The magic of film posters

Poster art is one of the best forms of art. Posters can speak more than photographs, as they can capture the painter’s vivid imagination and his master strokes. Unfortunately, the art of making good posters is slowly diminishing. We hardly see good posters these days. The poster artists, who played a significant part in making those wonderful posters of Sholay, Umrao Jaan, Mughal-e-Aazam, Deewar, are either unemployed or are involved in making posters for cheap B-grade films. Isn’t that a matter of shame for all of us?

Two of the directors whose posters had always been good were Alfred Hitchcock and Ingmar Bergman. While Hitchcock’s posters had layers of abstraction in them, Bergman’s close-up posters rightly captured the complex emotions of their characters. Thanks to the internet, these posters are well preserved and indexed online.

May it be the bouncy, kinetic poster of 1950’s All About Eve, or closeup image of Dustin Hoffman in the shattering violence packed Straw Dogs (1971), film posters have always had the power to attract viewers. Well, who can forget the beauty in the posters of Umrao Jaan (1981) and the scerenety in the posters of Devdas (1935)?

I have come up with an exhaustive list of my favourite film posters. Since the list is too long, I have divided it in two parts. The second part will be updated in my next post. I understand that displaying these beautiful posters on my site would have been a better way of representation, but that would have terribly slowed my site down down. Therefore, I have linked each film’s title to their respective posters. Click on the titles to view them-

1. The Silence of The Lambs (1991)
2. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
3. Trainspotting (1996)
4. The Graduate (1967)
5. Ace In The Hole (1951)
6. Lolita (1962)
7. The Dark Knight (2008) (2)
8. Swades (2004) (2)
9. Vertigo (1958)
10. Pierrot Le Fou (1965)
11. Persona (1967)
12. The Seven Year Itch (1955)
13. The Phantom Menace (1999)
14. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
15. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
16. Umrao Jaan (1981)
17. Dial M for Murder (1954)
18. American Beauty (1999)
19. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
20. Straw Dogs (1971)
21. The Battle Of Algiers (1966)
22. Moon (2009)
23. All About Eve (1950)
24. Devdas (1935)
25. A Woman Under The Influence (1974)
26. The Man With the Golden Arm (1955)
27. Fargo (1996)
28. Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
29. The Honeymoon Killers (1969)
30. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
31. Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
32. Do Bigha Zamin (1953)
33. Funny Games (2007)
34. Chinatown (1974)
35. Unforgiven (1992)
36. Family Plot (1976)
37. Dr. Strangelove (1964)
38. Anything Else (2003)
39. Flash Of Genius (2008)
40. Good The Bad And The Ugly (1966)
41. Mean Streets (1973)
42. The Bad Sleep Well (1960)
43. The Silence (1963)
44. Pulp Fiction (1994)
45. Contempt (1963)
46. Sideways (2004)
47. Roma (1972)
48. Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1961)
49. The Gold Rush (1925)
50. The Birds (1963)
51. Fearless (2006)
52. The Beat Generation (1959)
53. Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
54. Kill Bill (2003)
55. The Third Man (1949)
56. The U.S. vs. John Lennon (2006)
57. Gandhi (1982)
58. MASH (1970)
59. Rocky (1976)
60. V For Vendetta (2006)
61. Moulin Rouge (2001)