#11: POSTER PARALLEL - THE BEDROOM SCENE

For the promotion of their third season, the cast of ABC's Happy Endings farcically followed suit with the somewhat bizarre trend of featuring a television series' ensemble cast posing together in bed. 

Cast of ABC's Happy Endings (2012)

Whether nude, fully clothed or a combination of both (oddly portrayed in the 1994 Friends poster below) number of things could be communicated through this type of campaign (the obvious being sex, youth and boundlessly undefined intimacy and companionship).  It's also a convenient way to squeeze everyone into frame...

Whenever I notice this theme, I just think of Paul Mazursky's progressive, ultra-"swinging" '60s film Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and it's famous image of the cast (two sets of couples played by Elliot Gould, Natalie Wood, Robert Culp and Dyan Cannon) naked and in bed with the tagline: "Consider the Possibilities".

Here are some examples of this odd trend from various television campaigns throughout the past decade:

Friends (1994)

Gossip Girl (2007)

One Tree Hill (2003)

Queer as Folk (2000)

-MTK

#10: ON THE ROAD (MIRRORING RUCHSA)

In the teaser and trailer promotion of Walter Salles anticipated film adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, the film's rugged, mid-century Americana visuals and graphically pounding taglines comparably echo artist's Ed Ruscha's tribute to Kerouac in his 2009 exhibition, "On the Road".

In the trailer, the photography captures the dreamy, effervescent hues that lightly glaze the retro-inspired photography and graphic artwork that is thematically interpreted through Ruscha's series of paintings.  Featuring stiff, simplistically modern font with each letter hinting of subtle opacity, the taglines and titles layer a backdrop of rustic landscapes and gravelly tones of blue, grays and yellowish gold.

See the parallels between the film's promotion (above) and Ruscha's work (below):

Ruscha's exhibit of "On the Road" was recently featured this past year in 2011 at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.  Visit their site to learn more about Ruscha and Kerouac's connected vision.

-MTK

#9: IN THE HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING

"In the Hall of the Mountain King" plays a large part in the development of Peter Lorre's villain in Fritz Lang's "M"

It's interesting how some of the most recognized pop culture creations are often loathed by their authors.  Led Zepplin lead Robert Plant grew to detest "Stairway to Heaven" (which he referred to has "that bloody wedding song") while Kurt Cobain referred to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as a "sell out". Even John Lennon was known to openly dismiss some of The Beatles most iconic pieces of work. 

When Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg wrote the 1875 score for Henrik Ibsen's 1867 play, Peer Gynt, Grieg expresses his distaste for the eerily climatic excerpt, "In the Hall of the Mountain King", saying, "...I have written something that so reeks of cowpats, ultra-Norwegianism and 'to-thyself-be-enough-ness" that I can't bear to hear it, though I hope that the irony will make itself felt."

With Grieg's disinterest aside, the song has still succeeded to evolve into something beyond its classically epic routes, morphing into a boundlessly versatile piece of familiarized stock soundtrack. Constantly adapted and featured throughout various media channels, the song features one repetitiously steady, pluckily troublesome tune with just the right amount of dissonance to suggest an ominous presence of thrill and villainy. From film soundtracks (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' satirical adaptation in their Academy-Award winning score for The Social Network) to progressive rock covers (The Electric Light Orchestra's jam session version from their 1973 album, On the Third Day), the track has become innately recognizable. 

Here is the track of Grieg's Op. 46, "In the Hall of the Mountain King":

One of the most accessible tribute's to Grieg's horror-infused score was its signature use in Fritz Lang's 1931 thriller, M. 

Poster for Fritz Lang's M

In M (a crime thriller that follows a small German town trying to catch a disturbed child-killer on the loose, played by Peter Lorre), Lang features Grieg's creeping tune as an allegorical alarm to the villain's presence.  Whenever Lorre's desperately unhinged villain identifies his young victim, he would begin to whistle the ominous tune. 

Here is a clip of Lorre's trademark interpretation of the "In the Hall of the Mountain King":

-MTK

#8: LOOPER (AND THE LAST ACTION HERO)

In the wake of The Expendables second installment, its starting to feel like we're slowly sinking into the film industries' era of  "The Last Action Heroes".  While we continue to somewhat desperately celebrate aging action mega-leads that we've familiarized ourselves with on a first-name basis--Arnold, Sly, Bruce, Van-Damme--audiences are refusing to absorb an equivalent of the cinematic modern day action hero.

