Celebrate Saul Bass’ Birthday With Some of His Best Title Sequences

Graphic designer and filmmaker Saul Bass was born on this day in 1920 and died in 1996. It’s hard to think of a designer whose impact has been so profound of the art of motion pictures. In the ’50s his modern design style lent itself well to the design of movie posters. Director Otto Preminger was so impressed with the young man that he asked him to take a stab at creating animated graphics for his films CARMEN JONES and later THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM.

Bass’ acclaim spread widely and soon Alfred Hitchcock hired him to create sequences for several iconic films. His VERTIGO sequence is perhaps his best work to date.

 

Here, for John Frankenheimer’s eerie SECONDS, Bass stretches and morphs faces in keeping with the film’s plastic surgery-based plot.

 

He also made title sequences that relied more on live action and clever cuts rather than animated graphical elements. Here are a couple of the best of those.

 

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