Opening Sequence analysis: From Russia with Love (1963)

The purpose of an opening title sequence for a film is usually to establish the mood and visual character of it. As a part of my research, I analysed the opening sequence of James Bond, From Russia with Love (1963). The sequence begins with the studio titles; in this case MGM, then we see some graphic titles where we are simply shown James Bond through a barrel, presumably a gun.

Over the titles we hear a non-diegetic score playing, we can denote from the score that it is at a fast tempo and has a swung rhythm, from all of this we can instantly connote that the film will be about espionage and action. We then began to see the opening sequence which was completely uninterrupted by titles.

During the opening sequence, the audience only hear the ambient sounds of a garden at the beginning, until we are introduced to another character that is following James Bond, when a quiet but tense score starts to fade in. therefore, the audience experiences dramatic irony as we know something that James does not. Also we are immediately confronted with enigmas, for example, ‘why are they following each other?’ We then find out that James realises the presence of another person when we hear a gun shot. The audience then are experienced with a shock as they see James Bond has been murdered.

However, we realise this was a red-herring as another man removes a mask from the killed figure, and notice that it was another person, this connotes that this opening sequence was the training for an assassin. The audience could also note that for the main bulk of the sequence there is no dialogue, meaning that the opening sequence can be portrayed simply by actions.

Next we see the full titles of the film, so we are shown the name of the film, who it is starring and the main production team, for example, the director and editor. We could also note that no minor roles have been put into these opening titles; this is because there is many people needed to create a film and would take far too long at the beginning to list all of them, instead this happens at the end. Over these full titles we hear another score that has a 60’s style, which simply helps the audience to set the genre of the film. Overall, I believe the main purpose of an opening sequence is to introduce to the audience the narrative, genre and themes of the film. We can also see that a common technique is to create many enigmas for the audience, in order to increase the attention and make them want to know what will happen next.