Film opening

The purpose of a films opening sequence is to introduce it's viewer to characters, location, plot, genre and themes as well as establishing the visual style of the film.
The opening to Bridget Jones's Diary does this. It is a romantic comedy realeased in 2001 and was written and directed by Richard Curtis. It's a Working Title film who are famous for producing romantic comedies and the rom-com combination of Richard Curtis, Working Title and the actor Hugh Grant, who appears in Bridget Jones's Diary and many other Working Title films, came togehter in 1994 with Four Weddings and A Funeral and again in 1999 for Notting Hill. This kind of predictable formula allows film producers to reuse scripts, actors, sets and costumes to continually create many modified versions of the same popular and successful film.
The opening scene of Bridget Jones's Diary immediately introduces the main character, played by Renee Zellweger, as she is shown in this first shot and she narrates the film with her voiceover. The voiceover also successfully shows the location of the film as we hear Renee speaking with an British accent. The opening shot also shows Renee walking through snow, which not only indicates the season the film is set in but we know snow is often associated with love and romance, which demonstrates the films genre.
The opening then progressess to Renee's mothers' house where the comical side of the genre is shown again by Renees narration as she complains about her mothet always attempting to pair her up with a man at every new years eve party.
Overall the opening sequence communicates theme and genre to the viewer by it's use of narration and opening shots. I feel it is also obvious that the film is likely to be more comical than romantic by the use of narration.