It’s movie poster mania at The Pinup
Blog!
Movie posters are
one of the most diversified genre there is.
From photography, to realistic illustration,
to the expressive and dramatic- Show biz has
got it all! Of course, I’m a sucker for it’s
pinups- the classic and the contemporary.
Some are old-school, some I’m seeing for the
first time, some will became classic in
twenty year’s time. So let’s zoom into this
modern art- the movie poster.
Art Nouveau Does Hollywod
Before
movies were in color, or had sound, or camera
movement, the posters were just as low tech.
This doesn’t mean that they were inferior- on
the contrary. Movie posters in the 20’s and
before were designed by the most respected
fine artists, such as
Alfons Mucha,
Eugène
Grasset and
Paul
Colin. Always very expressionistic,
focusing on colors, shapes and rhythms.
All this sophistication, however, leaves
enough room for a lot of sex-appeal, and
as the years progressed, the cleavage
regressed.
Glamor Girls in Hollywood
Of course
it was the 1940’s and 1950’s that gave birth
to the glamor girl and femme fatal. And it’s
impossible to mention Hollywood in the 50’s
and 40’s without Marilyn Monroe, Rita
Hayworth, Marlene Dietrich, Elizabeth Taylor,
Audrey Hepburn and so many more.
Bad Girls
The 40’s and 50’s
were chock full of
after-school-specials, deterring
teenagers from sex drugs and Rock ‘n’
Roll. (Little good that did’em come the
60’s, but that’s for the next sections.)
Surprisingly enough, a realistic example
of a girl that’s generally “good” didn’t
come to these movie creator’s mind, but
they had to create an angel that would
fall from grace and turn into a complete
slut. (pardon the French, of course
)
Horrified and Screaming B
Cheesecake
It’s always a necessity- when
there’s a scary monster or a psycho killer on
the loose, to accompany him with a horrified
and screaming cheesecake. Preferably, her
clothes will be ripped and her skin all dewy
(because let’s face it- women don’t sweat- we
glow
) from the long and
hopeless chase of a B movie.
With the comeback of the horror genre, in the
late 90’s, however, the whole pinup issue was
subdued, merely showing respectable torsos.
That said, I would like to note that a bit of
a change has been made with Quentin
Tarantino’s Robert Rodriguez’s “Grindhouse”.
Tragic Sirens
Tragic tales of young,
beautiful women were quite popular in the
first half of the past century. The posters
were ever so dark and tragic, oozing with
drama.
Bond Girls
Not only icky monsters get
the girl. James Bond is always accessorized
with an assortment of hot chicks, with extra
big breasts and extra long legs. Also,
because Bond just refuses to die, his taste
in women seem to change with the times,
bringing in that diversity I love so much.
(Tons of respect to Austin Powers, keeping
with the tradition.)
Swooning Romance
It’s actually not
that easy to find pinup girls that stand
alone, in vintage movie posters. Most of them
are busy swooning into a mans arms. But as
you will find out in the next section, a
swooning pinup girl is a rarity in
contemporary movie posters, so enjoy these
vintage classics, while they last:
Neo Pinups
Contemporary movie posters
are a treasury of strong and violent (yet
extraordinarily glossy) neo pinups. From the
gun slinging Trinity of The
Matrix
to Tarantino’s sword
swinging Bride, it’s the whole feminist
theory run-amoc. So are you of the Uma
clan or the Angelina clan?
But these modern neo pinups aren’t the first
to holster a deadly weapon...
Lolita- Literally a Pinup
GIRL
Some of you may want
to rip my head off for this category,
but I gotta give respect to the
photographers and actresses, who created
these posters, because their message is
so precisely conveyed. These images
reveal a stunning sexuality within the
girls, especially Natalie Portman, who
conveyed such maturity, at the time, it
was frightening.
(Lolitas: top: Dominique Swain; bottom right:
Sue Lyon)
Hope you enjoyed the movie madness,
Tags: Vintage Movie Poster,
Rita Hayworth, Bad Girls, Marlene Dietrich, Natalie Portman, actresses, Quentin Tarantino, Grindhouse, Lolita, Austin Powers, Angelina Jolie, uma Thurman, neo pinups, Pinup Girls, Tragic Sirens, Bond Girls, horror genre, B movie, screaming cheesecake,
scary monster, Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, 1950’s, photography, modern art, femme fatal, show Biz History, 1940’s, Paul Colin, glamor girls, Alfons Mucha, Eugène Grasset, Art Nouveau, Hollywod, realistic illustration
