Most cinephiles love Alfred Hitchcock — or at least appreciate the consistent output of “The Master of Suspense”. So now I’d like to combine two things we all can admire — Hitchcock and the French posters of his movies, many of which were done by Boris Grinsson (Vertigo, Rope, The Man Who Knew Too Much, To Catch A Thief) and the super glamorous Roger Soubie (Notorious, North By Northwest).
(Disclaimer: Rear Window is actually the Belgian version, but I couldn’t resist!).
The Film/Art Gallery in Los Angeles has a cool new page up now detailing the transition of movie poster advertising from the feel good 50’s to the Mad Men-esque explosion of photography in the 60’s and 70’s. And there’s also a nice mention of film/art’s tasteful proprietor, Matthew McCarthy, in The New York Times!
All this Norman Rockwell talk reminded me of Albert Brooks’ Real Life (1979) — because its poster spoofs Rockwell’s classic Thanksgiving scene from The Four Freedoms series.
The LA Times has a nice write-up about a new exhibit at The Smithsonian American Art Museum featuring two of Norman Rockwell’s biggest fans/collectors, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Although the exhibition doesn’t feature Rockwell’s movie posters, it will showcase the master storyteller’s All-Americana skills.
Howard Hawks (1951) vs. John Carpenter (1982) — with some help from Drew Struzan on the poster.
Georges Kerfyser created some of the most dramatic French and Belgian posters of the 1950’s, 60’s, and 70’s — and arguably the sexiest one-sheet of the 20th Century (Blow-Up). What’s even more amazing though is that there is very little personal information about him online, except for the legacy of his name associated with his many fine designs.
In The Art of The Modern Movie Poster, Sam Sarowitz (of Posteritati fame) does a poster breakdown for a few select movie titles, comparing and contrasting the various International poster designs from each country. So I thought I’d do that here with From The Terrace (1960), a not-so-popular film adaptation of John O’Hara’s bestseller, starring then-newlyweds, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Check out the official trailer here.
My personal favorite is the French version, which was done by notable artist, Georges Kerfyser.
Over the past year or so, I’ve had my eye on a number of aesthetically awesome movie posters on Ebay and EMP, but I was usually always outbid. And often times it was by another bidder identified only as “Nicklyk”. So I wondered, who is this Nicklyk and why is he/she stealing away my dream collection?
Well, after some due diligence, I discovered that Nicklyk is Nick Lykiardopulo, the sizzingly stylish owner of The Image Gallery in Athens, Greece that specializes in Pop Art and, yes, movie memorabilia and advertising art (plus, he’s on Facebook!)…Unfortunately, since I can’t imagine I’ll be jetting to Greece anytime soon, I can only fantasize about what wonderful one-sheets he has adorning his gallery walls. Great stuff, Nick!
Our good friend, Boris Grinsson, checks in yet again with a coupla Frank Sinatra classics…
Movie Poster Museum 