I should say that this shouldn't be limited to titling. For example, The Royal Tenenbaums is a typographically superb movie. All of the type in the movie -- all the signage, street numbers, taxi cab graphics, etc. is set in Futura black. Only designers would notice the consistency. It's brilliant.

Saul Bass titles.......

ggrrrrrrr. talk about sexy. I love Psycho.

Also,

even though it is very minimalistic and simple, I have always liked The Talented Mr. Ripely title sequence.

Yes! Ripley is another fave from Cooper. Ties together the improvisation of jazz with the the improvisory disguises that Matt Damon's character adopts. And there's one part where the type changes and morphs through a series of typefaces and styles to become the movie title. Just masterful.

I also saw a Kyle Cooper lecture at Boston University a few years back. Actually only Kim Fong showed, creative director and partner at IF. Apparently Kyle missed his flight or something. He was shooting his first film in Chicago at the time. Boy I wish their site was as cool as their titles.

While in Boston I also attended a wonderful lecture by David Peters, a designer and strategist at MetaDesign in San Francisco. He did a research project called "For Openers: The Art of Film Titles. The lecture was held over two nights, Titles Then and Titles Now. I scanned the PDF with all the movies he finds worthy. Download it here. This is the project's site.

The most *disappointing* one I can remember is Pulp Fiction; the red on black was fine but they typeface (Benguiat?) was cheesy, just a missed opportunity. The Dick Dale song over the credits was the most exciting thing about the movie, too.

Yes! Ripley is another fave from Cooper.

I bought the DVD for the titles. The fact that the movie was also great was a bonus.

>Only designers would notice the consistency.

Yeah, Royal Tennenbaums is really interesting the way it uses Futura so persistently... until some point near the end when some other typefaces start to pop up. I was trying to figure out if it signified anything about the story or if I was reading way too much into it.

Another only-designers-get-it title... does anybody remember the very first ads for the first Matrix movie? Guess what font they were using for the titles?

Love the Matrix movies, but the titles...ech...doesn't do anything for me. Kinda beats people over the head with Matrix "technology". Thinks of all the stuff the title could've been a metaphor/foreshadow for.

Oh I just thought of another good titling movie sequence -- Band of Brothers. It wasn't tricked out, but it was beautiful and skilled typography nonetheless.

At the risk of being accused of name dropping -- which I'm NOT -- I have a related Saul Bass story. I heard him speak at a conference, and he was describing the process he went through to shoot the titles for Cape Fear, the 90's remake with DeNiro. He and his daughter set up and shot the sequence using his home bathtub. They darkened the water with dye and shot all of the pieces for the composite there.

Reminds me of a discussion in January.

Although the movie itself was a total failure, "Panic Room" had amazing opening credits. All those words floating in the air above the streets of New York. I haven't a clue who did them.

I love Psycho.

Me too.

For the Gus van Sant remake (1998?) someone redid the Bass titles, with Danny Elfmann re-recording the Bernard Hermann original score. Anyone know anything about who did it? I would think that would be fun to do (imitation — perfection = style?).

Recently saw Stop Making Sense again: loved Pablo Ferro's titles for that.

>Reminds me of a discussion in January.

I knew this sounded familiar.

It's not a movie title sequence but I think Digital Kitchen did a superb job with their intro for HBO's wonderful Six Feet Under.

The titles for Panic Room were done by The Picture Mill. You can see the whole Panic Room title on their site.

There is an interesting article on the making of the title here.

There is a nice overview and screenshots of Pablo Ferro's work here on Adobe's site. Dr Strangelove was the first title that he ever made, talk about starting with a bang.

There is more movie title stuff here. From now on, Speak Up authors will need to memorize all previous postings. Like a London cabbie knows all the streets.

> Reminds me of a discussion in January.

Figures. Oh well, deja vu.

Panic Room's titling was definitely inspired by North by Northwest. But I guess I wasn't as impressed with PR , cause it had little to do with the movie.

Anyone know if Pable Ferro did Men in Black? The type in MiB is identical to Strangelove.

> Six Feet Under

Freaking brilliant. Digital Kitchen's my Seattle homeys you know -- so is the print type logos for Matrix and Talented Mr. Ripley, all products of Seattle's Tim Girvin Design.

Now if I can just get some of that work myself...

> From now on, Speak Up authors will need to memorize all previous postings.

We should just rename the site "Ditto."

Anyone know if Pable Ferro did Men in Black?

I believe Imaginary Forces did the first Men in Black title, Ferro did the sequel.

