Saul Bass: Anatomy of Film Design

Academy Film Scholar Jan-Christopher Horak will give a presentation on his forthcoming book Saul Bass: Anatomy of Film Design, examining the career of one of the most accomplished designers in Hollywood history. Best known for his title sequences for such films as Anatomy of a Murder, Psycho and Good Fellas, Saul Bass also worked in advertising, designed posters, and directed numerous documentary and live action short films, including the Oscar-winning "Why Man Creates.” Horak’s book delves into Bass’s influences, his design aesthetic, and how his ability to infuse his work with high art modernism raised the sophistication of Hollywood films and advertising.

Jan-Christopher Horak has been Director of UCLA Film & Television Archive and Professor for Critical Studies since 2007.  He is the author of numerous books on film including Film and Photo in the 1920s (1979), Anti-Nazi-Films Made by German Jewish Refugees in Hollywood (1985), The Dream Merchants: Making and Selling Films in Hollywood's Golden Age (1989), and Making Images Move: Photographers and Avant-Garde Cinema (1997).  He was named an Academy Film Scholar in 2006.

This is the eleventh in a series of lectures spotlighting recipients of the Academy Film Scholars grant. Established in 1999, the Academy Film Scholars program is designed to stimulate and support the creation of new and significant works of film scholarship about aesthetic, cultural, educational, historical, theoretical or scientific aspects of theatrical motion pictures.