Shot With Hidden Cameras

Hard to believe Jonathan Glazer shot 'Under the Skin' mostly with hidden cameras filming regular people (getting releases signed after the fact if they agreed to it).

I like how they stripped cameras down to basically the sensor and mount and ran wires out to recorders.

'Under the Skin' Posters

This is looking like one of the most must-see movies of the year. Very whole lot extremely must-see.

I like these -- they're more like contemporary photography than movie posters -- but there are others.

Yes, Like Kubrick, But With More Forward Motion

People have mentioned that Jonathan Glazer's approach with 'Under the Skin' has a very Kubrickian vibe. That's exactly what I thought at :22 in this trailer when the close-up eye shot appears. The movie is filled with visual metaphor. The camera work is ultra-clean, pulled from a dream.

None of this seems superficial or done only for the sake of style judging from this synopsis of Michel Faber's novel (of the same title). Here's an excerpt:

SPOILERS

Isserley is an alien whose assignment on earth is to abduct male (preferably muscular and burly) hitchikers for their processing, in a subterranean area under a barn in Scotland where she and her fellow aliens are based, as farmed animals that are castrated, made mute by tongue-amputation and fattened up in pens like calves for their veal. After a few months, they are eventually slaughtered and butchered for meat and then transported back to Isserley's native land, which is portrayed as a dark, arid, unpleasant place where meat is a rare and expensive delicacy. 

Vaguely canine in her original form, Isserley has had to undergo mutilating surgery to pass as a human whose day job is to drive on the A9 of Scotland picking up unsuspecting men and then, after sometimes quite interesting conversations, paralyzing them by flicking a switch that activates twin jets that come up through the front passenger seat injecting an immediately acting curare-like drug. Isserley then transports them back to the farm. 

Pretty deep. I can't imagine the movie doing that plot justice but I'm looking forward to finding out.

Flippy Trailers, But Intriguing Poster

I haven't gotten into trailers for 'Under the Skin'. There's nothing in the footage that really gains traction and a lot of the time those trippy storylines get bogged down -- too many coincidences, too much stuff not explained well, ninety minutes of wooden delivery of dialogue and actors whose eyes convey nothing (which seems de rigueur for farout spacy plots) -- I tend to drift watching such stuff.

This poster is nice, though. Has a sophistication, hints at some kind of cosmic story element. For whatever reason this graphic doesn't push Scarlett Johansson. You can hardly recognize her. Not sure what to make of that but somehow it seems like a positive thing. Not that the fact she's in it isn't a selling point, just that the studio/director (or whoever) wanted to showcase the story not the movie star -- which can't be bad considering the type of movie.