The Skin I Live In –blue ray cover

    The main characters of the move The Skin I Live In-  are the representational images here.  Both of them are the focus point and the attention getters. The image on the left is the image of Antonio Banderas his face and body are very tensed. The image of the woman on the right combine’s representational abstract and symbolic levels. The eyes, nose and body below are the parts of representational image; the skin is transition from representational to abstraction/symbolic (there is something unnatural about these lines). Her body and face are very tensed similar to Banderas’s, the mouth’s line is harsh and eyes show determination to deal with whatever bothers her. The skin around the eyes is depicting her real skin but musk on her face is already pictures abstraction. It corresponds with the title of the movie and visually it says to you “the skinlike musk”. Symbolically it whispers the word “hiding”. Design promises you a mystery and gives you sense of an intrigue and f possibly something unexpected by involving all three levels of meaning.

 Abstract
The main abstract objects here are musk, and skin of the woman. When you look at these lines below the shoulders you can say that it is not real scars you are looking at. It is abstraction of something like a stitch or drawing. Those lines work very well with the tensed bodies to embrace the sense of something uncomfortable. Even if you didn’t read the movie preview it tells you that genre is probably something thriller- like. Musk is also incorporate to that uncomfortable feeling that image sends you. The shape of the muck is not organic it doesn’t repeat the exact shape of eyes and nose. The color is also different from her skin color. The mask looks like it made plastic or silicon and contrasts with realism of her eyes. Eyes that emote “disturbance” and “discomfort”.

Symbolic
The box case for DVD has the logo

that in a very straight forward manner tells you it is Blue Ray and therefore high quality of the video. The musk derives its symbolic meaning from abstract.  It delivers even deeper message of something that hiding behind. Musk is a known symbol of hiding the face if you think of direct meaning, and hiding the truth if you think of it figuratively.  

 All of three meanings work and interconnect very well.  The type also has static characteristics to it as muck and stroke has the same color like the musk. All of it combined create unity and sense of duality (layer underneath of other layer).

This poster attracted my attention in Europe as one of the best representations of what to expect from the move without reading about it seeing a preview. It conveys powerful abstract and symbolic message in combination with photographs of the actor and actresses that movie presents.