Click on the name or movie poster to learn more about each Italian artist’s most famous works…
Anselmo Ballester Luigi Martinati Luigi Martinati 2
Averardo Ciriello Angelo Cesselon Giorgio Olivetti
Rene Gruau Enrico De Seta Rinaldo Geleng
Picchioni Franco Rodolfo Gasparri Ezio Tarantelli
Silvano (“Nano”) Campeggi Tino Avelli Mario Piovano
Ermanno Iaia Manfredo Acerbo Mario De Berardinis Aller
Manfredo Acerbo, who signed his posters with just his first name, had a talent for design with his loose, sophisticated, painterly style. Certainly, there are other Italian poster artists with much higher profile credits on their résumé (namely, Ercole Brini), but Manfredo’s work is just as pretty — even if the films themselves were not.
Over the weekend, I got a chance to look at the latest movie poster book to hit the shelves, Starstruck: Vintage Movie Posters From Classic Hollywood.
Written by Ira Resnick, the famed poster collector/owner of the Motion Picture Arts Gallery, this coffeetable book is a dream for fans of pre-1940’s movies. And with an introduction by Martin Scorsese, you know the guy’s legit. Along with colorful reproductions, the book features even more colorful anecdotes of how Resnick scoured the countryside during the 70’s and 80’s and bought most of these priceless collectibles for a song…Ah, dem were the days.
Movie Poster Museum 