As opposed to platforming up-and-coming, blockbuster action stars (which are few and far between in comparison to the era of the '80s and '90s), the action vets of yesteryear are not only still getting cast but repurposed.

In this past fall's sci-fi film Looper, Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt play older and younger version of the same character, featuring Gordon-Levitt with heavy, face-morphing prosthetics and Willis with...well, no physiognomonic alterations at all. 

Granted the appeal of the idea was to make the two characters, representing one man at different ages, look as convincingly alike as possible.  However, the lack of adjustments to Willis' features defines him as the tributed icon of the film and the primary model of the character.

But why wouldn't that be the case...he is the actual "action hero" of the film (see post #4).  .  

What's so exceptionally (and allegorically) poignant about Looper is the paralleling camaraderie and conflict between Willis and Gordon-Levitt's characters and what it subtly represents throughout the process of the generational "movie star" transition.  While both versions of the character have a dependency on each other to stay alive, one of them still has to eventually step out of the light (well, in regards to the film's plot, "die") in order for the other to thrive and exist.

-MTK

#7: POSTER PARALLEL - THE OBSTRUCTIVE TAGLINE

Kimberly Pierce's 2013 remake of Carrie

It seems like a tagline obstructing a poster's artwork can effectively communicate just the right amount of head-turning intrigue fused with minimalistic simplicity and blatant alarm.  It also introduces "character" as a centerpiece.   

It's the mugshot of film and television's promotional fare. 

Here are the teaser promo prints for the upcoming Carrie feature film remake and the new FOX series, The Following, featuring cryptic subtext to both anticipated project. 

FOX's upcoming 2013 series The Following

 /Film did a feature last year reflecting on the beginning of this unwavering trend. 

-MTK

#6: PARIS IS BURNING

The late Dorian Corey and Pepper LaBeija of Paris is Burning

Writer and existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once said, "Life has no meaning a priori...It is up to you to give it a meaning, and a value is nothing but the meaning that you choose. "

Echoing the post-modernist perspective, it's a theory that represents a daunting freedom, fueling the human mind to embrace their existence as their own complete invention.  While to the average individual this may insinuate a more chaotic, uncontrolled approach to life, Sartre's theory illuminates the passionate vision of the cultural pioneer who chooses to move against the illusion of conformity and social expectations, even if it leads to life of inflated intolerance, tribulation and pain.

The late Octavia St. Laurent in Paris Is Burning

In Jennie Livingston's 1990 documentary feature film, Paris is Burning, the film encapsulates the layered and inspired perspective of the influential "ball culture" that took place throughout the dimming, post-modernistic late-eighties of New York City.  Over the span of seven years, Livingston immersed herself within the fiery and influential subculture of the gay, transgender, African American and Latino "Ballroom" community, capturing the unabashed celebration of expression, style and non-conforming beauty.  The practice of the ballroom competitions (which originated out of Harlem in the 1920s)  would feature various categories of contestants who would "walk" across the ballroom floor, judged based on their interpretation of style, the realness of their "drag" and the charismatic innovation of their movement.

The film captures a definitive, influential era of New York City and a morphing extension of urban culture that was steadily fed to the mainstream attention; while Livingston's film introduced the vocabulary of  "reading", "shading", and the cheeky practice of "vogue" (the source to Madonna's iconic 1990 track).  While many of the film's indelible characters have since passed, such as Octavia St. Laurent, Dorian Corey, Anji Xtravaganza and Willi Ninja, the New York City Ball community still remains as one of the city's most eminent subcultures. 

The subjects of "Paris is Burning"

In the October 2012 issue of Paper Magazine's Nightlife Issue, images from photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders were featured in a modernized (with a hint of early-ninties throwback) reflection of today's existing NYC Ballroom scene.

Paper also featured documented images of today's "Kiki" Ball Scene, featured in a series titled "The Reincarnation of Rockland Palace", with photographs by Sara Jordeno and Twiggy Pucci Garcon.

Tyra Allure from the Mainstream House of Allure

Jocques Unbothered-Cartier aka Prince Charming of the Kiki House of Unbothered-Cartier

Pony Zion Garcon of the Mainstream House of Comme de Garcon

Watch the full version of Paris is Burning here.

-MTK