[PyQt] stand alone QFileDialog

[Janwillem van Dijk]

Is there for opening a file in a non-qui script a PqQt4 equivalent for 
the TkInter based function below?
def open_files(starting_dir):
     """Returns list of filenames+paths given starting dir"""
     import Tkinter
     import tkFileDialog

     root = Tkinter.Tk()
     root.withdraw()  # Hide root window
     filenames = 
tkFileDialog.askopenfilenames(parent=root,initialdir=starting_dir)
     return list(filenames)
Lack of understanding of the deeper workings of both TkInter and PyQt4 
leaves me stuck.
Thanks for helping