Ferro also did the title for the remake of Pyscho.

>We should just rename the site "Ditto."

Or "Use the search button to look for older posts." Just fucking with you man. It's nice to rekindle old topics, as there are new readers, and obvioulsy, new movies.

>Anyone know if Pable Ferro did Men in Black?

Yup, he did. Pretty similar to Strangelove, but still much better than most. For the ultimate Pablo Ferro experience visit his shrin... I mean site. By far, one of the best opening title designers.

No need to go again into Catch me if you can. It's strange to have titles who everybody likes... who's going to be the hero and say he/she didn't like them?

I mentioned a small, little, crappy independent movie in the recommended section. Tape, I couldn't bear to watch more than 10 minutes of the stupid movie but the opening sequence was... let's say the embodiment of finesse. How �bout that?

I kind of liked sphere's opening titles but it seemed too much like the "spherize" filter in photoshop. Did anybody ever see this shit? This was back in 1981, and it's the first opening titles I can remember, I think it combined animation with real footage. And please oh please watch this on RealPlayer (condorman.)

I think my favorite has to be the title for Desperate Measures. Not sure who did it. It does have some in common with Catch Me If You Can - Which I loved as well.

What about chick flick classic, You've got email opening titles by Mirk Ilic? I know... not the greatest, but they did recreate all of manhattan in 3d, that alone is credit enough.

I just think its interesting how Stanley Kubrick always said that opening credits were the biggest waste of money when it came to movies. Interesting that Dr. Strangelove actually has a sequence for titles in it, I don't think he ever did it again. Love the way he started his films: just started them. Like The Shining, with the aerial shot of the car. Or even Eyes Wide Shut, which I didn't enjoy quite as much as his others, had a strong opening.

fun fact relative to Bass / Psycho:

He (Bass) claims to have shot the opening shower scene as well as designing the title credits. Hitchcock claimed otherwise...

Looking at the strong design, I'm siding with Bass on this one.

How about Spiderman? anybody like the opening sequence? I thought it was great.

i'm a big fan of the Alien 4 (Winona) titles. haunting.

i agree with most of the above with the exception that i've always felt that the six feet under credits looked like Dave McKean's work from 1992.

there's an amazing confidence and simplicity to titles in the films of jean-luc godard -- eps. "my life to live". all he does is present last names: bellmondo, karina, godard, legrand, ponti, etc.

godard trusted his audience to know who was who and who did what -- with no layers of lawyers, studio marketing departments or egos to neurotically spell things out.

and for everyone raised on tom hanks films:

jean-paul belmondo - actor

anna karina - actress

jean-luc godard - director

michel legrand - music

carlo ponti - producer

it took me 20 years to appreciate godard's films, and 20 to better appreciate fellini. better late than never...

ditto on the six feet under opening credits

One of my favorite opening credits is "Traffic". I like the use of the transparent color bars and the placement of the type (mostly in the corners).

I loved Condorman when I was kid :), and yeah I also though the SpiderMan intro was pretty cool for a recent hollywood blockbuster.

Ugh. Sorry, but I hate the Spiderman titling. I think the idea of the type dropping like spiders is cool, but the overtly shiny-looking computer generated web and graphics just sucks.

Kyle Cooper admitted that it wasn't one of his favorites for that reason.

> Just fucking with you man.

hey, don't fuck with the Straw Man now.

>Ugh. Sorry, but I hate the Spiderman titling.

I didn't like them very much either, too inconsistent. I can't remember where I read or saw this, but it was a different concept by IF of the opening titles and they were sweeeeet. Maybe it was the trailer... no... shit, I'm getting old.

Another IF classic is Arlington Heights (is that the right name?) the one with Tim Robbins being all freaky and terroristy, that one had pretty cool titles.

What about all the old James Bond movies? With all the saucy-semi-naked women doing pirouettes and blowing the smoke off guns. Even though all of them seemed to be exactly the same, they were kind of cool to watch. And the theme song kicks absolute ass.

Arlington Heights

I was JUST looking at that on the IF site. I remember really liking them when I saw the movie. The titles just felt like IF.

Arlington Heights

I also meant to say that the movie is called Arlington Road, not Heights. Early Alzheimer's is setting in for Armin. :-)

For Spiderman, Cooper originally pitched a much darker intro -- realistic, freaky webs, furry spider legs, gooey bugs being eaten. But the movie producers were afraid the kiddies would get freaked out. Too bad.

