Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Unorthodox "15 Minutes"



This poster looks like a standard theater poster, but with the help of close analysis by Ed Poole of learnaboutmovieposters.com, I've come to the conclusion that this is a cleverly assembled ad hoc one-sheet. The image differs from US and European official posters for this film, and some of the conventional ratings and logos are changed or eliminated. There are also several spelling errors, beginning with the work "Youk" in the title area and including two of the names in the credits. This suggests that the text on the poster was arranged to resemble a US or European one-sheet (size of the poster is 22.5" x 38.5"), but typed in manually without careful proofreading. Here's a close-up of the credits:



Here's an image Ed provided of the credits on the US one-sheet:



The differences in the way the credits are laid out, the non-standard image on the poster, the misspelled names for Edward Burns and the name of the director of photography, the absence of the ratings box on the left, the absence of the logo on the AOL keyword line and the distributor name "New Line Cinema" (which distributes only in the US), all suggest that this poster is a clever imitation done by a film distributor in Egypt (where I found the poster) who had the film but no posters!

Ed Poole sent me this picture of the still from the film that was modified to make the graphic in the poster design:



Most people collect what are called standard theater posters, but there are other interesting movie posters that don't fit that category!


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Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Egyptian Political Movie Poster

Sorry We Are Being Tortured [maalesh ehna benetbahdel] (2005, directed by Sherif Mansour)


The poster is provocative, but not quite self-explanatory. I need to see the film.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Similar Designs--Coincidence?

The Man Who Loved Woman (dir: Truffaut) (1977) French poster

Forest of Thighs [ghaba min al-siqan] Mahmoud Yassine) (1974) Egyptian poster

When Dad Comes Back (1983)

When Dad Comes Back [vot vernetsia papa] (1983) - (dir: Khalmamed Kakabayev) Persian poster



The language on this poster is Persian, but there is very little written information. Thanks to Susan Poole for locating the film this poster advertises. The top line says "When my father returns" [vaqti pedaram bar migardad or ВОТ ВЕРНЕТСЯ ПАПА]. This is both a caption for the painting and a Persian translation of the Russian title of the film, which is set in World War II. In the painting the girl seems to be saying this to the boy. The characters in red on the right side say "Eastman color" and the black characters on the source line at the bottom left say "Product of Turkman Films" [mahsul torkman film]. The poster measures 26.5" x 38.5".

The performers in the film are Mayagozel Aimedova, Culnara Babayeva and Kurban Atayev

I would love to see the film! The poster was designed to make me feel that way.

On the Kinopoisk site I found this summary in Russian: The film is dedicated to the boys who have matured in the war. In the center of the narration is the thrush Bahar and the aul postman Merdan. They are not yet nine, but they know that every passing day, every good deed accomplished brings the Day of Victory closer and the day of the return of the fathers.

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