The NY Times has a piece today that explores the art of a movie’s opening title sequence and a bit of its history.
The modern approach to film titles crystallized, more or less, in 1955 with “The Man With the Golden Arm.” It opened with a kind of jazz ballet in which dancing white lines, over music by Elmer Bernstein, eventually tightened into the contorted arm of a drug addict.
The sequence was designed by Saul Bass, who tossed aside a more mechanical approach that had largely prevailed in Hollywood to create story-telling openings for films like “Psycho,” “North by Northwest” and, later, “Goodfellas” and “The Age of Innocence.”
They also highlight the site The Art of the Title Sequence which has interviews and showcases of great opening sequences.
Most recently highlighting the Oscar nominated Up in the Air.
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