If you want to intern for me in Austin, TX this summer, send an email to thekinocornerbusiness@gmail.com and/or jobs@futo.org. It's a paid internship and you'll get to film a bunch of stuff with me and I'll teach you how to become a better editor.
If you want to see amazing Polish posters and movies see Piotr Szulkin's "Golem", "The War of the Worlds: Next Century", "O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization" and "Ga-ga: Glory to the Heroes". Polish Sci - Fi and it's amazing :)
Weird pic, of Joe Rogan in the thumbnail... Seriously though, yeah... our Apocalypse now by Waldemar Świerzy and plenty of others had a spectacular posters. Rocky by Edward Lutczyn, Danto by Wiesław Wałkuski, Gandhi by Maciej Woltman, Sanatorium pod Klepsydrą (I forgot the author of thos one unfortunately) to name just a few. Our school of poster making was top tier. It's a shame that artists around the world lost this artistic freedom, so many opportunities are lost, and so many posters have this cookie cutter unified look to them these days. Funnily enough the pirating community often uses alternatives that are way cooler. The Star Wars Olly Moss posters are so damn cool...
Hey I just wanted to say Jesus loves you and you are valuable made in Gods image And he loved you so much that he came down as a human to die for your sins Jesus loves you John 3;16 say for God so loved the world he gave his only son so whoever believe in him will not perish but have eternal meaning in heaven" he is salvation from sin and hell we've all sinned and deserve hell but Jesus paid the price for our sin with his blood so though true faith in him we will be saved we canot live a Good life to get to heaven nor by any good thing we do solely by true faith in Jesus are we saved true faith mean following Jesus and his commands and truly living for him by faith in him Prayer for giving your life to Christ Lord I recognise I am a sinner In need of the Savoir And I trust in the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Who is God come to died for me I wish to follow you from this Day forward I want to turn form every sinful way and live for you and I ask for your help to do so in Jesus name amem
The professor I had Polish Cinema History classes with once summarised the Polish Poster School with something to the effect of: "You look at the poster before seeing the film and say 'Oh?' Then you look at the poster again after seeing the film and say 'Ah!'"
"Polska Szkoła Plakatu" was a highly influential field in applied arts. It's influence resonates to this day. One example is Nine Inch Nails "The Slip" album artwork. It is basically Roman Cieslewicz's 1983 Paris exhibition poster.
Fashion designers such as legendary Yohji Yamamoto and Junya Watanabe used some of the posters in their designs, I highly recommend checking them out, Im pretty sure Yohji incorporated some of Beksińskis work in he's runways too
The To Kill A Mockingbird Poster actually makes perfect sense, since a major part of the trial in the film concerns the fact that the victim has bruises on the right side of her face, while the accused hasn't been able to use his left arm for years.
As a polish person, we were interpreting the polish movie posters in school and it was amazing how many hidden meanings the artist could squeeze into the poster while still making it look bizarre at the first glance.
Apocalypse Now is actually tied to Polish culture, first of all it was inspired by the novel Heart of Darkness written by Joseph Conrad and he was Polish, his real name was Józef Konrad Korzeniowski. Second instance is one of the most famous photo documenting communism in Poland, in the period when Apocalypse Now was played in Polish cinemas authorities introduced the martial law to suppress Solidarity and people fighting for freedom, the military was sent to the cities, to the streets, there is a photo with armored vehicle and bunch of soldiers in front of the cinema with a big sign "Apocalypse Now" on it. The photo was taken from hiding, it's middle of the winter, the photo is black and white and it's strikingly somber, one of the soldier is saying something to the other one while pointing in the photographer's direction. It gives dystopian, scary vibe even without the sign, but the sign "Apocalypse Now" makes it so special and even a bit tragicomic ;p
For the to kill a mockingbird poster, I think the significance of the hand is that there's an important plot point abt how the abuser must've been left handed and the man on trial had an accident involving his left hand, making it impossible for him to be the perpetrator. Judging based off of knuckle and wrist, the hand in the poster seems to be the backside of a left hand.
Back in the early 00's I found a huge gallery of Polish movie posters online. They were not labeled or anything and I don't speak Polish, so it was sometimes a bit of a game to figure out what movie it was. I sat and looked at them for hours, wishing they were available for print. This was before you could just send a Jpeg and get a high quality print mailed to you within the week. I don't think those images were that high resolution anyway. Well, as many other cool things you find online, they sort of wander to the back of your mind as you find other things to occupy your attention. Thanks for bringing up this topic, Polish movie posters is such an oddly specific artform and it really deserves more recognition.
