10 Greatest Opening Shots From Recent Movies
8. The Worst Person In The World
Joachim Trier's The Worst Person in the World is a magnificent piece of work from first shot to last, opening with an intensely alluring image that may seem simple enough - a beautiful woman in a nice dress in front of a stunning location - but also instantly gets the audience's mind whirring.
Indeed, the opening shot is from a scene we'll return to later on, of the film's protagonist Julie (Renate Reinsve) standing out on the balcony of a party, smoking, staring impatiently at her phone and clearly bothered by something, all while the gorgeous Oslo landscape unfolds around her.
The intrigue is immediate. What is bothering this woman? Why is she dressed up? And then Trier ends the shot with the perfect moment of punctuation, by smash-cutting to the movie's title card, leaving audiences to ponder, "Is this woman really the worst person in the world?"
It's entirely without spoken words and yet says a lot if you're paying any attention at all.