If you haven’t been exposed to the weird and wonderful world of Polish film poster designs you have missed out on some peculiar and fascinating concepts. Naturally of greater interest is the interpretations given to major Hollywood productions, and they are often given a surreal dimension which makes one wonder quite how they would entice Polish cinemagoers to part with their cash and buy a ticket to the film. Instead of communicating a generic message through the poster images, numerous Polish designs opt instead for symbolism. In this respect Polish posters were conceived at the time as works of art, rather than becoming art retrospectively. These conceptual masterpieces feel as though they should be hanging in a gallery rather than on the wall of a cinema. I welcome all my fellow travellers on The Celluloid Highway to take a peek at some wonderful and exotic Eastern European ephemera.
THE BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1925)
THE SEVEN SAMURAI (1954)
YESTERDAY'S ENEMY (1959)
THE TIME MACHINE (1960)
MONDO CANE (1963)
THE RAVEN (1963)
THE BIRDS (1963)
THE REPTILE (1966)
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)
PLANET OF THE APES (1968)
ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968)
SOLARIS (1972)
DON'T LOOK NOW (1973)
ENTER THE DRAGON (1973)
GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1973)
JAWS (1975)
THE OMEN (1976)
THE SWARM (1978)
APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)
ALIEN (1979)
ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ (1979)
THE CHANGELING (1980)
KAGEMUSHA (1980)
THE FLY (1986)
EYES WIDE SHUT (1999)
For polish poster, have a look on www.lesaffiches.com (in french)
ReplyDeleteMany thanks - I will certainly check out your site :-)
ReplyDeletePolish movie posters are a world, and an art form, all onto itself. Such a strange and wonderful phenomenon, yet it raises so many questions: Why Poland? Why movie posters? Is Polish art rife with this kind of symbolic, surreal work? If I were rich, I'd devote a room to this art.
ReplyDeleteLook forward to seeing more.
Peculiar in deed! I tried figuring out which movie they were representing before reading the title below and failed 75 percent of the time! I do love the artwork though, the weirdest one has to be the one for Alien, The Fly and The Omen.
ReplyDelete@ Mykal - Yes very abstract designs, and more to come I shall get Part 2 up soon.
ReplyDelete@ Franco - I thought you'd get a kick out of these buddy.
That poster for "Eyes Wide Shut" is instantly better than the whole movie. Amazing stuff.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that the polish artwork for MONDO CANE was chosen for the artwork for the massive box set from Blue Underground.
ReplyDeleteI did think the ROSEMARY'S BABY artwork was quite chilling.
I agree with you, Shaun, that many of these would be better suited for an art gallery.