hat-tip of the "The Magnificent Ambersons" is class.

The Man With The Golden Arm is easily my favourite movie poster. Bring back Saul Bass title sequences, with angular frightening tunes to boot.

Easily the worst, longest and dullest title sequence to a movie recently was in the appalingly bad Plunkett & Macleane. Went on forever...

Another vote for Saul Bass!

Thanks for mentioning "Dead Ringers"... the creepy medical drawings put you in a state of ill ease which continues unabated throughout the whole movie.

How about "Nashville"? The pan-and-scan video chops off half the credits and ruins the effect, but it's like a K-Tel record ad, with names and credits rolling cheaply up either side, while an generic announcer's voice tells you how great its gonna be.

Once Were Warriors and John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 both have great opening credits, but are you talking about end credits? I always walk out before those. I've been thinking about walking out after the opening credits lately, that is, assuming I don't just walk out after the previews.

Well, if we're talking great end credit sequences, then Ferris Bueller's Day Off, natch. "Go home!"

Pretty much any old-school John Carpenter film will deliver the goods, opening credits-wise, And he co-writes all the music (or used to). Nearly forgot to mention 'Dazed and Confused' - I totally love the way the car prowls around the school parking lot with the bassline to 'slow ride' pulsing underneath. Class. My favorite movie movie about the 70's, actually...

Slothie: how could you forget that the camaro prowls around to SWEET EMOTION!!

Raising Arizona. The opening credits contain a tiny-yet-complete narrative all their own that climaxes with a marriage and ends with the 2 lovebirds riding into the sunset as the title of the movie finally appears.

seven and vertigo are both very good in my opinion. and most recently sexy beast. you see a bloated ray winstone baking in the sun and as he jumps into the pool the frame freezes and you get a nice crotch shot of him in his speedos and 'sexy beast' underneath.

hands down, the coolest opening to a film i've ever seen is memento. not necessarily the credits per say, but the first three minutes of that film are amazing! (so is the rest of the film)

'Enemy At Th Gates' had interesting closing credits.

I think the most recent time I was struck by them was during the opening of... Stigmata? I think is the one I'm thnking of... might have been that other exorcist genre one with Winona Ryder in tho. In any case, they were far better than the movie that followed.

Well, it seems y'all need a lil schooling in this here area. Nobody seen the opening credits for SPHERE ? Tech steez a-plenty , but still braking down those textures of fish and glassballs and maps and fish in one damned elegant manner. I also really rate Woody Allen's Manhattan purely for his mad ramblings over the title (stabs at describin NYC) whilst it appears.

Two other great Hitchcock titles: "North by Northwest" (also by Saul Bass, I think...the green MGM logo, the skewed titles rolling down and gradually fading into Manhattan skyscrapers)

"The Man Who Knew Too Much" (the orchestra, closing up on the cymbal- player).

I think Peckinpah had some well-done ones. The Wild Bunch, of course, but how about the opening credits of "The Killer Elite", with the bird feeding its young, or the closing credits of "Cross of Iron" with its war photograph montage?

"Skidoo" where Harry Nilsson SINGS the credits!

Dr. Strangelove- opening and closing. On the DVD it says that the guy who did them was to credit sequences what Kubrick was to films.

Speaking of Kubrick, how about The Shining's glorious opening helicopter shots?

By the way, those opening shots were shot by the second unit, since Kubrick didn't want to leave Britain.

Casino!

Opening sequence of The Shining = unusual. I think Kubrick intentionally used shots in the opening sequence that would remind us that we are watching a movie. How else can you explain the visibility of the helicopter's shadow during one overhead shot, or the first appearance of the hotel, with the spinning helicopter blade at the top of the screen?
Kubrick was a notorious perfectionist, and he wouldn't have left such blatant "mistakes" in his film if he did not have an ulterior motive. The opening sequence is just one of many different times during the Shining where he reminds viewers that the Shining is a horror film, and I always find ripping the audience away from the reality that a film establishes an unsual technique to use.

Panic Room's credits are pretty cool; I saw part of it again on tv last night, and was reminded that I've never really seen anything like them. Also, Charade has a cool credit sequence.

