(click for a larger version)
It’s not just the big blockbusters that get multiple posters. Here, for example, is the domestic poster and the one used in France for P.S. I Love You.
The domestic version (which was also used in several other countries, by the way) goes with a very sweet image of Butler and Swank together. That combined with the title makes for a poster so saccharine it might actually give you a cavity just from looking at it.
And yet, I sort of like it. It’s a very straight sell that sets up the film as being just through and through romance.
The French poster, on the other hand, goes with a much more bittersweet image. The sunset, Swank sitting alone in bench, the notes her dead husband left her flowing in the wind… there is a lot of sadness to be found in here. There are still some romantic elements in there, but this poster seems much more aware of the fact that the story involves the character of Butler dying in the beginning of the film. And it sets the film as a possibly heartbreaking experience.
Now, the French poster is much more appealing to me, but I also admire the complete lack of cynicism in the domestic version. In the end think they are both good posters that try to sell the movie in two very different fashions.
(Thanks to reader Casty The Clown for the French poster)
I think there is way more to the US version than you stated above.
I have yet to see the movie, yet I feel that there is something bittersweet about the US poster as well. Who would read love notes with your sweetie right next to you? You probably wouldn’t. You see. . . I believe the designer created the poster with the thought that Swank’s character is imagining him there. Even the way her head is tilted leads me to that conclusion. He’s whispering the words from the letters in her ear.
My vote’s for the French poster. As you said, Gus, I’m getting a cavity already from the US poster. I love the tone of the French poster–sad but also beautiful. The only thing that annoys me is way the letters are flying away. It looks too darn neat.
Kelly, I think that is a very astute reading of the poster, but it’s all very very subtle. There is no way I could have noticed the significance of these details if I didn’t already know the story, and even if you know what the film is about I think it’s still easy to miss them.
And even in that interpretation it still feels like a more upbeat take on the premise.
But like I said, I think it’s a fine poster.