No sadness today! Today we celebrate. And what better way to celebrate than to recruit someone more famous than I am to say things about himself? That's right, I reached out to none other than the iconic laconic bubonic Nicolas Cage, and to my adequate surprise he accepted. As such, I've selected what I consider to be Nicolas Cage's Ten Greatest Most Timeless and Everlasting Movie Posters, and requested that he give us a few tidbits about each of these milestones in his storied career.
With Nicolas Cage on the docket, I don't imagine you care to hear any more from me. Before turning it over to the grandmaster of alabaster, I just want to thank you all for sticking with me until this centenary post. You are all a national treasure.
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Hello audience, I am Nicolas Cage. You probably know me from my cinema roles such as Sason of the Witch and Top Gun. I get many fans who want me to do things, but it is rare to receive a message from a fan wishing me to discus the ephemera of film culture such as cinema posters, a topic that is admittedly ancilary to what we would normally think of as cinema. My friend Brian here has selected what he believes to be my ten best cinema posters and being impartial from the day I was born, I have no grounds to argue with him upon this. I will merely act as a historical beacon in this retrospect, making quantitative rather than qualtative commentary.
At any rate I thought Brian had an easy task because I've only been in a couple dozen pieces of cinema or so, but Brian informs me that I have in actuality acted in over seventy five pieces of cinema. This shocks me but it points to a God's Honest Truth: time flies when you're having fun.
I have informed Brian that I don't know how it works here in Post Credit Coder but in my life I cannot rank any aspect of my own cinema, so I choose not to rank these posters. I have asked him and Brian is kind enoguh to let me speak of them in alphabetical order. This pleases me as the alphabet is the great universal equalizer.
First is Birdy a piece of cinema that represents the letter B. As you can see Birdy came early in my career and was from a time when I was more of a sex symbol. I was at any rate far more hand some than my co star here, and when such a thing happens in cinema the hand some one will often provide the support for the more strange fellow to acheve his weird goals. As I grew in age and wisdom I began to prefer to play the weird fellow but this piece of cinema came years before my grand self discovery.
Bordy is a triumph of cinema and as you can see here the poster was not a mere photograph, as both myself and my co star are pictured twice. You will find this to be a common theme in cinema posters, them not being mere photographs. I have spent time studying the art of cinema posters so I am an excelent guide to move you through this retrospect.
One final thought about Birdy: the most commonly question is what it is that I am using in my hair and the answer is Tresemme, I still remember.
If I could I may talk for a second about the art of posturing for cinema posters, which is what got me into the study of cinema posters in the first place, as high profile actors are quite required to posture for the posters of the cinema they are in. Cinema posters are as you may notice not a photograph (see above), but they are like photographs in that they are still images, this is a key conection. The thing about still images, such as paintings, is that you must communicate a message without movement or speaking. This is more difficult then simply being in a piece of feature length cinema.
So rather than saying some thing to the effect of: "Hello Sarah Jesica Parker (I do not remember your character name), I am a keen and coy observer to your relationship with James Can here." You cannot say this in a poster, so instead I as an actor are required to communicate these thoughts with posturing. It's the oldest of acting arts, beginning with cave scrawlings.
Here if you would permit me to speak of my technique, I begin with what I know as my typical posture, which is standing up straight. From there I make the decision of what I do when I am observing something, so I choose to cross my arms, as that is how I behave when I am watching the cinema of others. But even this is not enough for a many layered still image acting performance, so to enhance the display that I am Active Observing rather then Passive Observing (a key distinction) I bring up a curious thumb and place it upon my lip. What you see is very expressive.
You can see that Sarah Jesica Parker does not have the training or fore thought that I do, though I choose not to throw stones.
Poster designs need not be literal just as special effects need not be. In cinema we call this CGI but in posters we call this Photo Shop. Of course my head is not really large and floating over a city, that would be ridiculous.
However if you were to pay atention you would notice it is a metaphor. For in the movie Knowing, which I remember well, you have a man who learns about horrible tragedy before they happen and it's a sense of powerlessness when he cannot stop it. He knows this through the numbers. This role was a grand one for me to play because I have this problem in real life. No I do not have a list of numbers that will be telling me the future, but it is often that I can sense the chakra of others and know when something tragic will befall them, and they so rarely respond properly to my shouts of warning.
