The art of creating fascinating trailers has certainly improved since I was a kid. Back in the day, previews were nothing more than solemn voice-overs summarizing the coming attraction. Today, many of these pre-feature shorts are more intriguing than the movies themselves, and I don’t know how many times I’ve watched a preview only to sink into a funk and wish I were seeing one over the other. I probably spend way too much time checking out any preview that comes through the Apple Movie Trailers site, but what can you do?
In the interest of keeping you entertained within, say, your lunchbreak, here’s some of the more fascinating previews (or fascinating coming attractions) on the net. No, you won’t find the new Bond here, nor will you find David Lynch’s Inland Empire, either (unfortunately).
Little Children Whoa, sexy times: Kate Winslet and Jennifer Connelly duking it out in a searing drama? Be still my beating heart. I have to admit that I’m hoping the ‘R’ rating means some tasteful, though titillating, nudity. The trailer is awesome. Good use of the sound of speeding trains.
13 Tzameti. Quite possibly the most intense trailer I’ve seen in years (though beware the awful voice-over at the end).
Fast Food Nation. Look at this trailer: a perfect example of making an exciting short with difficult material. FFN looks good, sure, but its material is not typically the stuff of an exciting preview–talking, talking, talking. But the music here is awesome, and the editing is as sharp as a razor. Only two short moments of dialogue in a film without special effects and little violence (to humans, anyway).
The Hoax. I have a soft spot in my heart for this story, having thought it would make a great movie for years (in fact, I first mistook Catch Me If You Can as being the film). This trailer is a great example of how to convey great comic performances in a short few minutes. And I’m really hoping that Richard Gere, who I believe has some great comic timing, finally gets his due in this flick.
Marie Antoinette. Do I know why I have this here? No, I really don’t. Antoinette seems like a spoiled brat, but then again, Sofia Coppola seems like a spoiled brat. But the preview is mesmerizing: perhaps, like Lost in Translation, Coppola has managed to put the heart into brats and create a little bit of poetry. By the way, the teaser is much better, and more mysterious, than the trailer–essentially a music video of New Order’s “Age of Consent”.
And two mediocre previews of films that look so bat-shit crazy I can’t help but plug them… and hope against hope they’ll find their way to the Twin Cities.
Lunacy. Check out the dancing meat!
and
The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes. New, romantic, mysterious feature by The Brothers Quay.
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