Home
| Search
| Now Playing
| News
| My Movies
| Games
| Boards
| Help
| US Movie Showtimes
| Top 250
| Register
| Recommendations
| Widgets
RSS
| Box Office
| Index
| Trailers
| Jobs
|
IMDbPro.com - Free Trial
| IMDb Resume
Copyright © 1990-2009
IMDb.com, Inc.
Terms and Privacy Policy under which this service is provided to you.
An 
company.
Advertise on IMDb.
License our content.
Own the rights?
Buy it at Amazon Rent it at blockbuster.comDiscuss in Boards More at IMDb Pro Add to My Movies Update Data
Quicklinks
Top Links
trailers and videosfull cast and crewtriviaofficial sitesmemorable quotesOverview
main detailscombined detailsfull cast and crewcompany creditstv scheduleAwards & Reviews
user commentsexternal reviewsnewsgroup reviewsawardsuser ratingsparents guiderecommendationsmessage boardPlot & Quotes
plot summaryplot synopsisplot keywordsAmazon.com summarymemorable quotesFun Stuff
triviagoofssoundtrack listingcrazy creditsalternate versionsmovie connectionsFAQOther Info
merchandising linksbox office/businessrelease datesfilming locationstechnical specslaserdisc detailsDVD detailsliterature listingsNewsDeskPromotional
taglines trailers and videos posters photo galleryExternal Links
showtimesofficial sitesmiscellaneousphotographssound clipsvideo clipsIMDb user comments for
Helvetica (2007) More at IMDbPro »
37 out of 39 people found the following comment useful :-
A Highly Unusual and Insightful Documentary, 17 March 2007
Author: JustCuriosity from Austin, TX
Helvetica screened this week at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX where it was very well-received. In a million years it would never have occurred to me to do a documentary on a type font. The film makers somehow came up with the idea of doing a cultural history of the Helvetica font which has become the almost universal default modern font over the past 50 years. Fonts are almost like the air we breathe. They play a very subtle and almost unnoticed and usually uncommented upon role in our daily lives. The social and psychological ways in which Helvetic informs all our lives are quite fascinating.
Helvetica is a humorous film that combines a series of interview clips with a variety of often rather quirky graphic font designers with shot of various street signs and corporate logos. The film provides a great deal of insight into the role of the Helvetica font in shaping Western culture. Helvetica is both entertaining and informative in that it provides great insight into a ubiquitous aspect of modernity about which most of us are completely oblivious. I hope that many people get the opportunity to see this unusual and insightful film, because it opens a fascinating window for better understanding our society. Since versions of Helvetica are also the default font on most computers, many of us type in Helvetica constantly without even realizing it.
As I walked home from the film, I couldn't help noticing that many of the street signs in Austin appeared to be in Helvetica.
18 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
"Helvetica" a Typography Tour de Force, 12 May 2007
Author: cornpoppy from United States
I saw this film last night at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the company of hundreds of budding graphic designers, new media specialists, and fans of typography. I found it utterly engaging. It wasn't just a film about a font. It was a clever device used to weave a story around graphic design, the importance of typography in the craft, and the passionate opinions on design in general elicited from this stellar cast of über creative professionals.
I feel that this film has a broad appeal beyond typography aficionados, which is admittedly a small tribe. The passion behind the ideals expressed by the graphic designers is undeniable and infectious.
The film was beautifully put together. The effect of showing the ubiquitous use of this font in cities around the world, with people walking by, buses, taxis, and cars whizzing past, etc. all set to a totally perfect music was wonderful. These vignettes provided transitions between interviews with world renowned designers.
You might have trouble finding a screening of this film but if you see it coming to a theater or film festival near you don't miss it!!
15 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
Excellent Film on Design, 29 July 2007
Author: Oliver E. from New Zealand
Helvetica is a beautifully created documentary about the Helvetica font. Now you might think this is a dry and boring subject (as I did before I saw the film) but it is in fact a fascinating tale of design and it's implications.
I think this is a film for anyone who wants to know what design is all about. Never mind that it's based on the font it is a statement on design in general too.
The interviewed people are all extremely interesting and succeed in conveying their passions and convictions. The video work is convincing too and shows very well how common and you might say oversaturated the world is with Helvetica.
This Film WILL change how you see writing. It teaches how to look for the font and it's influence in writing and advertising.
Great film, definitely a must watch.
Oliver
10 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Inspiring, 10 October 2007
Author: J. Stephen from America
It's easy to ask "what's inspiring about a movie about a typeface?" and not expect an answer. I was fascinated by this movie. As an aspiring writer/director I found it very inspiring to see this film and realize that you really can make a movie about anything as long as you make it good. You can make any subject interesting on film, which is exactly what this one successfully does. The people interviewed with graphic design backgrounds are extremely entertaining to listen to, and are even frequently hilarious in what they have to say about design. The visual style is also very catchy and well composed, which isn't something I would've expected from the DP of Borat. I recommend this to anyone who is a doc-lover, film lover, or is skeptical of the movie.
3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Watch and learn what our fonts say about us, 18 September 2008
Author: barbheninger from United States
This movie is brilliant. It's a documentary about the creation of the Helvetica font, sure. But it's also: a musing on the history of modern graphic design. A diatribe (by some) about a font seen as style-killingly ubiquitous. A visit to favorite graphic designs of years past. A reflection about what our fonts say about us.
If you are a graphic designer, you'll love it. If you live with a graphic designer, you'll shake your head and say, "Yup" in recognition. If you don't pay any attention to graphic design, you may think about it just a tiny bit more after seeing this movie. And you will definitely come out of it with SOME opinion about the Helvetica font.
