Despite a storied career designing everything from movie title sequences to corporate logos, Saul Bass was only offered the opportunity to direct one feature film. That film,
Phase IV, would appear to be another run-of-the-mill "nature runs amok" type movie, similar to
Empire of the Ants or
Day of the Animals. Even the poster proclaims the film is little more than an outrageous exploitation film about ants killing humans.
Truth of it is, though, that
Phase IV is a slow, methodical science-fiction film not too far removed from
2001: A Space Odyssey. The bulk of the film is shown from the ants perspective and utilizes incredible micro-photography. Not only that, but the film is essentially a master-class in visual design. This shouldn't be surprising, coming from a master like Saul Bass, but during this film's original release it was largely ignored, probably on account of the genre/exploitation look of the advertising (reminds me of the ignorance surrounding the reception of
Battleship....okay, I'll get off the soapbox).
Though the acting throughout the film isn't good by any metric, this seems to be a conscious choice on the part of Bass, drawing an analogy to the faceless conformity of the ants. It really doesn't matter, though, because the real stars of the movie are the ants and the fabulous geometric designs by Bass himself. It's a stunning movie, and the perfect case for completely visual storytelling.
In any event, I present some choice frames from
Phase IV, a film that I think will soon become a distinct part of the 70s sci-fi canon. Criterion, where are you now!?
P.S. : My bad about the poor quality of the stills. They were picked from a YouTube video of the film (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcjBIkS-QC4). I'm anxiously awaiting the blu-ray release....
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