Monday's with Saul: A summer series on Saul Bass

Saul Bass is considered one of the top designers of the last century. His impact continues to resonate today. Among Hitchcock fans, Bass is famous for his "pictorial consultation" on Psycho. His title design for Hitchcock's big three, Vertigo, North by Northwest and Psycho are as significant to the "icon"-oclasting of the director as Bernard Herrmann's scores and George Tomassini's editing. Monday's for the rest of the month, I'll be posting two Saul Bass title sequences (one Hitchcock, one not) and something that feature's Saul Bass talking about his art.

Bass was born in NYC in 1920 and died in Los Angeles, CA in 1996.  As a graphic designer he is the American visual landscape of the late 1950's on.  As a film title designer, his distinctive, jazzy, title moving style became synonymous with best in pop cinema.  The best of marriage of style and substance for Saul Bass was with Hitchcock.  Hitchcock began in title design as young filmmaker for the Paramount Studio's London office in the early 1920s.  A graphic designer himself, Hitchcock appreciated Bass' talent and allowed for a full partnership in creativity.  Despite the cliche of the overpowering auteur, Hitchcock was nothing like that.  Without exception, the artists who worked with Hitchcock  spoke of complete freedom and respect from Hitchcock.

As is the natural case, not every artist that someone Hitchcock would team up could match the prodigious abilities that the director brought to the table.  Bass was an exception and his addition to the cinematic dream team of Hitchcock's Paramount years raised the three film's from Hitchcock's high period to a level of cinematic perfection unmatched before or after.

Bass's first title sequence was for Otto Preminger's Carmen Jones (screening above).  His work with Preminger certainly brought  Saul Bass' work to Hitchcock's attention.  The title sequence that Bass designed for Vertigo stands out from the rest of the graphic designer's work.  The famous sequence, screening below, has minimal text movement.  It is instead built like a small experimental film that symbolically draws us into the coming story.  Spirals, designed and shot by John Whitney on one of the cinema's first computer animation stands (the machine was crafted out of military surplus, using a machine gun turret motor at its core), dominate the titles and move at first in and then away.  The last card, Hitchcock's, is level with the ladder rung that it dissolves away to--and then the action of the film begins with hands grabbing this horizontal bar.  Bass says with his visuals--that in this vortex, the only place of security is the director--hang on tight.






Saul Bass was innovator and teacher.  Here's a bit from a 90 minute documentary on Bass' work.



From Archieboston, the youtube contributor and creator of the Bass documentary:

This 90-minute, 2-DVD set documentary features more detailed conversation that was edited from the single disc format. Even the conversation behind the filming, and the extensive collection of artifacts from his world travel, are included in this exciting set. The wisdom of Saul Bass in this documentary will entertain and inspire you for many years.