Arlington Road was the movie. Cooper's story was that he walked around a California suburb with a handheld digital camcorder and just film pieces that he later composited together.

Some other good IF titles

- Island of Dr. Moreau

- Mission Impossible

- Mimic (really good intro)

- Donnie Brasco (a very different, but great intro)

- Spawn

- Blade (btw, IF actually produced and made Blade II the movie)

- The Mummy series

and for TV, they did:

- The Practice

- Homicide

- and of course, ER

> crappy independent movie in the recommended section. Tape,

yes, I saw the intro to Tape. Great titles, banal movie. Another good intro/bad indie: Short Stories (not the Altman Short Cuts). A good movie out on DVD right now: Weight of Water -- beautiful titles.

It's shocking how low-tech some of the great titles are made.

Yeah, the nudies in the Bond intros -- gotta love em. Don't remember who did Goldfinger, etc. but I'm pretty sure it wasn't Saul Bass.

Goldfinger

I think it was Robert Brownjohn.

Back to Bradley's comment about Kubrick.

I can see why he feels that way. A good titling sequence is kind of like a prologue. It has forshadowing, sets up a tone and mood, etc. And Kubrick was such a control freak that I'm sure he didn't like anything fucking with the pacing and tone of his movies.

Btw, in Eyes Wide Shut, does anyone know the significance of all of the multi-colored xmas trees? Anyone know what I'm referring to? I was too busy looking at Nicole Kidman to analyze the movie's deeper meaning.

Tan:

this from Harper's Magazine, "Compared with the everyday reality of sex and emotion, our fantasies of gratification are, yes, pompous and solemn in the extreme. That is why the film's recurrent motif is of the Christmas tree. For desire is like Christmas: it always promises more than it delivers."

Merry Christmas Ms. Kidman.

Thank you Eric!

So a xmas tree is like sex. This should make "erecting" the tree this coming year interesting.

Kubrick was a genius.

Everyone is forgetting a great IF title sequence - Sphere. All the different sea creatures, the sea monster illustrations and the glass lense effect over words. One of their best in my opinion.

>One of their best in my opinion.

The Avengers too.

I'm going to dissent on Panic Room. While it sure was pretty, it related, well, not at all to the rest of the movie, which would be a cardinal sin of design if I were in charge of such things. Further, there's a good idea at the beginning of the credits, where you can see the next credit slightly concealed around a corner. If this telegraphing were followed through with the rest of the credits, that would have been great. I think it still would have been completely inappropriate for the movie, but at least there would be something clever to appreciate about it.

Se7en is my favorite for the continuity of design. The typography shares a specific unidentifiable link to the music, the tone, the comming events of the movie, the weather in the movie, etc.

I am always knocked out when I see seemingly unrelated individual elements come together to make something that seems so natural together, when the sum is greater than it's parts.

> Dave -- I'm going to dissent on Panic Room. While it sure was pretty, it related, well, not at all to the rest of the movie,

No dissent needed here bro -- we're on the same page. I know what you mean. What the hell did large type on buildings have to do with being trapped with your asthmatic daughter in a closet while burglars were in your house? Nada.

> I wrote: Panic Room's titling was definitely inspired by North by Northwest. But I guess I wasn't as impressed with PR , cause it had little to do with the movie.

And I didn't mention Sphere cause I didn't think it was that great. Seemed a little too photoshop filter to me. A better water motif title -- though different in look -- is the titles from the remake Cape Fear, courtesy of Saul Bass.

In defense of Panic Room, the opening of the movie was about an affluent single woman looking for housing.

i thought it was entirely appropriate and established setting in a way that was different than most new york city shots.

>And I didn't mention Sphere cause I didn't think it was that great. Seemed a little too photoshop filter to me.

Darn it! I said that yesterday... jeez.... I kind of liked sphere's opening titles but it seemed too much like the "spherize" filter in photoshop.

>Panic Room

Yummylicious eye candy that put the Picture Mill on the map. What else can you ask for?

> What else can you ask for?

how 'bout some relevance? Come'on, the damn thing is set with Copperplate too. What can possiby be good about that?

> Darn it! I said that yesterday.

...and I should care, why? Hey I'm just agreein with the Vit here. But if you need my acknowledgement to feel better, then eat it up bro.

My favorite movie titles: The Dead Zone and Time Bandits, each making great use of holes that relate organically to the movie the title sequence introduces.

I also have a soft spot for the Peignot used in Get Shorty, simply because the animated type, in its pastel Miami-influenced colors, goes so well with the rich, bouncy music that sets the tone for the rest of the movie. I remember thinking the first time I saw the credits, Now, this is a movie I'm gonna love. And I still love it.

