Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

Yesterday I asked visitors to volunteer a movie poster or two that really marked their imaginations, and I promised to put images of these posters up in a blog posting. A fun, if movie-addled, way to get to know each other! As well as a dandy excuse to liven the blog up with some visuals. (By the way, clicking on some of these images will bring up bigger versions of the posters.)

So far, two brave takers.

Ricpic admits that he found this Saul Bass classic "very powerful":

Annette confesses to having been stirred by these hunky images:

Style and chic also speak to Annette, who still recalls this poster:

And I can testify that Annette isn't alone in remembering the campaign for "Blow Up" fondly:

What are those sexy, chic "Blow Up" people doing? And why wasn't I invited to their party?

UPDATE:

Blowhard Francis Morrone writes that he had this alienated beauty on his bachelor-pad wall and then one dumb day "unaccountably" gave it away.

Bridget goes downhome, remembering a lusty Burt Reynolds special:

ANOTHER UPDATE:

I haven't heard from Friedrich von Blowhard in a few days, so I'm going to treat myself to the liberty of putting up a few posters that I know perfectly well once rocked his world:

Steve Sailer dug the poster for "Pulp Fiction," which he says "looked far more glamorous than the actual movie, which looked an awful lot like what you'd expect for only $8 million bucks":

Tatyana saw a poster for Saura's "Carmen" when she was 17 and hasn't gotten over it yet. No finding that specific image online, alas. But it looked something like this poster for a Fellini picture:

The psychedelic vibes given off by these images (one a record jacket that looks like the poster for the movie) spoke dark volumes to George Wallace:

Brian cites some Saul Bass masterworks. Is Brian confessing to what once moved him deeply? Or is he showing off his current (and very good) taste? No matter. These are amazing images:

Searchblog 'fesses up to having this Ed Wood treat on her refrigerator. "They'll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands," she writes with her characteristic combo of wryness and extravagance. And guess who designed the great "Bonjour Tristesse" poster that made Searchblog's heart sing? Hint: his initials are "S.B." I'm beginning to wonder if Saul Bass' influence on the Boomer imagination might not rival Elvis':

Being a proprietor of this blog, I'm going to treat myself to another beauty. (What's the point of having power if you can't abuse it just a little?) This elegant poster for the movie of "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" came along too late in my life to have the character-shaping impact on me that images seen in childhood and adolescence can have. But it certainly suited my already-formed taste-set to a T:

ANOTHER UPDATE:

Tatyana did some heroic websweeping and finally located the poster that so struck her back when she was 17, "or close to 17," as she puts it. As it turns out, the poster wasn't for Saura's "Carmen," but for Scola's "Le Bal":

And Annette remembers how her heart skipped a beat when she looked at this gorgeous piece of action and romance:

ANOTHER UPDATE:

Friedrich von Blowhard writes in to let us know about a couple of movie posters that really formed his character:

If anybody else should care to name a movie poster that they found soul-searing, please do so in the comments. I'll add images and names to this posting as they come in. Donald? Pattie? Bryan? JC? Others?

2Blowhards: a full-service interactive blogging event.

Best,

Michael

I didn't mean to hog the space! What happened to Friedrich's "Star Wars"?? (But...I do really like all those posters!).

Posted by: annette on February 10, 2005 4:55 PM

Oooh--I was going to submit the Blow-up poster!

Posted by: Francis Morrone on February 10, 2005 5:01 PM

I don't know how to submit the poster to you, but when I was about fifteen, before I got my driver's license, the poster for Burt Reynold's White Lightening just made me wish and wish and wish I could have that kind of fun and adventure. The poster shows Burt with an enormous forearm over the wheel and a look like a cross between a grimace and glee. That's how I remember it.

Posted by: bridget on February 10, 2005 5:15 PM

I was deciding between Carlos Saura Carmen - no, not the one with cheesy couple, guitar and a rose, one with empty red background and single thrown black shoe - and the poster for the film called "The Ball" (Russian title), which I couldn't find anywhere to illustrate.
It's a dance movie, very few words in it, a history of the Parisian dance clubs in costumed dances (performed). Seen when I was 17, I think.

