Happy almost-Friday, everybody. Feels like it’s been ages since I’ve done a poster post, and my weekly visit to IMPAWARDS site is long overdue.
Well, here are three that caught my eye …
The wife of a British Judge is caught in a self-destructive love affair with a Royal Air Force pilot.
Please, don’t get this one confused with the shark thriller starring Samuel L. Jackson, ahah. I presume nobody gets eaten by the big fish in this one 😀
I’m usually not into films that seems to glorify marital infidelity, though there are some beautifully-filmed ones that I have come to appreciate in the past. One thing that came to mind right away as I saw this poster is The English Patient, which also stars two talented Brits Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas. In fact, the film still below seems to be directly inspired by the one in the Oscar-winning film. Don’t you agree?
Anyway, I think this poster is quite sensuous and romantic, there’s that euphoric look on Rachel’s face, what’s Tom doing to her, ahah. I quite like Tom ever since I saw his fine performance in Thor and Rachel is always lovely. But because of the subject matter, I most likely just rent this one if I’m feeling up to it.
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A look at the life of Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, with a focus on the price she paid for power.
Wow, is there anything Meryl can’t do?? She just keeps one upping herself year after year. She’s got to be the go-to actress for any biography of middle-aged famous characters, she satirized Vogue’s editor Anna Wintour perfectly in The Devil’s Wear Prada and phenomenally-portrayed Julia Child in Julie & Julia. This time she’s tackling one of the world’s most famous leaders and from just seeing the photo and the trailer, she not just nails the look but the accent as well. There ought to be a documentary on her life called ‘I Don’t Know How She Does It’ which I’m sure will be more bearable to watch than the Sarah Jessica Parker’s rom-com. Anyway, I think the poster is pretty clever, though it’s the striking resemblance between Meryl and Margaret that grabbed my attention.
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A wedding at her parents’ Annapolis estate hurls high-strung Lynn into the center of touchy family dynamics.
Simple design with tons of negative space often stands out amidst a mostly-busy layout of movie posters. Is that supposed to be a gold ring around the silhouetted guy or an inflatable swim bubble?? I’m curious enough to make me find out what it’s about. The IMDb description doesn’t really explain much, but I’m intrigued by the cast. I haven’t seen Ellen Barkin since one of those Ocean movies. I might rent this one once it arrives on DVD.
What do you think of these posters? What movie poster(s) caught your eye this week?
FLIXCHATTER FILM BLOG 
I can’t say i’m all that interested in any of the 3 movies you listed 😦
I really like the poster of Iron Lady. It’s just so unexpected and more importantly INTERESTING and EYE-CATCHING. Seems a few people already hate it, but I fear they’re conflating their feelings for the movie/subject matter with their feelings regarding the poster design.
Granted, some of them may just hate the design. She does look like some weird alien monsters from the likes of Doctor Who or Star Trek. Then again it IS Margaret Thatcher we’re all talking about, so…
Yeah I think people has a hard time separating how they feel about Thatcher and a film about her. I’m not hotly anticipating it, I’m mainly fascinated by Meryl’s capability to play just about any role. This just might give Mirren’s The Queen a run for her money and that one was already quite spectacular.
The poster that caught my eye this week would be ‘tinker tailor soldier spy’, simple but interesting. Always love simple posters, like ‘Another Happy Day’ which you posted.
Funny you mentioned it, ‘Tinker Taylor’ was the one I featured on the last poster post: https://flixchatter.net/2011/09/07/posters-of-the-week-tinker-tailor-soldier-spy-series-by-paul-smith/
The Another Happy Day poster is awesome. I love the simplicity there.
The Iron Lady poster is also cool. I saw Margaret Thatcher speak in 1996. If this movie is as exciting as the real Margaret Thatcher, then I’ll be staying home.
Ahah, point well taken, John.
I can only hope that in “The Deep Blue Sea” they have learned their lessons when it comes to genetically engineering deadly sharks. Luckily, Thomas Jane should be available to help if necessary. Love the Streep poster!
Deep Blue Sea is totally worth seeing just for that one Sam Jackson scene alone, y’know which one I’m talking about, right? 😀 Was Thomas Jane in it? I can’t remember but no doubt he’s the ‘hero’ in that one but all I can remember is that Sam Jackson scene.
Some pretty good looking posters but yea, no interest in seeing any of these movies ahah 😀 Rachel Weisz is coming back in full force lately, which is good to see.
I don’t think Rachel ever really left, or did she??
