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If model airplane kits are “the genesis of many aviation careers” then we post in tribute!

The supersonic opening to Les Chevaliers du Ciel (Sky Fighters) places Dassault Mirage jets center stage, with detail-driven exploded views fusing seamlessly with impressive live-action footage. Blueprinted blades of a tactical helicopter whirring into aerial maneuvers is a nice example of form. The testosterone driven trade show intimacy however telegraphs the Top Gun hangover/love affair felt to this day.

Direct Link | Format: QuickTime H.264, 800×336 | Size: 16 MB | Running Time: 1:51 | Year: 2005

720p HD Version | Format: QuickTime H.264, 1280×544 | Size: 43.2 MB | Running Time: 1:51 | Year: 2005

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Created by Laurent Brett

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A hovering perspective, hypnotic in its descent. Union Square bustles. Through the first transition programmable servo lens, engineered for this very shot, we hone in on a thousand little theaters settling on a disquieting mime. Long reaching shadows breed paranoia as the wondrous sound design is at once jazzy and dissonant, much like Harry Caul himself.

Direct Link | Format: QuickTime H.264, 720×400 | Size: 37 MB | Running Time: 3:21 | Year: 1974

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Audio Extra: Editor and Sound Mixer Walter Murch’s comments about this opening sequence.

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Created by: Francis Ford Coppola and Walter Murch

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Reminiscent of the center-of-(wide)frame-focused opening to The Naked Gun, the knockout title sequence to “Lord of War” is a first-person narrative where the “I” happens to be a bullet. We bear witness to the life and death of the little guy. Sadly, the HDR-based CG imagery robs the piece of its realism; it’s obfuscatory where it might be stark. While well intentioned, the execution is incredibly clinical -there is too much message and not enough heart. You want a bulleted reality of war?


Private Joker: How can you shoot women or children?
Door Gunner: Easy! You just don’t lead ‘em so much!


The lensing is exquisite but calculated to a fault while the timeless music of Buffalo Springfield serves as a kind of mawkish plea, an unnecessary retread. And the child endgame plays as yet another manipulation; he wouldn’t be standing stiff in the midst of a firefight because he wouldn’t last with the given sight lines. As it -he- stands, the blocking of the actor contradicts a primal predilection towards self-preservation. As this doesn’t make sense, the slick stylization does not serve. The sniper duel in Saving Private Ryan succeeds because of a rooted context which subsumes an implausible end. That context is missing here.


We struggled for some time with this post. The first person POV reminds one of a first person shooter video game and never seemed suited to the subject matter. Now I wonder, was the gaming correlation part of the intent?

Direct Link | Format: QuickTime H.264, 800×336 | Size: 32 MB | Running Time: 3:01 | Year: 2005

720p HD Version | Format: QuickTime H.264, 1280×528 | Size: 66.4 MB | Running Time: 3:01 | Year: 2005

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Related Extra: Title Sequence Breakdown with visual effects supervisor Yann Blondel


Related Movie Extra: The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! [1988] Opening Title Sequence

Direct Link | Format: QuickTime H.264, 720×386 | Size: 18 MB | Running Time: 2:07

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Created by l’E.S.T.
Visual Effects Supervisor: Yann Blondel

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Textual fluidity frozen repeatedly.

Art of the Title spoke with Julien Widmer, the designer of the opening titles for “Le Souffleur” a film about an imaginative but shy theater prompter who falls in love with an unwitting actress.

“‘Souffleur’ means ‘the prompter’ and ‘the blower.’ It’s the same word in French because a prompter ‘blows’ the words to the actors when they are in need. This particular theater prompter happens to live in his prompter box. So for this title I chose to blow letters and words like a prompter would do. In this 3D graphic space, we are like the actor who forgot his lines, searching for the words between the letters.”

Direct Link | Format: QuickTime H.264, 768×414 | Size: 16 MB | Running Time: 2:00 | Year: 2005

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Created by Julien Widmer “Kolt”

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What immediately comes to mind upon viewing these end titles as a stand alone consideration, is that there is great discipline in the master calligrapher’s graceful yet contrasting Chinese brush strokes.

His magic carpet ride reminds one of Masaki Kobayashi’s “Hoichi the Earless”; only here the Chinese characters -and Kanji, respectively- become life-taking daggers rather than a life-saving shield. Too, I am reminded of splattered ink at the point of impact and the panning flight of a classic aircraft -both seen in the aforeposted “El Don,” in addition to owing an incalculable debt to the “3OO” end titles and, in a true sense, to Frank Miller.

While some frames seem partially rendered (exploding diamond? the odd alignment and spacing of the trekkers? an uninspired mouth of a cave?) others offer flashes of originality (snake-strokes from a blood sun, lettered mountaintop, inkblot blood of fleshless adversaries, a halved opponent, yetis in profile).

Direct Link | Format: QuickTime H.264, 696×285 | Size: 24 MB | Running Time: 2:12 | Year: 2008

Images Extra: Download 7 HD stills from the title sequence (4.3MB Zip Archive)

Related Extra: The Criterion Collection release of Masaki Kobayashi’s Kwaidan, featuring “Hoichi, the Earless”.

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Created by Imaginary Forces
Creative Directors: Karin Fong and Steve Fuller