In honor of the upcoming movie poster book launch of The Rat Pack by Reel Art Press, I thought I’d feature a trio of International versions of the Vegas hustlers. (The Italian version of Ocean’s 11 is by Jean Mascii, left.)
Category Archives: French movie posters
The Promised Landi
Like his contemporaries, René Ferraci and Jouineau Bourduge, Michel Landi came into prominence in the French movie poster world in the mid-1960s, just as photography and offset printing was supplanting traditional illustration.
Undoubtedly most known for his iconic poster of the 1968 Steve McQueen classic, Bullitt, Landi also pumped out a fleet of other popular designs for many of the era’s most memorable films.
Deep Sheets!
Every so often you see a creepy, but cool vintage movie poster of a movie that you’ve never heard of before and think…”Wow, what the hell is that? I’ve gotta see it!”
This one’s a 1968 Italian spaghetti western that was originally titled, All’Ultimo Sangue, aka Bury Them Deep.
Bulletproof Posters!
I’m always amused at how past movie poster artists emphasized certain unusual themes for specific genres, such as crime films. So what happens when you design a German movie poster (Bonnie and Clyde), a French affiche (To Trap A Spy by Roger Soubie), and an Argentinean poster (Highway Pickup by Bloise)? Shattered glass!
Remake Monday: Solarises
It sounds like psoriasis — but Solaris was a fairly popular sci-fi pic made in 1972. I first came upon the splendid Russian poster below on the cover of The Art of the Modern Movie Poster (second from left). The film was later relaunched in 2002 (or, some might say had a failure to launch) with George Clooney.
Ferracci Friday!
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.
Jouineau Bourduge
No, this post is not a clever take on Woody Allen’s famous “Juneau, Alaska” quip or even about a fancy bordeaux — rather, it’s the name of a prominent French movie poster artist who signed his work with the nom de plume, Jouineau Bourduge.
And like the film/art gallery mentioned a few months ago, Jouineau Bourduge, along with René Ferraci, were two French designers who led the charge in the late 1960s and 1970s when movie studios made the transition from illustration to photography for the majority of artwork on their marketing materials. Plus, JB’s in MoMA, so he must be good!
Chinatown Smackdown!
One of the greatest movies of all-time, Chinatown, also happens to have one of the coolest movie posters of all-time. My personal fave is the US version by Jim Pearsall, but the German version done by American artist, Richard Amsel, has its share of loyal fans, too. The French version, unfortunately, is uncredited, but I just had to feature it since this was a world class smackdown!
Jean Mascii Movie Posters!
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…
Movie Poster Museum 