CHOKE BY CHUCK PALAHNIUK
10-5-09 POST KEYWORDS: choke, chuck palahniuk, sam rockwell, clark gregg, anjelica huston, writer, fight club, alfred hitchcock, dylan, cojo art juggernaut, artsucks.com, cojo
I finally got a chance to see the screen adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's CHOKE the other night on DVD, and I can see why it didn't get the same Hollywood buzz Fight Club received. I love Chuck's work, and have read almost everything he's written, and as I've mentioned on my blog before (SEE- Art Sucks 5-13-05) one of my proudest moments as an artist was when Black Book Magazine stacked my contributor bio after Mr. Palahniuk's.
Before I talk about the movie, first I would like to get into the ascetics of the Silhouette Profile Portrait-poster design (see above left), which is a total aside from the book or movie. The poster is beautiful in it's simplicity, and any movie poster that uses illustration or painting in any form is alright by me.
Molly and I were debating what we thought the design was derivative of. Although Silhouette Profile Portraiture dates back hundreds of years it was only really popular from the late 1700s to the 1840s.
I was thinking the iconic Milton Glaser - Dylan (top right), mainly because the type encapsulated within the silo and the cropping, while Molly suggested the Alfred Hitchcock Presents Silhouette (lower right) because it's more universal pop culture recognition.
The other thing that stuck out is that the font for the words FIGHT CLUB in the poster is as big as if not bigger than the title of the movie the poster is actually advertising. If it is smaller, it's about a point smaller.
Choke wouldn't have been my first pick as a second feature film. Invisible Monsters was great, or even Diary A Novel. I think I personally would like to see Diary a novel. I'm biased because the central characters in the plot fine art artists and the lead is a fine artist with a diary.
I can understand why Hollywood would choose Choke to get the green light first over his other books, mainly because of all the sex. It felt like it had a Running With Scissors vibe to me, where they took a really in depth sexual and grotesque book and watered it down to a creamy bland pudding. Maybe I should just skip watching movies based on books I like.
Did we miss the mark, are there other Silhouettes that are more iconic? You tell me, comments welcome.