Ahah I just checked her resume and yea, she’s been working pretty consistently. I just felt she didn’t really do much since The Constant Gardener but that’s mainly because she’s been in small movies or has had tiny supporting roles
Remarkably even when she had a baby with Darren Aronofsky in the mid to late 2000’s she didn’t take any time off.
I might be the only one, but I really dislike that ‘Iron Lady’ poster. It seems like a picture of Meryl Streep with a simple photoshop filter. I don’t think posters have been that impressive lately, but that might just be me.
I’m sure you’re not the only one Max. Truly great movie posters are hard to come by I agree, but I still think these are pretty cool looking that stand out from the pack.
Wow I gotta say I’m excited to see Terence Davies still directing (Deep Blue Sea). Distant Voices/Still Lives is one of my favorite movies. Sadly I only have a converted rip of the region 2 dvd as there’s not much interest here in the US. It’s based on Davies’ childhood. Pete Postlewaite is the tyrannical patriarch of an English family during WWII. Music plays such a prominant role in the film it could be a musical. The cinematography is beautiful. Every shot looks like a painting. Truly haunting. It will stay with you. Good catch on The English Patient shot Ruth.
Ruth, I’m not sure I’d use the word “glorify” to describe the infidelity in the movie The Deep Blue Sea. She does try to kill herself, is ostracised and has to rebuild her life. It seems more along the lines of such English films as Damage (Jeremy Irons), The French Lieutenant’s Woman (Jeremy Irons) or Betrayal (Jeremy Irons) where nothing turned out well. Just out of curiosity what films did you see that glorified infidelity? I could only think of Bound where you were rooting for two women. I’m sure there are more but I’m at a loss to come up with any. A majority of the ones I’ve seen were cautionary tales that ended badly like Little Children, The Ice Storm, The Sweet Hereafter, Sex, Lies & Videotape, Fatal Attraction, In the Mood for Love, Scenes From A Marriage, Husbands and Wives, Your Friends and Neighbors, Jude, Dance With A Stranger and even the comedy Election and I could go on.
I’m with Max on the Iron Lady poster. It catches your eye but not in a good way.
I can watch almost anything Meryl is in except She-Devil and the ABBA movie. lol.
I love the simplicity of the Another Happy Day poster. Not sure what it means though. George Kennedy is still alive? Another wow.
Dave
Hey Dave, ok perhaps ‘glorify’ is a bit of a strong word, it’s just I feel that Hollywood makes a heck of a lot more films that deal with infidelity than romance that portray a healthy relationship, y’know. Perhaps the word ‘glamorize’ is a more apt term, where cheating characters are made to be sympathetic or those cheated on are treated as if they ‘deserve’ what’s coming to them.
I think one film that romanticize infidelity is Bridges of Madison County. I think most people are rooting for Meryl & Clint’s characters to be together. The English Patient too in a way, makes the affair between the count and Katherine into something so profound when it could really be about two lustful people who have no self control. Oh, and The Notebook, too. Poor James Marsden 🙂
Yeah the reason Hollywood makes a heck of a lot more films about infidelity is because of the conflict. Unfortunately most films need conflict or tension or a dilema then resolution to work. Happily married couples don’t make for interesting movies unfortunately. Even look at relatonship movies where there wasn’t cheating like Revolutionary Road, Whose Afraid Of Virginia Wolfe?, War Of The Roses, Kramer vs Kramer, Blue Valentine… conflict, conflict, conflict. That’s just the nature of drama narrative.
Bridges of Madison County is a good call. Never saw the Notebook and The English Patient bored me even with the great cinematography so my memory is not so good on that one. I’m not sure I’d even use the word glamorize either only because of how badly they usually end up. It starts out all sexy and romantic but they are usually alone and destroyed by the end and the films are usually pretty depressing. Even when you root for the couple. Like I said above most of the movies are usually cautionary tales. Not unlike Trainspotting or Requiem For A Dream were to drugs. Get this… my dad thought Trainspotting was a pro-drug movie. Half-Baked or Up In Smoke sure but Trainspotting??? I don’t think he watched it all the way to the end. Of course that never stopped him from having a fully formed opinion of something he was uninformed about. lol.
