Following an online discussion regarding what I deemed less than impressive covers of some new editions of Pier Paolo Pasolini films, I decided to show you something a bit different. This time, the works presented are not Polish (My Kieslowski post among others) but Japanese movie posters from when these these movies were released in Japan.
For some unfathomable reason, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s film posters are not exactly the most gorgeous, somehow unimpressive and lacking in real graphic work. Same goes for the dvd covers, except for The Criterion Collection’s “Salo” release which I thought summarized the film beautifully. However, the latter is an exception, the images we see rarely do his films just.
Sure, this absolutely does not refer to the content of his work but a film is also the very medium which enables the public to see it, the actual material aspect of the dvd/blu-ray which should have the role of paying homage to the work it contains & of reference to its aesthetic tendency.
Here are the 3 film posters of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s famous works “Medea” (1969), “Teorema” (1968) & “Oedipus Rex” (1967). I like the emphasis on Maria Callas’ eyes in the first one, the importance given to the bodily silhouettes in the second and the blatant way in which punishment is represented in the third.
Either way, it really had been a while since someone attempted a rediscovery of graphic design in Japan, which is why I think these posters are worth the look-over.
Courtesy of Illustraction Gallery, New York. No artist mentioned. All rights belong to Illustraction Gallery.
NB- Check out my Pier Paolo Pasolini & Maria Callas photo here: https://kinoimages.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/pier-paolo-pasolini-maria-callas-1970/
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