The genius of Saul Bass

I'd been thinking of doing some sort of tribute to Saul Bass, when a friend sent me this clever parody/homage. If Star Wars had been made circa late 1950's and Saul Bass had done the opening title sequence, it might have looked something like this. Sometimes imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!



OK, here's the real Saul Bass with some of his best known work -- the opening titles to Anatomy of a Murder (1959). This is a great film, by the way, ahead of it's time, and noteworthy for the jazz score by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn.



Now you get the idea. Saul Bass worked well into the 1990's -- his last film was Casino in 1995 -- and his style evolved without losing his singular look. Perhaps my favorite Bass title sequence, is the one that opens Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence. I well remember the emotion I felt back in 1993 as this gorgeous sequence rolled accompanied by music from Gounod's opera Faust. Watching this puts me right back into the world of the film.



Saul Bass also designed scores of movie posters. In fact, if you come to our house you'll see a framed full-size reproduction of this one in our second bedroom/office. Bass worked on a lot of Hitchcock films, but Vertigo is my favorite.




Saul Bass on the web