As far as where you root for people to be together there’s definitely an element of that but not all the time though. It’s just like in real life. One extreme example of someone that “deserved” it that never came to fruition was in Mississippi Burning between Gene Hackmans character and Frances McDormands character. She’s a simple woman who’s stuck married to Brad Dourif. A violent, beer drinking, small town redneck whose in the KKK. Real nice guy. There was an obvious chemistry between here and Gene and nothing happened but weren’t you rooting for them is some way to get together? To feel some kind of happiness? Not to have an affair necessiarily but leave him which would be very difficult for her. As wrong as it would have been could you have blamed her?
I guess my point is I don’t see what’s so glamorous about being driven to suicide and being ostracised to a life of loneliness like in the movie The Deep Blue Sea. It’s bleeding depressing and not something you’d aspire to in real life. Especially after seeing the outcome. You know what I mean?
Hey man, you could make a blog post just on your comments alone 😀 Yeah I know that conflicts are what drive a narrative, I get that. Nothing like a torrid love affair that get people riveted and Hollywood knows that. Once in a while there is a film depicting a happy marriage, like ‘Another Year’ which I have yet seen but have heard great things about. I also saw a small indie called ‘Ordinary Family’ that portray a healthy marriage. They bicker and disagree on things but remain committed to one another. In one of my all-time fave rom-coms, ‘Return to Me,’ Jim Belushi & Bonnie Hunt’s characters show an endearing example of a healthy and fun marriage. I so love that movie, I highly recommend it if you haven’t seen it.
I haven’t seen Mississippi Burning but yeah, sounds like I probably would feel sympathy towards Frances’ character.
Btw, sounds like you’ve read the novel The Deep Blue Sea is based on? Or you’ve actually seen the actual film? I didn’t know it’s already released.
I know of The Deep Blue Sea because I’m a big fan of Terence Davies.
The Deep Blue Sea was based on a play by Brittish playwright Terence Rattigan. He also wrote several plays which were turned into movies by notable directors. The Winslow Boy (David Mamet), The Browning Version (Mike Figgis) and Separate Tables (Delbert Mann, who directed oscar winner Marty with Ernest Borgnine). Terence also wrote the screenplay Goodbye, Mr. Chips (Peter O’Toole, one of my favorite actors).
Another Year is on my list. I really like Mike Leigh. No one quite makes films like him. Really loved Happy Go Lucky. Sally Hawkins was great. Have to check out Return to Me.
Yeah this is the only movie blog I’m on and I’ve been too lazy to start my own. Found it from IMDB. Sorry to hijack your post. I may be living through your blog vicariously instead of having my own. lol. Being as passionate as I am about movies I like the intelligent opinions on here. Also I like sharing my knowledge and maybe turning people on to something new or different. Sadly I really don’t have anyone around me who can keep up with me when it comes to movies. Funny story. A friend of mine got a movie trivia game for Christmas years ago so we broke it open and gave it a shot. I went first. He never even got a turn. He proceeded to pack it up and jokingly throw it in the garbage.
BTW great job on your blog. Ted’s stuff is great addition too.
Dave
Not really interested in any of the films but I like the posters, at least the designers went with something creative instead of just bad Photoshopped.
I didn’t think these were your cup of tea, Ted, but glad you dug the posters.
Tom Hiddleston, yay!!
I guess I don’t ever see movie posters anywhere, so I don’t have much of an opinion about them. In my completely non-artistic view, though, The Deep Blue Sea and Another Happy Day are visually interesting, whereas The Lady is kind of weird and slightly … creepy.
I’d love to see Tom in a romantic role so I’d rent this just for that. He’s the one character in The Avengers I look forward to the most… yes even more than RDJ 🙂
I like the Another Happy Day. Looks like he is swimming in a lonely cheerio in a bowl of milk. Cheerios make me happy. Haha.
don’t like the Iron Lady one though. Would’ve been better if it were an iron bust of her. Doesn’t really seem to portray the image that the title suggests…my opinion.
thanks for this post as I didnt do a poster spotlight myself this week.
Wow. That does not look like Streep in the IRON LADY poster. It looks exactly like Thatcher. Great makeup, Meryl!
Love all those posters; great selections!
I like the last 2 posters, simple and interesting. Looking forward to see Streep as the famous iron lady
Not sure about The Iron Lady poster ….
As for Another Happy Day …. good for Kate Bosworth that her name is high alphabetically or else no reason for it to be bigger.
So wanna see The Deep Blue Sea. The buzz from TIFF was how the musical score was terrible, but I still want to see the formidable Rachel Weisz step into Vivien Leigh’s shoes.
Also, pardon my crudeness but The Iron Lady can go sink underneath the ocean.