Ha, the owner of the website probably though it redundant to label them, since the name of the film was on the poster anyway. He didn't consider somebody who doesn't speak Polish would be interested.
On the topic of propaganda movies, a polish book which is part of the school curriculum "Kamienie na Szaniec" - recounting the diaries of the polish resistance around the WW2 period, describes how the resistance would vandalise propaganda movie posters with the catchphrase "Tylko świnie siedzą w kinie" - "Only pigs sit in cinemas" and would even use some sort of harmless gas to deter people from going to the movies (which had the opposite effect as people wanted to have the "gas experience" themselves XDDD)
19:35 Title looks like a stamp, because main character is working in a post office and he uses his job to make contant with the woman he is watching. Another cool detail
howdy! I'm a polish graphic designer, but I also teach graphic design at the academy of fine arts in my city. I love polish posters, every kid who went to study graphic design is familiar with them and very likely went through a polish poster phase, but I'd venture there's an issue in the 'polish poster school' design approach still hanging over art academia 20-30 years later. Of course, the posters are visually iconic, and I enjoy the wit and playfulness of many of them, but as you said, the commercial aspect of the posters used to be divorced from the posters, and that is not viable as a designers' offer in today's world. When I was in the art academy or art high school before that, back in the 2000s and early 2010s, under the old guard of greyhead professors we designed many posters or other design exercises under that "put meaning into it" principle, and went into adulthood secretly hoping we'd be glamorous poster designers. But, since the fall of communism and up to very recently, polish public space has been visually littered with a lot of subpar homespun "boss' nephew knows computers he'll whip up an ad" graphic design, billboards everywhere you look, and of course most recently AI slop. It's incredibly rare to get the honor of designing a poster for theatre or even less rare for movies, it's hard to design anything fresh and new when there's higher-ups and their wives who of course all offer input despite knowing squat about design principles or the trends. I work with Americans too, and never noticed so many people chiming in during a design process as there are in Poland. It's a bit depressing how Polish approach to art and art education has fallen since the communist times. So, the younger generation of teachers like me has been mostly straying away from teaching the polish poster, but I still catch myself giving advice for thinking like an old poster designer. Make the little visual play. Screw the capitalist times, make the cool poster. Also!! last thing. There's a polish guy who currently makes movie posters in the way of polish poster school, search for Plakiat
It seems that contemporary movie posters designers have a similar issue to their counterparts back in socialism period. Old masters proven it's possible to trick the system. Maybe there's still hope.
Years ago I worked in demolition of an old Polish cinema. During the work I found a bunch of old movie posters hidden for decades in plain sight. I saved a few that were in the best condition. They are now a permanent wall decor in my place. Now I regret that I didn't save more. Because they were all amazing.
I really like Japanese film posters (yes I'm a weeb), but damn Polish posters have them beat. These were so good, and I love Polish films so I need some of these.
I have the great luck to have the greater polish teacher Bárbara Paciorek when I was studying in Mexico, she showed us a lot about Polish poster design and it is bonkers the way these dudes and gals where creating this amazing pieces of art in the middle of such turbulent times
Great video. A lot of good knowledge. I appreciate that you managed to handle such a large number of Polish surnames. Everything probably sounds to you like Grzegorz Brzeczyszczykiewicz.
Polish and Russian movie posters are crazy in how they create these beautiful works of art that are just barely related to the media itself. I'm also a big fan of Hungarian Movie Posters.
Is it possible that makers of these never watched that movie, I mean if the poster was created before the movie got showns so they only got some vague info about it? I heard it about Soviet Star Wars poster xD It looks like an artist would hear "there's a dude in a black mask and some weird aliens and he has a stick of light" and he would have to create poster based around this
@@olgagaming5544 Yeah and Hans Zimmer, when he composed songs for Interstellar, all he knew was that a father left his daughter. The posters were made by people who were supposed to draw what they felt about the movies story or maybe just simply what story it is, like horror, love or fiction. The poster is not supposed to spoil every character that is in the film, like how it is done today.
