Watch the Titles Exhibition @ MU

January 15th – February 28th 2010
Opening Friday January 15th at 8 pm

With effect from January 15th, MU and Submarine Channel will be spotlighting the phenomenon of film titles. Title sequences can be engaging, funny, exhilarating – or simply drop-dead beautiful. Some ooze visual poetry and sophisticated imagery, while others hit you hard with their bold and audacious style.

A good film-title sequence means a great deal more than just the cast, the film crew and the title. Not only do they succeed in putting the audience in the right mood for the movie, but also transcend their proper function and venture off into the realms of something far deeper and far greater. They are the signifiers of contemporary pop culture and an art form in their own right.

Designing film-title sequences is therefore a fascinating interdisciplinary sector in which film, animation and graphic design come together. However, the designers usually remain anonymous. But there are exceptions. For Steven Spielberg’s ‘Catch Me If You Can’, for example, the French duo Kuntzel & Deygas conceived a sensational opening sequence, in which they even managed to incorporate their own names. And Saul Bass, Kyle Cooper and Pablo Ferro are also heroes in film-buff circles.

As early as 2006, SubmarineChannel, the platform for digital image culture based in Amsterdam, launched the website watchthetitles.com. This site has been set up to compile the most interesting film-title sequences and to highlight designers. Reason enough for MU to join forces with SubmarineChannel in order to create this exhibition.

As well as the exhibition, which brings together more than 30 very different and more or less well-known creative film titles, MU and Submarine Channel will also present a special evening programme on Friday, February 26th. During this programme, a number of film-title designers will discuss their specialization and sources of inspiration. Everything it takes to make us forget about the film, if only for a moment. But most of all, to make sure that we will never watch titles in the same way again.