Posterwire.com is a movie poster weblog. From images of the latest Hollywood one-sheets to vintage movie posters, this film poster weblog hopes to offer a bit of insight into film key art.
An interesting film poster key art subject matter are the many creatures (and monsters) found in the “wild kingdom”. In honor of the upcoming Halloween holiday, we thought we would post a few images of movie posters featuring all matter of animals inflicting various types of terror, horror, and mayhem. So here is a poorly written paragraph with a lot of movie poster image links:
The deadly creature menace goes all the way back to the prehistoric era of dinosaurs (and in this case, fur bikinis). Many victims become worm food. Battle against an empire of ants. Overcome a swarm of angry bees or a single fly. There are creepy spiders. Dirty rats. Not so harmless birds. It may be raining cats and dogs. There are plenty snakes (without a plane). Kissing a few frogs might be dangerous. Watch out when the fish are biting. Speaking of biting, what is the difference between a crocodile and an alligator? An octopus may be one of the largest sea creatures, but the scariest of all sea life will always be sharks. Then again, some work really hard to avoid pigs. Others wonder if man descended from gorillas or (space?) apes. And don’t forget the lions, tigers, and bears, oh my!
Then there are the most dangerous creatures of all: man… or is it woman?
Whether you choose to call it an homage, rip, or branding, movie posters (like all matter of advertising) frequently emulate designs from other film posters. Occasionally this film poster deja vu can be unintentional, but often it is a calculated effort.
For the upcoming George Clooney film The Good German (a murder mystery set in post-WWII Berlin directed by Steven Soderbergh), the studio invoked the image of an old Hollywood film poster (and one of the greatest films of all time). The Good German movie poster recreates the look and layout of a popular Casablanca movie poster from the 1940s.
Varations of this particular Casablanca artwork originally appeared as a movie poster three sheet (41″x81″), poster insert and Australian daybill. This Casablanca film one-sheet was chosen as one of the classic posters in AFI Presents 100 Years 100 American Movie Poster Classics, and was part of the AFI program (PDF) to create high quality lithographic reprints of the top classic movie poster one-sheets:
Through this historic project — a collaborative effort by the AFI, major Hollywood film studios and Art of the Movies (an S2 Art company) — the 100 most memorable and striking movie posters of the 20th century are being recreated as a spectacular collection of limited-edition fine art lithographs. Using old-time, hands-on lithographic techniques, the program recreates early film posters in exactly the same way they were created during the first half of the century — from painstakingly hand-drawn plates, slowly ‘pulled’ one color at a time on the extremely rare antique lithography presses of the S2 Atelier in New York City. At the same time, later 20th-century movie posters, which typically were produced using cheaper, lower-quality photo reproduction methods, are being reborn in the form of these exquisite, aesthetically superior lithographic artworks.
The Good German movie poster reproduces many elements of the Casablanca movie poster, including the “stacked heads” cast gallery and the brush hand-lettering style title treatment. Since The Good German film draws inspiration from Casablanca and the classic film noir genre, a movie poster echoing those same conventions seems to be a good fit.
Buy The Good German movie poster at: AllPosters.com, eBay
With all the recent events in Lebanon, we came across this post on The Sulla Institute weblog:
I saw the flag used by Hezbollah and it occurred to me that it looked as if it was inspired by the movie poster for the Otto Preminger film EXODUS. Very odd… that was a movie that portrayed the Jews creating the state of Israel in a very heroic light.
Yes, that is odd… and a bit of a reach… just like all those arms reaching for a rifle (or an AK-47 assault rifle in the case of the Hezbollah flag) in both designs.
The Exodus movie poster was designed for the 1960 film by legendary graphic designer Saul Bass (Bass also designed the film’s title credits). The Exodus poster remains one of the more interesting Saul Bass movie poster designs — particularly for his ability to blend an illustrated graphic (the silhouetted arms extended with the gun overhead) with a photographic element (the fire burning away the image of the poster).
The yellow Hezbollah flag design features:
Across the top is a quotation from the Koran, from which Hezbollah took its name — “Verily the party of God shall be victorious” — and at the center is an AK-47 in silhouette, in the hand of the Shiite martyr Husayn, a cousin of the Prophet Muhammad. In the background is a depiction of the globe, suggesting Hezbollah’s role in the worldwide umma, or community of Muslims. Along the bottom of the Hezbollah flag is written “The Islamic Revolution in Lebanon”.
We will leave it to others in the “blogosphere” to determine the value in saying the Hezbollah flag is “ripping off the Jews” by comparing it with a movie poster designed by a Jewish graphic designer for a movie about the creation of the state of Israel. (The imagery of a gun raised overhead isn’t exactly a singular idea or uncommon image.) It does give something for political pundits to link to on their weblogs. It is interesting how movie posters can sometimes be associated with current events, controversies and politics.
The US vs. John Lennon is a new documentary film billed as “a compelling and provocative look at John Lennon’s transformation from beloved musical artist to anti-war activist to iconic inspiration for peace that also reveals the true story of why and how the U.S. Government tried to silence him.”
The U.S. vs. John Lennon poster seems to be a bit of an “homage” to a famous conceptual movie poster design — the peace V-sign hand for the Robert Altman film M*A*S*H (which is one of AFI’s 100 greatest American films.) The original MASH movie poster features a hand flashing the V sign, complete with an attached pair of sexy legs. Flashing the V-sign originally stood for “V for Victory”, but was also adopted as an anti-war peace sign — perhaps in response to it being the political trademark hand sign of President Richard Nixon.)
