Saul Bass - PHASE IV
Screen-shots from 1974's Phase IV, directed by the great Saul Bass, more commonly known as the revolutionary creator of many classic title sequences for Hitchcock, Preminger, etc. as well contributing siginificantly to the field of corporate iconography, branding and "visual identities". Less well-known is this amazing film, one of the great science-fiction films from the otherwise fallow early 70s.
Art-directed by John Barry and photographed by Dick Bush, the movie is remarkably well-designed and arranged with repeating motifs, evocative and meaningful color choice, hypnotic scoring and intelligent camera movement, use of focus and editing. At times it almost looks and feels like an industrial or educational film (I was reminded a bit of some of the Ray and Charles Eames films).
What might've been simply a cheap, hoary sci-fi/ecological exploitation flick, is instead a thoughtful, unforgiving, at times hallucinogenic study of man and animal behavior. Hopefully the stills here convey something of the film's notions about order, disorder, patterns, textures, language, totems, horizons, intruders...
Bunuel, Dali -- is that you?
