ALIEN Polish poster - Style A ALIENS Polish poster ALIENS Polish poster - Style B

These are three of the original Polish posters for ALIEN and ALIENS. I believe all three were designed by legendary Polish poster designer Witold Dybowski.

If this is your introduction to the amazing world of Polish film posters, you are in for a world of delight. The Polish film industry has a history of utilizing creative artistic posters long after most of the world moved to photographs of movie stars. But even if you’re already familiar with the wonders of Polish film posters, I hope I’ve uncovered some hidden gems in this post that can further your appreciation of the subject.

I’m not an expert on the subject, so I don’t want to fill your head with misinformation or my own amateur interpretation, but here is my basic understanding of how Polish film posters became so awesome. In essence, there was a single film distribution entity in Poland from the mid 1940s until 1990. Film Polski was the state run film monopoly, and all non-Polish films were released through this entity. The lack of competition and unorthodox approach to commercialism certainly provided an environment where poster artists were able to flourish, but I like to think the high quality of Polish advertising was mostly driven by people and a culture that wanted to embrace great art. The focus was on making stunning images that could stand on their own, not just a sales tool to promote the stars of a film. You can see incredible artistry in Polish design across almost all forms of print advertising including opera, theater, film, concerts, and even normal product billboards.

The Kemistry Gallery in London will be having an exhibit entitled “Mr T: The Posters of Jerzy Treutler” from February 2nd to March 17th. Jerzy Treutler designed Polish film posters through a big part of the 20th century, and has this to say about his work on Polish film posters:

The Polish School of Posters can be best described as being bold and colourful with painterly orientation and one I embraced as a graphic artist with all my heart, it was an exciting and creative time for me.

Some of my favorite Polish film posters…

AIRPLANE polish film poster

AIRPLANE (1984) designed by Witold Dybowski

BACK TO THE FUTURE Polish Film Poster

BACK TO THE FUTURE (1986) designed by Mieczyslaw Wasilewski 

DANTON Polish Film Poster

DANTON (1993) by designed by Wieslaw Walkuski 

JAWS Polish Film Poster

JAWS (1977) designed by Andrzej Dudzinski 

JAWS 2 Polish Film Poster

JAWS 2 (1980) designed by Edward Lutczyn 

ROCKY Polish Film Poster

ROCKY (1978) designed by Edward Lutczyn

ROSEMARY'S BABY Polish Film Poster

ROSEMARY’S BABY (1984) designed by Wieslaw Walkuski 

STORMING MONDAY Polish Film Poster

STORMING MONDAY (1988) designed by Wieslaw Walkuski

THE GRADUATE Polish Film Poster

THE GRADUATE (1973) designed by Maciej Zbikowski 

THE OMEN Polish Film Poster

THE OMEN (1977) designed by Andrzej Klimowski

UN CHIEN ANDALOU Polish Film Poster

UN CHIEN ANDALOU (1996) designed by Wieslaw Walkuski 

To explore more of the world of Polish film posters, I suggest the following links:

2012 Movie #21 - Aliens (1986) Last night I watched ALIENS for the first time, even though I was convinced I had already seen the film as a kid. “How is this possible?” you ask. When I was a child, I wasn’t allowed to watch R-rated movies. I didn’t see my first R-rated movie until I was well into my mid-teens. But as a result of this ban, I used to do something very strange. I would see posters for R-rated films in the video store or movie theater, and then I would have dreams or day-dreams about what the movie was about. I would have an imaginary version of the movie in my head based on a poster or whatever friends told me about the film. This happened with a lot of horror films like A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and FRIDAY THE 13TH. And apparently it happened with ALIENS. The side effect of this is that as I grew older I would forget that I hadn’t actually seen the film. And the imaginary dream version of the film would become the real film in my mind. So every few years I have this experience where I watch an R-rated film for the first time that I’m convinced that I saw as a child (even though when I think about it logically, I realize there is no possible way I saw the film). This happened with A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, and I was hugely disappointed when I finally saw the real movie because my memories of the dream version were much scarier. However, after the first scene of ALIENS, I realized that my dream version of the film was vastly inferior to James Cameron’s masterpiece. I suspect I’m going to rewatch ALIENS a few times this year, so I won’t write too much in this first blog entry. But I will say this. ALIENS is without a doubt one of the best action films I have ever seen. What I’ll take away: I want more movies to look like ALIENS. High-res

2012 Movie #21 - Aliens (1986)

Last night I watched ALIENS for the first time, even though I was convinced I had already seen the film as a kid.

“How is this possible?” you ask.

When I was a child, I wasn’t allowed to watch R-rated movies. I didn’t see my first R-rated movie until I was well into my mid-teens. But as a result of this ban, I used to do something very strange. I would see posters for R-rated films in the video store or movie theater, and then I would have dreams or day-dreams about what the movie was about. I would have an imaginary version of the movie in my head based on a poster or whatever friends told me about the film. This happened with a lot of horror films like A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and FRIDAY THE 13TH. And apparently it happened with ALIENS.

The side effect of this is that as I grew older I would forget that I hadn’t actually seen the film. And the imaginary dream version of the film would become the real film in my mind. So every few years I have this experience where I watch an R-rated film for the first time that I’m convinced that I saw as a child (even though when I think about it logically, I realize there is no possible way I saw the film). This happened with A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, and I was hugely disappointed when I finally saw the real movie because my memories of the dream version were much scarier.

However, after the first scene of ALIENS, I realized that my dream version of the film was vastly inferior to James Cameron’s masterpiece. I suspect I’m going to rewatch ALIENS a few times this year, so I won’t write too much in this first blog entry. But I will say this. ALIENS is without a doubt one of the best action films I have ever seen.

What I’ll take away: I want more movies to look like ALIENS.