death-proof

Film titles are often viewed as accessories to a movie rather than integral components of the film itself, but in his new video, Evan Puschak of The Nerdwriter makes the compelling case that, in cinema, a well-designed accessory can go a long way.

Professing an interest in “the way art is packaged,” Puschak applies his usual brand of concise, incisive analysis to the various ways in which filmmakers have used titles to foreshadow, enhance, or otherwise contribute to a film’s overall theme or aesthetic. The video opens with a clip from the opening sequence of The Avengers, during which a character’s grim question of “what do we do?” is playfully answered by the film’s title gliding grandiloquently into view. In this case, Puschak astutely notes that this call and response between diegetic character and extra-diegetic title card sets the tone for a film whose director wants us to “know that he knows that this is just a movie, that it isn’t going to take itself too seriously.”

The 2006 Casino Royale makes an appearance as well, with Puschak voicing the challenge faced by the filmmaker tasked with resurrecting 007 for the new millennium: how to reprise the iconic gun-barrel sequence while adhering to the modern fad for serious, “post-campy” entertainment? The solution: have the sequence occur as a narrative continuation of the film’s brutal, black and white prologue, so that when Bond fires the bullet, the audience is well aware of the body that it drops.

Various other titles sequences receive mention, from the text-less introduction of François Truffaut’s adaptation of Fahrenheit 451 to the legendary work of Saul Bass to the striking closing credits sequences from Blue Valentine and 21 Jump Street. Give the video a watch, and appreciate how the art of filmmaking extends to every last detail, the titles included.

What is your favorite example of a creative title/credit sequence?

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