@@extrage3061 I find the difference between back then and today's movie posters that you seem to point out rather interesting; like, as movies were probably less numberous, I suppose their posters did not have to be has much specific: emotions and vibes were enough.
There are also entire lectures about the Polska Szkoła Plakatu in graphic design studies. I had a presentation about Wiesław Wałkuski, who's in my opinion a Beksiński of PSP. His posters are absolutely amazing!
I'm Polish and study Graphic Design. This sure brings back some memories of the way our professors would gush over the Polish school of Posters :'D Pretty neat to see our posters recognized abroad! Thank you for your analysis.
Your video is awesome and it's so nice that you've presented this unusual topic to the wide audience. The only flaw I've noticed is the fact that in 11:10 usage of a Witkiewicz's term "pure form" is inncorect, because he didn't create it in reference to the film posters. "Pure form" was a philosophy of creating art (paintings and dramas) which came down to abandoning realism, and radically deforming reality. This term apllies only to works by Witkiewicz and you can see how it looks on his paintings like "Creation of the World" 1922. Despite that really great work!
Ah, the long lost art of hand-crafted ( and painted/collaged) posters of pre-photoshop era... love those. I think that the original polish poster for Return of the Jedi is a timeless masterpiece
As a Pole, I really appreciate this video. Also, I discovered your channel because of your videos about Kieślowski when I was discovering him myself a few years ago 😅 Also, looking at the comments I'm suprised how many are from my country ❤
IMO the poster for "To Kill a Mockingbird" represents the hand of the black man on trial. The defense was, he could not commit the crimes he was accused of, because he had a hand disability. I haven't watched the movie either (so I don't know if it was portrayed in it), but the book was very popular in Poland. So maybe it's another case of the poster artist not seeing the movie, but in this case knowing the source material. I'm from Poland, born in 1980 and I've seen some of these kind of posters on the advertisement poles or on walls in my home city, but i guess in the late 80's they were not that popular or prevalent as in 60's or 70's.
If you are interested in polish poster id recommend the book "The Art of Polish Poster" by Dorota Folga Januszewska, the same author as the one mentioned at the beginning of the video. It's pretty hefty, but very interesting to read and look through.
Great job on pronunciations of Polish names and surnames - still very incorrect, but I had no issue recognizing who you mean, and I heard "the effort" put into it. So no shade, no sarcasm, great job.
Hello. I'm polish. Cool - ppoland mentioned! You forgot about important thing - many op this posters were made by artist who hasn't watched the movie. That's why sometimes poster is complete nonsense. Artists had a completely free hand but also a complete lack of idea what the film was about. And the communist system meant that the poster did not have to sell the film - that is why even blockbusters often had an abstraction instead of something concrete, such as an actor's face.
When I was kid I used to follow a blog about horror and monster movies, and in one post the guy running it tried to collect every Godzilla poster he could find, and even then I noticed that the Polish ones where extra strange and unique.
The Seven Samurai poster reminds me a lot of medieval tapestry’s and paintings. Weirdly fitting for depicting the historic and epic battles of Seven Samurai.
I get strong folk art vibes from that poster, specifically the Polish Highlander style woodcuts, though I'm not 100% percent sure if that was the designer's intention. I guess it would also be fitting, as the samurai in question are basically folk heroes.
I didn't even realise these were just polish versions 😮 there truly is something about them - posters and also book covers. Always so dark, scary, sketchy and alluring. I will never forget when I picked a random book from my grandparents shelf and it was Orwell's 1984 with Zdzisław Beksiński "crawling death" for a cover. I got so scared, but i always think about how it fits just perfect. Such a great informative video, thank you!!!
i had the same edition of the book - found it in my parents' home library in middle school in the middle of my edgy phase and read the book during summer vacation somehow unaware of the plot beforehand and got obsessed with beksiński, i'm glad i did that before we talked about it in school 3 years later cause my polish teacher would've made me hate it like almost every book she made us read
Wow, I did not think of them as razors but you're right. I guess it's inspired by the "snail creeping across the edge of a razor"- monologue. Also, the reveal of Brando's shaved head I suppose. It is a striking portrait. For all the amazing shots in that movie, it's cool that the artist chose to recreate a shot that gives absolutely no clues to what the movie is about.
