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With all of the buzz about the movie Helvetica, now is a perfect opportunity to talk about the wonderful world of font obsession. Everyone's got them; though some fonts seem to affect people particularly poignantly. Futura seems to have a tenacious grasp on brilliant movie directors.

Wes Anderson, the genius behind Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic, and now his most recent Darjeeling Limited, has admitted and fully succumbed to his Futura Extra Black obsession. Anderson's obsession is rooted in his love of old italian films, which often featured quirky typographic traits such as "firstname LASTNAME" in the opening credits. Anderson lifted it lock, stock, and barrel for the short version of his first film, Bottle Rocket, and he's stuck with it ever since. Considering Anderson's films are highly regarded for their overly fastidious nature, perhaps we should applaud his choice of Futura as another sharp choice for a sharp eye.

Ironically, Kubrick, perhaps the most detail-driven, obsessively attentive director of all time, was ALSO unabashedly obsessed with Futura Extra Bold, going so far as to have simple house signs made in it. Apparently he and his assistant would stay up all hours of the night talking about typefaces; Kubrick was keen on Helvetica as well, and he even admitted once (as if under interrogation!) that Bembo was attractive.

My dear friend and infinitely talented school peer Stephanie was hooked on Futura for years. She swore to it as the perfect typeface— that is, until she got her wish and was condemned to the Absolut Vodka account and sentenced to using Futura every day her life—D'Oh.

Even Woody Allen, the most neurotic of cinematic talents, has chosen and stuck with his typeface Windsor for ALL of his movies throughout his cinematic career. Windsor's classic Cheltenham structure that has been slightly slanted and splayed fits well with the intellectual edge and off-kilter spin of an Allen film.

In some ways, this typographic obsession plays itself out as director-branding. Everyone's got a little way of staking their territory. Spike Lee's use of "joint" instead of film is another little intellectual property morsel. I'm sure these strict typographic allegiances work well, but unfortunately, branding aside, they contradict the nature of typography.

Typographic form is supposed to capture the emotional and poetic nature of its content. When you pick and stick, that core element of the art is obliterated. You're stuck with the same emotional statement over and over, regardless of your content.

Although for Kubrick, Anderson, and Allen, that emotional thread is already so consistent. They wrestle with the same issues in film after film. Perhaps wrestling with the same type is totally valid!