Psycho is priceless.
The trailer for The Rules of the Game (I’m sure it’s a re-release) that comes on the Criterion is quite delightful.
tom, you’re sooo right! the psycho trailer is a gem. don’t make them like that anymore. the majority of contemporary trailers are just awful, which i don’t understand since there is so much potential to do something unique and interesting. ho-hum.
ALIEN and ROSEMARY’S BABY, both masterminded by advertister Stephen O. Frankfurt who also came up with the, believe it or not, Lays potato chip slogan: “Bet you can’t eat just one”. Wild.
ben, i think this info might qualify him as a genius candidate. it is true…i can’t eat just one. can you?
Thanks for the thoughtful question, Gina. I’ve actually been in rigorous regular training for years to build the strength and discipline necessary to eat only one Lay’s potato chip (per sitting? day? lifetime? so open-ended, it makes my head spin).
Yes the man’s clearly a genius. And both of those trailers rule by not limiting themselves exclusively to footage from the movie but instead returning to a symbolic motif over the course of the trailer: ROSEMARY’S BABY has the baby carriage and ALIEN the egg.
Contempt without a doubt is my favorite.
There was a wonderful trailer for Raimi’s SPIDERMAN that doesn’t seem to be around anymore. It showed a group of bank thieves escaping in a helicopter from a heist, something goes wrong, the helicopter starts to shake, and then goes still. There’s a cut to the helicopter caught in a web between the towers of the World Trade Center.
The theatre went NUTS when it was shown. Did it make it to the DVD?
That’s just a few good ones I can think of:
Götter der Pest (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
Julien Donkey-Boy (Harmony Korine)
Trouble Every Day (Claire Denis)
Masculine, Feminine (Jean-Luc Godard)
Dillinger Is Dead (Marco Ferreri)
Help Me Eros (Kang-sheng Lee) not work safe
The Brown Bunny
Faces
I Spit on Your Grave
Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
Trouble Every Day
You’re dead-on, Gina. The typical contemporary trailer – with the exception of the occasional teaser that, yes, actually DOES tease – too often make the mistake of showing you so much of the high points and punchlines that you’ve already seen the movie when it’s through.
A Clockwork Orange!
Hard Boiled dogg, by far the best trailer ever…. Alright I might be exaggerating, but it’s totally awesome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL6E5kb9bAo
Contempt +1
So I searched but could not find it. Does anybody else remember (my guilty pleasure) the “Starship Troopers” trailer set to Blur Song 2? The trailer was better than the movie.
In a single breath this comes to mind:
Trailers by Godard are as genius as his films.
Army of Shadows by Melville.
9
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Original Friday the 13th.
Albert Brooks’ film Real Life. It’s done in 3-D but without 3-D glasses. Hysterical!
Children of Men is a beautiful, great trailer. Using Sigur Ros in a trailer is unfair though.
Also, the trailer for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Post-rock in general improves a trailer.
BODY HEAT has a very well done trailer.
also:
DR. STRANGELOVE
LAST TANGO IN PARIS
all of Godard’s trailers from the sixties (some are even better than the actual films (I’m looking at you ALPHAVILLE)).
All of the trailers in “Grindhouse” are the best ever.
The trailer for They Call Her One Eye is probably my favorite. The narration is great:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtpxIVLNkrE
I apologize for my lack of skill with hyperlinks.
Dr. Strangelove is the greatest trailer ever. EVER!!!
The Grindhouse ones are good also, but not as great.
Brian De Palma’s FEMME FATALE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGttEqkwGBo
MINUS MAN trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nuhQCDjZ48
GUMMO trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35Hg8bIFu-A
I don’t really recall trailers for older films.
The trailer for Where the Wild Things Are looks amazing! I can’t wait for this movie – it looks soooo beautifully well done (and I’m not even a Spike Jonze fanatic).
The Graduate
Magnolia’s is wonderful (and cut by PTA himself, apparently).
Those silly exploitation/grindhousey trailers where they repeat the film’s title half a dozen times throughout are all brilliant (especially the ones where the film’s title is quite clunky and doesn’t really lend itself to repetition). Special props to Last House on the Left for having its awesome, well-intoned tagline plastered across the trailer, as well.
And The Grapes of Wrath’s, which is more of a sensationalised making-of documentary rather than an advert for the film itself.
gina beth
Off the top of my head:
Buffalo 66
Bubble