I recently went to see Quentin Tarantino’s lastest addition to his collection, Inglourios Basterds ( UK released Aug 21st 2009). The film is set in World War Two, in Nazi occupied France and takes the form of a comic revenge fantasy. Though yes, Tarantino is a world class director renowned for such films as Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. His films are not exactly to my taste, that is to say I wouldn’t choose to watch them on a rainy Sunday afternoon…I’m much more a Bridget Jones Diary kind of girl. Tarantino however does truly interest me in the way he combines design and cinematography. One of the first directors to really consider the sound track as adding to the film rather than being simply background music.
What really interested me in Inglourious Basterds was the typography, the opening sequence is really clever, using different typography to represent the actors in Brad Pitts “Basterds”, typography reminiscent of the American deep south, where Pitt’s character is from and those who were playing Germans, are given a far more Germanic type face. Another effective use of typography in the film is a shot scanning a room full of famous erman Soldiers ( Hitler, Goering etc. Type appears beneath them in a scratchy handwritten type giving the audience a clear idea of who important is in this room. The typography doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of the film and would seem more suited to a film such a Juno. This however is another way the Tarantino instils comedy into this film, by undermining characters with out of place typography, a very subtle and clever trick.
What really interested me in Inglourious Basterds was the typography, the opening sequence is really clever, using different typography to represent the actors in Brad Pitts “Basterds”, typography reminiscent of the American deep south, where Pitt’s character is from and those who were playing Germans, are given a far more Germanic type face. Another effective use of typography in the film is a shot scanning a room full of famous erman Soldiers ( Hitler, Goering etc. Type appears beneath them in a scratchy handwritten type giving the audience a clear idea of who important is in this room. The typography doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of the film and would seem more suited to a film such a Juno. This however is another way the Tarantino instils comedy into this film, by undermining characters with out of place typography, a very subtle and clever trick.
The typography was very strange and out of place, but the best use of it was at the very beginning where inglorious basterds is scribbled because that is the scrawl of the front page of tarrantino's script which I think is a nice touch!
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