The first line can make or break a movie.
And some of the best films also boast superb opening gambits that suck you in, make you think, have you laughing or just tease you.
We’ve rounded up some of our favourites – let us know yours in the comments…
The Film: Annie Hall (1977)
The Line: “There's an old joke - um... two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of 'em says, "Boy, the food at this place is really terrible." The other one says, "Yeah, I know; and such small portions."
"Well, that's essentially how I feel about life - full of loneliness, and misery, and suffering, and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly.
"The... the other important joke, for me, is one that's usually attributed to Groucho Marx; but, I think it appears originally in Freud's "Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious," and it goes like this - I'm paraphrasing - um, "I would never want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member."
"That's the key joke of my adult life, in terms of my relationships with women."
The Film: Goodfellas (1990)
The Line: “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.”
The Film: A Matter Of Life And Death (1946)
The Line: "This is the universe. Big, isn't it?"
Next: Stand By Me, The Seventh Seal & Trainspotting
Comments
Desperation
Oct 8th 2009, 9:09
I can't remember if it's the actual opening line or not, but it must be as near as makes no difference. "3 billion human lives ended on August 29th, 1997. The survivors of the nuclear fire called the war Judgment Day. They lived only to face a new nightmare: the war against the machines."
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theGlimmerTwin
Oct 8th 2009, 10:41
Most definitely one of my favourite opening lines is that from High Fidelity (2000): "What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?"
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Munkybren
Oct 8th 2009, 19:13
pretty sure the first line of American Beauty belongs to Thora Birch
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AlonseR
Oct 9th 2009, 18:06
Dead Man's Shoes gave me an idea for another feature you could do. The Best Sweary(sic) Moments. I would include Paddy Considine's quite disturbing "I'm looking at you, ya c**t" Mickey Rourke in the Wrestler "Get your own f***ing cheese" to name a few. Would be quite fuuny to see what you come up with.
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seanankerr
Oct 10th 2009, 2:45
Come on no Godfather? "I believe in America. America has made my fortune. And I raised my daughter in the American fashion. I gave her freedom but I taught her never to dishonor her family. She found a "boy friend," not an Italian. She went to the movies with him. She stayed out late. I didn't protest. Two months ago he took her for a drive, with another boy friend. They made her drink whiskey and then they tried to take advantage of her. She resisted. She kept her honor. So they beat her. Like an animal. When I went to the hospital her nose was broken. Her jaw was shattered, held together by wire. She couldn't even weep because of the pain. But I wept. Why did I weep? She was the light of my life. A beautiful girl. Now she will never be beautiful again." also the Wild Bunch with the double whammy of the imagery of the ants and scorpions being burnt (if ever there was a brilliant metephor for the sadism of the artist towards his charracters...) and the brilliant line "If they move kill 'em!"
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lolcaa
Oct 10th 2009, 11:07
I always chuckled at the opening lines for "The Way of The Gun" Also no guy ritchie?
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Bennythemule
Oct 10th 2009, 11:28
I like the line said by Michael Cain in that familiar cockney accent in the Italian Job... "you're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off"
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Bennythemule
Oct 10th 2009, 11:35
Al Pacino in the Godfather Part 3.. "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in" and Andy Garcia "I say we make him dead, you give me the word and I will take care of it myself"
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irish
Oct 11th 2009, 22:55
the opening line of Rebecca
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Joseph
Oct 12th 2009, 7:39
"God, I feel horny!" -the opening line from Doctrs' Wives(1971)said by Dyan Cannon
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thegreatiaino
Oct 17th 2009, 19:18
How are "Rosebud" and "People are always asking me if I know Tyler Durden…" great opening lines? They only seem great in the context of the rest of the film. Taken on their own (which presumably is the point of this article) they're completely meaningless.
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