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Fantastic Polish movie posters of well-known American films
12.03.2014
01:07 pm
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Rosemary’s Baby by Andrzej Pągowski, 1968

I’m really digging these Polish movie posters of American films… especially the one for Rosemary’s Baby which is pictured above. I found a few of them perplexing, though. Like the one for Terms of Endearment. I get that it’s a mom and daughter talking on the phone, but I’m not sure it gets its message across all that clearly. And the Dirty Dancing poster. That one misses the dartboard entirely!

I’ve added the artists names and dates at the bottom of the images in case you gotta have one and want to locate it on eBay or site that sells Polish movie posters. One of these might make a nice holiday gift for that special film fanatic in your life.


Vertigo by Roman Cieślewicz, 1958
 

Alien by Jakub Erol, 1979
 

The Pink Panther by Jan Młodożeniec, 1963
 

Planet of the Apes by Eryk Lipiński, 1968
 
More posters after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Tara McGinley
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12.03.2014
01:07 pm
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Alternate versions of famous movie posters
09.19.2013
09:19 am
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A Clockwork Orange alternate poster
A Clockwork Orange alternate poster
 
Choosing the right art for a movie poster is harder than you might think. When it comes to iconic movie posters of the last 40 or so years, some of them are so incredibly effective that’s it takes an effort to recall that it took a specific person’s creative impulse to concoct the poster from scratch, and several other people, most likely, to have the good sense to approve it. In other words, it could have gone any number of other directions.

If I say to you, “Clockwork Orange movie poster,” you can probably summon up an image of the thing I’m talking about—without me showing it to you. How interesting to find out that one of the early alternatives (above) bore zero resemblance to the end result, with its unforgettable image of nasty Alex leering out from behind that A shape. Bill Gold, one of the acknowledged masters of the movie poster, was responsible for both the great Clockwork Orange poster we know and admire and the overly detailed, ridiculously 1970s, sci-fi-novel-ish version at the top of this page. Much the same sort of thing is true of Pulp Fiction and Mystic River and plenty of others. 

Bill Gold was also responsible for the classic poster for the 1972 box office sensation The Exorcist. You might recall the spooky, ice-cold image of Max von Sydow’s reluctant, serious Father Merrin underneath a lamppost, approaching the MacNeils’ Georgetown dwelling in the dead of night. But it was almost not so! Below is a far more conventional take Gold cooked up for consideration.
 
The Exorcist alternate poster
The Exorcist alternate poster
 
The British events website Daybees has a fascinating gallery of movie-posters-that-almost-were, featuring the work of just a bare handful of designers while still managing to cover an impressive range of classic movies, from Cool Hand Luke and Dog Day Afternoon to Batman and Ocean’s Eleven.

“Alternate 2” for Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven is quite simply gorgeous, while “Alternate 2” for Mystic River looks like it took some underling about ten minutes. The alternate version of the poster for Tim Burton’s Batman isn’t horrible, but it’s very, very different from the Batman logo used in the final product.

In some ways, James Verdesoto and Vivek Mathur‘s Pulp Fiction offers the most interesting case. We seldom appreciate how bold and striking the Pulp Fiction poster is, but the alternate takes are almost painfully ‘90s and frankly show a lack of confidence in the movie—relying on blurry “slacker”-style imagery and the trendy lower-case lettering of the moment (remember sex lies and videotape?)—if you happened upon one of the alternate Pulp Fiction posters nowadays, you’d be forgiven for wondering if there wasn’t an Edward Burns retrospective happening or something. 
 
Pulp Fiction alternate poster
Pulp Fiction alternate poster
 
via Cinephilia and Beyond

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
‘Read More Movies’: Every word from ‘A Clockwork Orange’ printed on poster
‘Pulp Fiction’ reconstructed in chronological order
Turkish version of ‘The Exorcist’ in all of its glorious ineptitude

Posted by Martin Schneider
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09.19.2013
09:19 am
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Stunning movie posters for Martin Scorsese’s film restoration project

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As if there weren’t already enough cinematic goodness in Austin, Alamo Drafthouse has just announced a mini-festival of restored classic films from Martin Scorsese’s The Film Foundation. Here’s the good news:

Mondo & Alamo Drafthouse have partnered with The Film Foundation, Martin Scorsese’s film preservation organization, for a very special screening & poster series of eight classic films this May & June at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz in Austin, TX with beautifully restored 35mm prints.  The Film Foundation is the leading non-profit organization dedicated to film preservation and has worked with the nation’s archives to save over 560 titles. The foundation provides public access to the restorations and educates future generations about film language and history. 

The Film Foundation and its partners have provided pristine 35mm prints for King Kong, The Night of the Hunter, The Old Dark House, Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory, Rashomon, Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt, The Unholy Three and Film. The films will also get the Mondo treatment with an original, stunning work of art available for sale at each of the screenings

The posters by Mondo Tees are quite beautiful, with King Kong (artist: Laurent Durieux) and Shadow Of A Doubt (Alan Hynes) being my favorites so far. For info on tickets for the screenings and to purchase posters visit The Alamo Drafthouse’s website.
 
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Posted by Marc Campbell
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05.03.2012
02:48 pm
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