You get me off track here, which can happen to me sometimes. I'm meaning to tell you about the metaphor: Imagine a man who knows great and tragic universal wisdom and knowledge that he cannot share when it most matters. The poster is a good one because you can see the burden of responsibilty as represented by an entire city and the destruction there of being placed under and in some ways inside my very head. As if I KNOW it will happen, which is the premise.
I must agree that this is some strong poster work, and the finest minds working in our industry today.
I'm surprised that Brian chooses this poster because I have always assumed that as a work of religion in cinema my movie Left Behind would come to be oppressed. But it has gained a clut following thanks to the impact of its message: What if you could imagine being on an airplance when your co pilot and many others suddenly disapear clean out of their clothes? This is a danger situation. One that inspires many questions of faith as well as belief. In cinema one of the grand tricks is to have physical action on the one hand, and spiritual or emotional journey on the other hand, and they inter twine like two snakes making love. I have indeed witnessed two snakes making love in one of my jungle shoots, though I cannot remember which one.
I as a person have always been interested in the mystical arts, and there is nothing more mystical than God. God is behind the movie, I hope I don't spoil you by saying so, but it's all in the Book of Revelation which is common knowledge. I drew heavily on it for my acting here. There are many strong images in that Book, and when you think of such strong images as dragons and holy cups you cannot help but feel a bump in your performance quality. This is a part of my grand theory of acting which I will surely talk about below because I tend to run on about it, it is one of my grand discoveries.
This poster is one that accurately sums up the elements of the movie, including the cast, although I should add that the whole city is never on fire like that, so that you are not disapointed.
This movie contains other aspects, such as an investigation by me into the truth. My character is Rayford Steele. I need to discover what has come to pass, so I root through the disapeared passengers belongings and determine that they were all Christians (and my character wasn't, he was cheating). In this sense Left Behind also acts as a noir story, a detective yarn. For this you can see the heavy work of shadows in the poster, and the chiaroscuro.
I want you to take what I taught you about posturing when I was speaking about my movie Breakfast in Vegas, and I want you to apply it to what you see here. Then I wish to teach you something new, because you cannot deny that all of life is a learning experience, it never ends. Here you see an example of me performing with my Nouveau Shamanic Acting Technique. I explain this technique that I invented in this You Tube video during my junket for the Ghost Rider franchise.
Now I want to make one thing clear right now. I watch that video and I see the little box the pops out and says "Watch the full crazy HERE" don't think I don't see it. To your suprise I don't take this as an affront, you see, but rather it means that I am doing my job. If you think me crazy it means I am doing my job, because in some sense an actor is job is to act crazy, which is dificult for the sane. Do you see what I'm saying here? The uniqueness of my Nouveau Shamanic Acting Technique is the ability to channel the great Shamans of times yore and rather than merely pretend to be someone else, I CHANNEL THAT OTHER BEING. You can see the results of this in the poster above and who can even argue with that.
You see such great rage on my expressions when normally there is none, as I am at the core a peaceful person. What you've heard on the news was because of the trying influence of alchohol, a temptress which I have battled with. Nonetheless, a great talent of mine is to channel and become rage in my cinema, such as an example with the actual title of Rage. I am sad not to see that poster here but it's because my cinema is like my children and all are beloved.
People have accused me of racial apropriation for this film and I get very angry at them. To answer the hair question, this time around it was L'oreal.
The first thing to point out about Trapped in Paradise is that the title is something of a oxymoron. If you are in paradise, presumably you would not want to leave. That is why we can never acheve paradise on this mortal plain. That is the heart of the irony of the title, and of much of the drama.
A good poster will represent the drama and the irony as well, and this poster does just such a cinematic feat. When you go to see Trapped in Paradise at your friends house you can look at this poster and, rather than think this is cinema about three men LITERALLY trapped within a snow globe, you will know that once again metaphor is being employed in a skill full manner. I can assure you that to my memory there is no actual instance of men being trapped in a snow globe in this movie. Once again we have Photo Shop to blame.
I remember not very much enjoying the making of this work of cinema because it was cold and snowing at all times, but I learned to channel this and other things into my realistic portrayal of the character at hand, and the knowledge that I was bringing this character to life kept me warm at night. Dana Cravey is a delightful man but John Lovitz does not stop talking.
As is immediately apparent this work of cinema also comes before my moment of grand self discovery back when I was playing this hand some man. Look at this open vest and the way the tie dangles over the abs. It is demeaning, and I chaneled this into my character.
