New Possibilities: Cinema is Dead, Long Live Cinema
"lectures presented by filmmaker Peter Greenaway as the 2010-2011 Avenali Chair in the Humanities at the Townsend Center for the Humanities.'"
(Townsend Center for the Humanities)
Fig1. Lecture presented by filmmaker Peter Greenaway 13 September 2010.
CONTRIBUTOR
Alex ShuttiSHARE
Jim Jarmusch: authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent!
"Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don't bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: 'It's not where you take things from - it's where you take them to."
(Jim Jarmusch)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
The typography of Jean-Luc Godard
"To me watching the films of Jean-Luc Godard is like watching a white Rauschenberg painting or listing to John Cage's '4:33': it isn't something I do for entertainment. They're historically significant because he broke all the rules in the book, but I just don't enjoy watching them. Since I only add titles from films I've seen myself there weren't many Godard films present in the Movie title stills collection.
On december 3rd, Atelier Carvalho Bernau released a free typeface to celebrate Godard's 80th birthday. The typeface was inspired by the title sequences of Godard's 'Made in U.S.A' (1966) and '2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle' (1967). When I started googling I found surprisingly few stills or videos from Godard's films, that's why I decided to add the most interesting ones to the Movie title stills collection.
I've located almost all films from the earlier part of Godard's career and took all stills containing typography: titles from the opening title sequences, intertitles and end ('Fin') titles. Like silent films Godard used lots of intertitles, which make his films much more typographic than other films from the '60s and 70's.
It's quite interesting to see the designs evolve. In this digital age it's refreshing to see type that isn't made on a computer: the imperfect and handmade look of the letterforms, the bad kerning, the large gaps between letters and words, the justified blocks of text, the awkwardly dotted capital I's. Even when he used an existing typeface - like Antique Olive in 'Week end' (1967) - the letterforms look as if they were cut out with an Exacto knife.
Sauve qui peut (la vie) (1980) is the last film featuring custom typefaces. In his later films Godard used existing typefaces like Futura, Univers, Helvetica and Garamond."
(Christian Annyas, 16 December 2010)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Atelier Carvalho Bernau: Bon anniversaire, Jean-Luc!
"Bon Anniversaire, Jean-Luc!
Our favourite director turns EIGHTY, and we want to celebrate (with) him, with everyone.
We were always in love with the title sequence lettering to Godard's movies Made in U.S.A. and 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle. So as an hommage to Jean-Luc, to the Nouvelle Vague, to Seberg, Karina, Faithfull & Cie., we present you our Jean-Luc typeface, as a birthday gift for everyone. Voilà!
We didn't find out who originally made the lettering for these two movies. Some speculate it could have been Godard himself - Godard's interest in graphic design and typography is clear, with many of his other films employing such strong typography-only titles and intertitles. They are almost a self-sufficient entity, another character in the movie, another comment.
This style of lettering is so interesting to us because it is such a clear renunciation of the 'pretty', classical title screens that were common in that time's more conservative films. It has a more vernacular and brutishly low-brow character; this lettering comes from the street:
We can not prove this at all, but we think it may be derived from the stencil letters of the Plaque Découpée Universelle, a lettering device invented in the 1870s by a certain Joseph A. David, and first seen in France at the 1878 Exposition Universelle, where it found broad appeal and rapid adoption. We think this style of lettering was absorbed into the public domain vernacular of French lettering, and that the 2 ou 3 choses titles are derived from these quotidien lettering style, as it would seem to fit Godard's obsession with vernacular typography."
(Atelier Carvalho Bernau Design, 2010)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Jean-Luc Godard: figures posing in order to be admired
"Godard is right at home here, especially following his 80s fare like Passion and First Name: Carmen. In this decade more than ever before, Godard was preoccupied with the fusing of image and sound, in the vein of Renaissance art and music. This means that he's obsessed with the human form, male and female bodies. Historically, this creates something curiously hybrid. While classical opera may have to do with bodies, Godard's style is decidedly closer to that of pre-Classical painting, with uncovered figures posing still in order to be admired or, better, worshiped. Godard's use of male bodies juxtaposing the females here fits nicely into his standard approach to bodies along with everything else: exchange of commodities. The transaction doesn't take place in the segment; the problem is an imbalance of supply with demand, a Marxist cliché that Godard is only too glad to inject into a series of films supposedly just about art and love."
(Zach 'Andrews idea', 29/08/2010)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
