![365 Movie Challenge | 051 | Helvetica (2007)| January 26, 2012
A documentary about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture.
“Michael Bierut: It’s The Real Thing. Period. Coke. Period. Any Questions? Of Course Not.”
“David Carson: Don’t confuse legibility with communication. Just because something is legible doesn’t mean it communicates and, more importantly, doesn’t mean it communicates the right thing.”
“Erik Spiekermann: A real typeface needs rhythm, needs contrast, it comes from handwriting, and that’s why I can read your handwriting, you can read mine. And I’m sure our handwriting is miles away from Helvetica or anything that would be considered legible, but we can read it, because there’s a rhythm to it, there’s a contrast to it. Helvetica hasn’t got *any* of that. Interviewer: Why, fifty years later, is it still so popular? Erik Spiekermann: [sighs] Why is… bad taste ubiquitous?” [Oh, snap!]
It seems you either love Helvetica or you hate it (the typeface, not the movie; though maybe that too). This film is interesting and a nice complement to Objectified which I watched the day before. This can be a little dry and I knew much of this information already, but interesting to hear the different points of view.
★★★1/2 | Watch | IMDB | MUBI | Director: Gary Hustwit](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyk136oLFV1r9sr8ao1_400.jpg)
365 Movie Challenge | 051 | Helvetica (2007)| January 26, 2012
A documentary about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture.
- “Michael Bierut: It’s The Real Thing. Period. Coke. Period. Any Questions? Of Course Not.”
- “David Carson: Don’t confuse legibility with communication. Just because something is legible doesn’t mean it communicates and, more importantly, doesn’t mean it communicates the right thing.”
- “Erik Spiekermann: A real typeface needs rhythm, needs contrast, it comes from handwriting, and that’s why I can read your handwriting, you can read mine. And I’m sure our handwriting is miles away from Helvetica or anything that would be considered legible, but we can read it, because there’s a rhythm to it, there’s a contrast to it. Helvetica hasn’t got *any* of that. Interviewer: Why, fifty years later, is it still so popular? Erik Spiekermann: [sighs] Why is… bad taste ubiquitous?” [Oh, snap!]
It seems you either love Helvetica or you hate it (the typeface, not the movie; though maybe that too). This film is interesting and a nice complement to Objectified which I watched the day before. This can be a little dry and I knew much of this information already, but interesting to hear the different points of view.
- Tagged
- helvetica
- 365 movie challenge
- 365 film challenge
- 051
- 2012
- 3.5 stars
- Gary Hustwit
- Michael Bierut
- Neville Brody
- Dimitri Bruni
- David Carson
- Matthew Carter
- Wim Crouwel
- Tobias Frere-Jones
- Otmar Hoefer
- Jonathan Hoefler
- Alfred Hoffmann
- Manuel Krebs
- Lars Müller
- Mike Parker
- Michael C. Place
- Rick Poynor
- Stefan Sagmeister
- Leslie Savan
- Paula Scher
- Erik Spiekermann
- Bruno Steinert
- Danny van den Dungen
- Massimo Vignelli
- Hermann Zapf
365 Movie Challenge | 050 | Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum, 1979)| January 26, 2012
Danzig in the 1920s/1930s. Oskar Matzerath, son of a local dealer, is a most unusual boy. Equipped with full intellect right from his birth he decides at his third birthday not to grow up as he sees the crazy world around him at the eve of World War II. So he refuses the society and his tin drum symbolizes his protest against the middle-class mentality of his family and neighborhood, which stand for all passive people in Nazi Germany at that time.
“Bebra: You must join us, you must! Oskar Matzerath: You know, Mr. Bebra… to tell the truth, I prefer to be a member of the audience, and let my little art flower in secret. Bebra: My dear Oskar, trust an experienced colleague. Our kind must never sit in the audience. Our kind must perform and run the show, or the others will run *us*. The others are coming. They will occupy the fairgrounds, they will stage torchlight parades, build rostrums, fill the rostrums, and from those rostrums preach our destruction.”
The film finishes after the second of three “books” in The Tin Drum novel by Gunter Grass. Pretty suggestive in some parts but I think people were wrong to label this child pornography and subsequently ban the film. I, however, did not appreciate the cruelty towards the eels or the toads and I’m sure I don’t want to know where they got the horse’s head from. It ended up being a tad lackluster [not sure if really the film or just a consequence of the time period] but the film is redeemed by David Bennent’s captivating performance as Oskar Matzerath. It’s fairly true to what I remember of the book.
- Tagged
- the tin drum
- 365 movie challenge
- 365 film challenge
- subtitles
- 2012
- 3.5 stars
- 050
- Die Blechtrommel
- Gunter Grass
- Volker Schlöndorff
- Mario Adorf
- Angela Winkler
- David Bennent
- Katharina Thalbach
- Daniel Olbrychski
- Tina Engel
- Berta Drews
- Roland Teubner
- Tadeusz Kunikowski
- Andréa Ferréol
- Heinz Bennent
- Ilse Pagé
- Werner Rehm
- Käte Jaenicke
- Helmut Brasch
- Mariella Oliveri
- Fritz Hakl
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) claims that SOPA and PIPA are aimed at stopping online piracy. But as this infographic demonstrates, it’s really about fighting innovation.
