Hasta La Ideas

Detail from the Polish poster for Don’t Look Now, designed by Mucha Ihnatowicz, 1975

If Gavin’s recent blog post on Polish posters has left you hungry for more, then a new limited edition book about Polish film posters could be just the thing…

The book, titled 77 Posters/77 Plakatów, sees Polish film posters for British films paired with their original British counterparts. Stretching back to the mid-1940s the book includes posters for famous films such as Don’t Look Now and Mona Lisa as well as more obscure titles.

British poster for Mona Lisa, 1986, directed by Neil Jordan, courtesy Handmade Films

Polish Mona Lisa poster by Jakub Erol, 1987

While the British posters vary hugely in design over the decades, the Polish equivalents show a tendency for a more graphic style throughout. The book also reveals how the films were interpreted for the Polish audience, occasionally to comedic affect.

Original poster for Boom! directed by Joseph Losey, 1967, courtesy Universal

Polish Boom! poster, by Maciej Hibner, 1970

77 Posters/77 Plakatów also contains a number of essays setting the posters in context, from academics including Ian Christie (Birkbeck College, London), Maria Kornatowska (PWSFTViT, Lodz), Marek Bartelik (Cooper Union, New York) and Patricia MacCormack (Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge).

British poster for Royal Flash, directed by Richard Lester, 1975, courtesy Two Roads Productions

Polish Royal Flash poster, by Romuald Socha, 1977

The book will launch tomorrow at a lecture at the LCC in London, where designer Andrzej Klimowski will be in discussion with David Crowley from the Royal College of Art. Copies of the book (which is published by the Twarda Sztuka Foundation) will be available to buy after the talk.

The Charge of the Light Brigade (British poster version), directed by Tony Richardson, 1967, courtesy Optimum Releasing

The Charge of the Light Brigade (Polish version), by Bronislaw Zelek, 1970

In addition, there will also be an exhibition of some of the posters at BAFTA, available to view by appointment. More info on the book and exhibition can be found here.

British poster for Don’t Look Now, directed by Nic Roeg, 1973, courtesy Canal+

Don’t Look Now, Polish version, by Mucha Ihnatowicz, 1975