Superficial Aspects of Cinema Aesthetics

[Greathinker]

I'm not one to pay much attention to the title sequences but one of my favorite recent ones:



Wonderfully subdued, just like the film. Thanks to dvdbeaver for the pic

[Fletch F. Fletch]

Special mention must also go to the opening title sequence (and font) of Wild At Heart. I will never forget the impact it caused me when I watched it for the first time -- in the theatre, no less.

Oh, I know! I love how the words "Wild at Heart" coming flying out at you and then the flames in the background that totally establishes the mood of the film.

I also love the opening credits sequence for Fire Walk With Me.



You have Angelo Badalamenti's calm, snazzy jazzy score on an abstract blue image that as we pan out turns out to be a static-y TV. The calm before the storm as the TV then gets demolished and a woman screams. Great stuff.

I also love the opening credits of David Fincher's films, esp. SE7EN and Fight Club... like how it starts in Edward Norton's brain and finally ends at the barrel of a gun,

[flyonthewall2983]

I liked the approach Blade Runner took with the opening credits, although I'm sure there are alot of other examples of opening-credits-over-black&white (Wonder Boys comes to mind). I also loved the Crash'96 credits sequence, it helps a bit in setting the mood of things to come along with the scene following it. But speaking of Cronenberg, I actually didn't like the typeface for Videodrome, too plain. The one on the Criterion DVD cover is much better, imho.

[colinr0380]

Another of my pet peeves is "Se7en," "Numb3rs" and the like. This may have been original back when Journey did it, but now it's so common as to be increasingly annoying.

Not to mention, it makes the titles almost impossible to pronounce. "Se-seven-en"? "Numb-three-rs"? Even when saying it carefully, the ticket sales person at the theater just looked awkwardly at me.

What about Thir13en Ghosts?

Sergio Leone's films, of course, have striking, highly memorable title designs; in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, I love the way they 'blow' away to make for the next after the gunshots, with Morricone's immortal score twanging away on the soundtrack - a highpoint in title design, no question.

I liked these too, and watching the Bruce Lee films Big Boss, Fist Of Fury and Way Of The Dragon recently was reminded of the style of the titles of the Leone trilogy (the Hong Kong version of Game of Death too).

I remember the six part BBC series from 2000 called Watching which devoted its whole first episode to 'Beginnings', including title sequences and how if done well they capture the essence of the film to follow and get the audience into the mindset of the film. Titles were only a part of that episode (the other part dealt with how the crucial opening five minutes or so of a film are - perhaps the most important because the audience is at their most receptive - they've decided to sit and watch the film and haven't had time to be disappointed by it yet!), but I remember particular attention paid to the opening of Star Wars, and the titles for Seven.

Something I've wondered about is why the film Saul Bass directed, Phase IV, had no stand alone title sequence, since he is famous for those he created for other films. The title only turns up at the very end of the film (but has built up over the film "Phase I", "Phase II" etc), so is this a little joke to those familiar with his titles, or would he not want to create a title sequence when he was responsible for the film itslef?

The Alien titles are a particular favourite of mine too - the way they slowly build during the title sequence.

I also found the Total Recall titles striking (and those of The Fly remake, and both of The Blob films!)

[miless]

I really enjoyed the credits for Cache... just streaming over the background until it was full

[Lino]

One of the very best opening credits of recent times surely must be the ones for Fincher's The Panic Room. I was floored!

[leo goldsmith]

Another of my pet peeves is "Se7en," "Numb3rs" and the like. This may have been original back when Journey did it, but now it's so common as to be increasingly annoying.

By far the most nonsensical of these is 6ixtynin9, though presumably we have only the occidental distributors to blame.

[rumz]

My favorite opening title has to be Dr.Strangelove.

ah yes, the inimitable Pablo Ferro, who also hand-scrawled the credits for Stop Making Sense. More on him at Design Observer

[Gordon]

[title sequences]... capture the essence of the film to follow and get the audience into the mindset of the film.

That's a great way of putting it.

