Twee Films

First impressions happen in milliseconds. In the time it takes a person to process that (s)he is looking at something, subconsciously the brain is formulating what to feel: attraction, repulsion, fear.

Screenwriters get a little more time than that. But not much.

The first scene of a film sets the tone, and that’s not an empty cliché: In two or more pages of a script, the audience will get the feel of a film. Where are we? What era is it? Is this a comedy? Is there someone I’m rooting for?

Three of my favorite recent films not only use this opening scene to its maximum effect in terms of plot and “feel,” but also use it to set up a certain rhythm particular to the writer him/herself.

Going from newest backwards: The Social Network, by Aaron Sorkin.

 

It’s obvious who wrote the film before there’s even an image on the screen, as the two characters start talking during a blackout. We get the era (quasi-modern day), we get the general setting (the haunts of youth – a college bar, in this case) and we even get to meet the protagonist at, sad to say, possibly his most likeable (or, at least, most pitiable). We also get an insight into the main character’s fatal flaw (or, in WBC terms, “misbehavior”): extreme uneasiness and antisocial behavior in social settings.

But most importantly, we get that Aaron Sorkin wrote it. We get dialogue at a thousand miles per hour. We get smart people talking at the top of their intellect, and we get a screenwriter who trusts that the audience will be able to keep up.

Next: Inglorious Basterds

 

Only Quentin Tarantino would have the brass to try and pull off a 10-minute opening scene. Any screenplay with ten pages before the next slug line would be laughed out of a writer’s group. But QT’s a bit past that point now, and he uses all of those pages to wring every single bit of tension out of a tense situation. He does it without a protagonist, instead setting up the film’s bad guy, but it immediately establishes time, era, and certainly stakes.

In addition, we get all the Tarantino flourishes, though most of those are Tarantino-as-director rather than Tarantino-as-screenwriter. The camera movements, the odd closeups, the misdirection, all of it plays around, in between and through the words to let us know exactly the film we’re in for.

Finally, a Twee favorite: Juno.

 

Screenwriter Diablo Cody has her share of detractors because of her slang-tastic dialogue, which to some comes off as too cute by half. But Cody lets the audience know exactly what it is in for in the opening minutes between Juno and the convenience store clerk. Again, we get the protagonist, we get where the film is going with the positive pregnancy test, and by the setting we get the quasi-suburban nature of the “where.”

But we also get Cody’s dialogue in full force, both in pace and in phrasing. All of these lines come in those first pages:

• “Your eggo is preggo.”
• “This is one doodle that can’t be undone.”
• “What’s the prognosis, Fertile Myrtle?”

Love it or hate it, that dialogue certainly sets the stage for how the characters will talk throughout the film.

What’s your favorite opening scene from a film?