Christian Annyas, the online curator of all things typographic in cinema, “The Movie Still Collection,” is publishing a series of blog posts about the typography of French director Jean-Luc Godard, who recently turned 80. “I’m not a fan of his movies. They’re historically significant because he broke all the rules in the book, but I just don’t enjoy watching them,” explains Annyas.
“What I do like though, is the typography he used in the title sequences and intertitles of his movies. I found a few videos that are hardly watchable and some still, but not enough to get insight in the evolution of Godard’s typography.” After some serious downloading Annyas now has all typography-containing stills from 16 of his films (300+ images). And what he plans to do is publish 16 individual blogposts containing one single film and and an article to accompany each: watch here.
In the meantime, here is a sample from Annyas as a holiday offering (merci beaucoups!):
À bout de souffle (1960) / Une femme est une femme (1961) / Vivre sa vie (1962) / Les carabiniers (1963) / Le mépris (1963) / Alphaville (1965) / Pierrot le fou (1965) / Made in U.S.A (1966) / 2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle (1967) / Week end (1967) / Tout va bien (1972) / Sauve qui peut (la vie) (1980)
Also, In honor of Godard’s birthday, Atelier Carvalho Bernau released a typeface (bottom top) inspired by some of his title sequences, here.
About Steven Heller
Steven Heller is the co-chair of the SVA MFA Designer /Designer as Author + Entrepreneur program, writes frequently for Wired and Design Observer. He is also the author of over 170 books on design and visual culture. He received the 1999 AIGA Medal and is the 2011 recipient of the Smithsonian National Design Award.View all posts by Steven Heller →