[Steve Garamond]

This topic is quite close of what I'm planning to make my thesis on (in the field of graphic design). Title design is naturally more than just the font, for example I was annoyed in The New World when titles showed close-ups of old maps with round raster screens visible, when the actual map would have been probably done in metal engraving. The annoyance was not too long-lasting, fortunately I'm not quite that far yet...

Weir's Master and Commander has (as far as I know) a very nice typeface for the historical period.

To add to already-mentioned Woody Allen & Ingmar Bergman, one director that seems to have a strong grasp on graphic design in general, and also has a signature typeface, is Wes Anderson. He uses Futura in all of his movies so far, some different versions though.

Title design is similar to what's being done in designing corporate identities, only that corporations usually have little or no visual material to base the design on. So that should be one aspect what I'll be working on the thesis eventually.

And thanks for the links, Gordon and others, I had seen some of those but not all. Nice material.

edit: And now I notice bufordsharkley mentioned Anderson already. Oh well.

[Gordon]

I can't believe that I forgot about Robert Altman. Almost every film from of his from the 70s have memorable title sequences and utilize classy fonts. McCabe is among my favourite openings to a movie ever - the dialogue-free, voice-over-free trailer is a beauty in itself, also. I love such trailers - though voice-over trailers can be works or art, too.

I just remembered the name of the Michaelangelo of title-design: Dan Perri

Wayne Fitzgerald also created many brilliant titles.

In addition to Dr Strangelove, Pablo Ferro also created the titles for A Clockwork Orange, Midnight Cowboy and it was he that created the titles for Beetle Juice.

Here's another interesting article: Just the Beginning: The Art of Film Titles

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[Greathinker]

To open a new can of worms...

I may be going too far off base here but would we place music in this category? I prefer not to think of film as being a composite of every other art but I can't help thinking that there is something inherently superficial about the use of music in film. It is just an art that appeals so easily to emotions.

I believe it is used best when it heightens the feeling of a scene in which the feeling is already present, established through cinematic techniques. The score for Diary of a Country Priest has always stood out for me in this way. On the other hand I have great respect for music that doesn't interfer with the emotional going-ons in a film, or doesn't comment on it. I love the main theme used in Dead Ringers. It somehow captures the film in a way I can't explain--despite the tragic elements of the plot it has a quality of being unbiased (also a film with a fantastic credits sequence). I suppose the worst use of music would be when it dictates the story, or has to pull it along-- i.e, creating atmosphere, emotions, etc. when they are not there to begin with.

I hope my complete lack of knowledge regarding music doesn't show through in this post.

[Michael Kerpan]

Ozu typically wanted music in his films to be little more than aural wallpaper. As a general rule, he wanted no emotional reinforcement from the score. This intent is often disregarded in the film he made for Toho (End of summer / Autumn of the Kohayagawa Family), where he presumably had less control than he did back at home with Shochiku.

Shostakovich working with Kozintsev (and before that with Kozintsev and Trauberg) often tried to use his music as a counterpoint to what was being shown. sometimes, as in "New Babylon", the deliberate disjunction between music and image was an especially important element.

[jon]

I dont think it has been mentioned yet, but my favorite title sequence is Godard's Bande A Part.



yah, its the coolest opening title ever, if youve ever seen it

[Gordon]

To open a new can of worms...

More like a barrel, if you get me going! There are countless films that I would like a lot more if the score was absent, more subdued/subtle - or even just at a lower level. Loads of films from American films from the 50s and 60s are held in lesser regard by myself due to their over-written, overbearing scores. Most of the scores to the Hammer horrors bother me a great deal, too much brass - dun-dun-DUUUN! (oh, shut up!) - and always present on the track, unless it is an expository dialogue scene in a drawing room! The trend seemed to return in the mid-90s; in fact today, there is a generic score for most movies, it seems - that James Horner sound.

