Bellflower (Evan Glodell, 2011) trailer

Is this the perfect movie trailer?



Cars skidding, cool music, a confident girl, quick cuts, cool quotes, slow-mo screeching and grubby but stunning cinematography.  And to top it all off, I've got no idea what the film's actually about!  Sweet!

Boy meets girl.  Boy likes flamethrowers and cars.  That's all you get in terms of narrative and quite frankly that's all I need.  How many times do you watch a trailer and feel as though you know the entire story, have seen all the best bits and really don't need to actually see the whole film?

But it's also the critics' quotes that are absolutely vital  in this piece of excellent marketing:

'I haven't been able to stop thinking about it'  from 'Film.com'.
'Hallucinatory' from 'Rolling Stone'.
Comparisons with Fight Club(!), John Hughes and Mad Max from 'MSN'.
'An explosive, outrageous and dynamic first film' from 'Hammer to Nail'

From those little nuggets of critical gold, I've never wanted to see a film so much in my life!  The best films are those that I often say will 'change your life' but not being able to stop thinking about it is the next best thing and this trailers already firmly planted itself in my head.  Comparing it to Fight Club is obviously going to attract all those people who were blown away by that life-changing film and the revealing of Bellflower as the directors first film is also enticing.  How many first films have been the masterpiece that their directors are unlikely to ever top?  I'm thinking La Haine, American Beauty... even Citizen Kane!

Director (and star) Evan Glodell has experience as a cinematographer and there seems to be an interesting story to how the film got its distinctive look.  The film 'was shot on a homemade camera created by cinematographer Joel Hodge and writer/director/star Evan Glodell out of vintage parts'.  If you want to see the contraption they created and a brief video about how it works, go here.

Finally it's the use of music that I love about this trailer.  Great changes in tempo, mood and style at critical parts of the trailer and Secrets by Small Town Zeros is particularly fittingly filthy!

I don't know about anyone else but I prey this film gets a wide release in the UK.  If you're only half convinced by the trailer, check out the epic poster here!