Speaking of great movie posters ...
Since we're on the subject of cool movie posters today, Empire magazine blogger Nick de Semlyen offers his own meditation on the mysterious allure of movie posters with a few choice words about a few cinema classics:
"Chinatown": "I love the weird, dreamy mood, the smoke from Jake Gittes' cigarette wafting up and transforming into Evelyn Mulray's hair, the features of her face looming out of the bleached-out background like a femme-fatale Cheshire cat."
"Mulholland Drive": "What are the two girls staring at and why is it freaking them out?"
"Kill Bill": "Best ever use of a hankie in a poster!"
"Vertigo": "Like Vigo in 'Ghostbusters 2,' this piece of art has the power to hypnotize if you look at it too closely."
And if you live in L.A., don't miss the opening of a new exhibit of posters from Bob Peak, the father of modern movie posters. The first one-man show of his prolific output opens June 6 in Alhambra at the Gallery Nucleus. His work includes posters for such films as "Apocalypse Now," "West Side Story," "Camelot" and five "Star Trek" features.
Everyone has a favorite movie poster. If I were picking one today, it would be the great Robert Aldrich film noir "Kiss Me Deadly," with its title written inside of a blood-red pair of lips, its femme fatale lying back, being kissed by a handsome lug, but still never letting go of the stub-nosed pistol in her hand. I'm sure everyone has a favorite poster. What's yours?
The Chinatown poster was done by James Pearsall at the agency Diener, Hauser Bates. I have a signed copy. It was his best in a long series of art posters he did going back to the 1950s.
Posted by: verbwank | May 29, 2009 at 05:35 PM
The not ready for prime time Ken Park
Posted by: kevin | May 29, 2009 at 09:07 PM
JAWS.
Posted by: Racicot | May 29, 2009 at 10:37 PM
About 15 years ago, the late lamented Cinefantastique magazine did an issue devoted to the genre movie posters of the Fifties and Sixties with tributes to their artists and generous examples that made you want to see even the cheapest turkeys they were promoting again. Most contemporary posters are more likely to repel than attract a moviegoer, if you can figure up what they're supposed to be promoting.
Rick Mitchell
Film editor/Film Historian
Posted by: Rick Mitchell | May 30, 2009 at 03:25 PM
The American one-sheet for Truffaut's STOLEN KISSES.
Posted by: Griff | May 31, 2009 at 02:59 PM