Perhaps one of the most ambitious sequences of the ’70s in B-movies or otherwise, the bombastic titles to Jack Hill’s Foxy Brown employ almost every trick in the title design book, from image rotoscoping and solarization to multi-layered optical animation and colorization.
As with Iginio Lardani’s spaghetti western titles in the ’60s, its presentation is a deliberate and unsubtle homage to Maurice Binder’s early James Bond titles, lending breakout star Pam Grier credibility by association while maintaining a controlled aesthetic all its own. However, unlike Binder’s treatment of women as graphic backdrops for his titles, here the format is flipped on its head, with Foxy Brown front and center as an independent, sexy female lead.
Few title sequences before or after have gone so far to establish a film’s lead character as an iconic brand, though Quentin Tarantino made a similar — if not far more subdued — effort in his unofficial 1997 sequel, Jackie Brown.
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Check out more 1970s B-movie title design in Vigilantes, Psycopaths, and Road Warriors: B-Movie Title Design of the 1970s & 1980s
Main Title and Special Optical Effects: Imagic Inc.
Main Title Choreography: Anita Mann
Music: "Theme of Foxy Brown" by Willie Hutch