I like the new poster (see below) for the re-release of Francois Truffaut’s 1976 film L'argent de poche, but for me nothing can beat the kitsch charm of the original British poster which takes a number of memorable vignettes from the film and turns them into what looks like a teen romance paperback. In the UK the film was called Pocket Money (the literal translation) and legend has it that it was Steven Spielberg who suggested the American title Small Change.
L’argent de poche was Truffaut's biggest hit in France since The 400 Blows, and, after opening the 1976 New York Film Festival, went on to great success in the US too. It's a strange film: mostly plotless, a combination of gentle humor, bitter social commentary and lovely magical realism ("Gregory went Boom!") populated by shaggy haired youngsters in bell bottoms. I've seen it twice before over the years and each time I revisit it it hits me with the force of barely remembered snippets from my own childhood.
The Film Desk's new poster for their re-release (now playing at the IFC Center in New York) is drawn by Nathan Gelgud and based on the original French poster which is itself the credit shot from the end of the film. The only US poster I can find seems to be the quote-laded broadsheet which looks more like a New York Times ad. If anyone knows of any others I’d love to see them.
