To continue my recap of 2019 in film, we move from yesterday’s Miscellaneous Honors to today’s subject: my favorite openings and closings of the year, replete with one-line descriptions of each:
OPENING SHOT
1. The Irishman — From the Copacabana to Death
2. Ad Astra — Lights, Camera, Earth
3. Rojo — House
4. Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese — Conjuration
5. Climax — Interviews
6. Relaxer — The Meaningless Void of Life…Depending On Your Perspective, That Is
7. The Lighthouse — Ship in the Fog
8. Chained for Life — I Can’t See My Face When I’m With You
9. The Third Wife — CGI Can’t Touch This, Nah Nah Nah Nah
10. Uncut Gems — Diamond in the Rough It Causes
11. Honey Boy — Transformers
12. 1917 — Dragging Us From Nature to Hell
13. Midsommar — Art
14. Under the Silver Lake — Subliminal Images, a Key to Where/Who/What is the Killer Dog?
15. The Edge of Democracy — Impressionistic Paparazzi Symbolizes Perspective of Democratic Populace
16. The Cave — Bombs Dropping
17. The Kingmaker — Pied Piper?
18. Grass — A Man Observationally Lords Over Potted Nature
19. Wild Nights with Emily — Kiss, Pookie Poetry
20. The Aftermath — Bombs Across the Night Sky
21. Perfect — “Illusory”
22. I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians — Climax
23. Slut in a Good Way — Fashion Show, Runway Shopping, Depth and Focus
PRE OPENING-CREDITS / TITLE-CARD SCENE
1. Climax — Interviews
2. The Art of Self-Defense — Parlez-Vous Français?
3. The Fall of the American Empire — Everyone’s Dumb
4. High Life — Preparing for the End, at the Beginning
5. Toy Story 4 — Goodbye, Peach
6. The Dead Don’t Die — Tom Waits!
7. The Kingmaker — Pied Piper?
8. Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood — Hollywood Fakery
9. Child’s Play — Infomercial
10. Relaxer — So Long
11. Asako I & II
12. Black Mother — Cinematic Language 101
13. The Two Popes — Prank Call
14. Knife + Heart — Music-Video Overture
15. Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché — Visual History of Hollywood
PRE-CREDITS SCENES (plural!)
1. Midsommar — Tragedy
2. Queen & Slim — Meet-Cute Ruined
OPENING SCENE
A pre-credits (be they the opening credits or simply a title card) scene is not the same as an opening scene: there’s a difference between building to familiar onscreen text, and introducing the world of the movie that seamlessly transitions into the rest of the movie.
1. Marriage Story — Dueling Voiceovers
2. Knife + Heart — Death by Dildo
3. A Faithful Man — Preggers
4. Loro — Tragedy = “Goat’s Song”
5. Dogman — It’s a Man-Cleans-Dog World
TITLE CARD
1. A Martin Scorsese Double Feature — The Irishman (“I Heard You Paint Houses”) & Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (“Conjuring The Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese”)