Appreciate you making videos about movies from other countries than just the US. People seem to forget that movies are also being produced out of hollywood
OMG, I really appreciate how beautifully you try to pronounce (and really succeed!) those really difficult Polish surnames. In fact, many very complicated ones with a lot of ą, ę, sz, cz, ź, ż, rz etc. you came across this topic. Many thanks for such a thorough and respectful approach.
Something I guess you didn't mention (I haven't watched the entire video yet but was skipping through looking for it) is Polish film poster... in the movies! Some directors (and/or set designers) are fond of them too and include them in their own films. The main character of the 'Beginners' movie played by Ewan McGregor lives in a flat decorated exclusively by the posters from the Polish Poster School. I'm always delighted when I spot them. Polish poster school lives on and there are new generations of artists adopting the aesthetics. If you ever find yourself in Warsaw, there's an entire poster museum next to the Wilanów Palace and a cool shop with polish posters (you can buy them in a postcard format too) in the Old Town.
I'm interested in Polish Movie Posters, so finding this video was a godsend, I enjoyed it. Really like the historical and propaganda background, found out something I didn't know, and felt encouraged to check out this 'Ah! Film Posters in Poland' book. I recommend posters made by Franciszek Starowieyski. Also, I'm not a big fan of that sort of cubist Seven Samurai example, it's fine, but I like the one made by Andrzej Pągowski (author of 'A Short Film about Love' poster featured here, btw. his artwork for the movie 'Kill Me, Cop' is great) better. Thank you for this video.
I had a beer with Starowieyski in Poznan when I was a student - we spent half an hour together. - it was late and nobody in the pubs anymore. I realised it was him only after many years… we were talking about women and types of tits 😂
Andrzej Pągowski also made a great poster to Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves (the Polish title Tańczący z wilkami), probably the last Polish artistic film poster before American companies sent their promotion materials with the films and enforced the change and the sad end of Polish film poster. It was the last artistic Polish film poster that was visible on the streets and not the niche thing known to film buffs.
My personal favourite, not mentioned in here, is Night train (1959r.). Both poster and the movie itself is fantastic piece of Polish cinematography. Highly recommend!
just a note about the Close Encounters of the Third Kind poster, in the 70s it was quite often the case for the poster artist to not see the movie while making the poster, maybe a few stills at best because movies were still going through the bureau of censorship if you look at the original Star Wars poster it just shows C3PO, probably because he was the most characteristic element the artist could remember
I love the back and forth between you and Sands, I forgot I was listening to a video, not to mention riding a bus home at night, I was just immersed in the conversation, interpreting topics with real depth to them, would love to see more, if your friend is up for it!!
I have a gorgeous one-sheet of Andrzej Zulawski’s On the Silver Globe. I’d wanted to him to sign it when he was supposed to attend a major retrospective of his works in Los Angeles. He sadly passed away about a year later, but it’s framed and the centerpiece of my office
One of our Polish classes in high school was to analyze theatre posters for a known drama of a national bard. I had no idea how many cool, fascinating and highly detailed posters there were for plays both in small and big theatres. It was one of my favourite assignments i remember to this day. I cooked so hard on the analysis that the teacher gave me best score in class. (The drama was "Wesele" by Stanisław Wyspiański, sadly i don't remember how to find the poster i analyzed)
I'm Polish and when I got the chance to make a poster in my collage (BSc in landscape architecture) I HAD TO pay homage to polish school of posters. We had to make a poster depicting endagered species and it's in the style of Ryszard Kaja. Instantly recognizable, everyone knew what that one was about, this art is very prevelant in our culture
That's it! If i ever become leader of poland i will make it maditory for every big movie to have Polish made movie poster! I grew up with them so i just assumed that they where somewhat normal but seeing your reactions convinced me that they are really a treasure of an art form that needs to be supported.
