From The Third Man to Pulp Fiction,a sterling film poster can be as much a work of art as the movie it is selling. So why are so many contemporary posters drab and uninspiring?There are a number of unmistakable signs that youre in a student flat. The smell. The minimal fridge. And the walls plastered with peeling posters of films released years before anyone living in the house was old enough to have seen them at the cinema. whether they have seen them at all.
Scarface, Pulp Fiction, or Breakfast at Tiffany’s,Trainspotting, Chinatown: all instant classics of unique and punchy design, and which neither misrepresented nor undersold the movie they were flogging. Once so respected and venerated an artform,the poster has become a functional product; carelessly Photoshopped, cropped and stuffed with explosions until logic, or sense and any artistic ambition have been ruthlessly abandoned. In 20 years time,we’re unlikely to see a poster for The Danish Girl or Dirty Grandpa up on anyone’s wall. Including those of the directors.
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Source: theguardian.com