Title sequences: continued
Our film writer Doug Cummings writes:
A few weeks ago, Karen posted an entry on Title Sequences, so I thought I'd flag a handsome new coffee table book, "Uncredited: Graphic Design & Opening Titles in Movies," that has been imported from Europe and reprinted in English via Index.
Handsome it is, but its translation at times can be a bit clunky. Consider: "That being said, primitive-style title credits based on elementary concepts, and with infinite conceptual potential for that same reason, have manged to survive everything." (If you know what that sentence really means, you should go into law.) In general, however, the book makes interesting reading, particularly given the dearth of focused studies (graphical and cinematic) regarding title sequences.
The book insightfully divides titles into basic genres: White Over Black (Woody Allen, Adaptation), Titles as Logos (Casablanca, The Thing), Animation (The Adventures of Prince Achmed, The Pink Panther), Textural (The Birds, The English Patient), or Conceptual (Mon Oncle, Mothlight, Contempt).
The best feature of the book, however, is its many multi-frame reproductions of hundreds of title sequences, making it just as fun to flip through as to actually read. The diversity of films considered is very impressive (mainstream Hollywood to European art films to avant-garde) and at times, the succinct commentary can be evocative: "In the apocalyptic world featured in [Francois Truffaut's "Fahrenheit 451"], where the written word is persecuted, typographic titles would not make any sense." (Instead, the title sequence presents vividly-tinted television antennas.) My only complaint is that a few of the printed sequences (like Robert Bresson's "L'Argent") are much too dark on the page.
Lastly, one very fun feature is the book's inclusion of a CD-ROM containing decent Quicktime samples of many sequences discussed in the book.