Posted by: Tatyana on February 10, 2005 5:49 PM

Oh, and of course, Newman rules! Forever!

Posted by: Tatyana on February 10, 2005 5:51 PM

Tatyana -- Google Images isn't being kind to me: I'm not turning up any "Carman" posters like the one you describe. Can you link to one such? I'll put it in the posting asap.

By the way, is everyone else familiar with Google Images? Just go to Google, click on "images" (right above the "search" box), then type in whatever you're looking for an image of, and Google will fetch a bunch of matching images. Cool. I'm not encouraging anyone to do this, but I just recently woke up to the fact that you can type naughty and perverted things into the Google Images search box too. Google Images turns out to be very non-judgmental about these things.

Posted by: Michael Blowhard on February 10, 2005 5:57 PM

That's the one! Thank you Michael.

Posted by: bridget on February 10, 2005 7:06 PM

Saul Bass is the man, or course. Vertigo is my favorite, but the TMwtGA one that Ricpic likes, and the stylistically similar Anatomy of a Murder are cool as well. I think he did the original version of Lawrence of Arabia too.

A cool Saul Bass site here.

The infamous "It's Terrific!" poster for Citizen Kane is well known for its inanity.

Posted by: Brian on February 10, 2005 9:14 PM

That was a Russian poster, and I can't find it either, yandex>images disappoints me. But I found something very similar in character, if of a different film
Instead, I found whole bunch of excellent Polish movie posters (check out their renditions of Blow-up and iconic Audrey)

I guess I will remain the only one with that Karmen image in my head...

Posted by: Tatyana on February 10, 2005 9:16 PM

Just because I had mentioned the film on my own weblog recently, I can't help but recall the poster for Ken Russell's Lisztomania (that link is to an image from the cover of the soundtrack LP, but I think it better displays the conceit that the marketers had, er, erected in the poster than any other image I could find.) Searching for that image, I was reminded of one of the slogans that accompanied the Lisztomania ad campaign: "It Out-Tommy's Tommy!" -- which in turn reminded me that the Tommy poster was pretty compelling in itself.

[Great honk! Tommy: the Movie is thirty years old this year! 'Scuse me whilst I crawl under this here rock to hide by shame. . . .]

Posted by: George Wallace on February 10, 2005 11:08 PM

I thought the various posters for "Pulp Fiction" looked for more glamorous than the actual movie, which looked an awful lot like what you'd expect for only $8 million bucks.

Posted by: Steve Sailer on February 11, 2005 2:39 AM

Gosh...I'd forgotten all about the movie "The Passenger"---and Maria Schneider!

But mostly, I had to look at the poster several times before I realized that the guy is Jack Nicholson. My goodness---makes the '70's seem like a long time ago, doesn't it?

I also liked the "Lawrence of Arabia" poster.

Posted by: annette on February 11, 2005 9:42 AM

PS---there is one more hunky one---yours made me think of it! "The Last of the Mohicans."

Posted by: annette on February 11, 2005 1:46 PM

Aha! I found it!
The film about history of the dance club in Paris, that is, not the Carmen.
And I wasn't 17 (alas, alas) when I saw it. Close. But not 17.
It's "Le Bal", Ettore Scola: http://www.cinemotions.com/modules/Films/fiche/2090/Le_Bal

As far as I can remember, the video cover repeats the poster. But I'm not sure in anything anymore...

Posted by: Tatyana on February 11, 2005 7:53 PM

LISZTOMANIA: ZOWIE!

Posted by: ricpic on February 12, 2005 9:15 AM

"Magnum Force" was a loser; "Dirty Harry" was the bomb. Check this out: http://fujishobo.hp.infoseek.co.jp/movie/dirty.harry.jpg

Also, I would nominate this poster for "The Warriors" which you can see at http://okladki-divx.neostrada.pl/covers/w/warriors.jpg

Posted by: Friedrich von Blowhard on February 14, 2005 5:02 AM

M. Blowhard, you've forced me to face the fact the movie posters leave me cold.

Yet another horrible social flaw!

Posted by: J.C. on February 15, 2005 8:17 PM






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