David Stratton

1900 1976, Italy
Director Bernardo Bertolucci
Music Ennio Morricone
The opening credit music is so important for setting the mood of a film and the opening credits for 1900 unfold over a famous revolutionary painting. It’s a majestic score by Morricone – his finest, I think. I’m not a great fan of some of those spaghetti western scores he did, which I find a little overly mannered, but this is just wonderful.

The Bad & the Beautiful 1952, USA
Director Vincente Minelli
Music David Raksin
This is the finest film ever made about Hollywood, and has the most wonderful opening credit music – really stirring and on a grand scale that gets you really excited about what you’re going to see. And it’s a beautiful piece of music by David Raksin, making it one of my favourite opening credit scenes.

King’s Row 1942, USA
Director Sam Wood
Music Erich Korngold
This is one of the great scores by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, who, along with Miklós Rósza, Max Steiner and Dimitri Tiomkin, was one of the finest composers of the golden era of Hollywood. It was a time when film scores...