10 Best Movie Opening Titles Sequences

2. Vertigo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qtDCZP4WrQ Saul Bass was a world-class title designer, as evidenced by his countless fantastic collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, and it's his trippy, entrancing credits for Hitch's Vertigo that are unquestionably his best. The unsettling close-up on the eyes, the prevalence of the colour red, and the various spirographic shapes help to establish the film's barmy, unnerving tone, conceding the film's themes on fractured mental states and sex. Bernard Hermann's immense string score, erratic as it is, also helps to cement the tone, with its unpredictability reflecting the cerebral nature of the film. Bass is one of those title designers who isn't a genius just because the sequence looks fantastic, but because he composes something that is an intelligent scene in its own right; the way it's composed, by probing deep into the eye - and therefore our minds - is a deeper psychological interpretation of the film and therefore a true testament to his real ingenuity.