This is officially my new favorite credit sequence.

Who’s hungry?

While I thought the movie totally blew, it was pretty incredible vis a vie the slow motion front. Plus, now I get to add “somersaulting off an elephant tusk” to my tag cloud.

This is a tiny, super-itsy bitsy clip, but it’s what makes me want to watch the movie over and over. In fact, I love the first ten minutes of “Thank You For Smoking”- probably more than the rest of whatever plot or characterization comes along afterwards. Come 4:19, when slomo is used as a device to imply BS’ing at its best, I just replay it over and over.

Despite this movie being horribly directed (it’s as if an art director thought “hey, I should direct!) This opening intro is pretty entertaining…Especially the pretty pink ladies dancing in slow motion.

The movie was pretty much downhill after that.

So German flick Summer Storm (or Sommersturm) was actually a bit too gay and campy for my taste, but that’s okay, because the best 10 minutes of the film are the opening credits. With two lithe, young, muscular male bodies exercising to Nada Surf’s Blonde on Blonde, you’ve got yourself an ocular orgy. Throw in a high speed camera and it’s pretty much a visual orgasm (and they haven’t even gotten to the over-the-top gay sex yet!) Sorry to spoil it for you, but here, I’ll make it all better with a link to the condensed, good-for-you chapter.

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. What is Romain Duris doing, messing up this beautiful shot? I wish they didn’t show his cut-away. I may be straight, but the slow motion on this woman is so gorgeous that for her, I’d reconsider.

While I didn’t particularly like this film (Sean Biggerstaff’s acting, mostly), I must admit that the movie’s relationship to time is mouth-wateringly gorgeous. Here’s a clip that I think is a good sampler of all the time changes used.