The poster for the new Robert Pattinson & Emilie de Ravin film "Remember Me" is currently plastered all over bus shelters and billboards in LA. The first time I saw it, I thought the featured image successfully captured an effortlessly romantic vibe and managed to look more interesting than your standard promo shot.
I must have been at a red light because then my mind wandered to the process of selecting a publicity image and what sort of crazy poster design testing potentially goes on behind the scenes, etc., when I realized that the composition actually made reference to something much more fundamental (art historically speaking) than tween preferences. Together, the two faces (one in profile, one in 3/4 view) are perfectly aligned to make a complete face—much like Picasso's technique of depicting a single face through multiple perspectives—and perhaps this, albeit wonky, symmetry appeals to our brains on a subconscious level. Plus the concept of two people merging into one, presumably through love, in turn reinforces the uber-romantic messaging of the film (person who finds this poster detestable, here's your cue to say this theory is total bunk).
So kudos to the design team at Summit Entertainment; the movie may bomb but at least the poster prompted a satisfying arm chair analysis.
[Images: Picasso's "Girl Before a Mirror" (detail), "Head of a Woman," "Large Head"]