Polska Szkoła Plakatu is a masterclass in transforming complex ideas into a graphic form designed for maximum emotional impact. I am Polish and my high school Literature class was full of those posters, one of them created for a National Theatre performance of Macbeth. It was just a monochrome painting of a bust of a man with a crown on his head, seemingly made of grey stone...but the crown looked as if carved out of his head and it's beginning to crumble. Bam. The whole idea of Macbeth distilled into this hard-hitting, surreal image that I can still recall clearly after more than twenty years.
it's clear that you really took in what you researched about, it's great to see you make videos about topics that genuinely sparked your interest as there's clear passion behind it that makes it so great tp listen to and learn, I was completely immersed in the video in no small part to the superb editing and the resulting atmosphere subscribed and hope to hear more! have a nice day 😄
you know what? as a pole, its really interesting to see how many posters get the "this looks like a horror movie" reaction out of solar sands. as someone who grew up with parents who love movies, i would see posters like that on the daily, whether they were prints or dvd covers, and i wouldnt say that most of these are horror-esque (tho i see why they could look like they would be lol). there are so many more of those that i love and they made such an impression on me that i still remember them to this day, even if i never watched the movie itself
Cool video. I really respect you for really trying to pronounce Polish names and surnames which is not a piece of cake, thumb up from me. I think that you could add more images of polish classics that became legendary, like Terminator, Alien, Rocky, Star Wars posters
As for "Close Encounters" it's also important to note that Poland in 70/80 and early 90s didn't treat as seriously anything sci-fi/fantasty as seriously- although we had our own great classics like "Mr. Blot's Academy", "Kingsajz" (fonetics for Kingsize), "Sexmission" or "Hydro-puzzle"- they all had those cartoony like vibes on their posters.
@zgredczwartyniesamowity363 yup. I was born in 89, but my parents raised me on polish comedy, so when I was in apropriate age, they introduced me to 'Hydro-puzzle' and 'sexmission' and I swear - nothing for a long time was as funny as those movies to me
RUclips probably recommended me this video because I'm Polish myself lol. I'm glad other people can appreciate our posters, I learned a bit about them in I think high school? The only thing I had a small problem with is I couldn't quite understand which artists and directors you were talking about sometimes due to your pronounciation. But it was overall good. Nice video
What you said about posters being true art for the masses is absolutely true, they had actually way bigger impact on XX century Poland than many realise. I personally remember some of these posters hanging in my town in the 80s when I was a kid. They definitely had a massive influence on me, they pulled me onto certain path in terms of interests and imagination, and that’s before I even watched movies.
28:30 for me this look like the person is trying to protect themselves with the hand. The hand is going from below like the person is not standing, but sits on the ground trying to back out using one hand and legs while defending with the other. The face of the men also would confirm we see him from below. There's possibility it's just way smaller person defending instead of person on the ground. I didn't see the movie so maybe I'm missing crucial hints.
In Polish highschools we actually do analyse film posters and other posters, just like you did at the end, at Polish language class. The posters are mostly of adaptations of books we need to read for school, and it's pretty fun! We also do that on our final highschool exams
Great video overall. I just wanted to highlight and thank you for actually attempting to pronounce polish names correctly. As in using the polish phonetic pronunciations of letters, instead of just reading them in english. Its rare to see in any english-speaking media that discusses Poland and I truly appreciate it.
As you briefly mentioned: Those posters often were created by people who did not know much about movie. The best they could get was the full script but often it was just general plot description plus short interpretation.
One of my art school projects was to make movie posters inspired by Polska szkoła plakatu. It was a great challenge, you had to analyse the contents of a movie in order to pick the most suitable art media. I think the idea is to make a poster that conveys the essence of a movie. It encourages you to watch the film, but only after doing so, you fully notice the details and overall message of the poster
22:10 when Apocalypse Now came out, Poland was on the verge of martial law. After it was inforced on 13th of December 1981, an iconic picture was taken: 'Moskwa' cinema, with these red posters all over the wall... and a tank in the front of the cinema.
I'm a big fan of Andrzej Krajewski. His posters were used in the film Beginners, with Ewan Mcgregor. Main character's father has lots of them on the walls in his apartment. Since this film, I've become a huge fan of posters in general and I have a few of his works on the walls in my house (e.g. Pulp Fiction, Hunting in Poland and a few more). Really worth checking.
