Charade starts with Audrey Hepburn looking impossibly petite on a ship, with Cary Grant being mysterious and flirting with her, doesn’t it? The funeral comes a little later, but is certainly very memorable…
The Funeral starts with the wake for Vincent Gallo’s character and then tells the story about how they got to that point
I think it’s actually a ski resort.
Doesn’t The Verdict begin with the lawyer played by Paul Neuman handing out his card at a funeral? (There may be a short prior scene in a bar. Can’t recall.)
And there is a very early funeral scene in Love, Actually (the wife of Liam Neeson’s character). Can’t remember if it’s at the very beginning, though. I’m thinking the movie opens with an airport montage.
I think maybe the poster is thinking of “The Trouble With Harry.”
Mousehunt.
A supposedly hilarious scene with Nathan Lane’s character and his brother dropping the coffin of their deceased (well…duh) father.
Passed Away, starring Bob Hoskins (among others.) IIRC it starts with the funeral of Hoskins’ character’s father, but most of it is about what takes place around the very Irish wake.
Fab movie, BTW, if you haven’t seen it. Very dark humor but very very good.
I have that out on loan from the local library; haven’t watched it yet, but just now fast-forwarded through the first part to check. The memorial service with Liam Neeson is 15 minutes into the movie, with quite a few scenes before it.
I’ve found myself thinking of quite a few movies in which a funeral or memorial service is very early in the film (like Lawrence of Arabia, which I’d though of last night but rejected because the preceding motorcycle part is so memorable), but it’s hard to check unless said movie is at hand or has been seen very recently (I rewatched Chariots of Fire just the other day, so there was no doubt in my mind that the very first scene is in the church).
I predict that this thread’s gonna have legs. Could I ask the OP to define a timeframe (e.g. “first 5 minutes”) within which the funeral must appear in order to count?
Well if we made it “movies with a funeral scene”, we would probably have a list of thousands. I guess because I cheated a little bit with the first post, we can all have some leeway. So yeah, within the first few minutes of the movie.
Doesn’t the movie Amadeus start with Motzart’s burial?
Ah, I got one. The movie Hamlet with Mel Gibson in the lead opens with a very ornate, stylized funerary scene.
Cadillac Man with Robin Williams has a funeral procession early on (it is another one where the main character tries to drum up some business at the ceremony). I can’t remember if it is first thing or not though.
If I’m remembering it correctly, it actually starts with a suicide attempt on the part of an elderly Salieri. It’s been more than a decade since I’ve seen it, though, so I may be wrong.
Easy mistake, though. For Your Eyes Only starts in a graveyard, with James standing over the headstone of his late wife, Theresa “Tracy” Draco.
Does a body floating in a swimming pool count (Sunset Boulevard)? It’s kinda funereal.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence starts with John Wayne’s funeral.
I guess that makes it unique, since every other John Wayne movie ends with his funeral.
The Funeral (1996)? With Chaz Palmenteri, Isabelli Rossalini, etc.?
By the way, he was singing like a motherfuck in the bar scene. 
“The Upside of Anger” starts with a funeral.
Yup that’s the one.
As for the singing you’re thinking of Chris Penn.
If I am not mistaken, the blarney-filled “The Brothers McMullen” commenced with the McMullen patriarch’s funeral.