Sunday 16 March 2008

Quantum of Solace as a title

This entry was quite popular in French, so I will write here an English version. I have read this on cyberpresse last Friday, which made me jump. I then read the original article/column here and was apalled by the ignorance and lack of judgment of Jack Lechner. Friom what I see of his background, he should know better. Quantum of Solace is an excellent title for a Bond movie, regardless of the quality of the film (I am pretty confident about it, but that's not the point). Titles should not be obvious and generic. Quantum of Solace works because:

1)It's a Bond movie. Even if it was a bad title (it isn't), people would come and see it.
2)The title is evocative and atmospheric. It's not an easy title, as it's meaning is not obvious, but you don't need a dumb, obvious title. Nobody knew what Thunderball meant exactly, or Moonraker, both movies were very successful. Both titles were as cryptic as Quantum of Solace.
3)The title describes perfectly the state of Bond/his situation after the death of Vesper and the events of Casino Royale. Good that they didn't try to give it a stupid, generic title that could be tagged on any action movie. Die Another Day was a really dumb title (adequate for the movie, I guess), I am glad viewers can actually build their vocabulary a bit with Quantum of Solace.
4)The title comes from Ian Fleming. It doesn't make it a good title per se, but at least they get back to the source material. I am happy that they get elements from the mind of the creator of Bond, and not just superficial things that average viewers associate with Bond.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If that is the title Ian Fleming decided for it....then that's what it should be.