(Embiggen at Infographic: Why the movie industry is so wrong about SOPA)
(via sanityscraps)
365 Movie Challenge | 049 | Objectified (2009)| January 25, 2012
A feature-length documentary about our complex relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them.
- “Every object tells a story if you know how to read it” -Henry Ford
- “What we need to do to design is to look at the extremes. The middle will take care of itself.” -Dan Formosa
- “A lot of what we are doing is getting design out of the way.” -Jonathan Ive
- “Often our hardest job is to remove remove remove.” -Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec
- “My job as a designer is to look into the future. Not to use any frame of reference that exists” -Marc Newson
- “I always try to bring multiple layers to a product so it is a puzzle you uncover.” -Hella Jongerius
- “I like the concept of wearing in instead of wearing out.” -Bill Moggridge
- “Design needs to be plugged into human behavior. Design dissolves in behavior.” -Naoto Fukasawa
- “We now have a new generation of products where the form bears absolutely no relation to the function. Look at something like the iphone and think of all the things it does. “Form follows function” has been annihilated by the microchip.” -Alice Rawsthorn, Design Editor of International Herald Tribune
I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about the theory of design and listening to the various designers talk about their products and thinking processes. One thing I will say though is that the film predominantly focuses on products which are minimalist and modern. As that’s not my favorite aesthetic by a long shot it was a tad bit hard to stay enthusiastic. The information was interesting and important, it’s just hard to be excited when all the products you’re seeing as visual reference are boring for your taste. Overall, the film helped me become even more aware of all the design around me (more so than i already am) and I have a lot of respect for people whose goal is increasing comfort, beauty, and functionality in such an integrated fashion that you forget the product was designed at all, rather than being blatant about their presence in the design process. As one of the designers mentioned, they want you to look at a product and instead of saying “why isn’t it like x instead?”, they want you to think “of course that’s the way it is why would it ever be different?”
I don’t think it’s wrong (as the guy in the purple glasses implied) to have incredibly technologically advanced products and still engage with other products which are analog or reminiscent of a less technologically advanced time period in our history. His example is using a laptop and then going home in a horse drawn carriage. What some people don’t seem to understand is that just because we have seemingly more advanced products or newer, updated versions of products doesn’t mean they’re superior when it comes to efficiency, functionality or beauty. The digital cameras we have now are less cumbersome than large format cameras but the quality of an 8x10 camera at f.64 is hard to surpass. Books that were leather and bound with string were of a much higher quality than the shitty cow hoof glue we use now. Records are of much better quality than cds. Besides all that, what is wrong with having a mixture of past and present, taking the best of all worlds and making your own unique world with it? Older analog things are often simpler, easier to use…newer doesn’t automatically equal superior. Many years ago we used to pride ourselves on designing and creating things that would last a long time and/or get better with use. The same can not be said of our current design ethic. Right now we are so materialistic and consumer-driven that nothing is meant to last, nothing is meant to be kept or used up, and few things are of a high quality anymore.
The implications of permanence versus disposability becomes more complex and interesting when the issue of sustainability is raised at the end of the film. If something is well built and meant to last people will hold onto it longer instead of it going into a land fill after a year. However, this permanence can have negative effects on the environment once in the land fill. On the other hand, if we only build things to last for a year (while at the same time possibly trying to make them of safe, biodegradable materials), we are making consumption and costs higher and putting a lot more into landfills much quicker. And yet it may not be as disastrous because the materials aren’t as dangerous or permanent. I don’t have the answers, just interesting things to consider as both an artist and a consumer.
- Tagged
- objectified
- 365 film challenge
- 365 movie challenge
- Gary Hustwit
- 2012
- 4 stars
- 049
- Paola Antonelli
- Chris Bangle
- Andrew Blauvelt
- Erwan Bouroullec
- Ronan Bouroullec
- Anthony Dunne
- Agnete Enga
- Dan Formosa
- Naoto Fukasawa
- Jonathan Ive
- Hella Jongerius
- Marc Newson
- Fiona Raby
- Dieter Rams
- Karim Rashid
- Alice Rawsthorn
- Amber Shonts
- Davin Stowell
- Jane Fulton Suri
- Rob Walker
- subtitles
365 Movie Challenge | 048 | Kynodontas (Dogtooth, 2009)| January 25, 2012
Three teenagers are confined to an isolated country estate that could very well be on another planet. Having invented a brother whom they claim to have ostracized for his disobedience, the über-controlling parents terrorize their offspring into submission.
“Father: Soon your mother will give birth to two children and a dog.”
“Mother: The new words of the day are: ‘Sea’, ‘Highway’, ‘Road trip’ and ‘Shotgun.’ “
“Older Daughter: Do that again, bitch, and I’ll rip your guts out. I swear on my daughter’s life you and your clan won’t last long in this neighborhood.”