>Hey I'm just agreein with the Vit here. But if you need my acknowledgement to feel better, then eat it up bro.

You are right, I should not have messed with the Straw Man. (BTW, this is my first poste using OSX... damn antialising, this looks too smooth.)

oooo...OSX

I feel for you like I would a heroin addict going turkey. First comes the shakes, then comes the rage, then you pass out.

It's like someone going in to your house, and putting your clothes in the kitchen, and the pots and pans in the bathroom. It took me a couple of weeks to acclimate, and a month to get good at it again.

I just saw 'My Man Godfry' for the first time last night. it has great titling. really inventive and pretty cutting edge for the 30s.

Another IF film title is "Mimic." I think. I remember that being pretty interesting. Movie sucked though. The "Kiss the Spider" intro was pretty cool too if I remember correctly.

We can't forget about the titles for "The Jackal"--I think Tomato did them. It was the only reason to see the film. The movie itself was a tragedy, and an insult to the masterful original, "The Day of the Jackal," but the titles were tremendous.

I saw the French film '8 Women' recently, and it had a lovely title treatment - the credit for each actress was accompanied by closeups of a flower that represented the character they played. Gorgeous.

Somewhat related:

Original trailers for "Blow" and "Snatch" ... (I'm actually serious about this) I'm not sure who did them but they were very cool. They made sitting through "All the pretty horses" much better. (It needed a lot of help... unless you are one of the five other people that saw it then you know.)

I agree Brent -- Snatch has very cool graphics. The look of Snatch influenced lots of design for a period there.

Just some advice and warning -- I just tried to find the intro and graphics to Snatch. And it most definitely is NOT www.snatch.com.

The porn popups crashed my machine....as Pete Townshend said, "It was only for research purposes..." You guys are proof.

Now we see why Tan ignored the past discussion and started this thread in the first place! It was all a meticulously planned pretext for PORN! And poor, unsuspecting Brent played right into your hands (so to speak.)

For shame!

My porn name is "Ram Doubler"

> Matt: I saw the French film '8 Women' recently, and it had a lovely title treatment

Matt -- you owe me $3.94 for a DVD rental.

Over the weekend, remembering your suggestion, I picked up "8 Women" at the video store cause everything else was rented out.

The titling was awful. Scripty (Zapf Chancery I think), horribly kerned, lavender-colored type layered illegibly on top of detailed shots of a chandelier and flowers. What was supposed to be good about that?

And on top of that, the movie was pretentious and forgettable. It was, oh...je ne sais pas.... merde.

Je suis desolé, mon amis -- avoid "8 Women".

>My porn name is "Ram Doubler"

I'll go under "Bullet Point"

I'll go under "Bullet Point"

Mine's "The Golden Section."

Bezier's Curves Productions presents:

"Firewire"

starring:

Ram Doubler and Bullet Point

with special appearance by:

The Golden Section

To take this digression even farther afield, I watched an interesting (if not great) movie this weelend called Full Frontal (dir. Stephen Soderburg) where the Porn Name meme figured prominently. In the movie's case, you derive your porn name by combining your middle name (or the name of your first pet) with the name of the street you grew up on.

The titles were nothing special, but the movie is a worthy rent for the non-traditional storytelling style.

>Full Frontal

Yeah, I saw that movie recently and was trying to remember what the deal was with the porn name. I have no middle name, my first cat's name is pretty weird and the street I was born in has no meaning in English, so I'll give two versions, the first one is the original and the second one is the most recent version:

1. Rusta Acacias (I told you)

2. Obi Glenwood

I prefer Bullet Point.

maurice binder-goldfinger and billion dollar brain particuarly. fantastic voyage-very nice, minimal but good sound (70-80% of any moving image work). matt helm movies. of course everything bass did even including 'phase iv'. barbarella. robert brownjohn-projected type-what else do you need? charade. opening sequences-once upon a time in the west and the ipcress file. film as form, shape, texture in movement, relationships. department s/randall and hopkirk/avengers for t.v. early doctor who, too. no decent title sequences since oooooh fargo and there was a bloody big gap between that and the previous good one (i should imagine somewhere around the mid/late-seventies-lets say 'the spy who loved me' for arguments sake). dying art, much like film posters and music. don't start me on 'catch me if you can'. pony. i forgot 'persona'; beautiful. woody allen's ones. 'do the right thing'-oh-late eighties. so one good one roughly every 10 ish years at the mo.

jaws parish. oh.

