PHASE IV
Saul Bass | 1974 | UK/USA | 1h30m | Presented in the original English audio with English subtitles
Someone, at some point in the 1970s, looked at Saul Bass, the greatest movie poster and title designer in Hollywood history, and decided the obvious next step was to give him a feature-film budget.
Bass had spent years working alongside some of the greatest directors in Hollywood. For Alfred Hitchcock he designed the titles for VERTIGO, NORTH BY NORTHWEST and PSYCHO, and even storyboarded the famous shower sequence. He also created the title sequence for Stanley Kubrick’s SPARTACUS. By the time somebody finally let him direct a feature himself, Bass understood better than almost anyone how images, editing, typography and music could establish an idea before a character had even spoken.
Naturally, he used this opportunity to make an existential science-fiction film about ants.
PHASE IV begins with an unexplained cosmic event. Soon afterwards, different ant species stop fighting one another, begin communicating and organise themselves into a collective intelligence. Two scientists establish a laboratory in the Arizona desert to understand what is happening. Unfortunately for humanity, the ants are conducting some experimentation of their own.
The shadow of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY hangs heavily over the film. Both begin with a cosmic intervention that exposes humanity to an intelligence beyond its understanding. Both move toward the possibility that humans are being pushed into another stage of evolution. Both eventually abandon conventional explanation for ambiguous, highly visual endings. PHASE IV even gives its ants geometric towers that aren't exactly subtle in their resemblance to Kubrick's monoliths.
Where the two films differ is their attitude toward what comes next. Kubrick's ending can be read as transcendence, humanity moving toward another stage of existence. Bass is considerably less reassuring. In PHASE IV, the higher intelligence has six legs, operates with terrifying efficiency and seems perfectly capable of deciding what humanity's role in the new order should be without consulting us first. Think 2001, except HAL has been replaced by a hive mind comprising several billion ants and they're much better organised.
Bass approaches the entire film like the world-class designer he was. Geometry, colour, architecture and extraordinary macro photography of real ants turn what could have been a cheap creature feature into something closer to an sci-fi art film. The ants communicate through patterns, build structures and conduct experiments of their own. At points it becomes unclear whether we're watching scientists studying insects or insects studying scientists.
And then Paramount interfered.
Bass originally shot a much more ambitious, surreal ending showing his vision of the next phase of life on Earth. Test audiences report dly hater it, so the crucial final sequence was removed and the film was released without it. For decades the ending was effectively lost, until material resurfaced in 2012 and the original elements were subsequently recovered and restored.
For this special FOMO screening, we're going to pause PHASE IV at the point where the theatrical version diverged and then cut to the original ending Saul Bass shot. You'll get to see the film conclude the way its director intended rather than the way the studio decided audiences should see it.
And given that PHASE IV was the only feature film Bass ever directed, it seems only fair to let the man finish his own movie.
INTRODUCING LOST & FOUND AT FOMO
This Sunday 20 September was originally meant to launch LOST & FOUND at FOMO with filmmaker Mark, our new monthly series dedicated to excellent films that never found the audience they deserved. The first event has now moved to next Sunday, but PHASE IV feels like an unusually appropriate stand-in. It’s exactly the kind of film the L&F series will be built around: ambitious, visually distinctive, mishandled on release and much better than its original reputation suggests.
So think of this as an unofficial warm-up. Come back next Sunday for the proper launch of LOST & FOUND at FOMO with filmmaker Mark, where we’ll screen another criminally underseen film and follow it with a discussion about why it slipped through the cracks in the first place.
FOOD AND DRINK POLICY: SHEREKILEBI Bar in FOMO Secret Cinema opens 1 hour before the first screening of the day and closes at 01:30, serving a wide selection of beer, wine, cocktails, and non-alcoholic refreshments! Outside food is allowed in the bar but not in the cinema. No alcohol or drinks from outside are allowed. All guests are invited to arrive early and stay late!
LOCATION: FOMO Secret Cinema, Bazari Orbeliani, Tbilisi. A five minute walk from Liberty Square metro.
HOW TO FIND FOMO: Enter Bazari Orbeliani via Atoneli St above Carrefour and take the stairs on your left to Level 1. Signage on the door. You can also check our Instagram story highlights for a video showing exactly how to find us: https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE3OTMzMTA2Mjk0MDI5MjM1
REFUND & CREDIT POLICY: If FOMO cancels a screening, all ticket holders will receive a full refund. If your plans change and you can no longer attend, we’ll issue you a credit for the value of your ticket, which can be used for any FOMO film screening within the following 30 days.
TICKETS are also available at SHEREKILIBER Bar on arrival unless sold out.
FOMO Secret Cinema • Bazari Orbeliani, 0105 Tbilisi, Georgia
