The camera glides across the water before panning up to see a moonlit shot of the Manhattan skyline. Fading to black, up comes the white lettering: Miramax Films.
As film company logos go, maybe it doesn't rank with the roaring lion of MGM or the transmitter sitting on top of
the globe that belongs to RKO Pictures. But, no question, the Miramax legend has come to signify something just as iconic in contemporary cinema.
The company behind Pulp Fiction, Sin City and Gangs of New York, Miramax means maverick film-making. Or, at least, it did.
Last week, Miramax closed its offices in Los Angeles and New York. Whether anyone heard the sound of the doors shutting is debatable.
Coming off the back of the announcement last October that its parent company, Disney, was reducing the number of Miramax films to three a year, it's a meek end for a once-mighty outfit.
Naturally, Disney moved swiftly to deny it was all over for the company it bought for US$80 million from its founders, the brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein, in 1993.
"Miramax will consolidate its operations within Walt Disney Studios," a representative said, "and will be releasing a smaller number of films than in previous years."
What this means in actuality is anyone's guess. What is clear is that the company which, at its peak, commanded an enviable annual production budget of US$700 million, is a shell of its former self.
Last autumn, Disney gutted much of the company by slashing 70 per cent of the staff to just 20 and folding marketing and distribution into its bigger studio operation.
Worse still, when the Oscar nominations were announced this week, Miramax was notable by its absence, with not one film up for Best Picture.
Few other companies specialising in independent films fared better. While The Hurt Locker, Precious and An Education could be regarded as such, the studios have dominated the nominations, with Fox's Avatar leading the way.
To say it's the end of an era is an understatement. Miramax has loomed large over the Hollywood landscape since its formation in 1979. The Weinsteins began the company as a specialist distribution outfit named after their parents, Miriam and Max.
After the Weinsteins made a disastrous attempt to launch their careers as writer-directors in 1986, a series of their astute acquisitions began to mark out Miramax from the crowd.
Most cite Steven Soderbergh's 1989 drama Sex, Lies, and Videotape, which grossed US$24 million in the US, a staggering sum at the time for an independent film.
But, in the same year, there were also healthy returns for Peter Greenaway's defiantly non-commercial The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover - cannily marketed with the tagline "Lust. Murder. Dessert" - and the Profumo affair story Scandal.
If anything, Miramax was a masterclass in marketing. The Weinsteins may not have been able to compete with the studios' budgets when it came to advertising their product but they knew how to create brand awareness.
They never shied away from so-called "difficult" films and the awards season provided a perfect opportunity to stir up interest in their releases.
After winning its first Oscar in 1989 - Best Foreign Film for Bille August's 1987 film, Pelle the Conqueror - the company went on to collect more than 50 Academy Awards.
Between 1992 and 2002, Miramax achieved 13 Best Picture nominations, winning for The English Patient, Shakespeare in Love and Chicago, the latter of which became the company's biggest hit in 2002, grossing more than US$300 million.
By this point, Miramax was almost unrecognisable from its original incarnation. The Weinsteins may have been left in charge when Disney bought them in 1993 but it was clear where the buck stopped.
As far back as 1995, the brothers created a separate distribution company, Excalibur Films, to release Larry Clark's controversial Kids, distancing Disney from the storm the film was generating.
Some might say the writing has been on the wall since the Weinsteins and Disney parted company in March 2005, after an increasingly fractious relationship between the brothers and the former Disney CEO Michael Eisner.
Still, the wider implications of Miramax's effective closure will no doubt be felt. While bespoke studio divisions, such as Fox Searchlight and Sony Pictures Classics, remain strong entities when it comes to acquiring and investing in independent films, the outlets for movies made outside the mainstream are shrinking.
While the brothers now run The Weinstein Company - the pairing hit big last year with Tarantino's latest, Inglourious Basterds, which has just scooped eight Oscar nominations - it's clear they are desperate to buy back the name Miramax.
Word has it that Disney has failed to respond to their request, though it is rumoured that a not-so-cool US$1.5 billion will buy you the company name and its extensive back-catalogue.
A "nostalgic" Harvey has been quoted as saying: "I know the movies made on my and my brother Bob's watch will live on."
True enough. But the next time you see that black-and-white logo on the screen, it may just feel like a reminder of a bygone era. Without the likes of Miramax, tough times are ahead for independent film.
Miramax trivia:
* $80m: How much Disney paid to buy Miramax.
* $1.5b: Rumoured cost of buying company and its back catalogue.
* 13: Number of Best Picture nominations.
* 50: Number of Academy Awards collected.
- INDEPENDENT
Renee Zellweger in <i>Chicago</i>. Photo / Supplied
The camera glides across the water before panning up to see a moonlit shot of the Manhattan skyline. Fading to black, up comes the white lettering: Miramax Films.
As film company logos go, maybe it doesn't rank with the roaring lion of MGM or the transmitter sitting on top of
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