20 Greatest Opening Movie Scenes Of All Time

11. Sunset Boulevard

Sunset Boulevard is the definitive film noir, and although the image of Gloria Swanson proclaiming that she's ready for her close up is by far its most famous moment, its opening scene deserves equal credit.

With a narration from William Holden setting the stage for a gruesome murder, Sunset wastes no time at all in bringing the viewer to the scene of a crime - a movie writer with a few B-pictures to his name has been shot and left to fall in the pool to a Boulevard mansion. As the police begin to make their enquiries the perspective switches to the bottom of the pool, facing upwards towards the lifeless writer and the police studying him from above.

It's a really eerie shot, one made doubly effective by Holden's cutting narration. It's pulpy, mysterious and engaging all in one, and that's what makes Sunset such a fantastic film noir.