A dog bounding into a river in "No Country for Old Men." Bob Dylan's harmonica wail in the last shot of "I'm Not There." A traveling shot down a suburban street in Vallejo, CA, from the window of a car on July 4, 1969, in "Zodiac." These were among the moments that brought me unexpected waves of euphoria in 2007 -- and, as you can see, they don't necessarily have anything to do with "content." One is shocking and suspenseful (like Hitchcock's famous illustrations of the sudden explosion versus the ticking time bomb, both condensed into a few electrifying seconds). Another is ineffably mournful and joyful at once, like the sound of a whistling freight train that it purposefully invokes. Another is kinetically exciting to watch, but with a poignant, semi-nostalgic mixture of order and chaos that suggests both innocence and ominousness (accompanied by Three Dog Night on the radio singing their hit single, "Easy to Be Hard," from the tribal Aquarian love-rock musical "Hair": "How can people be so heartless / How can people be so cruel?").
View image Mike Parker, Director of Typographic Development for Mergenthaler Linotype USA, 1961-1981
And then there's Mike Parker in Gary Hustwit's "Helvetica." He's sitting in a brick room, next to a window with venetian blinds, in medium close-up, talking to the camera, or someone just next to it. And what emerges is joy, from the soul of an artist. In this clip, he speaks for about 51 seconds. Watch his eyes sparkle as he describes the figure-ground relationship in Helvetica, where the air around a character holds it, so that it lives in "a powerful matrix of surrounding space." (It occurs to me he could be talking about the use of frame space in a Fritz Lang or Stanley Kubrick movie -- in contrast to, say, a Howard Hawks or Robert Altman movie.) Every time I see it, I can feel my eyes widen and the edges of my mouth curl up like the title character at the end of Chuck Jones' "Grinch" cartoon. Euphoria.
All four of the movies mentioned in this post leave me feeling that my relationship with the world around me has been sharpened, re-tuned, re-invigorated. That feeling doesn't hit me all that often, but when it does, I hold onto it for dear life.
(Footnote: I doubt that Mike Parker, despite his successful career in typography, would describe himself as an "artist." But if we accepted as artists only those -- or all those -- who chose to identify themselves as such, we'd be a lot poorer.)
I watched Helvetica thanks to your enthusiasm, and immediately knew it was one of the year's best (it would have been my favorite doc of the year, I think, were it not for the fact that I think Into Great Silence an accomplishment close to the level of 2001: A Space Odyssey). The way it/it's subjects examined words and their oft-invisible role in our daily lives...eye opening, to say the least, but also thrilling and, yes, euphoric.
Other euphoric movie moments from 2007:
- There Will Be Blood, as Day-Lewis carries his son away from the about-to-explode oil well while Greenwood's percussive layering begins to take full force
- Damn near everything in No Country For Old Men (that goes without saying at this point - at this moment, I recall Jones' inquiry about "looking for a man who recently drank milk")
- The elevator flashback scene in Paprika
- Eastern Promises' brutal bathhouse fight
- Jason Schwartzman removing Natalie Portman's boots in Hotel Chevalier
- The staredown in the tool shop at the end of Zodiac (my god!)
- The opening "scene" of Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters, basically the most anarchic upheaval of audience/film expectations I've ever seen, and a brilliant parody of Let's All Go to the Lobby to boot
- Anton Ego revisits his childhood in Ratatouille
- Special mentions to anything involving McLovin' and Spider-Pig
I managed to forget my single favorite shot of the year: the oncoming train at the beginning of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
The ideas keep rolling: As London is firebombed, a statue weeps for the living and the dead in 28 Weeks Later. And the entire television broadcast of 12:08 East of Bucharest.
Okay. I'm done now.
Jim,
I have to thank you for turning me onto Helvetica. I saw it a few weeks ago, and I think it's the best doc of the year and my second favorite film of the year after Colossal Youth.
What Helvetica says to me more than anything is that there is a story everywhere. Every-freaking-where. And it's just waiting for someone to come along and tell it well. It's amazing what people can be passionate about. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised though; on more than once occasion, I've sat in a room with people bitterly debating the proper way to store a comic book.
Other euphoric moments in 2007 cinema: the final shot of "Syndromes and a Century" (the outdoor exercise class) - just when it seems like Joe has sealed up his movie nice and tight, pop, he opens it right back up again and then just ends it.
The opening scene of "Ten Canoes" which proves that men of all cultures love fart jokes.
The final shot of 'Michael Clayton" which gave me so much time to think about the film I realized I liked it a whole lot more than I had realized.
Hair is one of my all time favourite musicals, and my parents took me to see Milos Forman's film version when I was but a wee baby (it's all their fault, guv'nor). Anyway, I, too, found the use of Easy to be Hard chilling, and, I suppose, euphoric, but Zodiac, in general, and the obsessions, in particular, reminded me of another track from the musical: namely, Walking in Space. "How dare they try to end this beauty?" Indeed.
That's a great scene from "Helvetica" Jim...I think my favourite thing about the film is the way with words these people have when discussing their areas of expertise - whether it's all out condemnation of the font or a joyous enthusiasm for elements that most of us laymen would never even notice. The euphoria we receive comes from the passion of these folks for their own work and ideas.
Two other documentaries which provided moments of the year for me:
- In The Shadow Of The Moon: And speaking of people who have a way with words...Every astronaut interviewed beautifully conveyed their thoughts and stories of their time in the Apollo program. But the most euphoric elements were the stunning film taken by the astronauts themselves. In particular one shot taken from their craft as they left the moon - as the ship rises you first see its own shadow shrinking, then the tracks left by their rover and then the remnants of their landing platform. I was fortunate enough to see this on the big screen...Holy crap.
- Audience Of One: Less euphoric than simply jaw dropping...After hitting some "snags" in creating his blockbuster film version of the life of Joseph, Pastor Richard Gazowsky re-establishes his faith with the "8 Arrows Of Truth" which he delivers to his congregation. Each successive one delivers new levels of self-delusion - but it's not a matter of laughing at the guy...You can't help but like him and see him as someone with a big heart and what appears to be an honest calling to the Big Dream. The astoundingly Big Dream...
Actually, Jim: Kubrick was a Futura Extra Bold kinda guy. He used that typeface a lot in his trailers (most notably in Eyes Wide Shut).
Helvetica is a "realist" sans-serif or "neo-grotesque," whereas Futura is a "geometric" sans-serif with a perfect circle for an O. Being Dutch, I'm a sucker for the more Altmanesque "humanist" sans-serifs like the Frutiger, which have slightly more calligraphic line variation--a national specialty, you might say.
I've been a font nut for years (can you tell?), so I'm looking forward to see Helvetica. Let's all pray they won't start a sequel on Comic Sans, though.