The Birds

A great re-watchable for a rainy afternoon, Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. Some films offer something new to notice with every sitting. I tend to watch this and There Will be Blood annually, both catastrophe stories of a sort and both set the tone from the start masterfully. The Birds title sequence designed by James S.Pollack always gets me - it’s a triumph; monochromatic birds darting manically in and out of frame, fractured typography, and a score of flutters - it’s all a bit ominous and wonderfully unsettling. The start of There Will be Blood is equally good - the first 10 minutes in particular (I could happily re-watch the whole film time and time again) as It’s mostly silent apart from the noise of tools, rocks, earth, and the relentless toil of getting oil out of the ground. It’s a symphony really, and settles you into the pace and tone of what’s to come. Well worth a revisit. For all you cinephiles @artofthetitle is something of a joy. Really thoughtfully researched and well presented, it documents and celebrates this slightly overlooked area of design.