Re: [MOPO] Italian Apartment and much more....

[Simon Oram]

Yes Rich, Marvellous poster have to admit  it would look good in my place but I do like the US half sheets as well. I really like the minimalism and pen and ink style for once from WB usually bland house style. Simon Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone. From: Richard C Evans Sent: Friday, 27 December 2013 20:50 To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU Reply To: evan...@mac.com Subject: Re: [MOPO] Italian Apartment and much more.... First auction I attended was Christies '95, where the star lot was Martinati's To Have And Have Not 4-foglio. Probably my favourite Italian poster or Bogart poster for that matter, regardless of him being rendered with a squint. Estimated at 3-5, achieved a very healthy £14k. Only other sale I've spotted was Heritage about ten years later: http://movieposters.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=624&lotNo=28289#Photo Amazing when you see it full scale, whereas mediocre art just gets worse the bigger it is, whether foreign or 6-sheet. On 26 Dec 2013, at 17:08, Paolo Zelati wrote: I couldn't agree more with you Adrian. The Italian movie poster artists used to put a lot of "themselves" into their artworks. Their interpretations, according to each one's different style, made the difference in terms of emotional transport (the one you could feel looking at, let's say, The Lady from Shanghai by Ballester or The Enforcer by Martinati). Brini, Martinati, Capitani, Ballester, Geleng, Nano, Simeoni etc. were real painters borrowed by the Entertainment's Industry.  In the last few years I've been selling more and more to American collectors and dealers but, still, the Italian posters are not for everyone. In Columbus, this year, I've made some sales and trades but most of the dealers (many on here too) used to tell me: "Sorry, I love these artworks, but I have no market for them". Basically, one of the major obstacles has been correctly pointed out by David: the size. In order to display Italian paper you need to have a lot of wall space, and that's a fact. Another problem, for some US buyers is the different title: even in front of a masterpiece like Ballester's 4sh for Stage Couch, someone gets discouraged by the fact that the big title of the poster is Ombre Rosse, something they can't immediately connect to. Finally, the prices: the Italian good posters are very expensive. And the reason is, just like Adrian underlined, most of the time they are way more nice than the country of origin's paper. One example for all: the Bogart's posters. Key Largo American 1sh is a 2000-3000$ poster. The Italian 4sh by Martinati (L'isola di corallo), even if you can find it, worths 3 times more. Why? Try to compare them:  http://www.movieposterdb.com/poster/5c8ea4fd    and   http://www.movieposterdb.com/poster/0ba2fe9c But still, we are talking about a 200x140 cm poster: beautiful, but very hard to display.  Finally I want to take this opportunity to tell you guys about a project I've been working on since 5 years: a series of books (10) dealing with the History of Exploitation Cinema (I'm a movie critic after all...) through the Italian posters. From the half of the 60's till half of the 80's I collected more than 3500 posters, that will illustrate the history of the commercial cinema in 10 books, each one dedicated by a sub-genre. My aim is to show to most of the the people (collectors, dealers, general audience...) that the italian poster Art did not end with the Classic Golden Age that I mentioned above.  First Book will come soon: Nazi-Exploitation Cinema. Will keep you guys posted. Thanks Paolo 2013/12/26 David Kusumoto <davidmkusum...@hotmail.com> I agree with you, Adrian, completely!  There was a time I was even more snobby and close-minded than some people already regard me - a time when I only stared at country-of-origin posters in line with my tendency to chase "first issue of publication or first printing or true first edition books."  My "metamorphosis" so to speak - came gradually - first it was my frustration with bootleg Star Wars posters in the 1990s and I swore off of them completely, everything from one-sheets to inserts, with only the half-sheet, three-sheet and six-sheets unscathed.  So I moved toward Australian daybills because the art was sometimes equal if not better than the country-of-origin issues, particularly titles from 30-40 years plus old.  I loved their portability did a complete "180" on them regardless of country-of-origin status and bought several from dealers like John Reid. Then the Italians creeped into my mind, I'm thinking particularly the Hepburn and Hayworth posters like those from "Sabrina" and "Affair from Trinidad" and "Lady from Shanghai."  Now of course these titles would be sought after anyway, given their Hepburn and Hayworth pedigrees, but the art from these so-called "foreign" posters looked awesome in person.  Recently, Bruce H. had a Swedish Citizen Kane for sale.  I'm sure most of you saw it - and I felt that this was arguably the best art for this title issued in the 1940s.  The only "slight" downside for me with Italian and French posters are the fact that they are on the "bigger" side - which limits their display in large quantities; at one time before our wildfires forced me to liquidate about 95% of my collection, I had nearly 150 posters on DISPLAY (I rarely STORED what I owned except for the hundreds of lobby and window cards I used to own) - and I know that if I had a few Italians or French grandés hanging on my walls, I would have want more of them but wouldn't have had the space.  I've got vaulted ceilings in my home, but I don't live in a mansion by any means.  As it stood, my collection at its peak just had one three-sheet on display on a 22-foot-high wall - it was from "The Quiet Man" and our glorious Sue Heim framed it for me.  Since there are no boxes to ship a 7-foot-high framed poster, my wife and I borrowed a van and drove up to the L.A. area to visit with Sue and then hauled it down to San Diego.  Let me tell you, hanging that monster on a huge wall while on a ladder was a miracle itself.  Anyway, back to the Italians; if I had to do it all over again, I'd chase the Italian "Affair from Trinidad" and would have likely adopted the "less is more" approach to collecting for display.  Still, I have no regrets because although I didn't have a Ralph DeLuca-type collection, I did have a good mix of popular mainstream vintage titles.  I envy guys like DeLuca all the time.  -d. Date: Thu, 26 Dec 2013 06:47:49 -0500 From: jboh...@aol.com Subject: Italian Apartment and much more.... To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU It is extremely interesting reading the comments and thread on the Italian Apartment poster that Kirby has. In Morrie Everett's last auction there were a good handful of Italian posters that were glossed over and went unsold. In my opinion the Italian movie posters are amongst some of the best art work for the respective films. Italian movie poster artists are the equivalent of the romantic artists of the 18th and 19th century. Often the American and brit artists for these movie posters are quite forthright with just an image of the principal actors and actresses...the Italian artists put a lot more "art" into the posters and yet because the language is not English these posters get over looked - A poster I brokered last year was for Fighter Squadron - it was beautiful - it went to a movie poster collector yet it would have been fantastic in the Smithsonian in the back ground of a P47 Thunderbolt. The art was superb. Now I know historically the Italian's liked to sell a film and many Sean Connery films had 007 like images on films that were made prior to Dr. No when these films had their re releases. It was often the artist that created the image that sold the film. I am very pleased that the US dealers are taking notice of Italian movie posters there are some wonderful pieces of art that are far more attractive than compared to the US or Brit paper. This Never Happened to the Other Fella.... Adrian Cowdry jboh...@aol.com Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: lists...@listserv.american.edu In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: lists...@listserv.american.edu In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: lists...@listserv.american.edu In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: lists...@listserv.american.edu In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.