This one-sheet for the Coen Bros' Burn After Reading, is clear unabashed homage to the late Saul Bass whose print and title design blurred art and advertising for nearly 50 years.The quintessential Bass composite resembled an improvisational bravery to fuck status quo. Auteurs heavy in vision constraint gave free reign to Saul. His credit construction for Hitchock, Wilder, Kubrick and Scorsese is so effulgent, they demand isolation. A style prelude before the feature kicks in. More bang for audience buck.
Equally boss, Saul's print opus stood unique in guileless cool. One-sheets for Vertigo, The Man with the Golden Arm, Anatomy of a Murder, West Side Story, clued minimal but painted precise actualization upon leaving the theater.
For Burn After Reading, a skeleton like cast crawl leads to an absurd, black stand-off. It's casual wink enticing comparison to past Coen play. The bros have perfected a deft balance between real human emotion, macabre style, and lunacy. The red band trailer leans more O Brother than No Country.
Fun to think how Saul Bass might have interrupted their Fargo or Blood Simple. I imagine the lucid high of stoner style from Lebowski would be Saul legendary.
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