Recommended reading - 1001 Movie Posters

 

1001 Movie Posters
Designs of the Times

Edited by Tony Nourmand.

Introduction by Christopher Frayling.

Contribution by Alison Elangasinghe.

Published by Reel Art Press.
Published 2024.
Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 1909526932
ISBN-13: 9781909526938
 
Description:

Steeped in nostalgia, this beautiful, diverse and definitive collection features posters from over 20 countries with work by over 150 art directors and illustrators.

 

The most comprehensive overview of movie posters ever published, 1001 Movie Posters is a definitive coffee-table volume from world authority on the art form, Tony Nourmand. Spanning more than a century of global imagery, the book celebrates the most arresting, aesthetically powerful examples of the genre, including a number of posters that have never been published before.

 

There has always been a raw immediacy to film posters: provoking and enticing, shocking and seducing audiences across the threshold of the movie theater. The artists tasked with communicating that have been at the forefront of design: groundbreaking visionaries such as Saul Bass and Paul Rand; Eastern European artists using poetic, surreal and often disturbing imagery in highly original and subversive concepts. Other poster artists have woven contemporaneous movements in art and popular culture into their designs, creating a time capsule of the obsessions and concerns of a different era.

Iconic posters for films such as Metropolis, The Man with the Golden Arm, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Goldfinger sit alongside more unexpected and lesser-known artwork for films such as 2001, Star Wars, Taxi Driver and The Birds. Nearly all cinematic movements are included, from early silent masterpieces through German Expressionism, film noir of the 1940s, 1950s science fiction, the psychedelic imagery of the 1960s, the gritty violence and retribution of the 1970s and 1980s, and then onward into the 21st century, where the stripped-back graphics nod back to the Bass minimalism of the 1950s.

 

An extraordinary visual compendium, 1001 Movie Posters is the final word on movie posters and a must for film lovers and anyone interested in the power of advertising and design.

 

"Cinematographic posters are like popular songs… they take you back to certain moments of your life, preventing you from losing them. They take you back not only to the film, but to their seasons, the atmosphere, and the taste of an era.” – Federico Fellini.
 
A vast selection of posters spanning the past century offers insight into contemporaneous tastes and styles, showcasing the medium’s eye-catching artistic innovations: glamorous paintings for 1922’s Salomé, scratchy, left-field illustration for 1987’s Withnail and I, and that terrifying, looming shark for 1975’s Jaws. – Tara Joshi, Guardian.

... readers can travel back in time with a rich collection of iconic posters from memorable films including 'Metropolis,' 'Breakfast at Tiffany’s,' 'Goldfinger,' 'Star Wars' and 'Taxi Driver' and 'The Birds.' – Lizz Schumer, People Magazine.
 
Spanning the colourful Parisian lithographs that marked the first public film screening by the Lumière brothers in 1896 through to recent blockbusters including 'Barbie' and 'Parasite,' it is the most comprehensive collection of film posters ever published. – Aimee McLaughlin, Creative Review.

In the exquisite '1001 Movie Posters: Designs of the Times,' Nourmand shares a wealth of his own favorites. [...] The volume is thick and arguably the most comprehensive review ever published. – Elena Clavarino, Air Mail.
Page after page elicits gasps. – Ty Burr, The Wall Street Journal.
 
A sweeping 640-page compendium of promotional posters announcing movies around the world, from 'Do The Right Thing' to 'Parasite,' to 'Snow White' to 'Star Wars' (the American, Hungarian, and Polish versions) to the first public screening in 1896. – The New York Times Book Review.