1001 Movie Posters

1001 Movie Posters: Designs Of The Times is the most comprehensive collection of movie posters ever published, from world authority on the art form, Tony Nourmand. This 640-page tome spans more than a century of global imagery, from the colourful Parisian lithographs heralding the Lumière brothers’ first public film screening in 1896 to innovative posters for recent blockbusters such as Parasite and Barbie.

This book is a must for film lovers and anyone interested in the power of advertising and design. Iconic posters for films such as Metropolis, King Kong, La Dolce Vita, The Man with the Golden Arm, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, A Clockwork Orange, Goldfinger, Jaws, Trainspotting and Get Out sit alongside more unexpected artwork for films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, Taxi Driver, The Birds and Judas and the Black Messiah, creating a time capsule of the creativity and inventiveness of past and present eras.

There has always been a raw immediacy to film posters: provoking and enticing, shocking and seducing audiences across the threshold of the movie theatre. The artists tasked with communicating that have been at the forefront of design: ground-breaking visionaries such as Saul Bass, Paul Rand and Bill Gold; Eastern European artists using poetic, surreal and often disturbing imagery in highly original and subversive concepts; and modern studios taking a 360-degree approach to branding.

Selected by editor Tony Nourmand, the feast of images in this compendium features posters from over 20 countries by hundreds of art directors and illustrators – many credited and discussed here for the first time. The book is introduced by an essay from cultural historian Sir Professor Christopher Frayling and features informative commentary throughout by writer Alison Elangasinghe.