Maurice Binder

[Bobj]

I know he was American but he designed the titles for many a British movie, most notably the Bond films.
Can anyone recommend a book or a website with more information about the great man? (other than imdb.com)

[smudge]

He appears in several Bond reference tomes, but some of the best sources would probably be the old JB British fan club mags - or a web search for his obits. Steven Jay Rubin's THE COMPLETE JAMES BOND MOVIE ENCYCLOPAEDIA gives him a decent write up.

SMUDGE

[Bobj]

Cheers Smudge.

[Stephen Pickard]

(Bobj @ Jan 27 2006, 06:06 PM) I know he was American but he designed the titles for many a British movie, most notably the Bond films. Can anyone recommend a book or a website with more information about the great man? (other than imdb.com)

I met Maurice Binder on several occasions, a very nice man. He looked just like Otto Preminger! It must have been OHMSS when I first met him during post production at Pinewood. The last time I saw him was when I was working on "The Shining". He designed one of the teaser trailers. One of them was the blood coming out of the elevator, the other which I think Maurice did had, from what I recall, as a backdrop what looked like crumpled silver foil. I don't know if it was ever seen. In December, 1979 I brought over from England to Metrocolor Lab in Culver City the separate picture elements. Stanley Kubrick wanted them to go by hand and I was offered a free trip if I volunteered to take them.
I think this was the only production that both Maurice Binder and Saul Bass worked on though not necessarily at the same time. Bass designed the well known poster art with the distorted face. I didn't meet Bass on "The Shining" although I did meet and work with him on his film called "Phase Four".

[theuofc]

(Stephen Pickard @ Mar 28 2006, 11:53 PM) I met Maurice Binder on several occasions, a very nice man. He looked just like Otto Preminger! It must have been OHMSS when I first met him during post production at Pinewood. The last time I saw him was when I was working on "The Shining". He designed one of the teaser trailers. One of them was the blood coming out of the elevator, the other which I think Maurice did had, from what I recall, as a backdrop what looked like crumpled silver foil. I don't know if it was ever seen. In December, 1979 I brought over from England to Metrocolor Lab in Culver City the separate picture elements. Stanley Kubrick wanted them to go by hand and I was offered a free trip if I volunteered to take them. I think this was the only production that both Maurice Binder and Saul Bass worked on though not necessarily at the same time. Bass designed the well known poster art with the distorted face. I didn't meet Bass on "The Shining" although I did meet and work with him on his film called "Phase Four".

Fascinating! Thanks so much for sharing these film memories, particularly interesting your paid trip to bring the picture elements over for Kubrick.

Barbara

[Bobj]

Hear hear Barbara.
Thanks Stephen for sharing your experience.

[Stephen Pickard]

(Bobj @ Mar 31 2006, 05:09 PM) Hear hear Barbara. Thanks Stephen for sharing your experience.

Thankyou both for your kind words. As long as people enjoy reading them I will continue to search my brain for more interesting memories!

[Guybrush Threepwood]

'Maurice Binder' seems to be like some collossus striding across the Cinema landscape..

As ever though, the truth is somewhat different. What's the quote? "If I have seen farther than other men it's because I have stood on the shoulders of giants"?

The following picture and text is taken from The Guardian newspaper 2005 The highlighting is mine



Snapshot: Goldfinger title sequence


The blonde is Margaret Nolan, a forgotten 1960s starlet. The man in silhouette is Robert Brownjohn, one of the most innovative, expensive and downright difficult art directors of the 60s. Nolan is being filmed for the title sequence of Goldfinger (1964), the third James Bond film. She was painted gold from head to toe and images from the film were projected on to her body, creating a hallucinogenic effect that was ahead of its time. Brownjohn had succeeded in turning a title sequence - generally an afterthought - into high art. Had he not died in 1970 from a heart attack aged 44, he would have received greater credit for his innovation.
Robert "Bj" Brownjohn had already made a name for himself as a designer in 1950s New York when he arrived in London in 1960. He claimed that he came over for the city's creative energy. His girlfriend, the super-chic fashion designer Kiki Byrne, remembers it differently. "You could get heroin on the National Health back then," says Byrne. "And Bj did have a problem. But he was also terribly gifted, so he quickly established himself as one of the key figures during a very special period in history."

Brownjohn was at the heart of swinging London when he got the call from Albert "Cubby" Broccoli to design the title sequences for From Russia With Love and Goldfinger. Having been given £850 for the first film, he demanded £5,000 for the second, a huge amount at the time. "We quoted £5,000 and it cost £5,000," remembers his assistant Trevor Bond. "You never made a profit on Bj." Byrne designed the bikini for Nolan.

Goldfinger was to prove a high point in Brownjohn's career. In 1968 he designed the sleeve for the Rolling Stones' album Let It Bleed, an unhappy experience that he illustrated by featuring a smashed wedding cake on the back cover. By this time, heavy drinking and drug use had taken over at the expense of output. He broke up with Byrne the following year, and soon he was living alone in a basement bedsit. But once, as his friend and fellow designer Alan Fletcher remembers, "Bj was the right man, in the right job, in the right place."

So we have proof that Broccoli asked Brownjohn to design the titles..and we have proof that Brownjohn filmed them himself...and we know how he came by his hallucinogenic visions...we even know who designed the bikini...what was it Binder was supposed to have done again?


Threep.

p.s. Robert Brownjohn was given a retrospective exhibition at the Design Museum last year and a book of his work "Robert Brownjohn: Sex and Typography" by Emily King - published by Laurence King was published last October.

p.p.s. funny, you know, but don't seem to have seen Binders name mentioned at all, not once.....

[smudge]

Interesting feature Threep.

Wonder who's forgotten Maggie N - I certainly haven't.

But now this deserves a follow up piece on why Brownjohn never did any more 007s...

I have to agree that BJ has certainly been overlooked with the passage of time. His work was distinctive, but it is surely inarguable that Binder set the house style for the subsequent James Bond pictures and was quite an artist in his own right.

SMUDGE

[Guybrush Threepwood]

Ah...Maggie Nolan.....The only reason I went and saw the only "Carry - On" movie I ever paid to see....those were days eh?

Brownjohn was probably either too "out of it" or too expensive to carry his visionary work forward, my own feeling is that Binder *how can I put this?* "borrowed" Brownjohns extaordinary style, visuals, and ideas.. I think Binders output was influenced GREATLY by Brownjohn....(let's put it that way)

Interestingly, Brownjohn turned up a few years later, on the other side of the lens, in 'Otley' In later years when Binder was interviewed about, or introduced as "the man who made those famous opening credits for Goldfinger, Thunderball, etc...." he never said.."Ah well....actually Goldfinger wasn't me....."

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to look at that picture of Ms Nolan some more....


Threep