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.)
Category Archives: French movie posters
Tony Curtis Dies at 85.
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
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.
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!
Movie Poster Smackdown!
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
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.
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…
Savoring Savignac
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.
Movie Poster Museum 