By Design: The Joe Caroff Story

Joe Caroff is going to turn 102 in a month or two, but that's not why he got a documentary about him. Caroff designs images: the striking red and black poster for WEST SIDE STORY, the '007' that becomes a gun for the franchise, the skyscraper typeface for Woody Allen's MANHATTAN, and many, many more.

In contrast to the auteur theory of cinema, I have long insisted it is an intensively collaborative medium. This documentary casts light on a small but important corner of it: the fellow who designs the posters and logos and such, whose work gives you your very first impression of what you will spend money for. By offering a series of them, you can gain an idea of the importance of the man's work.

All that is good, but that's the the limit of the excellence of this movie. Like an old-time Tin Pan Alley composer on tour, saying "And then I wrote...." and playing the next tune, Caroff has some brief, unilluminating thoughts on the subject, and then goes on to the next bit of design. He's a a guy I want to know more about, how his mind works, how he comes up with these ideas, how I can do it too. In the end, like a SF writer asked where he gets his ideas from, and replying "Schenectady", Caroff's response is "the subconscious."