Pablo - Jeff Bridges

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

directed by Richard Goldgewicht
USA 2012

To paraphrase a news anchor in an archival interview excerpted in this documentary: Who is Pablo Ferro? You might not recognize the name, but you've definitely seen his work. A Cuban immigrant, Pablo Ferro developed an interest in art at an early age, his work would soon mark sea changes in the worlds of television advertising and movie trailer design and editing (starting with Stanley Kubrick's DR. STRANGELOVE); soon joining Saul Bass and Maurice Binder as one of the most influential motion picture title designers. This affectionate documentary - interstitially narrated by actor Jeff Bridges - tracks the professional life of Ferro from his first job in a movie theater (where he first gained recognition designing graphics for the outside that eclipsed the ad mats supplied for most of the movies it was showing) to his work at Marvel Comics (with commentary from Stan Lee) and in television commercials to his first trailer for Kubrick's aforementioned DR. STRANGELOVE (which led to Kubrick keeping him on to design the film's title sequence and subsequently A CLOCKWORK ORANGE). Also explored is the major influence of innovations in editing on the Steve McQueen vehicles THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR and BULLITT as well as his collaborations with director Hal Ashby (BEING THERE). Also explored is his turbulent personal life with input from his ex-wife, his son and daughter - as well as his ex-girlfriends and a number of Hollywood personalities who may not have collaborated with him professionally but were fixtures at his happening parties in his East Village "Neverneverland" of a loft/studio - including his creative slump following his shooting by a still unknown assailant, his devotion to terminally ill Ashby, and his reunion with his family (and his bittersweet current circumstances working from son's garage surrounded by his grandchildren, and more interested in drumming up work to raise funds for a personal sauna because of his ongoing health issues from the shooting).

Eric Cotenas

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Theatrical Release: 21 June 2013 (Taiwan)

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DVD Review: Breaking Glass Pictures - Region 1 - NTSC

Big thanks to Eric Cotenas for the Review!

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Breaking Glass Pictures Region 1 - NTSC
Runtime	1:30:33
Video	1.78:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 6.37 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo
Subtitles	English (CC), none
Features	Release Information: Studio: Breaking Glass Pictures Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 1.78:1 Edition Details: • Audio Commentary by director Richard Goldgewicht and producer Jeremy Goldscheider • 'Who is Pablo Ferro?' promo (16:9; 2:06) • 'Jee Pablo' Preview (16:9; 8:44) • Final Animation Test (16:9; 1:00) • Pablo Ferro's Original Art for 'Pablo' (16:9; 0:21) • Brief Lesson in the History of Trailers (16:9; 1:54) • Brief Lesson in the History of René Magritte (16:9; 1:06) • Animated Trailer (16:9; 1:29) • Trailer (16:9; 2:26) • Photo Gallery • Trailers for 'Unhung Hero' and 'Undressing Israel' DVD Release Date: November 5th, 2013 Amaray Chapters 20

Comments

There's little point in criticizing the look of Breaking Glass' dual-layer, progressive, anamorphic disc of this documentary since it is composed of much archival footage from a number of sources (including an early Sony portable 1" camcorder in which static and drop outs could be caused by its own circuitry rather than the tape's age). Some of the talking head interviews seem to have been grabbed on the fly, so they are not consistently colorful or as crisp as the new animation. English closed-captioning is included for the Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track (given the subject, it's odd that Breaking Glass didn't include optional Spanish subtitles as are available on some of their earlier releases).

The disc is stacked with extras starting with a commentary with the director and producer on the heels of a successful festival screening. Although the additional featurettes are not identified as outtakes or deleted scenes, they seem to embody portions excised because they were tangential but worthy of future exploration.

- Eric Cotenas

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