Nerve.com has a great column up this week — The Twelve Greatest Opening Credits in Movie History:

With a few notable exceptions, the elaborate main title sequence has gone the way of the drive-in double feature. In fact, many of today’s movies eschew opening credits altogether, opting to plunge the audience directly into the experience and saving the who-did-whats for last.

Maybe I’m just watching the wrong films, but many that I’ve seen of late do include rather lengthy credit sequences. Whether or not these openings are necessary or even watchable depends on the film, of course, but as far as reeling me into the film’s tone and mood, I gotta go with the opening credits of Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Trainspotting. Of course, these openings also tell the audience a great deal about the film’s main characters, and, ultimately, the appeal of a film, to me, is all about compelling characters. If I don’t give a crap, positive or negative, for the souls within the movie, then it’s all over, baby.

So, in the opening scene of Kill Bill: Volume 1, we learn the extent of Bill’s cold-blood nature when he intends to murder the pregnant Bride. Trainspotting’s opening monologue deals the first of many lists that help to structure what we witness of the characters’ anarchic behavior. Renton’s eloquent expressiveness helps us believe that, underneath his decaying body, a rational soul with some semblance of hope remains within.

Clips of both openers on the next page, and my apologies for speaking so much lately of cinema. I really should get a life.

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