Helvetica

Gary Hustwit's Helvetica (2007) is a documentary dedicated to the worlds favourite font Helvetica. The films charts the typefaces Swiss origins in the 1950s to its rise in fame becoming brand type number on in contemporary society. It is fascinating to see just how popular the font is as Hustwit seemingly points the camera at any populated city street and inadvertently points out a sign or brand name constructed with Helvetica.

Such sequences are fascinating and the images themselves are constructed very nicely and seamlessly with a great use of the horizontal lines which makes the city scape shots look very poetic especially with the original score by Kristian Dunn. Hustwit also interviews several typeface creators and graphic designers to tell why they love or indeed hate the font.

I have been thinking about interview style and uses a lot recently, the short doc I made recently did rely heavily on the "talking head" interview and it has led me to think about other more creative ways that this can be portrayed. The director wants the information from the participant but as the viewer I think we want to see it happen not be told it by a framed and prepared professional. This is defiantly where this film is lacking. All the participants are very similar and even once the polarised opinions of love it or hate it have been voiced then there is little else for to say. This unfortunately leads to the framed professionals getting a little stale towards the end.

The film rightly features on a top 50 films of the last decade list that I have been working through, and is a fascinating insight into what many would see as a mundane element of our everyday lives.