Every few months people seemingly unearth some new treasure trove of batshit insane illustrated movie posters from foreign lands. Previously there have been odd phantasmagoric posters for Star Wars and Back To The Future, while other collections feature horrific caricatures of Will Smith and Jim Carrey as the grimacing faces of their films. Well, time has marched on and so another new (old) batch of film posters have made their way to the Internet.
Over at Dangerous Minds, there’s a nice collection of Polish movie sheets that are mostly new to western eyes and show either a very deep reading of the films they represent, or a completely and total lack of understanding of what movie the poster is meant to promote. For example, the one for Raiders Of The Lost Ark seems unrelated, but features Indy’s go-to weapon appearing like his number one fear (snakes) entwined as it stares at the prospective audience member through death’s eyes:
But then there’s the one-sheet for Terms Of Endearment which, what? Happy phone people? Sure, phone calls play a pivotal role in moving the film’s plot along—but they are not conversations most would categorize as “pleasant.” Would Polish patrons know the poster is being sarcastic?
Or it splits the difference like the Alien poster that speaks to the body horror element of the Ridley Scott’s film but appears to have nothing else in common with the spacefaring truckers fight a monster plot. Nor does it even use the one element commonly praised by most people, the design of the creatures in the film:
There are other posters for films like Dirty Dancing, Fatal Attraction, and Star Wars that are worth seeing over on that site. It would be nice if Criterion Collection or some other boutique home media company started using these images to bewitch and befuddle cinephiles on the covers of their releases. But seriously—can someone please explain the Terms Of Endearment poster? The first ever A.V. Club No Prize will be awarded to whomever makes it approach even a modicum of sense.
(Via Dangerous Minds)