Tuesday, November 11, 2008

"Its too late for chiropody."

Top of my list of most feverishly anticipated films over the next few months is Steven Soderbergh's "Che", Parts 1 & 2. I missed it (them?) at the LFF because of scheduling issues, and the pain is still fresh. Once known as "The Argentine" and "Guerilla" and shown at Cannes as one marathon 4 hour film with an intermission, they're out in the UK in January and February. Critical reception has been mixed, but that was also true of "Solaris" and that is my favourite Soderbergh, alongside the criminally underseen "Bubble".

But this post is concerned with posters, and their power over how a film can be sold.

You can go the 80s photo-realist painting look route and make the film seem an adventure movie, heavy on the combat attire colour scheme, an assault rifle prominent:



Or you can go stark, minimalist, evoking propaganda while also playing up your stars brooding handsomeness:



The question is: which of these kids is doing the wrong thing?

As a bonus, this is the poster (somewhat similar to the second above, I think) for Richard Fleischer's bizarre 1969 biopic, starring Omar Sharif. The title of this post comes from that film - its an immortal line of dialogue uttered by Guevara to Fidel Castro (Jack Palance) just before a massive battle erupts:

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3 Comments:

Blogger Monsieur Le Capuchin said...

Has to be the first one, but I feel that neither is the 'right' one, you know?

I deliberately missed it at the festival as it will gain a normal release. Question is, will cinemas show the two parts back-to-back at the weekend? And will Cineworld?

We live in hope.

Seen Hunger?

10:47 pm  
Blogger David N said...

I doubt it'll be shown back-to-back except maybe at the NFT or Prince Charles after the second one comes out. Which is too long for me to wait.

I prefer the second one, I think.

Hunger- yep.

12:01 am  
Blogger Anne said...

I don't think it's ever gonna be too late. chiropodist london

5:01 pm  

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