serious fanalysis of The Master so far (CANON ONLY.. no script/spoiler talk)

[theyarelegion]

The kaleidoscope also brings my thoughts to drunken vision.

This!

it looks timeless. fantastic 

[Jeremy Blackman]

I like it.

It follows in the very old art tradition of shaping human figures into triangles (see below). The kaleidoscope, intentionally or not, sort of has the effect of obfuscating who is at the top of the pyramid, so to speak.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Yikes, I think there's an extra space or two between PSH's name and Amy Adams's name. Does anyone else see that?

[HeywoodRFloyd]

I think the poster might be referring to power struggle i.e. who has power/control over who, and it looks like at some points that Amy Adams and Joaquin Phoenix have control over Hoffman (being above him) but Hoffman might have control over them (him being above them), I dunno I'm speculating.

[Jeremy Blackman]

I agree, that's what I was getting at with the "top of the pyramid" thing. In the primary pyramid, PSH is on top, but it becomes ambiguous when your eye starts wandering. I really wonder how much of that is intentional.

[HeywoodRFloyd]

Ahh okay, now I get the pyramid reference, I'm actually thinking this was intentional though Jeremy, otherwise why would they go with this design? It's a very specific design, and doesn't really reveal anything else other than the three main characters and perhaps this power struggle idea amongst them

[Alexandro]

we don't have to like everything about this film. I'm sure they'll come up with a better poster later.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Ahh okay, now I get the pyramid reference, I'm actually thinking this was intentional though Jeremy, otherwise why would they go with this design? It's a very specific design, and doesn't really reveal anything else other than the three main characters and perhaps this power struggle idea amongst them

I worded that poorly, but I am indeed hoping it's intentional. Let's say intentional until proven unintentional.

[Pozer]

If you had that portrait of the three take up the whole poster with the colors and look of the 50s like we've seen in the trailers, then that would have been a beautiful poster.

agreed. i hate the blue. it also reminds me of someone who just discovered new filters and soft focus or something.

it's the constipated there will be blood poster all over again, where the teaser poster destroys the latter.

[Reel]

Spoiler for JB ( not really anyone else. Cloudy, I guess.. )

it also reminds me of someone who just discovered new filters and soft focus or something.

That's another interesting correlation with Freddie and his knack for photography. It's like the portraits he was taking in the department store before he met these two. I wonder if he even shot and developed it himself, in the movie..

[Jeremy Blackman]

I do appreciate that.

[InTylerWeTrust]

"There's 3 of them and you could look at it as Hoffman in the topmost OR Phoenix in the topmost...but not Adams. Strange how that is."

[MacGuffin]

I agree, that's what I was getting at with the "top of the pyramid" thing. In the primary pyramid, PSH is on top, but it becomes ambiguous when your eye starts wandering. I really wonder how much of that is intentional.

In Scientology we have a magic triangle—only we don't call it a magic triangle. It is just called ARC.

Life has three component parts: affinity, reality and communication. These form a triangle—A-R-C. They are interdependent to such a degree that if you interrupt any one of them, you will interrupt the flow of the other two.

[BB]

Don't have much to add, but: multiple selves/past selves, a few becoming a crowd, and the blue makes JP's suit look like Barry Egan's.

[InTylerWeTrust]