A somewhat strange image when seen for the first time, the leggy M.A.S.H. artwork does capture the tone of the irreverent anti-war comedy. (It certainly represents the iconoclast director Altman well.) After the success of the R-rated comedy, MASH was re-edited for a PG-rated re-release to theaters, and later movie poster key art addressed this edit as well by putting a gloved version of the hand peace sign in ads. The hand peace sign has made other movie poster appearances, including in the 1971 Johnny Got His Gun movie poster. The US vs. John Lennon takes that anti-war finger symbol and throws in the popular poster device of “glasses as an image container”. The Lennon poster also pushes the nostalgia look further by incorporating paper folds into the poster artwork itself — making the one-sheet appear as a vintage folded movie poster. (Most one-sheets issued prior to the mid 1980s were shipped folded to theaters, as opposed to modern rolled one-sheets.)
While you are in New York City to see the previously mentioned James Bond Movie Poster Exhibition, you might also stop off at the New York Academy of Sciences to see their new film poster gallery exhibit called Coming Attractions! 80 Years of Cinematic Science: Movie Posters from Around the World:
“Coming Attractions! 80 Years of Cinematic Science: Movie Posters from Around the World, an exhibition in the Academy’s Gallery of Art & Science through June 30, brings together posters for more than 25 movies, including examples from such countries as Argentina, Germany, Japan, Russia, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, and the U.S., among others. The exhibit includes a British poster for the re-release of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis; one from France for the American eco-drama, Soylent Green; and an Argentinean poster for the Italian film, Mission Stardust. Also represented will be posters for such true-to-life dramas as Inherit the Wind, the thinly disguised rendition of the 1925 Scopes “monkey trial,” and a poster for the glossy American tribute to the medical profession, Not as a Stranger.”
The New York Academy of Sciences web site features an online gallery of movie posters featured in the Cinematic Science expo. It’s an interesting subject matter for a movie poster exhibition (with one-sheets being supplied by the Posteritati gallery), and something you might not expect to find at a science academy. Besides that, any art gallery show featuring a Re-Animator movie poster as part of the exhibit is definitely worth a visit.
One of our favorite poster galleries, Posteritati, has announced an upcoming exhibition of James Bond movie posters. The vintage poster exhibition, called Bond, James Bond, will be showcasing vintage movie posters from James Bond films, including domestic and international 007 movie one-sheets:
The exhibition will run from Tuesday, May 23 through Wednesday, July 12 at the Posteritati Gallery in New York City and will feature rare international posters from Bond classics including Dr. No (1962), From Russia With Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), Casino Royale (1967), On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Live and Let Die (1973), The Man With the Golden Gun (1974), Octopussy (1983) and many more.
This Bond poster retrospective has good timing, as the “internets” have been abuzz this week about a leaked film trailer and image of the new Casino Royale teaser poster featuring the newest James Bond, actor Daniel Craig. It isn’t clear if this new 007 poster is an international or domestic teaser poster. What is clear is that Sony Pictures really wants you to know this Bond will be “dark”. The studio has been battling quite a bit of negative press about Daniel Craig being cast in the Bond role, so it remains to be seen if any piece of key art (good or bad) or advertising will be able to turn the tide of negative buzz surrounding the film.
Author Tony Nourmand (with designer Graham Marsh) visits what many consider the most important decade in film history with the movie poster book Film Posters of the Forties: The Essential Movies of the Decade.
Why are the 1940s so important in the spectrum of movie going, and by extension, the movie poster key art created during that decade? Having two of the top films (at least according to a few) of all-time — Citizen Kane and Casablanca — is reason enough to label the 40s as the latter part of “golden age” of film. The forties also saw the birth of the most beloved holiday film of all-time, It’s a Wonderful Life. And perhaps the most interesting film trend from the era: the rise of the darkest of movie genres — film noir.
Like all of the other volumes of the Essential Movies of the Decade poster book series, this edition features countless pages of color reproductions of movie posters from the 1940s. During this period, film studios hired the best artists they could find for their poster illustrations, including the likes of legendary pin-up artists Alberto Vargas and George Petty.
The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog has a fantastic collection of images of vintage Mexican Lobby Cards from “the golden age of Mexican Cinema”. The online selection of lobby cards from science fiction, horror, and other genre films highlight an ongoing Los Angeles area exhibit of artwork from Mexican cinema. (via Boing Boing)
Dimension Films has just announced the studio will be producing a remake of the 1978 film Piranha. The original Roger Corman B-movie was directed by Joe Dante (and written by John Sayles), and features flesh-eating piranha fish being released into a summer resort’s rivers. On the surface, Piranha is nothing more than a Jaws rip-off. (Although, the tongue-in-cheek horror film does have its fans — including Steven Spielberg. The film even generated a sequel directed by a young James Cameron.)
The Piranha poster also follows the Jaws poster formula: swimming beauty on the water, in danger from said creature (with large teeth) from below. The Piranha poster illustration does invoke the right look — another example of how exploitation poster artwork was the great equalizer when compared to the advertising of big budget counterparts. After all, hiring a good illustrator wasn’t beyond the expense of lower budget films.
The illustrator giving the Piranha key art it’s teeth was artist John Solie. No stranger to exploitation film posters, Solie illustrated posters for some interesting 1970s films, including Candy Stripe Nurses, Shaft’s Big Score, and Soylent Green. Solie, speaking about his time working for Roger Coreman’s New World Pictures:
If they gave me as much of a free hand as possible to do the work, I didn’t care whether I was working for a B-movie company or a major. At New World, I’d go to lunch with the art director, he’d tell me the story of the movie, I’d make a drawing on a napkin, he’d approve it and I’d go home and do it. I never saw any of the movies, but I made the movie ads and they made a lot of money!
Here is a great Flickr photoset of foreign movie posters from the films of iconoclast director Luis Buñuel. (Thanks Ray.)
