9

I'm not quite sure if "title sequence" is the phrase I'm looking for, so I'll explain what I mean.

Older movies would begin with a short credit sequence, which would also include the title of the movie. Recently, it is becoming more common to skip this in preference of showing the title at the end of the movie, perhaps as part of the credits.

What I'm wondering, is if there has been an instance of a movie being produced without any inclusion of its title in such a sequence. If there is some legal requirement to have the title listed somewhere (e.g. copyright notice) then those mentions can be ignored. If there has been a movie produced with no title at all then I suppose it would qualify by default.

Improve this question
8
  • 1
    Nowadays? Plenty, I'd say. From memory, the title and opening credits are absent from Nolan's Batman trilogy.
    – Walt
    Jul 15, 2015 at 17:24
  • @Walt It might be the case for those movies, but in case I did a bad job of making the question clear enough: I am looking for a movie that does not show its title at any point, whether that be at the beginning or the end of the movie.
    – Etheur
    Jul 15, 2015 at 17:56
  • Yeah, "it could be allowed for the title to appear in the credits at the end" could be probably be a bit clearer. You mean, at the very end of the closing credits?
    – Walt
    Jul 15, 2015 at 18:19
  • 1
    @Walt edited to hopefully make that part more concise
    – Etheur
    Jul 15, 2015 at 18:45
  • 2
    I flagged this question as too broad: it seems that there are too many movies in which the title does not appear.
    – mattiav27
    Jul 16, 2015 at 8:09

6 Answers 6

Reset to default
8

Another case, hopefully not one of many (because that would kind of make the question a list request): Jean-Luc Godard's Goodbye To Language from 2014. From IMDb's trivia section:

The film's title never appears on screen. The end credits just list peoples' names, without any indication of what work they contributed to the project.

Then again, this is Godard, so it's not very surprising.

EDIT: Sure enough, I just remembered yet another instance of this: Gregg Araki's Smiley Face (2007) with the hilarious Anna Faris. The title itself never appears in the opening or closing credits but is simply represented by an image of a huge yellow smiley just like this. :) [Source: I verified this myself.]

Improve this answer
5

The 1996 film Schizopolis written and directed by Steven Soderbergh has no opening or closing credits.

The closest we get is the word "SCHIZOPOLIS" on the T-shirt of an otherwise naked man being chased by two other men (ostensibly medical personnel chasing down a crazy person). We also receive the onscreen words "No fish were harmed in the making of this film" apropos of nothing near the beginning of the film.

nude dude

mange poussin avec moi

At the end of the film, the man's shirt reads "THE END" when he is caught and soon after there is a Blipvert style one-frame flash of the obligatory copyright notice. The blurry nature of the notice is due to trying to isolate the frame via VLC. This was the best of only two tries from the Criterion DVD and a crap video card.

GOTCHA!

hassled by The Man

For a while there were fun threats of a Son of Schizopolis sequel, but it looks like the window may have closed on that one.

Improve this answer
0
4

What I'm wondering, is if there has been an instance of a movie being produced without any inclusion of its title in such a sequence.

Apocalypse Now does not have such a sequence, from wiki:

The original 1979 70mm exclusive theatrical release ended with Willard's boat, the stone statue, then fade to black with no credits, save for '"Copyright 1979 Omni Zoetrope"' right after the film ends. This mirrors the lack of any opening titles and supposedly stems from Coppola's original intention to "tour" the film as one would a play: the credits would have appeared on printed programs provided before the screening began.

Improve this answer
2
  • A quote more directed at this question perhaps is from the Opening credits page, which states, "Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979) went so far as not to feature the title at all, except briefly as graffiti in Colonel Kurtz' (Brando) compound."
    – Etheur
    Jul 15, 2015 at 18:08
  • Apocalypse Now originally came with a play bill (a program like they give the audience of a theatrical play).
    – Ben Plont
    Jul 16, 2015 at 2:32
1

Inside Llewyn Davis doesn't show the title at all either in the beginning nor the ending. Just mentioned by name in the film when describing his music.

Improve this answer
1

The Mummy Returns has no opening titles whatsoever.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209163/trivia?tab=cz&ref_=tt_trv_cc

Improve this answer
0

Another (sort of) answer is Fahrenheit 451 (1966) in which the titles and credits are not shown on the screen; instead they are only in voice-over.

Improve this answer
2
  • As far as I know there are quite a few older movies with voice-over title and credits, I don't think it counts.
    – Chanandler Bong
    Jul 16, 2015 at 5:30
  • I say it counts. It was done intentionally as part of the story, not because it's older. This article goes into quite a bit of detail of the opening sequence: "Most notably, to forgo text – in reflection of the original novel’s key theme – the credits are read aloud by an authoritative and omnipresent narrator, a brave decision considering almost all title sequences to come before included text as a key element. This, coupled with the images of television antennae, banish written words from the onset."
    – user1118321
    Nov 26, 2016 at 2:01

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .