I think over the decades movie trailers have become an inextricable part of the moviegoing experience. It has gotten to the point where I’m fairly disappointed when I am ten minutes late to the showtime and miss some or most of the trailers. Why am I so addicted to these promos? Perhaps it’s because the anticipation and excitement they generate provide a sort of pleasure separate from the actual product. We are reassured that there are more movies coming, that the fun won’t stop. Movies are after all an ephemeral experience and I think we welcome this reassurance.
However, nothing makes me groan more than a badly made trailer. Obviously some movie trailers are more successful than others regardless of the quality of the film they promote. This is a sort of success separate from whether or not the trailer manages to bring audiences in. Rather, I’ve come to look (it’s pathetic, I know!) trailers as little pieces of art. Surely there is a creativity element involved in selecting and sequencing appropriate images from a film and adding fitting music. In any case, here are a few trailers that over the years I’ve found myself revisiting on youtube:
Dark City:
“Dark City” ( 1998 ) is a great film and this trailer sells it perfectly to intelligent people. There is no spoken word–just eerie music and intriguing images. Perhaps if the film had employed dumber promos it would have done better at the box-office.
Femme Fatale:
“Femme Fatale” (2002) is my favorite Brian De Palma film and perhaps the culmination of all his cinematic obsessions. De Palma said that it is hard to make noir films today since the world of noir had moved on–its style and atmosphere is incompatible with modernity. In “Femme Fatale” De Palma elegantly gets around this obstacle and presents an erotic and captivating stylish thriller that’s very much in the spirit of noir. I’m not sure if that trailer was ever shown in the U.S but it’s one of the most creative I’ve ever seen.
300:
The movie was mediocre but this trailer is a masterpiece.