Thanks Graham -- though I had to look up my Brit--American dictionary to understand what the hell you were talking about.

Yes, big gap in the 80s. Good movies, but no good titles. Don't remember anything notable except a Bass title here and there (Cape Fear, Age of Innocence).

jaws parish. (did I use that correctly?)

jaws parish is my porn name. me old china.

hi,

does someone know who did the 'catch me if you can' intro's ?

mat

Hey Mathieu, here is all the info you need about those titles. Enjoy!

Hey!

Does anyone know which typeface was used for SE7EN on the movie poster. You know it's in the Helvetica-Homage to a typeface book, but it's definetely not helvetica (one of the 7 hidden non-helvetica's in the book).

YEP. To Kill a Mockingbird, Dir: Robert Mulligan, 1962

these are a few of my other fav's...

The Man with the Golden Arm, Dir: Otto Preminger, 1955

Dr. No, Dir: Terence Young, 1962

Goldfinger, Guy Hamilton, 1964

The Pink Panther, Dir: Blake Edwards, 1964

Bonnie & Clyde, Dir: Arthur Penn, 1967

Bullitt, Dir: Peter Yates, 1968

Delicatessen, Dir: Marc Caro & Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1991

God I just saw the Hulk this past weekend. Horrible everything. The best thing I can say about it is that it almost didn't suck as bad as I heard it did. Ang Lee owes me $9.

Are there any good mainstream movies this summer? Let alone movie titling. Finding Nemo doesn't count. I'm afraid to go to T3.

What the hell has happened to the industry lately?

tan: i personally loved the italian job ... but then again it may just be for my obsession with mini coopers.

i honestly can't think of anything noteworthy other than italian job and finding nemo. i did hear that 28 Days Later was pretty good, if not really really really graphically violent. haven't seen it yet so i can't say for sure.

i think now is the time to watch trailers.

thanks Priya. The Italian Job is on my list -- might try it this weekend w/ your recommendation.

I love Coopers too. I know four designers who have them. It's such a cool design accessory. I want a red one with a white roof and a Union Jack on top. What the hell, might as well with a car like that.

i personally loved the italian job

An editor friend of mine at McCann hated it. Hmmm... It may be an editor thing. Mini do rock.

I'm afraid to go to T3.

Not as bad as I thought it would be Tan, it was rather entertaining. Wait, then there was the end...

Anybody doing the Netflix thing? I have 183 freakin' movies in my queue.

I second the Italian Job rec. It's got action, humor, and a wicked cast. Mos Def is great.

Anybody doing the Netflix thing?

I am, Kiran. Saw AutoFocus last night (Greg Kinnear in a Bob Crane biopic): not great, but not bad. Pretty tasty titles, too.

Netflix is absolutely the best. Plus, I think now you can have up to eight movies at a time. I do end up watching more crap than usual because it's so easy.

And I haven't watched anything this summer, it stinks.

Many of Almdovar's films have great titling. I can't remember which ones, so you'll have to see them all (you should anyway).

Has anyone seen Delicatessen? It's the only movie I can think of where I enjoyed the titling more than the movie itself—very cool.

Has anyone seen Delicatessen?

I've heard of it, but have yet to see it.

Currently I'm on a Todd Solondz tear with Happiness, Storytelling, and Welcome to the Dollhouse.

Check out the Fresh Air interview with him. Bizarre.

>Has anyone seen Delicatessen?

The movie itslelf was great. I saw it a long time ago. I remember toads, snails, midgets of some sort, a big-bossomed old lady (?), beds squeaking and it was very darkly lit. Sounds good doesn't it? I don't remember the opening titles though.

Happiness, was good, too much masturbation though. Seymour-Hoffman is one of the best actors today. Storytelling sucked. Welcome to the dollhouse was amazing.

> Storytelling sucked.

I second that. The whole thing was awkward and uncomfortable with no payoff at the end.

Happiness was just ok to me.

>awkward and uncomfortable

Hahahaha, very uncomfortable.

So no one knows the font used in Se7en?

Heidi, if it's the second poster from the top on this page, it looks like Helvetica to me. The difference in the Es would indicate it's distressed special for the occasion, was originally the Big H.

Are there any good mainstream movies this summer? Let alone movie titling. Finding Nemo doesn't count. I'm afraid to go to T3.

I liked X2 (the movie, not the titling). And 28 Days Later is in multiplexes; does that make it mainstream? I liked it pretty well, in any event.

