In my recent quest to catch up on last year’s Oscar contenders, I was struck by the opening title sequences of two films at opposite ends of the cinematic spectrum: Thelma, a story of an aging grandmother determined to recover money lost to a phone scammer, and The Brutalist, the portrait of a visionary architect fleeing post-war Europe to rebuild his life in America.
Their designs lingered with me not just as graphics, but as narrative devices. It was only when I went back to revisit them, that I realized they shared striking similarities: both open with live action footage intertwined with credits — a grandmother receiving an inbox tutorial from her grandson, and a bus rolling through a barren landscape. In fact, one could almost imagine the same creative brief: “Use existing footage from the film’s opening; no budget for animation or effects—only typography.”
And yet, the results are so divergent. Thelma (designed by Emma Berliner) employs static close-ups of needlepoint, parquet floors, and tufted fabric, overlaid with restrained art-deco type to create beautiful tableaus; intercut with the protagonist learning how to scroll with her mouse. The Brutalist (designed by Sebastian Pardo) sets Bauhaus-inspired typography against a Philadelphia-bound bus; its rhythm and soundtrack conjuring the momentum of a train barreling into uncertainty.
By the time the credits leave the screen, they’ve masterfully communicated something about the experience that is about to unfold, and they have drawn you fully into their world. What’s striking in both – is their structural simplicity – no bells, no whistles, just simple elegant design. And ultimately, that is what makes them so memorable.