I cannot deny of being attracted to Deborah Foreman, and there is one for your gossip colums. Never the less we are here to talk about posters. This image has all of the elements of design, including font in the logo, and a list of what the movie provides including its main selling factor of music. I feel the need to insist that I bring a great level of passion to my work, and some times it ends in a restraining order!
Do you know that even before I pioneered the Nouveau Shamanic Acting Technique, many of its tenets were being employed by me? How else is one to inhabit the character of a vampire, that great magister of the dark arts. Here in this poster we have me surrounding by the common iconography of vampires: bat, the moon, teeth, and sexy women. Little do you know that to aid myself in performing this still image, beneath my vestments I am keeping many further vampire implements. Tokens of the dark lord such as coins and viles of blood, reflective pockets, and silver threads sown into my very underwear.
I must admit that the art of cinema posters is not all untainted by the need to also advertise the cinema itself. As such, the gorgeous composition of clouds and Cage is tainted by these floating words of newspapers claiming my skills. I cannot blame them.
If you're asking about the hair product this time I needed to keep it all natural for my performance so we merely poured a bunch of water on my head, which was then sustained by sweat.
Many people ask us actors if our performances effect our every day lives to which my response is that they ARE our every day lives. I realize this is a cheeky response so let me answer more clearly: Yes they do. For months and even years after shooting Vampire Kisses, I was plagued with a darkness that could not be exercised. I sought relief in the demon drink alchohol, as well as sex with women. The peace I could find years later in the pure belief of Left Behind had not yet made itself available for me. So let this be a warning for you: DO not embark upon a quest for the psychosomatic truths of brutes, rascals, or literal monsters unless you are prepared for consequence.
One last thing, Brian has included an alternate poster for this film and since this is all he asks of me, I feel the need to included because he asks.
This is a travesty of a poster. As you can see it is foreign, in Spanish. My head looks like a fool, coming out from where, beneath a bed? It is unclear. And these legs cross the frame of the image. It is shameful. The craft displayed by other foreign countries in postermaking is beyond reprehensible. Frankly it makes me angry just looking at this. If you're in another country just use the same image your American counterparts have already created, don't throw together some wretched dime stock cheapskate fucking ripoff amature garbage image off the top of your head just because you obviously don't care about these talented movies as much as Americans do. Foreign movie posters can suck my big one, and I don't just say that about anything, I apologize for my lack of tact in this matter..
Some times a national tragedy faces this nation so great that your only response can be to make a movie about it. When those foreigners attacked our shores I knew immediately this is what I must do. It took years but the end result is this triumph. Look on the grime and the rubble on this poster and you can get a good idea of the emotion that you will have when watching my movie World Trade Center.
I portray a fire man and I really recommend it if you haven't seen it already.
When there were extras underneath the rocks and they were dying as I tried to save them, I have a clear mental memory of suddenly losing any idea that I was in cinema at all. In that moment I lost myself truly to art, and I began screaming and yanking and clawing at the rubble, grabbing at extras and trying to save them in all of my excess of feeling and good nature. My spiritual art break through infected them as well because they began screaming and clawing at me as if I were rubble. The next day there were new extras and I saved them as well.
A piece of cinema is in some ways wish fulfilment, and those days on set were some of the best days of my life.
Brian gives me a whole beret of images here to speak about regarding my work with Zandale. I can tell you this much: these posters are all various yet communicate much the same ideas and anticipations. I regret to inform you something now: I cannot speak well to this work of cinema because I have scarce any memory of its entire proceedings. I was swept away in a cloud of drugs and that demon drink alchohol. And let me tell you something, for the kids out there. Cocaine is a rigid mistress. She will ride you like you were a horse.
I used it for my character, of course, or so I suspect judging by these images of myself. I have never seen the movie. It's clear that this is the stubble and tensed gaze of a tortured man. There is no more iconic image in cinema than the stubbled gaze of a tortured man, and I have oft seeked to be a part of this grand tradition. I assume that my character, probably named Zandalee, probably had quite a few troubles in here, based on the presence of guns and naked women in these cinema posters.
I am troubled by any gap in my memory. For years I have been atempting ouija, yoga, self breathing meditations, and other such rituals in order that I might remember my own birth, as it is imperative that I do so. I have not yet fully recuperated this memory, but at times when I am on that razors edge between character and reality, and I find myself tumbling down the slope into truth headfirst, the walls of the slope begin to feel slick and slippery, and I find that in my experience of performing I am both in the world of the character, and in the world of my own mother, sliding down the sticky birthing tubes of artistic expression.
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