I saw "Swimming Pool" yesterday. It's OK.

"28 Days" is trying something new in the mainstream film market - an alternate ending. I have yet to see the film.

How pathetic is this?

Did anybody see the 25th hour? I just rented it this past weekend and I 'm a huge Spike Lee fan but... what about that "fuck New York" monologue by Norton???? Only Spike can get away with so many racial slurs in so little time.

Hey Sam> Thanks for your response.

The Es could be distressed special for the occasion, but what about the number 7 itself (it's completely straight, while the Helvetica 7 has a slight curve)???

Freddy vs. Jason = horrible. My 15 year-old Swiss cousin suckered me into it. Ugh.

Armin, the "fuck you" monologue was part of the book. I read some article that said Spike Lee wanted to leave it out, but the author insisted it stay... or actually I think it was the other way around.

Why is it that so many crappy movies have decent titles? D-Kitchen did "A Guy Thing". I remember the "How to Lose a Guy" titles being pretty clever... whoever did them made it like the titles were coming from fashion magazines. I'm too tired to describe it properly. I guess part of the answer is that they need to dress these movies in their Sunday best so they sell better. Disclaimer: RENT THESE MOVIES AT YOUR OWN RISK.

>D-Kitchen did "A Guy Thing"

I didn't know that. I rented it a couple of weekends back and loved the titles. Turned off the movie after 15 minutes though. Even though Jason Lee is one of the funniest men alive. He should stick to independent movies.

I finally saw Vanilla Sky on cable yesterday. I know it's been out forever, but for some reason, I just hadn't seen it.

The titles were nice, and I really loved the movie. Cameron Crowe does a nice homage to Kubrick -- though he does explain everything to the audience at the end. Kubrick wouldn't have. And it had Penelope Cruz, which is reason enough to see it.

Tom Cruise gets a bad rap because he's...well...because he's Tom Cruise. But I consistently enjoy his movies. Minority Report was great. Eyes Wide Shut was great. Vanilla Sky. I could do without Jerry Macguire and Far and Away though.

Anyway, rent Vanilla Sky if you haven't seen it. Great movie.

Does anybody know what font was used for the credits in pulp fiction, or any Quentin Tarantino

movie? I'm dying to know.

Of all the nicknames you can choose from, you go with Crap Face?

My recommendation is to take this image to the Typophile type identification forums and ask there. They are professionals.

Any one know the typeface used for Bullitt posters?

Hey - Just in case anyone is interested: a 'review' of the Saul Bass Exhibition at the Design Museum in London...

Does someone know the name of the font used in Six Feet Under opening (the names of the actors' one)? Thank you in advance! Mickey

>the font used in Six Feet Under opening

I'm fairly sure that it's Mrs.Eaves small caps.

If anyone has info/reseach on motion title design: Saul Bass etc let me know.

Well Jan, for more Saul Bass titles, just read this thread from the beginning. There are numerous references to his work, his peers' work, and subsequent work that his work influenced.

Another good thread was Big Screen Type, which has this interesting link to even more movie titling work.

That should be plenty to start with...

Well, after a couple of posts to the "Territorial Terror" thread I need to lighten up. MOVIES, YES! One of my favorite subjects. When it comes to titles, I'm afraid I go for the cheese as well as the high design stuff... some faves, in no particular order:

From Russia With Love

(the simplest and most unashamedly voyeuristic of the Bond titles... type projected on the undulating body of belly dancer... course you know where they put the double-O)

The Thing

(the 1950s original... creepy menace music over expressionistic type burning like embers through a black background... still gives me goosebumps)

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

(fantastic montage of tinted high-contrast pics with wooden wild west fonts, crazy gunfire and that theme music you just can't get tired of... can you?)

Once Upon a Time in the West

(another Leone film, with a title sequence in minimalist contrast to the pop opera of The GoodBadUgly: tiny threads of type racing quietly across the frame while a bunch of bored outlaws sit around a train station swatting flies)

Vertigo

(My favorite Saul Bass....of the moment)

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

(Huh? Just a great animated prologue)

Mimic

(makes me itch)

As you can tell, I need to get out there to a real theater and away from my DVD player...

PS

In The Cut

(nice titles, visually gorgeous movie, with a uniquely dark take on NYC...though I had serious problems with the script... I loved the inspired use of the Poetry in Motion subway posters as cryptic messages... I'd love to have whoever designed the cinematic versions to take over the real ones... what an opportunity for good DESIGN in Motion to go with the POETRY. )