The Art of Film Poster

In this Noirvember series I do intend to explore more than just noir films themselves. So today I want to look at something that sometimes we, quite unfairly, forget when we think about films – and that is film posters.

My motherland, Poland, is known in the international film community for its unique, artistic film posters. And I mean known. As BFI writes:

Established in 1947, the Polish School of Posters was a loose association of artists headed by Henryk Tomaszewski. Tomaszewski taught at Warsaw Fine Art Academy and encouraged his students to move away from posters created in western Europe, which he considered to be too commercial.

It was a bold undertaking but the breakthrough came at the 1948 International Poster Exhibition in Vienna (organised by Austrian graphic artist Victor Theodor Slama). Two thousand posters from 18 countries were exhibited, and Tomaszewski and Eryk Lipiński won 12 gold medals between them.

So in today’s Noirvember post I would like to show you some of my favourite Polish posters for various noir films.

“The Woman in the Window”

“Sunset Boulevard”

“Rififi”

“Elevator to the Gallows”

“Chinatown”

“Mulholland Drive”

Do you pay attention to film posters? Have you seen some of these before? Or maybe you have some favourites that I did not mention? Please write in the comments!

Are you enjoying this Noirvember series so far? Maybe you have some specific topics you would like me to write about? Drop me a line in the comments, via e-mail or on my fan page!