In the classic tradition of mid-century-modern films about crimes and cons gone horribly wrong, the poster for the Coen brothers’ Burn After Reading recalls the stark silhouettes and blocky font of Saul Bass — paper-doll cutouts isolated under jagged lettering, like a ransom note chiseled out of the primary colors of primal urges.¬† The bold matte flatness of tempera paint applied with a wide bristle brush has the graphic urgency of comic book noir.¬† The Coens have an affection for comedic caper films, and an affinity for screwing the screwball elements so tight that the threads strip. But this time instead of a tribute to the Ealing tradition of The Ladykillers, Lavender Hill Mob, and Hitchcock’s Trouble With Harry, the poster seems to indicate the Coen’s are jumping ahead a few years to the jazzier intrigues of Topkapi, Arabesque, and — dare we hope? — North by Northwest. I think we’d better dare not, because if those titles carry an air of sophistication and glamor, Burn After Reading turns to much lower depths. It’s populated by burn-out bureaucrats, shady grifters, and cocky bunglers. And that’s where I expect the the tone of the next Coen film to land squarely — smack in the crosshairs of the double-cross crossroads of The Big Lebowski and Stanley Donen’s Charade.
The nod to Saul Bass is unmistakable and has already been remarked upon, notably by Alexander Coleman at LiC. While there’s a strong reference to his creations for Otto Preminger, it’s not nearly as blatant as the infamous Clockers¬†homage to Anatomy of a Murder. Instead, the current Coen poster seems to me to be a direct quote from the Saul Bass poster for Vertigo. The same chunky “Hitchcock” font was used again as recently as last year’s Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. The font has the gritty grafitti urban edginess of tension and suspense that manages to evoke an entire era of off-kilter pyschological thrillers.
All this speculation and deconstruction stems from me trying to guess what sort of stylistic tone we can expect from Burn After Reading, and while the trailer probably gives us better clues about that than this poster, we can at least feel fairly hopeful that we might have a Saul Bass-inspired credit sequence in store for us come September. (Check out the other posters mentioned here for comparison, collected for your convenience after the cut.)
