JAPANESE GRAPHICS

Japanese graphics have fascinated me ever since I began studying Japanese and Japanese pop culture in college. Although film-related designers tended to rely on studio photographs to promote projects in Japan, the visual quality of kanji, katakana, and hiragana added a fun sense of dynamics. To my eye, there was a connection to collage in the way elements were sometimes arranged. Here are just a few program covers and posters to share with Spy Vibe's today, including some faves like 007, U.N.C.L.E., Diabolik, and Yellow Submarine. Enjoy!  Related posts: Mod Japan, Japan Ads, Tokyo Beat 1964, Nihon Surf, Johnny Sokko & His Flying Robot 50th, Ian Fleming's Japan, Japanese 007 Editions, Japanese UNCLE Editions. In other news, check out my episodes of Cocktail Nation radio as I introduce some of the great spy classics and soundtracks: Episode #1 (Danger Man) and Episode #2 (The 10th Victim), Epsiode #3 (On Her Majesty's Secret Service), Episode #4 (Roger Moore/The Saint), and Episode #5 (The Avengers), Episode #6 (The Prisoner), and Episode #7 (The Ipcress File), Episode #8 (The Man From U.N.C.L.E.). 

Selected Spy Vibe Posts: Spy Vibe Radio 8, Interview: Ryan Heshka, Mid-Century Modern Schulz, Agent Werewolf, Mata Hair Exhibit, Johnny Sokko 50th, Interview: Trina Robbins, Eddie Izzard, The Prisoner Capt Scarlet 50th, Hugh Hefner R.I.P., Jack Good R.I.P., Interview: Shaken Not Stirred, Callan 50th, Spy Vibe Radio 7, The Prisoner 50th Event, Spy-Fi Event, Kaho Aso 007, Two Million, Bo Diddley, Carnaby Pop, Le Carre Events, Billy Bragg Skiffle, Elvis 68, Jack Kirby The Prisoner, Casino Royale Concert, Review: The Prisoner Vol 2, Interview: The Prisoner Essential Guide, Maud Russell Mottisfont, Spy Vibe Radio 4, Batman Gallants, Adam West R.I.P., Village Triangle, Roger Moore R.I.P., Spy Vibe Radio 3, Sgt Pepper 50th, Satanik Kriminal OST, 60s Overdrive, Make Love in London, Spy Vibe Radio 2, Spy Vibe Radio 1, James Bond Strips, Propaganda Mabuse, Interview: Police Surgeon, XTC Avengers, 1966 Pep Spies, Batman Book Interview, Exclusive Fleming Interview, Avengers Comic Strips, Robert Vaughn RIP, UNCLE Fashions, Thunderbirds Are Pop!, Interview: Spy Film Guide, Lost Avengers Found, The Callan File, Mission Impossible 50th, Green Hornet 50th, Star Trek 50th, Portmeirion Photography 1, Filming the Prisoner, Gaiman McGinnins Project, Ian Fleming Grave, Revolver at 50, Karen Romanko Interview, Mod Tales 2, Umbrella Man: Patrick Macnee, New Beatles Film, The Curious Camera, Esterel Fashion 1966, Exclusive Ian Ogilvy Interview, 007 Tribute Covers, The Phantom Avon novels return, Ian Fleming Festival, Argoman Design, Sylvia Anderson R.I.P., Ken Adam R.I.P., George Martin R.I.P., The New Avengers Comics, The Phantom at 80, 007 Manga, Avengerworld Book, Diana Rigg Auto Show, The Prisoner Audio Drama Review.

EDITH HEAD

Google paid tribute today to costume designer, Edith Head, who was born on this day on 1897. Celebrated for her long film career and immortalized in Pixar's Incredibles, Spy Vibers will be familiar with many of her classic designs from these movies: Wings (1927), Beau Geste (1939), Road to Singapore (1940), Holiday Inn (1942), Road to Morocco (1942), Double Indemnity (1944), Road to Utopia (1946), Sorry Young Number 1948), Sunset Blvd. (1950), My Favorite Spy (1951), War of the Worlds (1953), Roman Holiday (1953), Rear Window (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Funny Face (1957), Vertigo (1958), Blue Hawaii (1961), Last of the Secret Agents? (1966), The Swinger (1966), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Topaz (1969), The Sting (1973), Great Waldo Pepper (1975), Man Who Would Be King (1975). Continues below.

With 35 Oscar nominations (and 8 awards), she is the most celebrated costume designer in Hollywood history. Ms. Head was famous for being photographed in thick glasses, which were in fact blue lenses to help her see how colors would photograph in black and white. In the TV clip below, she talks about working with Audrey Hepburn on Roman Holiday. Stills below are some of her designs for Alfred Hitchcock, including outfits for her friend and favorite leading lady, Grace Kelly. 

Recent Spy Vibe posts: Steranko S.H.I.E.L.D. Artist Editions, David Tennant's Ian Fleming audio books, The Prisoner & Captain Scarlet, HMV returns to Oxford st w Beatles promo, Diego Fortunato & Verner Panton,  Saturday Morning Cartoons, Assassination Bureau on DVD, new Young Bond series,  Peter Asher, Gerry Marsden tour, Elio Petri on Blu-ray, Sophia Loren, new Beatles BBC album, new Hercule Poirot novel, Beatles fall 2013 releases, A Hard Days Night cinematographer dies, Magic Christian on Blu-ray, Early Beatles image archive, Julie Newmar, Erno Goldfinger, Hitchcock tribute.

