Category Archives: 1960s posters

Ferracci Friday!

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René Ferracci (1927-1982) was like the Ferrari (or Gucci, if you prefer handbags) of French movie poster artists back in the late 1960s — because at the time, nobody had seen anything like him! Similar to Sergei Eisenstein who invented montage on film with The Battleship Potemkin, Ferracci was one of the early pioneers to introduce photo-montage/collage designs into his posters, mixing color illustrations with black-and-white photography (or vice versa) and offset printing.

And it worked out very well for him as Ferracci became a brand name in the movie poster world — as well as a marketing expert in branding — by being one of the first artists to stamp (not sign) his name on each of his posters.

Jean Mascii Movie Posters!

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Yesterday, I mentioned French poster artist, Jean Mascii — and if you aren’t familiar with his work, he is basically to 1960s dramas and westerns what Robert McGinnis is to James Bond’s US movie posters. In fact, he even did his own French rendition of Goldfinger.

But of course, Mascii was no one-hit wonder as we all can attest by admiring his bold, rich colorful portfolio of International one-sheets below…

Remake Monday: Ripley Posters

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Purple Noon (1960) vs. the much more Talented Mr. Ripley (1999). (The far left affiche was done by French movie poster artist legend, Jean Mascii.)

Tony Curtis Dies at 85.

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A colorful character off the screen, Tony Curtis liked it hot, but always played it cool (even on his movie posters), appearing in a few Hollywood classics as well as a bunch of stinkers…in large part to finance his lavish lifestyle!

Penn-manship

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Arthur Penn, an American director with a European flair, died yesterday at the age of 88. Undoubtedly most known for his shoot ’em up classic, Bonnie and Clyde, he was nominated for three Oscars and went onto work with some of the biggest names in the business, leaving an indelible print on the silver screen.

The King and Eye

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Yul Brynner made his name in front of the camera, most notably starring in The King and I — but 1stDibs has a nice spread featuring Brynner’s work behind the camera as a budding photographer in a photo exhibit that was lovingly put together by his daughter, Victoria Brynner.

Movie Poster Smackdown!

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Every once in a while, I like to do a poster breakdown á la Posteritati where we compare and contrast the different U.S. and International versions of a past film release. And this time up it’s Two Weeks In September (1967), starring Brigitte Bardot.

Personally, my favorite is the Argentinean version (lower left) with the UK one-sheet (lower right) a close runner-up — but you gotta admire the fearlessness of the Polish version (top, far right) for going totally abstract like those Polish beauties tend to do!

Making Waves

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Claude Chabrol, one of the early pioneers of French New Wave cinema, died yesterday at the age of 80.

Though not as well-known as some of his very well-known contemporaries, Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut, Chabrol thrilled audiences for years with his cerebral-styled thrillers and kept working right up until the end as his last film, Inspector Bellamy, starring Gérard Depardieu is coming out in October.

Savoring Savignac

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The French graphic artist, Raymond Savignac (1907-2002), was already well established in the advertising world for his simple, colorful commercial posters when he started doing movie posters. But lucky for him (and us), the famed director, Robert Bresson, took a shine to his work and the rest is one-sheet history!

You can find a more varied selection of his commercial work here.