Helvetica Review
Well, I'm out the door to another documentary. No time to stay and chat, but I wanted to post a review of the first Hot Docs screening I saw last night - Helvetica. True to my prediction, it was honestly the most entertaining film I've ever seen about a font. Take that Times New Roman!
Helvetica(UK 2007, directed by Gary Hustwit)
Who knew a documentary about a popular font would be so engaging? Everyone from artists and designers to average web users will find something fascinating in director Gary Hustwit’s first film. From the early history of the font, to Helvetica’s eventual dominance, the documentary confidently follows its narrow lead to expand on the bigger picture. After I saw the film I spent the rest of the evening playing a game of “spot the font”. There was Helvetica in all its round, approachable blandness directing me to the subway, or telling me about how to save on my phone bill, or where to put my garbage. Helvetica is all around us, and like a secret conspiracy uncovered, awareness of it changes the way you see the world.
The strength of the film lies in the passion of the type designers who praise or abhor the ubiquitous font. The men and women interviewed are very entertaining in a geeky eccentric sort of way. Some love the clean even strokes of Helvetica because it is the perfect representation of post WWII modern design. As one designer notes, it was a delicious cold drink of water after the arid dessert of 1950’s multi-font cornball visuals. Other just as impassioned designers scorn the use of Helvetica by big corporations and governments because its neutrality makes even dangerous messages palatable to the mass population. One woman puts it simply that when she started designing, Helvetica was the font of the government and therefore the font of the Vietnam war. It’s hard not to get a bit of a shiver after hearing these arguments and seeing The Gap, for instance, selling us “love” (written in Helvetica of course) with our jeans. Helvetica is the safe, familiar voice advertisers, government agencies and individual people use when they want everyone to listen.
Montages of busy city streets, clothing, IRS tax forms and everything in between really drives home the use of Helvetica in how we interpret the words we read. In general Hustwit keeps the pace brisk but some interviews go on a bit too long, and the history lesson on how Helvetica developed slows into a lecture. Excellent use of abstract rock music plays well with the images, and the cinematography owes a debt to the clean, high definition compositions of Luke Geissbuhler. The wider implications of Helvetica, and all fonts, is left for the viewer to contemplate after the credits end and we go back into the modern cluttered landscape. Helvetica remains after fifty years the most popular, accepted and utilised medium of written communication. If the medium is the message what does Helvetica say about us?
4 out of 5
Labels: documentary, Hot Docs, reviews
posted by Cassandra @ 5:21 PM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
A great review!
I can tell that you really paid attention to the interviews, and enjoyed the documentary.
I agree that there was a lot of product placement in this documentary. It's no secret that Gary is a mac zealot, and his bias towards Apple and the whole "Apple and graphic design were meant to be" atmosphere is hard not to notice in this film.
The documentary was certainly entertaining, but I felt that the trailers and clips on the official website were too much preview of the film. Take out the scenes we can see on the website, and there isn't that much more new content to see in the theatre. Overall, I enjoyed watching it - It was a beautiful day too! :)
Soooooo nice out. Makes waiting in line for hot docs so much nicer.
Nice review Cassandra. For me, the film was captivating. I felt a distinct chill when Hoffman's son cracked open the an ancient folder to show the first trials of the Helvetica typeface, and from that moment on the techie geek in me was hooked.
It still wasn't perfect, though. On Saturday, the director stayed around for some Q+A and some of his answers were telling. It was a first film, and he set out to make a movie that he wanted to see, and you could tell he REALLY wanted it to be stylish, smart, funny, and cool. As a result though, you can see in the film there is too much polish in some areas, too much effort trying to impress you, and not enough soul or flow. Gary (the director) did come off like a very nice guy though, and I'm eager to see what he comes up with next.
Regarding the Mac issue, I wonder if there's any disclosure on the movie's website as to whether Apple paid them anything for product placement. I know they do that for fictional movies. While I do believe that all those designers really used Macs, with documentatries, you can still make editting decisions to give that more emphasis.
One more thing I wanted to point out ... the interviews with the designers were crackling with humour and personality. My favorite was that guy showing the difference between Coke ads in the 50's and 60's, "It's the real thing - PERIOD. Coke - PERIOD. Any questions? OF COURSE NOT".
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