I know. This blog has not been frequently updated but I swear I’m constantly trying to gather some ideas. It was not what I’d promised to the foreign visitors of my main blog and I’m really ashamed about that. The fact is that it is much more easy to do cultural reviews (like I do on seteventos.org) but it is hard to get good ideas to write a more “blogish” post – but I’m trying hard.
That said I can come to the subject of the post itself. I have talked before about ending scenes and closing titles on movies, pointing some similarities between the ending sequences of two different movies. Now it is time to talk about title sequences, which vary from straight and simple compositions to very elaborate and complex ones, sometimes even being designed by specialized artists. That’s why in some cases they not only present the movie itself but give us hints about its creator. But instead of discussing today the most stylish title sequences, like the ones Saul Bass designed to Hitchcock films, I’ve thought it was better to start with the ones made by a director for his own movies: Lars Von Trier. The title sequences of his most celebrated movies follow some kind of pattern: they are usually very short, they bring the film’s title and the director’s name, sometimes showing both things at the same time, and they are directly followed by the movie itself – there is no casting or crew listing on them.
Let’s have a look at the title sequences from “Europa”, “Breaking The Waves”, “The Idiots”, “Dancer in the Dark” and Von Trier’s latest release, “Antichrist”, on a video I have made with them.
First thing to note is that “Europa” is itself an exception among the others: the title is in fact presented in the end of the movie, which makes it more a closing title sequence. Other than that, it reflects the pattern of two other movies, “Breaking The Waves” and “Dancer In The Dark”, showing both the director’s name and the film title at the same time. But since in “Europa” the highlight is given to the movie title and in “Breaking the Waves” and also in “Dancer in the Dark” is the director’s name which receives much more attention, they also show an interesting opposition in style.
Among all of the danish director movie titles, these latter ones are the most aesthetically standardized: both of them show the director’s name in bold long letters serving as a background for the movie title, which is shown in considerably smaller tipography over its background. Since the director’s name is the first thing to be noticed, it is not that difficult to find these title sequences as clear examples of Lars Von Trier’s trademarked egocentrism.
Before going on, we must give a bit more attention to the title sequence of Von Trier’s 2000 film. Unfortunately, I was unable to get the original theatrical title sequence from “Dancer in the Dark”, which was made of Björk’s “Overture” played over a blank screen. When the movie was released on DVD, the movie’s studio suggested to the director to make another one to avoid it to be mistakenly identified by viewer’s as a technical problem, so Von Trier filled it with abstract images, which is exactly the one featured on the video above. I think that both versions give to the audience a sense of the visual problems of Björk’s character, but the original one has much more impact on the audience’s feelings.
The less standardized titles here are from “The Idiots” and “Antichrist”. The first one is simply a shot of the film’s title written with white chalk on a wooden floor and is preceded by a “Dogma 95″ certification – which, as you see on the title sequence itself, is really applied to its full extent. The other brings the director and the title separately, handwritten and completely surrounded by dark and chaotic scribbles, which is undoubtedly signalling the insane and dangerous experience the main characters of the movie face.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a video with the title sequences from “Dogville” and “Manderlay”, which share the same visual style. So, instead of leaving them behind, let’s at least have a look of them on these screen captures
As you see, they are more like a “viewer discretion advised” notice than a title sequence. As to their style, they seem to give a subtle sense of nostalgia, which would not be at all a misunderstanding, since the films’ history are set on the first half of the 20th century.
As Lars Von Trier’s movies, these title sequences can reveal even more than what we see at first sight, nonetheless the meanings which were here underlined are enough to proof enough that they are more than simply an informative signal.
