Main titles a narrative condensation formula: The case of Robert Rossen's "Lilith"

Abstract

The film credits were originally incorporated into the films with the intention of recording their interpreters and creative and technical managers. However, with the narrative evolution of the cinema these became, in an increasingly frequent way, in small narrative pieces with substance and own independence to be taken into account and, therefore, analyzed. This article focuses on the analysis of the credit titles of Lilith (1964), director Robert Rossen’ latest film, which forms a personal and unrepeatable diptych together with The Hustler (1961). In the credits of Lilith the director poses in a complex way, and with a high conceptualization and abstraction, narrative, symbolic and discursive questions that will be developed in the body of the film. This will to say of the director, to record on himself and on the world, is printed on this set piece, turning it into a condensed narrative of high value and complexity, showing almost unique in its kind, creating a micro-story of independent value with infrequent complexity.