Cinematic OverturesCinematic Overtures

A great movie's first few minutes provide the key to the rest of the film. ..., they draw the viewer in, setting up the thematic concerns and stylistic approach that will be developed over the course of the narrative. [Some] sequences lead the viewer to trust the filmmakers. Other times, opening shots are intentionally misleading....From Joe Gillis's voice-over in Sunset Boulevard as he lies dead in a swimming pool to the hallucinatory opening of Apocalypse Now, from the stream-of-consciousness montage as found in Hiroshima, Mon Amour to the slowly unfolding beginning of Schindler's List, [the book] analyzes opening shots from a range of Hollywood as well as international films. Including dozens of frame enlargements that illustrate the strategies of opening scenes,-- from publisher data.