Film credits are usually just a part of the film to be gotten through these days. In fact, most modern movies leave almost all their credits for the long, slow scroll at the film’s conclusion, lest the audience be bored by the lack of creativity. But to Saul Bass, those credits were a true art. “The daubed graffiti credits that open West Side Story, the crumbling statues in Spartacus, the scratchy modernist posters and sleek corporate logos of his later work all carry his measured approach to expressing a story in, as he put it, ‘some metaphorical way’. That approach is the subject of an extensive exhibition which opens [this weekend] at London’s Design Museum.”
Tag: 07.17.04
The Strads Are Coming, The Strads Are Coming… uh, Never Mind…
Ontario’s fledgling Stratford Summer Music Festival thought it had scored a coup when it signed up the Axelrod String Quartet to bring its matched set of Strads loaned by the Smithsonian. But then the deal came apart…
John: America’s Endangered Free Speech
Elton John warns that free speech is endangered in the US. “The singer likened the current ‘fear factor’ to McCarthyism in the 1950s. ‘There was a moment about a year ago when you couldn’t say a word about anything in this country for fear of your career being shot down by people saying you are un-American’.”
The New Improved La Scala
La Scala plans to reopen its newly-refurbished opera house this fall. “During our first year we shall give 185 performances. That is a lot when you consider the high quality of each work that we present and the number of rehearsals. With the technical possibilities that we now have we shall increase quantity while maintaining quality. Our new stage machinery is the most modern in the world. Until last year we needed hours or one or two days to shift scenery. Now it can be done immediately. You just push a button and it is done.”