While not strictly a movie poster like the other items in this collection, this cover art for The Criterion Collection’s 2017 boxset of the three films that comprise The Before Trilogy serves as another form of representation that advertises the films to a potential audience. The appearance of the cover differs greatly from the more image-centric movie posters. Here, a more abstracted image appears in the center, covered by prominent text that introduces the title of the trilogy and the filmmaker, Richard Linklater. The circular shapes, in combination with the titles that connote certain times of day and solar movement, elicits imagery of sunsets and sunrises. The impression of this image marks a start and an end to the trilogy, as well as a sort of cyclical tone to the idea of these movements in time occurring across three decades, while the individual narratives of each film take place over the course of one day.
I included this cover image as I feel that it allows for the individual movie posters of the three films to become translated into a more cohesive, contemporary understanding of the passage of time within this interpretation. The shift from representations focused in straightforward image and textual elements to this visual abstraction of the narrative structure of the trilogy works to directly position the films in a conversation.