2. High Life — Bodies Floating in Space
3. Her Smell — Name Up in Lights
4. Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood — Last Shot
5. Apollo 11 — “11” Composed of Names Responsible
6. Aniara — A Flickering Dot Against the Black Void, Floating Towards the Light of “I”
7. The Beach Bum — Floating on Biscayne Bay
8. End of the Century — “Fin…de Siglo”
9. Luz — So Abrasive
10. Les Misérables — Arc de Triomphe
11. Ad Astra — Lights
12. Invisible Life — Fog
13. Satanic Panic — “SATANIC PANIC! SATANIC PANIC!”
14. Loro — Sex
15. Portrait of a Lady on Fire — Spoken
16. Poms — “Bitter With the Sweet”
17. Island of the Hungry Ghosts — Static Title, Shaky Camerawork
18. The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot — Split Screen
19. The Wandering Earth — Earth as a Spaceship!
20. The Hole in the Ground — The Sky is the Ultimate Hole in this Upside-Down World
21. The Sun Is Also a Star — Manhattanhenge
22. The Art of Self-Defense — BADASS ENDING!!!
OPENING CREDITS
1. Rojo — Between Long Scenes
2. Climax — Throughout the Movie
3. Little Monsters — Fighting
4. Relaxer — The Meaningless Void of Life…Depending On Your Perspective, That Is
5. Woman at War — The Band!
6. Wild Rose — “Country Girl”
7. Waves — Circles
8. Aniara — Scroll: The Beginning is the End (of Earth)
9. Pig — Dancing Bugs
10. Les Misérables — Rioting
11. The Dead Don’t Die — “The Dead Don’t Die”
12. Toy Story 4 — You (I?) Have A Different Friend *in* Me
13. Sunset — Painted Backdrop
14. Pain and Glory — Morphing (Mutating?) Art
15. Poms — “Bitter With the Sweet”
16. Queen & Slim — VO
17. Sorry Angel — Staccato Models
18. Synonyms — Bottom to Top
19. Chained for Life — Character Names, Opening Shot
20. Greener Grass — Jittery, Bracesed Smile
21. In Fabric — Production Zine Photos
22. Mine 9 — Miner’s Song
23. Hotel by the River — Voiceover Dictation
24. Zombieland: Double Tap — Columbia Logo Lady Kicking Zombie Ass
25. Tito and the Birds — Painting!
26. Piercing — Grindhouse
27. Spies in Disguise — Bond, Animated Bond
28. The Hustle — Animation!
29. Velvet Buzzsaw — Art!
30. Teen Spirit — Movie Starts Before Company Logos
31. Downton Abbey — Egalitarianism!
CLOSING CREDITS
1. The Image Book — When’s It Over?
2. Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood — Guns For Hire, No Matter the Cause + Superhero Commercial(ity), Old/New
3. The Amazing Johnathan Documentary — “Simon Chinn” + Shots of Detroit (more worthwhile subject than what/whom most modern documentaries are about…but, still, what’s their worth?)
4. Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese — Never-Ending Tour Dates, Illusory Mask, Encore, Font, “Major Players”
5. Rojo — A Masqued Face in the Crowd
6. 6 Underground — Models
7. Cold Pursuit — “In Order of Disappearance”
8. Untogether — The Never-Ending Los Angeles Walk
9. Knife + Heart — WTF Orgy Porn
10. The Art of Self-Defense — Looking Away, but Aware of the Seemingly-Harmless Generational Indoctrination Around Us
11. The Two Popes — Should They, And We, Be Laughing Together?
12. The Laundromat — Bahamas Without Them
13. Under the Silver Lake — Seeing Life as a Collection of Hand-Drawn Symbols, Drawn by an Unknown Hand. Are We Deducing Meaning from — or Projecting Meaning onto — These Symbols? The Final Pieces to the Puzzle, or One Last Punch of Troll-esque Nonsense (Which isn’t a Pejorative Here)?
14. Chained for Life — Consent?
15. Poms — Curtain Call
16. Slut in a Good Way — Bollywood Commentary??!!
17. Zombieland: Double Tap — Bill Fucking Murray
18. Relaxer — Pac-Man “Exit Music”
19. Trespassers — Aspect-Ratio Zoom-Out
20. The Third Wife — Textual and Aural Flow, Vocal and Environmental Nature (Water)
21. Wild Nights with Emily — Primary Source?
22. Apollo 11 — The Long Tail of Indelible Imagery
23. Ad Astra — Bookending Lights
24. Climax — None
25. Villains — Animation
26. Bombshell — Art
27. Shazam! — The Funny Pages
LAST SHOT
1. Gloria Bell — GLORIA!!!
2. Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood — Fantasy
3. Climax — I See Dead People
4. The Lighthouse — A GULLet Feast
5. The Irishman — Leave the Door Open
6. Synonym — Knock, Knock, Knocking on the Door
7. Our Time — The Human Animal
8. I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians — Strange Fruit
9. Woman at War — Climate Change vs. the Future
10. Uncut Gems — Bullet Wound, Blood, Diamond, Stars
11. The Beach Bum — Floating
12. Her Smell — New Title?
13. The Laundromat — Dressing Down
14. Sunset — The Trenches
15. Midsommar — Say, Cheese
16. Varda by Agnès — To Dust
17. Les Misérables — France
18. Chained for Life — Consent?
19. Little Women — Saoirse Ronan
20. The Disappearance of My Mother — Lens Cap
21. Pain and Glory — Back To It
22. Mickey and the Bear — Running
23. Framing John DeLorean — Who’s Responsible for Inventing These Shots?
24. Asako I & II — Settling Down
25. 3 Faces — The Long and Winding Road to a Brighter Future
26. Transit — The Sopranos
27. The Farewell — Huy-Ya
28. The Chambermaid — Capitalism’s Identity-Obscuring, Humanity-Deadening Revolving Door
29. Knock Down the House — New Kids in Town
30. The Wild Pear Tree — Digging for Water, Despite…
31. Adam — That New Jersey Skyline
32. Cassandro, the Exotico! — What’s in a Face?
33. Wild Nights with Emily — Eraser, Erasure, Erase-Her
34. Too Late to Die Young — Dog Running
35. Pasolini — Calendar
36. Shazam! — Superman Tease
37. Replicas — Keanu, Robot in a Suit and Tie!
38. Styx — Depth of Field
39. A Dog’s Journey — Heaven?
