Fade in...

A good beginning is always essential. Be it for a novel, a magazine article or a movie. To coincide with the 50th anniversary of The Seventh Seal, The Guardian have run a list of top ten movie beginnings (http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,2128073,00.html) which, clearly, isn't exhaustive, though it's not a bad start even if it doesn't feature either Trainspotting or Shallow Grave which are two of the most compelling and propulsive openings I can think of off the top of my head. (Danny Boyle has no trouble starting his films; it's the endings he finds tricky.) I'll post a fuller list later.