Sight and Sound (1997) - The jeweller's eye
Details
- article: The jeweller's eye
- author(s): Pat Kirkham
- journal: Sight and Sound (01/Apr/1997)
- issue: volume 7, issue 4, page 18
- journal ISSN: 0037-4806
- publisher: British Film Institute
- keywords: Alfred Hitchcock, Bernard Herrmann, Design, Designers, Films, Martin Scorsese, Motion pictures, Neil Brand, North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), Saul Bass, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The Trouble with Harry (1955), The Wrong Man (1956), Vertigo (1958)
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Abstract
Kirkham talks about Saul Bass' remarkable credits sequence for Vertigo. Bass created the title sequence for Vertigo just four years after his first cinematic commission. The film credits were the first he did for Alfred Hitchcock, whom he described as one of the "masters" from whom he learned film-making.
Article
Saul Bass created the title sequence for 'Vertigo' just four years after his first cinematic commission - but it was already his seventeenth such sequence. After 'Carmen Jones' for Otto Preminger in 1954, he had risen rapidly in the film world. By 1958, he had done sequences for Billy Wilder's 'The Seven Year Itch' and Michael Anderson's 'Around the World in 80 Days' as well as three more for Preminger: 'The Man with the Golden Arm', 'Saint Joan' and 'Bonjour Tristesse'.
The 'Vertigo' credits were the first he did for Alfred Hitchcock, whom he described as one of the "masters" from whom he learned film-making. Hitchcock used Bass again in 1959 on 'North By Northwest' and in 1960 he was visual consultant for 'Psycho', storyboarding and editing the famous shower sequence. He got along with Hitchcock more easily than most: "He just seemed to like me for some reason. Working with Hitch was always a wonderful experience."
For everything except 'The Man with the Golden Arm', the Bass visuals were produced first and the music composed to fit. "I can't tell you how marvellous it was to see my work for 'Vertigo' for the first time with the Bernard Herrmann score," Bass recalled. Herrmann had scored the three previous Hitchcock films ('The Trouble with Harry', 'The Man Who Knew Too Much' and 'The Wrong Man') taut 'Vertigo' achieves a greater integration of music and image, probably because Bass and Herrmann together condensed the complex film to it...
