(video link at the end of post)
In Alfred Hitchcock's quick-paced espionage thriller, North by Northwest, advertising executive Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) finds himself running for his life as he's pursued across most of the United States. During this massive cross-country chase, he finds himself not only mistaken for a U.S. agent, but implicated as a suspect in the murder of a U.N. official. All of this leads his normally sheltered, and privilege life to intersect with foreign spies, counter-spies, the FBI, the police, and a mysterious beautiful blonde. (Eva Marie Saint) [1] Ahhh... If only graphic design and advertising were truly this exciting.
Saul Bass's title sequence opens with lines crossing the screen and intersecting in rapid succession, just as the lives of the characters in the film do.
The lines then begin to form a grid and the names of the cast move quickly up and down the screen as if they were on an elevator, all the time staying in perfect perspective with the lines of the grid.
The concept of the elevator soon makes sense as the grid dissolves into an live shot of a New York City skyscraper, with traffic rushing here and there, again in perfect perspective, and reflected in the mirrored façade of the building.
North by Northwest Title Sequence Link
References
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1. IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053125/
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