Ant Music

Apologies for quality — this is a fly bootleg shot by somebody with a camcorder in a cinema audience, hence wobble, framing, and the occasional cough.

Thanks to Budd Wilkins on Facebook for sharing this.

It is the original, deleted ending of Saul Bass’s PHASE IV, a film I never much cared for. Bass was the world’s greatest title designer, so it’s sort of unsurprising, if disappointing, that the best part of his only feature was the end credits. Until now.

I’m presuming the producers thought Bass had flipped when they saw this. Or else he lost confidence and deleted it himself. A tragedy.

It looks more expensive, as well as better, than the entirety of the remaining sentient ant menace movie. I suspect Bass was recycling material from elsewhere. Anyhow, it’s just awe-inspiring, and wonderfully abstract. Bass, whose speciality was summing up the themes of a film in title sequence form, keeps it rather abstract much of the time. Whowhatwherewhenhow?

Amazingballs, as the kids say these days.