Here goes. For the time being, I'm just going to offer up the answers to the Opening Shots Pop Quiz, without further elaboration or analysis in most cases -- because these shots are so great they deserve full Opening Shots treatments of their own. (And you, by the way, are welcome to provide them if you are so inclined!)
OK, let me just say a few words about this one: It's nothing more than a traditional interior establishing shot, lasting only a few seconds before a closer shot succeeds it. We can see it's inside a movie theater, between shows because the house lights are up. There's a pile of trash and a broom leaning against an aisle seat in the back row. And a porkpie hat floats above a book in the hands of... who? Well, the janitor, probably. Only, of course, it turns out to be Buster, and he's also the projectionist. And the book he's reading is about how to become a detective... All the ingredients of this masterpiece of movie-love are present in this one image.
It was clear Cronenberg's film was one of last year's best by the end of this single shot.
Enlarge image: 16. "Accident" (Joseph Losey, 1967) Note: Both this film and "The Servant," above, were collaborations with screenwriter Harold Pinter.
Enlarge image: BONUS: "Deep End" (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1970) Starring Jane Asher, John Moulder-Brown and Diana Dors. Music by Cat Stevens (from "Tea for the Tillerman"). More about this later...
I'll bite with commentary for #8, North by Northwest. As I said in an email to Jim, this is possibly my favorite opening shot/titles of any film. I'm treating the entire title sequence as the opening shot, since there are no cuts until just before the director's credit.
After we see the roaring MGM lion, saturated in aqua-green, we go to blank aqua-green and are immediately hit by Bernard Hermann's theme, which is a brassy roller coaster ride. Scrolling across the screen are oddly-angled lines:
Beginning Lines
Converging Lines
Another set of lines converges on the first set, which seem to be mere ledger-lines for the titles:
Title on Lines
All of the titles are places in angled perspective. Saul Bass made these titles, and his craftmanship can be seen in other Hitchcock films such as Vertigo and Psycho.
The genius of title title sequence becomes clear when the aqua-green gives way to the side of a Madison Square office building, on which the original ledger-lines fit perfectly. From now on, we see not only the words of the titles, but also the bustling cars and pedestrians of New York City, reflected in the side of the building's windows.
Two major motifs of the film are provided in this opening shot alone: the fast pace at which the characters move, and the motif of organic and mechanical transportation. Reflected in the building are cars, taxis, buses. Pedestrians are represented to, but they are more difficult to find, if you're paying attention only to the credits. Look to the lower right-hand corner and you'll see pedestrians, not refelected(!), on the sidewalk outside the building:
Reflections on Building. Note the lower right hand corner
In North by Northwest, Hitchcock uses his trademark wrongly-accused fugitive, played by Cary Grant. Throughout the film, he is almost never still. Always moving, always running. If not running, he's in a speeding car, or trying to hide on a cross-country train. He's chased by airplanes and run over by buses. The framework of transportation as character is provided in this opening shot, one of the most exciting and fun in all the movies.
I wouldn't dream of attempting an Opening Shots essay this early in the morning.
However, I will throw a few notions out there about "Out of Sight", which I think is a sweet little gem that couldn't be made now with the same actors, who have since become laden with cultural baggage that would prevent us from simply enjoying the ride.
Elmore Leonard provides a nice story (read the book -- it'll take you about 5 minutes), but it's Soderberg who knocks it out of the park. Clooney and Lopez (long before she was "J-Lo") both provide smoldering and delightful performances.
What's nice specifically about this opening shot is that it does a number of things.
First, despite the fact that George Clooney as an actor and Jack Foley as a character are smooth and relaxed individuals, this shot features Jack losing it. We have no context for who this guy is, or why he's flipping out, but the fumbling with the tie make us sympathetic. He's clearly been through something frustrating, like a job interview that went badly or a loan request rejection, so we're intrigued.
Soderberg manages, of course, to combine Clooney's physicality with a moseying camera and the so-cool music that defines the soundtrack. He doesn't give us George's audio; he doesn't cut to a close-up. And when he freezes it -- it drives the point home that this is a 'clip' or a tableau.
We're supposed to be at arm's length. We laugh because we don't know who this guy is, and his outsized move -- especially frozen in that way -- is jarring and disconnected, like a clip on a bloopers show.
We get drawn in and become friends with Jack Foley shortly thereafter, but thanks to this opening shot, we never forget, in the back of our minds, that no matter how cool he may be, Jack is a desperate man, low on options and uncomfortable with his situation.
Wow, that was an attempt, wasn't it? Well, maybe if I had the shot in front of me, I could've been more technical. I was going from memory.
Anyway, great quiz -- too bad I'm way too ignorant to have recognized any of the films other than OoS and 3K!
ive been working on the quiz with the bodiless freeze frames and i cant get about four of the answers, i was wondering if you had them?