Movie Poster of the Week: Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani’s Origin Stories

Posters for a delirious series of genre films that influenced Cattet and Forzani’s "Let the Corpses Tan".
Adrian Curry

Above: French poster for Django Kill… If You Live, Shoot! (Giulio Questi, Italy/Spain, 1967). Artist: Enrico de Seta.

Starting today, the Quad Cinema in New York will be playing what must be the most entertaining and esoteric genre series of the summer. In advance of the release of the delirious nuovo spaghetti western crime thriller Let the Corpses Tan (full disclosure, I work for Corpses’ distributor, Kino Lorber), the Quad has invited directors Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani (Amer, The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears) to program ten personal favorites that have influenced their new film.

The resulting curation is a fabulous mix of genres and locations, with films both well known (John Boorman’s Point Blank) and relatively obscure. The majority are from the filmmakers’ favorite period of the late ’60s and early ’70s—as the Quad’s introduction says, “apart from Quentin Tarantino, few writer/directors active in film today have the lifeblood of 1960s and 1970s cinema coursing through their veins as fulsomely as Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani”—but there are two films from 1998 that point to their more contemporary influences (albeit already two decades old).

The posters for the films they have chosen are a great starting point for the series, as lurid and alluring as the films themselves promise to be. I’ve selected my favorite for each film. I particularly like how Enrico de Seta’s Italian poster, above, for Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot! presages Gilles Vranckx’s stunning poster for Let the Corpses Tan, with its grasping hand emerging from the ground.

Above: German poster for Face to Face (Sergio Sollima, Italy/Spain, 1967).

Above: German poster for Point Blank (John Boorman, USA, 1967).

Above: French grande for Danger: Diabolik (Mario Bava, Italy/France, 1968). Designer: Ferracci.

Above: Italian poster for Venus in Furs (Jess Franco, UK/Italy/West Germany, 1969) 

Above: US one-sheet for The Laughing Woman (Pierro Schivazappa, Italy, 1969).

Above: US half-sheet for Road To Salina (Georges Lautner, France/Italy, 1970).

Above: US one-sheet for Cry of a Prostitute (Andrea Bianchi, Italy, 1974).

Above: French poster for Sombre (Philippe Grandrieux, France, 1998).

Above: French poster for I Stand Alone (Gaspar Noé, France, 1998).

“Origin Stories: Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani’s Footnotes to Let the Corpses Tan runs from August 24 through September 1, and Let the Corpses Tan opens August 31.

Read Daniel Kasman’s interview with Cattet and Forzani here.

I must also mention that the great Jay Shaw, no stranger to Movie Poster of the Week, has designed this beautiful limited edition screen printed poster for Let the Corpses Tan for Mondo which will go on sale at mondotees.com on August 31.

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Movie Poster of the WeekHélène CattetBruno ForzaniGiulio QuestiSergio SollimaJohn BoormanMario BavaJess FrancoPierro SchivazappaGeorges LautnerAndrea BianchiPhilippe GrandrieuxGaspar NoeColumns
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