Recent Ian Fleming posts on Spy Vibe: Erno Goldfinger, Ian Fleming Music Series links: Noel Coward, Whispering Jack Smith, Hawaiian Guitar, Joe Fingers Carr, new Ian Fleming Catalog, Jon Gilbert interview, Double 007 Designs, Bond audio book reissues, discovery of one of Ian Fleming's WWII Commandos, James Bond book covers, Ian Fleming's Playboy interview for Kindle, Spy Vibe's discovery of a rare Ian Fleming serialization, rare View to a Kill, Fleming's Royal gold typewriter, Ian Fleming's memorial address

007 LIMITED EDITION PRINTS

My fellow COBRAS blog, Illustrated 007, has posted many amazing images from the world of James Bond. Its archives are like a virtual museum of Bond art and artists. Today our man Peter at the blog alerted us to the special news that illustrator, Robert McGinnis has a series of limited edition signed prints for sale. McGinnis is perhaps most well-known among Spy Vibers for his poster illustrations for the 007 film, Thunderball (1965), as well as poster art for Barbarella (1968) and Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). If you ever fantasized about having signed classic 007 images by the master himself, now is your chance.


There are a few Thunderball-related illustrations and more to explore. Each 17x23 print from the Hollywood Edition is around $210. Collectors who order two or more prints receive an additional sketch print by McGinnis that shows some of his process. From what Peter has shown from his collection, I can say that these are very beautiful illustrations that evoke iconic, 1960s Spy Vibe elements of secret agents, seduction, fashion, and mystery/adventure thrills. Did I mention spy girls with spear guns? Alert for younger readers: illustrations do contain nudity. Details about the Robert McGinnis Hollywood Edition here.

CRITERION BLU-RAY

The Criterion Collection announced their next wave of Blu-ray editions today! There are a number of distribution companies that I have followed and dealt with as a film programmer over the years. Ever since the laser disc days, Criterion has consistently succeeded in their mission to be "dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements." Although Criterion recently lost their rights to a number of classic films, they still hold most of the key cards in the deck with films by Truffaut, Kurosawa, Bergman, Ozu, Suzuki, Powell, and Fellini. The September release schedule includes some fantastic titles that I think Spy Vibers will want to see:


Spy Vibe's TOP pick in this batch, Stanley Donen's Charade (1963). People often describe this as one of the best Hitchcock films Hitch never made. An amazing cast includes Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, and James Coburn. The film has wonderful wit, fashion, and even a great Spy Vibe scene 1 with a luger "assassination" atop a ski resort. Spy Vibe looked briefly at writer Peter Stone and Donen's Charade, Arabesque (1966), and Stone's Mirage (1965) here. Criterion: In this deliciously dark comedic thriller, a trio of crooks relentlessly pursue a young American, played by Audrey Hepburn, outfitted in gorgeous Givenchy, through Paris in an attempt to recover the fortune her dead husband stole from them. The only person she can trust is a suave, mysterious stranger, played by Cary Grant. Director Stanley Donen goes splendidly Hitchcockian for Charade, a glittering emblem of sixties style and macabre wit.


Godard's feature debut, Breathless (1960), is a stylistic and seminal film from the French New Wave that features a jazzy score and cool, jump-cut editing. Criterion: There was before Breathless, and there was after Breathless. Jean-Luc Godard burst onto the film scene in 1960 with this jazzy, free-form, and sexy homage to the American film genres that inspired him as a writer for Cahiers du cinéma. With its lack of polish, surplus of attitude, anything-goes crime narrative, and effervescent young stars Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, Breathless helped launch the French New Wave and ensured that cinema would never be the same.


There are just some movies that I have been waiting for for years. Oshima's Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983), was one of my faves during the 1980s (along with Diva). Ryuichi (YMO) Sakamoto's score is one of the best soundtracks of all time. When I lived in Japan I bought a rare, solo piano version he released and it remains one of my favorite recordings ever (and you know I'm a music guy). Heads up to Bowie fans: Criterion's editions of The Man Who Fell To Earth are about to go out of print! Also on the OOP list is John Schlesinger's classic Billy Liar (1963). Criterion: In this captivating, exhilaratingly skewed World War II drama from Nagisa Oshima, David Bowie regally embodies the character Celliers, a high-ranking British officer interned by the Japanese as a POW. Music star Ryuichi Sakamoto (who also composed this film’s hypnotic score) plays the camp commander, who becomes obsessed with the mysterious blond major, while Tom Conti is British lieutenant colonel Mr. Lawrence, who tries to bridge the emotional and language divides between his captors and fellow prisoners. Also featuring actor-director Takeshi Kitano in his first dramatic role, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is a multi layered, brutal, at times erotic tale of culture clash that was one of Oshima’s greatest successes.


It's also worth mentioning that another beautiful film with an outstanding soundtrack, Camu's Black Orpheus (1959), will be released this august on Blu-ray. The score by Jobim and Bonfa helped to launch the bossa nova scene that still echoes today. Bossa nova is the sound of Tokyo in the summer! Criterion: Winner of both the Academy Award for best foreign-language film and the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or, Marcel Camus’ Black Orpheus (Orfeu negro) brings the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to the twentieth-century madness of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro.

Your Criterion Picks?
As Spy Vibers, what films do you think deserve the Criterion treatment? Thanks to David at Permission to Kill, I think I'd have to put one of the Shaw Brothers movies on that list. Stylish and hilarious! Which films would you like to see given special treatment with a Hi-def transfer and historical supplements?