Speaking of EMoviePoster, they’re having their big four-part December 2010 Mini/Major Auction of one sheets, rolled posters, linenbacked items, and all sorts of everything ephemera…
Category Archives: 1940s posters
Mambo Italiano!
In the mood for a little Italian? Then you’ll surely feast on New York Times film critic/vintage movie poster collector Dave Kehr’s “imaginatively-titled” book, Italian Film Posters!
Kehr goes beyond the traditional Italian classics, such as La Dolce Vita and The Bicycle Thief — and features a bowlful of astonishing, lesser-known beauties as well as fills in some nice chunks of history on the notorious BCM Studio (Anselmo Ballester, Alfredo Capitani, and Luigi Martinati), a trio of artists that launched their designs on the early International movie poster industry. And even though the book’s already been out a few years, I’m sure you’ll agree that the images featured inside are timeless.
Also, while you’re at it, don’t forget about Dave Kehr’s other poster books, including The Art of the Modern Movie Poster, Exploitation Movie Posters, and The Independent Movie Poster Book.
Beverly Hills Shop!
If you are anywhere near the 90210 this weekend and have a few extra grand to blow on vintage movie posters, then you might want to blow it at The Heritage Auction Galleries on November 12-13 where they are hosting one of their yearly Live Signature auctions.
Although the prices are too rich for my blood, they feature some most amazing images from the early 20th Century and beyond…
Film Noir Tribute Video
Here’s a cool Film Noir mashup video edited by Serena Bramble that was screened during last spring’s San Francisco Film Noir Festival, hosted by local noir-it-all, Eddie Muller.
(NOTE to all you ADDers: Hang in there as the music montage kicks in at the :34 second mark!)
The Great Venturi
One of my favorite all-time movie poster artists is the Argentinean illustrator, Osvaldo Venturi — who I didn’t even know existed until a year and a half ago when I stumbled upon his work in The Art of The Modern Movie Poster from The Posteritati Gallery in NYC.
Venturi’s elegant posters from the 1940s and 19450s are more like paintings than one sheets, filled with vivid, swirling bursts of color and large dramatic faces of movie stars (perhaps he was the one who invented the notorious “floating heads“).
The price ranges for these beauties are all over the map from thousands of dollars on eBay to just a couple ten spots on EMoviePoster if you get lucky. So, to paraphrase Ferris Bueller, “if you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.”
They’ve Got Personality!
Back in the mid-1940’s, Paramount hired Roger Soubie to do a series of French Personality Posters to promote its stars in Europe, most notably Veronica Lake, Fred MacMurray, Dorothy Lamour, and Ray Milland.
And if any movie studio needed someone that could highlight the beauty, radiance, and charm of its “product” — it’s apparent that Soubie was the right artist for the job.
Fountainheads!
But who could forget arguably the most famous architecture book movie of all-time? Unfortunately, some of these posters make Gary Cooper/Howard Roark look more like an abuser than an architect!
Friday With Fourastie!
Jacques Fourastie has often been credited with designing the infamous Pickpocket movie poster. But luckily for us, he’s also done a lot of other French movie posters that we all can be proud of…
eBay Deal of the Day: Timeless Books!
A few years ago, Stanislas Choko, owner of the renowned Intemporel Galerie in Paris, came out with a handsome set of poster books featuring legendary 20th Century French artists, Roger Soubie (Martine Boyer, Pierre Bourdy), Boris Grinsson (Jean Segura), Guy Gerard Noel (Christophe Capacci), and Jacques Bonneaud (Claude Bonneaud, Erwan Serveau).
(FYI, Intemporel means “Timeless” in English for all you non-Francophiles out there.)
Anyway, I recently discovered on Intemporel’s eBay store that Choko has slashed 60% off the prices of each book down to $15 (or, make that 12 Euros from the normal 29)!
So no matter where you’re from or what language you speak, this is an absolute steal as these handsome little tomés feature some of the most beautiful French posters ever created in the history of motion picture art…and thus will most likely be the closest chance I’ll ever have to getting my hands on them!
At first glance, picking a favorite of these books is like picking a favorite child. But since I don’t have kids, I’ll have to say that I probably most enjoyed the Boris Grinsson book. But of course I’m a little biased since I’m a huge Grinsson fan and love a lot of the comedy films he worked on. So depending on your personal taste, it’s really hard to go wrong with any one of these treasures.
IMHO, here are my takes on each of these lovely books below…
Movie Poster Museum 