Constantin Belinsky, the Godfather of French B-movie action posters — and a frequent contributor to our beloved Kitchen Sink section — once started out with a very clean, elegant look for his posters as seen below in this early 1950s affiche.
However, possibly upon realizing that popular artists of the time such as Bernard Lancy, Henri Cerutti, and Herve Morvan had already perfected that look — he invented his own colorful style, thus moving onto bigger and bolder designs!
His name sounds Irish, but the poster artist known as O’Kley has had his work translated in French, Spanish, and Italian productions — so I guess that makes this romantic illustrator very well-travelled. Now bring on the dancing girls! (Intemporel)
With the unique style of Yves Saint Lauren and the drawing power of Thor, French poster artist, Yves Thos, set cinema lovers’ hearts afire for decades with his memorable renderings of La Dolce Vita and other International classics…(EMP)
The 1930s and 1940s French posters of Henri Cerutti go down smooth as a sweet, fruity glacé. Hailing from the golden age of the gargantuous 4-panel poster (240×160 cm, or 94x 63 inches for you Americanos), Cerutti’s mural-sized designs were not only big, but beautifully elegant as well. (Intemporel)
It’s pretty apparent that Raymond Gid (1905-2000) was a God-fearing man if you judge him by some of his stark, dramatic movie poster designs that reflect deep religious overtones.
Blessed with a mastery of typography, Gid went on to publish a number of books on liturgical and medieval texts — but he did not look down his nose upon commercial illustration, as he later created a set of famous advertising posters for Bally.
Besides Elaine Hanelock, another prominent 60s mod female artist was French poster designer, Helene Le Breton, who created a number of affiches, most notably this striking set from the 1959 French production, Cigarettes, Whisky, and Wild Women…
While Boris Grinsson was busy doing all the “B” movie posters for The Syndicat, Roger Soubie was the A-lister at the firm. And his top ranking was well deserved as his finely depicted sexy sirens and sci-fi scenarios indeed put him on another planet.
Martine Boyer and Pierre Bourdy’s book showcases Soubie’s flamboyant style with splashes of color and insight, illuminating the artist’s substantial entry into the 2,000+ club. But as lithography was supplanted by offset printing and photography, Soubie met the same fates as those of his comrades, Bonneaud, Grinsson, and Noël, and moved onto other areas of travel and advertising design work until his death in 1984 at the age of 86.
Movie Poster Museum 