Friday One Sheet: PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE is all Paint & Flames

Neon consistently put out exceptional, thoughtful, and laser-focused key art for their releases. Their beautifully minimal one-sheet for Cannes sensation, A Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, is one of their best.

Designer Akiko Stehrenberger is fond of the polaroid style matting and typically goes for a close up of a face (as in her work on the finest poster of the 21st century, for Michael Haneke's remake of Funny Games) but here, in a movie about looking at faces, that might be too on the nose. Instead she goes for the look of not-quiet mixed oil paint in the shape of a bonfire - one that also vaguely evokes the image of a woman's long hair with just a hint of curl at the end.

The painted film title as well as the cast and director further the minimalist style here. If I have said it once, I've said it dozens of times, it is simple, eye catching movie posters like this one that stand out in a multiplex lobby, against the multitude of lazy 'character collage photoshop nightmares' of Superhero movie designs, and lazy, obligatory blockbusters in the multiplex.

Considering the exceptional cinematic qualities of A Portrait Of A Lady On Fire - it is a masterclass in the reverse shot, and the production design is pretty much unmatched in 2019 - this poster does the film all kinds of justice.