This was an excellent premise for a film. There were so many great ideas and scenes within the film but I kind of hate how the whole thing was executed. The actors were great but the story was choppy (more like small vignettes rather than an actual plot). That wouldn’t necessarily be a negative thing if it had been done differently. It was anti-climactic and I just wanted to shake the whole thing out of it’s stupor, so to speak. But I would recommend people watch it once because there are some great moments and it really is an intriguing premise. So I’d give the idea 4.5 stars and the actual film 3 stars.
Interesting discussion on the film. [spoilers, discussion of the ending]
365 Movie Challenge | 047 | Beginners (2010)| January 24, 2012
A young man is rocked by two announcements from his elderly father: that he has terminal cancer, and that he has a young male lover.
“Oliver: My parents got married in 1955, they had a child and they stayed married for 44 years, until my mother died. Six months later my father told me he was gay. I remember him wearing a purple sweater when he told me this, but actually he wore a robe.”
“Oliver: And I can really see Anna’s eyes in 2003. Her ears. Her feet. This is what it looks like when she says ‘I love you’ in 2003. This is what it looks like when she cries. When she tells me there’s always a new empty room waiting for her. They used to make her feel free. Now they make her feel the opposite of free.”
“Hal: Well, let’s say that since you were little, you always dreamed of getting a lion. And you wait, and you wait, and you wait, and you wait but the lion doesn’t come. And along comes a giraffe. You can be alone, or you can be with the giraffe. Oliver: I’d wait for the lion. Hal: That’s why I worry about you.”
I loved this movie! It had the perfect cast, a perfect script, and a perfect way of flipping between Oliver’s relationship with his dad (and his experiences with being gay and having cancer) and his burgeoning romance with Anna (played by the fantastic Mélanie Laurent). It’s quiet and subtle, nothing dramatic or exciting happens really, but it’s human and I was captivated watching their stories unfold.
365 Movie Challenge | 046 | The Social Network (2010)| January 23, 2012
Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg creates the social networking website that would become known as Facebook, but is later sued by two brothers who claimed he stole their idea, and the co-founder who was later squeezed out of the business.
“Sean Parker: Drop the “The.” Just “Facebook.” It’s cleaner.”
“Mark Zuckerberg: You know, you really don’t need a forensics team to get to the bottom of this. If you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you’d have invented Facebook.”
“Erica Albright: You are probably going to be a very successful computer person. But you’re going to go through life thinking that girls don’t like you because you’re a nerd. And I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that that won’t be true. It’ll be because you’re an asshole.”
“Sean Parker: Did you think we were going to let you parade around in your ridiculous suits pretending you were running this company? Eduardo Saverin: [cutting him off; screaming] Sorry! My Prada’s at the cleaners! Along with my hoodie and my ‘fuck you’ flip-flops, you pretentious douchebag!”
For a two hour movie I was pleasantly surprised by how fast paced it was. Interesting to see the story behind Facebook and all the more reason I no longer want to use it (though this film absolutely does take artistic liberties with facts and events). Great score, great cast, tight script. Overall, I was impressed.
365 Movie Challenge | 045 | Inglourious Basterds (2009)| January 22, 2012
In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as “The Basterds” are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis.
“Lt. Aldo Raine: You probably heard we ain’t in the prisoner-takin’ business; we in the killin’ Nazi business. And cousin, business is a-boomin’.”
“Lt. Aldo Raine: You know somethin’, Utivich? I think this just might be my masterpiece.”
Entertaining and an interesting premise. The gratuitous violence didn’t trigger me as much as I thought it would considering what my family has been through. Great acting and cinematography, but ultimately there was zero suspense and no twists at all to keep me guessing. The ending was spectacular and badass, just not an “omg, I didn’t expect that!!1!” moment. Brad Pitt and Mélanie Laurent can’t be beat, though.
- Tagged
- inglourious basterds
- 365 movie challenge
- 365 film challenge
- gif
- 2012
- 3.5 stars
- 045
- brad pitt
- violence
- Quentin Tarantino
- Mélanie Laurent
- Christoph Waltz
- Eli Roth
- Michael Fassbender
- Diane Kruger
- Daniel Brühl
- Til Schweiger
- Gedeon Burkhard
- Jacky Ido
- B.J. Novak
- Omar Doom
- August Diehl
- Denis Menochet
- Sylvester Groth
- Martin Wuttke
Women Directed 5% of 2011's Movies
Only 5 percent of 2011’s highest-grossing movies were directed by women — down from 7 percent in 2010 and 9 percent in 1998, according to the annual Celluloid Ceiling report from from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film. The statistics are pretty daunting: Of the 250 highest-grossing films last year, only 18 percent had female executive producers. Women comprised 14 percent of the writers for the films, 20 percent of the editors, 25 percent of the producers, and 4 percent of the cinematographers, and 38 percent of the movies employed zero or one woman in any of those roles. Next up in depressing stats about gender politics and under-representation in pop culture, let’s count how many of this year’s Oscar-nominated movies pass the Bechdel Test!
(Source: feministfilm)
