Special sizes. There are sometimes specially produced posters in various sizes. There are silk and paper banners. There are posters intended for subway posting. There are door panels. There are free standing poster displays called lobby standees which were sometimes made. There are variations of the numbers of styles (style A, B, C, D etc) available in various poster sizes. No one knows all of what was made for each film because sometimes different items were made for distribution to different localities.
Posters foreign and domestic.
All of the sizes that have been discussed above are all for posters of U.S. origin. Film posters were manufactured and distributed in England, France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Austria, Poland, Russia, Argentina, Mexico, Japan, China, India, Australia and other countries. There were films made in these respective countries and films imported into them from any number of other countries. If you consider this for a minute, you begin to get an idea of the permutations of posters for any given film. A Belgian poster for an Italian film. A French poster for an American film. An Australian poster for an American film. An American poster for a British film. And so on. Every country has posters in various sizes. And there are original and reissue posters in foreign posters just as in US posters. Developing a knowledgeable working overview of foreign posters is one of the difficult challenges of poster collecting. It is beyond the scope of this article. But it is appropriate to mention here that more American collectors are discovering that foreign posters can be wonderful. More foreign posters are being seen at auction and are being offered by dealers. Some dealers in the U.S. have specialized in foreign posters. Certainly these dealers are knowledgeable and their expertise is valuable. And there are a host of dealers overseas who also sell to clients in the U.S. There are auctions in Europe and England as well.
Certainly the French, Italian, and Belgian posters represent the mainstay of foreign posters that we see in the U.S. Since the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, posters from Poland have been imported into the U.S. They are remarkable in many ways. Several
years ago there was a big influx of Argentinean posters. These, too, can be beautiful. British posters have been seen in recent years, but they are not very common. Two dealers in France, Stanislas Choko and Jean-Louis Capitaine have assembled valuable books on the French Movie Poster. If you can find these books, get them.
One thing worth noting about foreign posters is the interest that foreign poster collectors have in the artists that designed the posters. While this happens some in the domestic poster market, many US posters were designed by studio workers whose work has gone largely uncredited. Not so in Europe, where a long tradition of posterization since the time of Toulouse-Lautrec and others have created an awareness of the artists that did the posters. This is a fascinating and worthwhile aspect of foreign poster collecting.
All of the sizes that have been discussed above are all for posters of U.S. origin. Film posters were manufactured and distributed in England, France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Austria, Poland, Russia, Argentina, Mexico, Japan, China, India, Australia and other countries. There were films made in these respective countries and films imported into them from any number of other countries. If you consider this for a minute, you begin to get an idea of the permutations of posters for any given film. A Belgian poster for an Italian film. A French poster for an American film. An Australian poster for an American film. An American poster for a British film. And so on. Every country has posters in various sizes. And there are original and reissue posters in foreign posters just as in US posters. Developing a knowledgeable working overview of foreign posters is one of the difficult challenges of poster collecting. It is beyond the scope of this article. But it is appropriate to mention here that more American collectors are discovering that foreign posters can be wonderful. More foreign posters are being seen at auction and are being offered by dealers. Some dealers in the U.S. have specialized in foreign posters. Certainly these dealers are knowledgeable and their expertise is valuable. And there are a host of dealers overseas who also sell to clients in the U.S. There are auctions in Europe and England as well.
Certainly the French, Italian, and Belgian posters represent the mainstay of foreign posters that we see in the U.S. Since the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, posters from Poland have been imported into the U.S. They are remarkable in many ways. Several
years ago there was a big influx of Argentinean posters. These, too, can be beautiful. British posters have been seen in recent years, but they are not very common. Two dealers in France, Stanislas Choko and Jean-Louis Capitaine have assembled valuable books on the French Movie Poster. If you can find these books, get them.
One thing worth noting about foreign posters is the interest that foreign poster collectors have in the artists that designed the posters. While this happens some in the domestic poster market, many US posters were designed by studio workers whose work has gone largely uncredited. Not so in Europe, where a long tradition of posterization since the time of Toulouse-Lautrec and others have created an awareness of the artists that did the posters. This is a fascinating and worthwhile aspect of foreign poster collecting.