adamkemp
Posts 54
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5/11/2007 11:51 AM
posted awhile ago
Top 5 Character Introductions
On Filmspotting #160, Sam and I count down our Top 5 Character Intros... memorable entrances, not necessarily opening scenes. Which scenes/movies stick out for you?
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alexcharner
Posts 10
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5/11/2007 12:39 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Top 5 Character Introductions
Hi Adam,
I just started listening to Filmspotting #160 so I haven't reached the 'top 5' part. Sam just suggested putting Fresnadillo in a coffin.
I don't know if this is a penalty box selection, but Orson Welles' entrance in Carol Reed's The Third Man http://www.spout.com/films/34781/default.aspx is phenomenal. Drunk Joseph Cotten leaves Valli's apartment, you see a cat caressing some guy's ankles, Cotten makes noise, a window opens and the light hits Orson's wry moon face.
Great show guys,
Alex
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paul
Posts 247
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5/11/2007 2:09 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Top 5 Character Introductions
 adamkemp:On Filmspotting #160, Sam and I count down our Top 5 Character Intros... memorable entrances, not necessarily opening scenes. Which scenes/movies stick out for you?
I recently watched Once Upon a Time in the West and Peter Fonda's entrance is pretty cinema-tastic. Scene: A family is massacred from unseen assasins. A boy runs out of his home to see his family dead in the yard. From the brush five sillhouetted men--cowboys in long dusters--emerge. The five black figures saunter toward the boy. The dark figure in front of the pack lifts his chin. Close-up on the brim of the hat raising and, boom, the sun hits Peter Fonda's piercing blue eyes. It doesn't get more showbiz than that.
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alexcharner
Posts 10
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5/11/2007 2:21 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Top 5 Character Introductions
I love that entrance. Great choice, Paul.
I also love Giulietta Massina's entrance in Juliet of the Spirits http://www.spout.com/films/18423/default.aspx. She's shot from many angles, but Fellini consciously holds your intrigue for some time before you see her face.
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NickP
Posts 5
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5/11/2007 4:16 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Top 5 Character Introductions
As cliched as it sounds.... Darth Vader sticks for me.... same with jack Sparrow in POTC. COFTBP.... classic
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lbenschwartz
Posts 24
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5/11/2007 9:59 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Top 5 Character Introductions
The camera slowly approaches a peaceful suburban home and peeks in the window, where a teenage girl and her boyfriend are running upstairs. The camera walks into the house, into the kitchen, grabs a knife. A mask is put on the camera, and we watch through two eye holes, as the camera follows the teenagers upstairs. The camera walks into a bedroom, where the half dressed girls and yells "Michael!", before she and her boyfriend are slaughtered with the knife. Finally, the camera moves to the front of the house, and we finally see who we've been following. It's Michael Myers, standing between his confused and horrified parents. Now that's an introduction!
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tjwells
Posts 3
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5/12/2007 1:29 AM
posted awhile ago
Re: Top 5 Character Introductions
I think John Wayne's entrance in The Searchers is pretty memorable.
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saltine
Posts 2
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5/12/2007 1:29 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Top 5 Character Introductions
Clint Eastwood as Insp. Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry: You've got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do you, punk?
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alexarch
Posts 2
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5/12/2007 3:57 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Top 5 Character Introductions
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, just because it's the first thing I thought of just now.
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achance42
Posts 17
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5/12/2007 3:59 PM
posted awhile ago
Re: Top 5 Character Introductions
The first one I thought of when I saw this topic was Robert Duvall's intro in Apocalypse Now. I'm shocked neither Adam nor Sam brought that one up. That one can tie in with Adam's king on the throne intros. Duvall's Col. Kilgore descends from on high (in a helicopter, of course) like a god to step in and assess the chaos and bombs going off all around. Such a great scene stealing moment. When the Redux version came out, the audience I saw it with literally applauded when he showed up. And to go along with The Dude, two other Coen character intros are pretty great. Nicolas Cage as HI McDonough in Raising Arizona being literally shoved into frame for his mugshot and that look he gives the cop who did it. Priceless.
And of course, the South. The 1930s. We open on a gorgeous sweeping pan of a chain gang in the middle of a field of tall golden grass. You expect something closer to Cool Hand Luke or Shawshank Redemption... but then three heads pop up from the grass and start comically running towards the camera to the tune of "Big Rock Candy Mountain." Everett, Pete, and Delmar in O Brother, Where Art Thou?
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