Last year, and I think everybody will agree with me, Darren Aronfsky's Black Swan had the most beautiful posters, and of it were a competition, it would've emerged as the obvious winner.
Case in point-
Case in point-
Perfect.
I will now attempt to review some of the posters from 2011 (I might have forgotten a few :P)-
Despite the vigorous poster campaign from the Harry Potter group, none of the 500 million posters were actually that brilliant.
Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris was the most enchanting film of the year, and it cleverly uses what might be my most favourite painting ever, Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night, as part of its poster.
I think Ryan Gosling films had pretty good posters, especially with all that hot pink in Drive, and one truly ingenious The Ides of March poster.
Kirsten Dunst looked absolutely beautiful in the stunning albeit extremely depressing, Melancholia. The same goes for the poster.
I just searched for this film, and a lot of "Young Adult" book reviews came up. So witty.
Steve McQueen's follow-up to Hunger has an equally minimalistic poster, which I think truthfully captures the essence of the film, and keeps you wanting more. Also, I love the naughty French poster.
Roman Polanski's multi-starrer had an awesome colourful poster.
Another gem was the poster of Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy. The film is set in the Cold War times of codes and deceit, and that's exactly what we get.
Steven Spielberg brought to screen a most iconic character this year, and the posters just go to sow how even the shadow of Tintin immediately resonates with us.
The original poster to Pedro Almodóvar's The Skin I Live In was a beaut. Too bad it got changed.
Martha Marcy May Marlene had some very alluring posters too, and I think is thus far closest to Black Swan status. See especially the moving one.
But finally, the most gorgeous and dazzling poster of them all, which I think single-handedly beats Black Swan and almost every other poster that I have ever seen, is the one and only *cue drum roll* The Tree of Life, from master filmmaker Terrence Malick. You just cannot look away from it.
Absolutely amazing.
Love all your choices - you made me curious enough to watch the Shame trailer, by the way. I can't wait to see what it's really about... I mean, is it about a sex-addict and that sex is bad, or does it tell us "sex isn't as bad as we think" or what??? I'm so curious!
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about this years posters. Yes, The Tree of Life is definitely my favourite too.
ReplyDeleteI love: the cheeky Shame poster, along with the normal Shame one, all of the Martha Marcy May Marlene ones (especially that moving one, I haven't seen the movie but it gives me the chills when Elizabeth Olsen looks into the camera, all of the Dragon Tattoo ones, the French Carnage one (the US one is so boring), and the Melancholia one (including the one that has Kirsten Dunst with things shooting out of her hand).
I also like any of the Crazy, Stupid, Love posters, the Like Crazy poster, the War Horse poster, and the One Day poster.
Worst poster of the year, though, goes to New Year's Eve. Ewwwwww.
@Mette- Thank you. It's not that sex is bad, but what I have understood from the trailer and other people's reports is that Fassy's character is a sex-addict and is really lonely in life and how with his sister coming to town, he starts dealing with his problem.
ReplyDelete@Stevee- I was blown away by Martha Marcy May Marlene. The whole idea from this post came from its posters alone.
I liked the Like Crazy poster until I saw the film. Yes War Horse! I knew I had forgotten something.
I thought about putting New Year's Eve's poster to talk about it's ugliness, but we would all be blinded by the gold shit and not see the rest, nicer ones.
It took me ages to notice Own Wilson in the Midnight in Paris poster, because I was distracted by the homage to Starry Night, haha. And now that you point it out, there really is not a lot that's memorable about the HP posters...I guess the movies make up for that though :P I'm quite liking those posters for Shame, but as you say - The Tree of Life takes the cake!
ReplyDeleteI know right! Yes, DH2 definitely made up for the bad posters.
ReplyDeleteThe Shame ones are quite incredible, and I think the variation just goes to show how people of different cultures see it. Tree of Life is amazing.
The Tree of Life poster (the one with the baby foot), was probably one of my favourite posters that I have seen this year.
ReplyDeleteI love, love, love the first Shame bed poster, but the creepy-sort-of-photoshopped-hand, to me, is just a little odd.
But good choices, and yes, the Gos has definitely had a good year when it comes to posters (and films).
I really love first Shame poster, next one, not so much. Melancholia has nice posters too, along with Young Adult. But MMMM posters aren't good, but at least they are better than the movie.
ReplyDelete@Cherokee- Yes I love that poster too, but it's a part of the big poster.
ReplyDeleteI find the second one really funny. It's sort of in the same league as the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo teaser poster in the sense that I dunno how they'll put it up in public places.
Gos is the best. Period.
@Sati- What I said above.
You didn't like MMMM?! I thought it was amazing. I was kind of blown away by it and Elizabeth Olsen, and I think the posters really capture that.
My absolute favorite poster from last year is Black Swan's which you have as the fourth one in the set.
ReplyDeleteThis year is really good not only for movies but for posters as well. I loved the ones of Melancholia (it's simply perfect), The Tree of Life, Midnight in Paris, and The Skin I Live In (the Spanish one that you used).
I love all of them equally. So beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI know right. They are all beautiful. The Spanish one was so cool. They changed it too that boring one unfortunately.
I've got the posters for Fellowship of the Ring (just cause it's my favourite film) A Single Man and Corpse Bride on my walls at home, haha. I'd love a Black Swan one as well!
ReplyDelete:D
ReplyDeleteMy friend won a Drive poster which she will gift to me and I have this sort of collage of posters of The Dark Knight, Rocky Horror, Royal Tenenbaums, Casablanca, Juno and Pulp Fiction.
Buuut I need all the posters from my post.
Cool post! I can't really think of any good posters I've seen lately, probably because so many of them are crap these days. :(
ReplyDeleteThank you!
ReplyDeleteYou don't like any of these posters?
Crap = New Year's Eve Golden Blindness Bonanza, ouie?
My favorites are Shame, Melancholia and Tree of life, but I really the vibe of MMMM, as well! Great post!
ReplyDeleteYeah they are great. That's exactly why I like the MMMM posters so much because they capture the mystery and the delicateness of the film.
ReplyDeleteThanks :D
Great selection of posters but my favorite was probably the little baby's foot in between the two hands from The Tree of Life. I don't know why, but that poster just stuck-out to me more. Nice post!
ReplyDeleteYeah, that is great, but as I said above, it's included in the big poster. I dunno, I'm a person inclined towards collages in general.
ReplyDeleteThank you :)