If you want to intern for me in Austin, TX this summer, send an email to thekinocornerbusiness@gmail.com and/or jobs@futo.org. It's a paid internship and you'll get to film a bunch of stuff with me and I'll teach you how to become a better editor.
wish i wasnt in germany
wish I wasn't in Italy
If you want to see amazing Polish posters and movies see Piotr Szulkin's "Golem", "The War of the Worlds: Next Century", "O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization" and "Ga-ga: Glory to the Heroes". Polish Sci - Fi and it's amazing :)
Weird pic, of Joe Rogan in the thumbnail... Seriously though, yeah... our Apocalypse now by Waldemar Świerzy and plenty of others had a spectacular posters. Rocky by Edward Lutczyn, Danto by Wiesław Wałkuski, Gandhi by Maciej Woltman, Sanatorium pod Klepsydrą (I forgot the author of thos one unfortunately) to name just a few. Our school of poster making was top tier. It's a shame that artists around the world lost this artistic freedom, so many opportunities are lost, and so many posters have this cookie cutter unified look to them these days. Funnily enough the pirating community often uses alternatives that are way cooler. The Star Wars Olly Moss posters are so damn cool...
So 4 min in and no mention of said subject.
My guy ...get to the point smh
In Poland we sometimes analyze film posters on Polish literature exams, btw.
That's not true you liar.
and play posters as well
yup can confirm
True, this years matura of polish language we had to analyse them and say 2 things that are the part of the book
Chciałbym mieć taką fajną polonistkę
Polska Szkoła Plakatu boys rise up!
Dokładnie to samo chciałem napisać i wspomnieć okładki płytowe.
I am flat down. But wait, I will ris..e.ee. i will...riiiiiise. Iwill.... I... wlll... Oh, no, I won't. Forget it. "Polska Szkoła Plakatu" anyways.
Let's gooooooo!
@@danielduda6111 To samo xD.
Hey I just wanted to say Jesus loves you and you are valuable made in Gods image And he loved you so much that he came down as a human to die for your sins Jesus loves you John 3;16 say for God so loved the world he gave his only son so whoever believe in him will not perish but have eternal meaning in heaven" he is salvation from sin and hell we've all sinned and deserve hell but Jesus paid the price for our sin with his blood so though true faith in him we will be saved we canot live a Good life to get to heaven nor by any good thing we do solely by true faith in Jesus are we saved true faith mean following Jesus and his commands and truly living for him by faith in him
Prayer for giving your life to Christ Lord I recognise I am a sinner In need of the Savoir And I trust in the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Who is God come to died for me I wish to follow you from this Day forward I want to turn form every sinful way and live for you and I ask for your help to do so in Jesus name amem
The professor I had Polish Cinema History classes with once summarised the Polish Poster School with something to the effect of: "You look at the poster before seeing the film and say 'Oh?' Then you look at the poster again after seeing the film and say 'Ah!'"
That's brilliant
POLAND MENTIONED 🇵🇱🇵🇱🇵🇱🦅🦅🦅
Poland Mountain!
We all love Poland
I took a waaaaaaaallllllllkkkk to POLAND!
How many Poles does it take to make a movie poster? 🧐
How many Poles does it take to make a movie poster? 🧐
"Polska Szkoła Plakatu" was a highly influential field in applied arts. It's influence resonates to this day. One example is Nine Inch Nails "The Slip" album artwork. It is basically Roman Cieslewicz's 1983 Paris exhibition poster.
Dude that’s funny. The Slip by NIN was the last thing I expected to see mentioned in a comment on this video
@@ronintheebarbarian2041 Trent Reznor haunts me in every walk of my life :)
Fashion designers such as legendary Yohji Yamamoto and Junya Watanabe used some of the posters in their designs, I highly recommend checking them out, Im pretty sure Yohji incorporated some of Beksińskis work in he's runways too
:OOOOOOO
The To Kill A Mockingbird Poster actually makes perfect sense, since a major part of the trial in the film concerns the fact that the victim has bruises on the right side of her face, while the accused hasn't been able to use his left arm for years.
yooo it's so good
and it's black and white on purpose to emphasise the racial importance of the story
As a polish person, we were interpreting the polish movie posters in school and it was amazing how many hidden meanings the artist could squeeze into the poster while still making it look bizarre at the first glance.
I genuinely admire your attempt at the tongue twisters that are Polish last names :)
Apocalypse Now is actually tied to Polish culture, first of all it was inspired by the novel Heart of Darkness written by Joseph Conrad and he was Polish, his real name was Józef Konrad Korzeniowski.
