Pablo

Richard Goldgewicht's documentary profile looks at Cuban-born graphic designer Pablo Ferro, who (following a brief stint with comic books) revolutionized the style of TV commercials during the early ‘60s and did the same for film credit sequences and trailers. Ferro collaborated with Stanley Kubrick on Dr. Strangelove and A Clockwork Orange, while also developing continuing professional relationships with Norman Jewison (Ferro created the memorable opening for The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming) and Hal Ashby (with whom he became a close friend as well as colleague). As a homage to the machine-gun collages Ferro often employed, Goldgewicht constructs Pablo as a visually striking cascade of different media—including film clips, stills, graphics, and animation—with excerpts from interviews of Ferro, many of which are tied to an animated sequence showing the artist being shot at the front door of his apartment—an attack that has left him in chronic pain (and searching for a way to afford a personal sauna). Additional interview clips feature Jewison, Beau Bridges, George Segal (who starred in the only feature Ferro ever directed), and Leonard Maltin, as well as family members—including children from whom he's sometimes been estranged—and friends. Narrated in deadpan style by Jeff Bridges—who clearly relishes delivering digressive little history lessons on TV commercials, trailers, and credit sequences—this is an informative and entertaining portrait of an offbeat influential artist. Highly recommended. (F. Swietek)