I think that a movie should have no more than a total of 20 minutes of music on the soundtrack, unless it is a composer biopic or rock/pop-themed movie and even then, there are so many movies of the last 30 years that have too many rock songs on the track, which began with American Graffiti (a wonderful film) but the trend has went too far and it seems to me that much-loved pop tunes are used to cover up deficiencies more than original scores ever did. "Oh, I love this song!" Yes, that may be, but what about the scene - the film? You might as well have stayed home with your CDs. Some directors, like Scorsese, are masters at utilizing rock, pop, jazz and classical in their movies, but most of the time, it's just the director using their favourite tracks arbitrarily. As wonderful as his films are, even Wes Anderson is guilty of this, frankly. It's such an easy thing to do - provided the producer pays for the rights - to lay a classic Paul Simon or Nico tune on the soundtrack and the director will be praised for his taste, but frankly, he deserves little praise in my mind.

Music in films should compliment the cinematography. Just as you don't blast every scene with maximal artificial light, so you shouldn't blast them with full orchestra. Look at John Carpenter's scores - Halloween is basically just 4/4 time on two octaves with a few synth 'stings' added, but it works perfectly. His scores don't do much for me when isolated and maybe that point to something - that the components of an effective movie cannot be isolated effectively. Carpenter's scores, though minimal, are not superficial - they are like characters in themselves, unlike great scores like The Godfather. But then look at how that film almost turned out with the trad-jazz score that you can still hear a piece of in the final film - which scene is it again? It's fucking terrible; if the whole score was like that, the film would surely have been sunk.

I wanted to talk about quotations at the begining of movies, but I'll have to lie down now.

[pmunger]

The opening sequence of Contempt and Fahrenheit 451 are favorites of mine. The way the credits are narrated instead of written add a once-upon-a-time quality to the film.

[jon]

Godard's openings are usually pretty cool. What about the A Woman Is a Woman...I seem to remember it having huge words pop up on the screen with street noises or something, correct me if im wrong because i havent seen it in a while.

Buffalo 66' also has a cool title



thank you dvdbeaver for screen caps

[Greathinker]

What gives? I tend to notice interesting discussions spark up then burn out a lot on this forum. There's volumes that could be written on the superficiality of cinema. There's no question that today it's overriding, with commercial design taking off and going in new directions-- so much of today's films are about what they bring to the surface. To take an obvious example: Superman Returns-- strip that of its superman mythology, nostalgia to previous films, and its heaps of CGI, and you have (or what already is) a piece of shit.
You want to talk about credit sequences, this one sums up what it's all about. A nostalgic rip-off of the 78 film with a nauseating CGI trip through the universe. It's all speed and flashes of light with nothing there but what the audience brings from their memory.
It seems like a glossy trailer or some fancy Kyle Cooper title designs are enough to bring interest and make money these days. Maybe it's stuff like this that makes me dislike elaborate credit sequences and grand, sweeping scores, because it's used so shitty in every other film that I can't appreciate it when it's actually used correctly.

[Lino]

Aren't you mistaking Superficial Aspects of Cinema Aesthetics with superficial (as in "shallow" or "bad") movies? Or am I misreading you?

[jon]

The superficial aspects is kind of funny because that would usually refer to things in a film such as a special effect like a car explosion that might be deemed superficial based on opinion. The title is rather referring to the literal superficial aspects of a film that are undeniably superficial, such as the title screen that opens a film (*some or most films). It's kind of a clever forum topic...title.

Aside from that, Greathinker is right in that a lot of topics do tend to die instantly when popularity of a thread begins to peak.

[Greathinker]

Yes it would be funny to talk about superficial aspects in movies since they're generally built around the concept.

My post was just an attempt to revive the thread. But what I meant to say, aside from the superman returns ripping, is that "superficial cinema aesthetics" are these days fast becoming in the eyes of most everyone a good substitute for substance.

[Mr Sausage]

To take an obvious example: Superman Returns

You know, I think the credits were my favourite part of that movie (the whole of which I still liked). They were what I was most anticipating, at any rate.

[Gregor Samsa]

I'm currently unable to provide a screen capture of it, but the title sequence of Safe is one of my favourites.

[Lino]

Here it is:

[Lino]

One of the very best opening credits of recent times surely must be the ones for Fincher's The Panic Room. I was floored!

And here's what I was talking about: