Above: Unused poster design for The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook, S. Korea, 2017); designer: Empire Design.
It’s been a while since I did one of these round-ups of the most popular posts on Movie Poster of the Day—since the beginning of the year, in fact—but in that time one poster has been liked and reblogged more than 2,800 times, making it the second most popular design I’ve ever posted on the blog. The comp design for Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden, which I featured as part of my interview with Empire Design’s John Calvert back in March, is a deserving fan favorite: an exquisite and beautifully realized concept that was shelved only in favor of something even more perfect.
The rest of the Top 20 features the usual eclectic mix of old and new (there are six posters for new films in the list, and two new designs for old favorites), familiar designers (Boris Grinsson, René Ferracci, Akiko Stehrenberger, Midnight Marauder, Jay Shaw) and exciting new artists (James Jean, Sam Spratt, Tamas Horvath, Dylan Haley). I love that the original Japanese poster for the 1969 The Rain People made the list along with its aesthetic heir: Akiko’s lovely new illustration for 2016’s After the Storm. And then there is James Jean’s literally heart-rending painting for Darren Aronofsky’s upcoming Mother! I urge you to take a look at Jean’s website to see his astounding large-scale works.
Below Mother!, see the rest of the Top 20 in gently descending order of popularity.
Above: U.S. teaser one sheet for Mother! (Darren Aronofsky, USA, 2017); artist: James Jean.
Above: Poster for Wordless Music performance of Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, USA, 2016); designer: Midnight Marauder.
Above: Japanese poster for The Rain People (Francis Ford Coppola, USA, 1969); designer: unknown.
Above: Italian 2-fogli for Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow, USA, 1987); artist: E. Sciotti.
Above: 1972 East German poster for Hello Dolly! (Gene Kelly, USA, 1969); designer: Roeder.
Above: U.S. one sheet for After the Storm (Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan, 2016); artist: Akiko Stehrenberger.
Above: French grande for The Elephant Man (David Lynch, UK, 1980); designer: unknown.
Above: U.S. one sheet for 1984 (Michael Anderson, UK, 1956); designer: unknown.
Above: U.S. one sheet for The Lure (Agnieszka Smoczyńska, Poland, 2015); artist: Sam Spratt.
Above: 2017 U.S. re-release poster for Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, USSR, 1979); designer: Tamas Horvath.
Above: 1972 Japanese re-release poster for Ugetsu Monogatari (Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan, 1953); designer: unknown.
Above: U.S. one sheet for Black Sunday (Mario Bava, Italy, 1961); designer: unknown.
Above: Japanese poster for The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, USA, 1963); designer: unknown.
Above: French grande for Hiroshima, Mon Amour (Alain Resnais, France, 1959); artist: Boris Grinsson.
Above: 2017 re-release one sheet for Steamboat Bill, Jr. (Buster Keaton & Charles Reisner, USA, 1928); designer: Dylan Haley.
Above: French grande for My Night at Maud’s (Eric Rohmer, France, 1969); designer: René Ferracci.
Above: Festival poster for The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland/UK/USA, 2017); designer: unknown.
Above: US one sheet for Free Fire (Ben Wheatley, UK, 2016); designer: Jay Shaw.
Above: 1946 Danish poster for Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, USA, 1941); artist: unknown.
Poster sources are all credited on Movie Poster of the Day; click on the titles above for more information.
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