| At MoMA during last night's special screening of the film "Helvetica" directed by Gary Hustwit (with brilliant camera work by Luke Geissbuhler, the DP for "Borat"), design curator Paola Antonelli introduced the evening with the following challenge: "Maybe 'Helvetica' will be the next 'My Architect.'" It certainly succeeds in explaining designers' obsessions with type and typography - the tension between modernism and post-modernism - and the reasons to love and hate Helvetica. But after everything is said and done, is the film compelling enough - is there enough drama, pathos, bathos, and mythos - to make the public to embrace it as they've done films devoted to spelling bees and crossword puzzles? Or is this just one more piece of arcana that designers devour, but leaves the world indifferent? I think Hustwit's film stands a good chance. WHAT ABOUT YOU? |