Second instance is one of the most famous photo documenting communism in Poland, in the period when Apocalypse Now was played in Polish cinemas authorities introduced the martial law to suppress Solidarity and people fighting for freedom, the military was sent to the cities, to the streets, there is a photo with armored vehicle and bunch of soldiers in front of the cinema with a big sign "Apocalypse Now" on it. The photo was taken from hiding, it's middle of the winter, the photo is black and white and it's strikingly somber, one of the soldier is saying something to the other one while pointing in the photographer's direction. It gives dystopian, scary vibe even without the sign, but the sign "Apocalypse Now" makes it so special and even a bit tragicomic ;p
You forgot to mention that the theater on the photo was called "Moscow" to add to the surrealism.
@@tedbed1389 Photo by Chris Niedenthal.
Some of these Polish poster artists also made remarkable posters for plays in the theaters that are worth checking out.
For the to kill a mockingbird poster, I think the significance of the hand is that there's an important plot point abt how the abuser must've been left handed and the man on trial had an accident involving his left hand, making it impossible for him to be the perpetrator. Judging based off of knuckle and wrist, the hand in the poster seems to be the backside of a left hand.
I'd never think of that, that's so clever!
Hand could symbolize "Stop", in this case racism.
Back in the early 00's I found a huge gallery of Polish movie posters online. They were not labeled or anything and I don't speak Polish, so it was sometimes a bit of a game to figure out what movie it was. I sat and looked at them for hours, wishing they were available for print. This was before you could just send a Jpeg and get a high quality print mailed to you within the week. I don't think those images were that high resolution anyway.
Well, as many other cool things you find online, they sort of wander to the back of your mind as you find other things to occupy your attention.
Thanks for bringing up this topic, Polish movie posters is such an oddly specific artform and it really deserves more recognition.
Ha, the owner of the website probably though it redundant to label them, since the name of the film was on the poster anyway. He didn't consider somebody who doesn't speak Polish would be interested.
Come to Poland. It's not difficult to buy many of those posters. And there's actually the Posters Museum in Warsaw's Wilanów district.
On the topic of propaganda movies, a polish book which is part of the school curriculum "Kamienie na Szaniec" - recounting the diaries of the polish resistance around the WW2 period, describes how the resistance would vandalise propaganda movie posters with the catchphrase "Tylko świnie siedzą w kinie" - "Only pigs sit in cinemas" and would even use some sort of harmless gas to deter people from going to the movies (which had the opposite effect as people wanted to have the "gas experience" themselves XDDD)
Yeah, but these weren’t like true films back then, only Nazi propaganda and porn (apparently to deprave the populace)
honestly waiting for a comment bringing that book up, brings back skl memories XD
19:35 Title looks like a stamp, because main character is working in a post office and he uses his job to make contant with the woman he is watching. Another cool detail
howdy! I'm a polish graphic designer, but I also teach graphic design at the academy of fine arts in my city. I love polish posters, every kid who went to study graphic design is familiar with them and very likely went through a polish poster phase, but I'd venture there's an issue in the 'polish poster school' design approach still hanging over art academia 20-30 years later.
Of course, the posters are visually iconic, and I enjoy the wit and playfulness of many of them, but as you said, the commercial aspect of the posters used to be divorced from the posters, and that is not viable as a designers' offer in today's world.
When I was in the art academy or art high school before that, back in the 2000s and early 2010s, under the old guard of greyhead professors we designed many posters or other design exercises under that "put meaning into it" principle, and went into adulthood secretly hoping we'd be glamorous poster designers. But, since the fall of communism and up to very recently, polish public space has been visually littered with a lot of subpar homespun "boss' nephew knows computers he'll whip up an ad" graphic design, billboards everywhere you look, and of course most recently AI slop. It's incredibly rare to get the honor of designing a poster for theatre or even less rare for movies, it's hard to design anything fresh and new when there's higher-ups and their wives who of course all offer input despite knowing squat about design principles or the trends. I work with Americans too, and never noticed so many people chiming in during a design process as there are in Poland. It's a bit depressing how Polish approach to art and art education has fallen since the communist times.
So, the younger generation of teachers like me has been mostly straying away from teaching the polish poster, but I still catch myself giving advice for thinking like an old poster designer. Make the little visual play. Screw the capitalist times, make the cool poster.
Also!! last thing. There's a polish guy who currently makes movie posters in the way of polish poster school, search for Plakiat
which city? i’ll be in my first semester in a polish art school so it would be funny if it turned out you teach there
@@lordkamquatevonpotbrownieoh same I am also starting soon so it would be very funny
Thank you for your insight!