3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Excellent and unusual!!, 19 June 2007
Author: Gil Ramirez from United States
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
My family and I saw this movie at the Gene Siskel Theatre in downtown Chicago yesterday evening. Being the geek I am, when I first heard the title, I was there! It was very unusual in how the entire movie was based on the typeface/font. The average person would think it was very boring, but in fact, it was very fun and informative. It was by far, the most NOT-boring documentary i've ever seen. The movie is is definitely directed towards graphic designers, and found it very inspiring to go into the graphic "business"
Overall, this was an excellent movie!
I would definitely see it again!
6 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Unrepresented Presentation, 26 May 2008
Author: tedg (tedg@FilmsFolded.com) from Virginia Beach
This is surely the best documentary I have seen. I use several metrics in this.
A film is almost without exception a story. A documentary is usually presumed to be a found story, an existing one that the filmmaker merely exposes. We come to the thing expecting some coherent story, already formed, the problem having two threads: Can we trust the filmmaker? Does the story resonate? Often a solid position in one mitigates the other.
But real life — at least the life I know — has no stories that are blunt. Real stories, the ones that weave themselves through the world, are rich, only somewhat visible, immensely intriguing and often educational. I expect to be puzzled. If there are "two sides," I immediately mistrust the teller, because true movement is simply itself.
This film should be celebrated simply because it decides to present a story in its unformed state. We hear from designers young and old, clever and not. Some are geniuses and some see the genius of design and we have no idea which is which. They report profoundly different views on a typeface. Lest we think this is an irrelevant subject, the observations on the typeface are bridged by examples to show how thoroughly it has saturated.
So we are left with the same form as "Ten Tiny Love Stories," perspectives that surround the notion and instead of pulling out the answer, illuminated the mystery. The simple fact is that this is a powerful, mysterious force that makes us do things. The comparison of font design and romance is not misplaced: both somehow relate to the bricks of stories we use in constructing a life — or for some of us a fort to protect from life.
So I can recommend this to you. I recommend seeing it with your partner, your real partner. And then sit with them quietly and reflect on the nature of clarity and knowing.
I can criticize this though. There is much that could easily have been said that wasn't.
Its usually presumed that spoken language is quite old and written language a relatively modern technology compromised to make it persist. In this context, type design is merely a matter of style, a choice.
But there is evidence that spoken language predates modern humans and evolved over time through collaborative toolmaking, most particularly weaving and stonechipping. Acts of hands. Shapes -- physical form, with symmetries. Spoken language in this history is itself an adaptation, and written language perhaps closer to the core of how we think. In this history, shapes matter. The process of creating form in story — all manner of form — matters. The story is how the story is shaped.
We bump against this intuitively. It was why the Macintosh was a giant step forward in the 80's, because storytellers could for the first time be storyshapers (publishers, in the corporate lexicon). And why Microsoft is such an evil. And why type design elements have become so deeply viral. The original features come from carved inscriptions and independently from monks' pens.
Anyway, from that Mac beginning came a focus on type as never before. And several design journals that struggled with the issues spoken about in this film. Pulling them out of print to put on screen should carry some more weight than we have here. I am hoping that some truly talented filmmaker is inspired by this.
The most edgy but still intelligent design and font design journal from the last decades is "Emigre," which you should peruse if this movie intrigues you. Also you might want to check out Darius, who was behind the first designed font.
My typeface is Vendetta.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
interesting and thought provoking film, 26 February 2009
Author: TheTwistedLiver from Chicago
In a way this film does what a great documentary does, it takes something that is obvious to everyone, something that exists right under our noses, something anyone can understand and relate to and rips it out of the sky to shove it in front of our faces saying "Smell this!" Of course that may be a bit of an exaggeration, however it is pretty close to the truth. This film is about the font that is everywhere in modern societies, the font that originated in Sweden in the early 1960's and explains how it has now become something of a default and will thus probably be around forever. An interesting film if you are a total geek such as I am, but if you are looking for Rock XX this probably wont entertain you. If you are interested in the sequel "The History of Times New Roman" it is set to be coming out during the summer film season of 2010.
1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Type is saying things to us all the time. Typefaces express a mood, an atmosphere. They give words a certain coloring., 26 February 2009
Author: lastliberal from Florida
There was a time when I was editor, publisher, and writer of a small newspaper in Spain. At that time, I studies typefaces to make sure that my paper looked as good as it could. In light of that I was interested in this documentary about the most popular typeface designed.
Helvetica has been around 50 years, and is the "default" type according to Erik Spiekermann, who really gives an exciting discussion of the type.
Many others chime in on the pros and cons of Helvetica. It is a fascinating journey into design. Exploring where we have been and where we are going in even the simple areas of life helps us understand who we are.
3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Simply Brilliant!, 12 January 2008
Author: rei_vilo from France
Helvetica, do you know? Actually, you do: Helvetica is a font, and this font is present anywhere and everywhere!
How to make 80 minutes-long documentary on a font? By combining reports from cities around the world and interviews with designers, this film tells the story of the Helvetica, since its Swiss origins, 50 years ago, to its multiple present uses.
With a perfect sense of rhythm, the film is served by a splendid image. The interviews are brilliant, with a pinch of humour. Also to note, a special mention goes for the music, especially composed for the film and based on the theme "Helvetica".
95 minutes of bonus provide extra details.
In conclusion, simply brilliant!
Add another comment
Related Links