Cinematic Overtures: How to Read Opening Scenes

Leonard Hastings Schoff Lectures

by Annette Insdorf

A great movie's first few minutes provide the key to the rest of the film. Like the opening paragraphs of a novel, they draw the viewer in, setting up the thematic concerns and stylistic approach that will be developed over the course of the narrative. A strong opening sequence leads the viewer to trust the filmmakers. Other times, opening shots are intentionally misleading as they invite alert, active participation with the film. In Cinematic Overtures, Annette Insdorf discusses the opening sequence so that viewers turn first impressions into deeper understanding of cinematic technique.



From Joe Gillis's voice-over in Sunset Boulevard as he lies dead in a swimming pool to the hallucinatory opening of Apocalypse Now, from the stream-of-consciousness montage as found in Hiroshima, mon amour to the slowly unfolding beginning of Schindler's List, Cinematic Overtures analyzes opening shots from a range of Hollywood as well as international films. Insdorf pays close attention to how the viewer makes sense of these scenes and the cinematic world they are about to enter. Including dozens of frame enlargements that illustrate the strategies of opening scenes, Insdorf also examines how films explore and sometimes critique the power of the camera's gaze. Along with analyses of opening scenes, the book offers a series of revelatory and surprising readings of individual films by some of the leading directors of the past seventy-five years. Erudite but accessible, Cinematic Overtures will lead film scholars and ardent movie fans alike to greater attentiveness to those fleeting opening moments.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

197 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 7, 2017

About the author

Annette Insdorf is Professor of Film at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, and Moderator of the 92nd Street Y's Reel Pieces series in New York City. Her books include Francois Truffaut, a study of the French director’s work; two books about Polish filmmakers — Double Lives, Second Chances: The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski and Intimations: The Cinema of Wojciech Has; Philip Kaufman; and the landmark study, Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust (with a foreword by Elie Wiesel). Her latest book is Cinematic Overtures: How to Read Opening Scenes. Among the recent honors she has received are 92Y’s “Exceptional Women Award” (2020), the Silver Medallion from the 2021 Telluride Film Festival, and Moment Magazine’s Creativity Award (2021).

Reviews

[Aloha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This being the first review on Goodreads, I’m sorry to have to do it on my phone in between cooking stew and doing laundry the day before surgery.

I was introduced to Annette Insdorf’s insightful narration on Krzysztof Kieślowski‘s Red (Three Colors Trilogy), and further followed her in Filmstruck’s featured “Cinematic Overtures”, which looks like it was based on this book. Some of the things in the book were narrated by her in Filmstruck. I enjoyed her narration more with the movie clips I saw in Filmstruck, although some clip links are in the book. This book is more about getting you to watch and pay attention to the films instead of film philosophy. A thoroughly enjoyable quick read.

[Hernán · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Moviegoing is an act of inference. You receive what you see as a broad band of sensual effects that evoke your intuitive nonverbal intelligence. You understand what you see without having to think it through with words. On the other hand, criticism is a function of returning these perceptual processes to conceptual or articulable ones. And, ultimately, don’t all narrative films adapt a verbal tale? Isn’t there always a story set in words—an idea, a treatment, a script—before the images overtake linguistic constructs?"

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's tough to describe the ideas expressed in the book with words, so I recommend reading the chapters with the films you are most familiar with. Often Annette Insdorf does go into detail explaining the scenes, in great detail with poetic language—which really shows her love for film—that will refresh your memory so you won't feel so lost reading about a different film every few pages. Very accessible although I wish there were more fine break downs of the openings of each film. The first few chapters were a bit too shallow, although they made for some great reading.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and unique insights on movies and their opening scenes.