"I love the idea of taking everyday images, and giving them a graphic sophistication."

The title is a quote from Juan Gatti, who has designed titles for Pedro Almodóvar's films for the past 20 years or so. I just saw Almodóvar's "Volver" last night. Wow on so many, many fronts.I'm still processing the film, but the lush visual feast of it was enough to think about for many weeks to come. I was especially astounded by the Gatti's graphics during the end credits, and went to find more information and images. I came across an article "Graphic images to seduce the filmgoer" by Alice Rawsthorn from the International Herald Tribune, and learned about Pedro Almdovar's longtime collaboration with Juan Gatti. Exerpts are below; see the whole article here.

"For Volver's titles, or end credits, [Gatti] created an animation of the flowers, leaves and spots on the women's aprons and dresses. 'Pedro is very clever at building his characters with details like that,' Gatti says. 'And I love the idea of taking everyday images, and giving them a graphic sophistication.'"

"Gatti's collaboration with Almodóvar has lasted for more than 20 years, since the director was making short films in Madrid. Together they have produced some of the most memorable graphic images in contemporary cinema. 'A good title sequence should be seductive," observes Gatti. "It should have a hypnotic quality that gets the audience into the mood of the movie.'"

"Few designers and directors have enjoyed as productive a relationship as Gatti and Almodóvar. They met at a party in the early 1980s shortly after Gatti, who was born in Buenos Aires in 1950, had moved to Madrid. Both belonged to La Movida, the group of artists, designers and writers who were then defining the cultural identity of the newly democratic Spain."

"For each film, Gatti first reads the script, then he and Almodóvar identify reference points for the graphics, such as books, works of art and different characters. 'One of the reasons why we work so well together is because we have a similar frame of reference,' Gatti says. They then discuss possible styles and techniques, but do not develop them until Gatti has seen the first cut of the movie. He sketches his ideas as a storyboard, and refines them in dialogue with Almodóvar."

"In the titles of 'Bad Education' of 2004, he drew on his love of street art by collaging trashy images with religious ones to resemble fliers pasted on a street hoarding. 'I love seeing fragments of old posters peeping out from behind new ones,' he says."