Yeah, Panic Room's were neat!

Irreversible has an incredible title sequence that sets the tone for a radical movie.

Punch Drunk Love has none at all and is an astonishing movie; in fact thats one of the reasons the movie is so good.

I don't have any very good examples, but I kind of like it how Woody Allen's credits on his movies are the same because it makes it like he could see the future; and also if you have ever seen how fast the credits go up sometimes at the end of 'Days of our Lives' when it's gone way too long, that is so funny it will make you laugh off your seat. I thought of a good example, I liked it at the end of 'Me, Myself and I' how all the people with really small parts in the movie and who ended up on the cutting room floor got arrows pointing to their picture in the movie etc. Though I can't see exactly how that really rights any wrongs of the movie industry.

I mean me myself and irene

Man on the Moon had a funny opening/closing fake credits sequence.

I really really lurved the opening sequence for Elizabeth because they are tiny and placed at the bottom. I know that sounds weird, but when you see it, it really works. Makes me wonder why other movies don't do that.

John Waters always does something interesting with his director credit (eg, putting it over the rats fucking in Pecker).

Other notables (well, really, just looking at what's on my shelf):
L'Avventura for the music that spices up the film in a way that couldn't happen during the film;
Boogie Nights - a very cool title credit and the long shot together;
Mallrats used the fake comics for credits, which is very geek-classy;
Clockwork Orange - oppressive minimal titles;
I Am Curious, Yellow - the credits are sung at various points in the movie;
Pierrot le fou did each card one letter at a time (ie, first all the A's appeared, then all the B's, until slowly the names materialized);
Royal Tenenbaums had the head-on closeups which I believe Anderson said were a call back to the intros from the 30's. Or maybe I'm getting that confused with Oliver Stone's bringing back the character reprises with Platoon. Hmmm...
Woody Allen and a good deal of the earlier Bergman films each had a unique credit/font sequence unique to the director. Of course, Allen being a Bergman idolator, there's no reason to believe he wasn't ripping off Bergman yet again. Not that there's anything wrong with that either;
I rather enjoyed the elegant fonts, converging/diverging titles, and eccentric color combinations (all with Belle and Sebastian in the soundtrack, no less) for Storytelling;
Tape did most of the big credits at the end in a way that it looked like they were being spooled through a tape recorder.

I'll also add the Three Colors trilogy, solely because I love Kieslowski, and therefore I find no need to justify it beyond that. Besides, ornamenting doesn't seem to fit his movies.

Suddenly all I can think of is the opening credits to Grease.

godard ones are so great

whoa that's weird I clicked on this just to say panic room and two people already did. Fincher has had great title sequences so far but that one really takes the cake. I think that film is really underrated as a whole, I watched it again the other day and loved every minute of it.

I like it mostly, good thriller, but the script isn't so hot, the ending kinda sucks, don't you think?

How else can you explain the visibility of the helicopter's shadow during one overhead shot?

unintentional.

bullitt - so stylish plus it tells you the back story without a word.

It sucks that they nab Forrest Whittaker, but I liked it fine. The tension through the rest of the film was really well done. I like the kid, I like Jodi Foster, I like Whittaker, I guess the only thing that I would have done differently would have been to tell Jared Leto to done down his Brad Pitt impersonation.

so great to click here and see Saul Bass' name in the second post.

he only directed one complete film, the immortal 'Phase IV'. very strange 70's science fiction film about hyper intelligent ants. starring real ants. one's tolerance/worship for 70's science fiction aside, almost anywhere you pause the film, you're staring at a bizarre image worth printing and framing, especially in the second half once the scientists cloister themselves in the Hermetically Sealed Technodome. It's an amazing film really.

Saw The Crow on TV again, this weekend after years: did like the opening shot of a dark city illuminated from within by fire, then the viewer takes a visual ride into a graveyard, through the air. (You're supposed to be the crow, obviously).

Oh, and the credits to Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers as well---if you dared to miss either film, you got the backstory in ten minutes.

Raging Bull. My favorite part of the movie.