Everything you always wanted to know about movie posters ;-)

Vintage movieposters are desirable collectibles and a visually stunnning eye-catcher if displayed. What once was meant for advertising purposes when the film was screened at cinemas now belongs to pop-culture, a snap-shot of a classic movie in one image can be equally as attractive as any work of art. Prices and desirability on original movieposters for classic films, corresponding with poster artwork and rarity, are strong today and kept rising over the past 25 years. We too are paying high amounts for classic and sought after material from collectors, at auctions etc.

Original posters were sent folded already to cinemas up to the 80s, so foldlines are not to be considered as a defect. Furthermore older posters are printed on non-glossy paper (offset or litho), so foldmarks most times are not that heavy than on newer glossy posters.

Some films were being re-released to cinemas after one or two decades, so the distributors created new posters for that release (Re-release posters). These most times have a different image or artwork, and are usually easier to obtain today than the earlier 1st release ones, also resulting in a lower price.

Besides German material we are offering a huge selection of international posters. It can be very interesting to see how different countries approached a movie graphically.

I would like to highlight some personal favorites: Eastern European posters, especially from Poland, Czechoslowakia and East Germany for example, acknowledged in various exhibitions and publications already. Poster artists often had complete freedom there in creating an image that resembles a film, not having to show the stars, and as such often resulting in a graphic interpretation of the theme of a movie. These works were at the height of the time in an artistic sense, thanks to artists like Lenica, Swierzy, Gorka, Flisak, Klimowski, Starowieyski, Vyletal, Ziegler and many more.

On German posters from the “classic era” of the 50s and 60s there is a more naturalistic approach to portrait the stars and captivating key scene(s) of a movie, done by collected poster artists like Dill, Rehak, Peltzer, Goetze, Wendt, Williams, Schulz-Neudamm. Posters for the “arthouse” related film distributors Atlas and Kirchner, were done with a different, more artistic and almost symbolic approach to a movie, and are highly acclaimed today. Artists to name here are Hillmann, Fischer-Nosbisch, Schmidt, Blase.

Japanese movieposters are extraordinary too: they captivate with their unique foto-collage images, skillfully playing with senses of scale, layout, and bold japanese lettering in between.

There are alot more beautiful posters from around the world of course, like a stunning French grande or large Italian foglio, or a country of movie origin US poster for a hollywood classic of course!