10 Directors Who Started Movies The Same Way

Nobody produces an opening title sequence quite like the inimitable Gaspar Noé, who on two occasions in particular has left viewers flabbergasted with his intentionally obtuse, unconventional, and potentially seizure-inducing opening credits crawls.

His controversial 2002 thriller Irréversible rolls the credits past the viewer in mirrored reverse, meaning it's practically impossible to read most of the names listed as they scroll by.

This isn't confusion for its own sake, though: the film itself unfolds in reverse-chronological order, so it's thematically appropriate for the titles to be presented this way.

But Noé truly outdid himself with his 2009 film Enter the Void, which opens with a hallucinogenic sandblast of frantic titles, most of which can't be read because they either flash past too fast or are presented in hyper-stylised, barely-legible text.

Again, though, this isn't Noé simply trolling audiences for the hell of it: the film itself is an experimental acid trip depicting one man's dying dream, so it fits that the credits themselves are experimental, groundbreaking, and totally terrifying.

Say what you will about the guy, but he sure knows how to set an intensely unsettling mood from the jump.