It seems that contemporary movie posters designers have a similar issue to their counterparts back in socialism period. Old masters proven it's possible to trick the system. Maybe there's still hope.
>"boss' nephew knows computers he'll whip up an ad" graphic design
lmao, it's the same way here in Belarus. I think this is just a slav thing.
Years ago I worked in demolition of an old Polish cinema.
During the work I found a bunch of old movie posters hidden for decades in plain sight.
I saved a few that were in the best condition. They are now a permanent wall decor in my place.
Now I regret that I didn't save more. Because they were all amazing.
Bro summoned the whole country 💀
I really like Japanese film posters (yes I'm a weeb), but damn Polish posters have them beat. These were so good, and I love Polish films so I need some of these.
cool profile pic. How was that album called?
@@asuka376 ワールドイズユアーズ or World is yours :D
I’m 1/2 Japanese, 1/8 polish, perfect combo!
@@Tryh4rd3rrinteresting! Greetings from Tricity in Poland
Tysm for going out of ur way to learn to pronounce all the names! We know its hard but its just so kind that you cared enough to do so!!
I have the great luck to have the greater polish teacher Bárbara Paciorek when I was studying in Mexico, she showed us a lot about Polish poster design and it is bonkers the way these dudes and gals where creating this amazing pieces of art in the middle of such turbulent times
Great video. A lot of good knowledge. I appreciate that you managed to handle such a large number of Polish surnames. Everything probably sounds to you like Grzegorz Brzeczyszczykiewicz.
22:44 This is Polish smile. He is really tired and annoyed but he got to survive
"Name und Vorname?"
"Grzegorz Brzeczyszczykiewicz ... BRZECZYSZCZYKIEWICZ, Grzegorz"
Wie?? 😂
"Geboren?"
"Chrząszczyżewoszyce, powiat Łękołody"
10:16 ahhh there he is, the famous Mieczysław Suka
real
*suka means „bitch” in Polish (which, btw, makes Yokosuka one of Poles’ favourite Japanese destination)
@@awesomeman1400 It also means in old jail slang ''police car'' and it also means a ''female dog''. It is a proper inoffensive word in context.
Polish and Russian movie posters are crazy in how they create these beautiful works of art that are just barely related to the media itself. I'm also a big fan of Hungarian Movie Posters.
Is it possible that makers of these never watched that movie, I mean if the poster was created before the movie got showns so they only got some vague info about it? I heard it about Soviet Star Wars poster xD It looks like an artist would hear "there's a dude in a black mask and some weird aliens and he has a stick of light" and he would have to create poster based around this
@@olgagaming5544 Yeah and Hans Zimmer, when he composed songs for Interstellar, all he knew was that a father left his daughter. The posters were made by people who were supposed to draw what they felt about the movies story or maybe just simply what story it is, like horror, love or fiction. The poster is not supposed to spoil every character that is in the film, like how it is done today.
@@extrage3061 I find the difference between back then and today's movie posters that you seem to point out rather interesting; like, as movies were probably less numberous, I suppose their posters did not have to be has much specific: emotions and vibes were enough.
There are also entire lectures about the Polska Szkoła Plakatu in graphic design studies. I had a presentation about Wiesław Wałkuski, who's in my opinion a Beksiński of PSP. His posters are absolutely amazing!
DUDE IVE BEEN WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO MAKE A VIDEO ON THIS TOPIC FOR SO LONG THANK YOUU!!
I once visited a Polish Posters show in Brazil (25 years ago), I was really impressed, specially from the author called Pagowski.
I'm Polish and study Graphic Design. This sure brings back some memories of the way our professors would gush over the Polish school of Posters :'D Pretty neat to see our posters recognized abroad! Thank you for your analysis.
Ja studiowałam u Szaybo, a moja siostra u Wasilewskiego. Obie w Warszawie. Szkoda mi Polskiej Szkoły Plakatu, że się zwinęła. 😢
I've been gushing over polish cinema for years now from Canada 🇨🇦. I'm glad to see someone finally sharing my appreciation.
Your video is awesome and it's so nice that you've presented this unusual topic to the wide audience. The only flaw I've noticed is the fact that in 11:10 usage of a Witkiewicz's term "pure form" is inncorect, because he didn't create it in reference to the film posters. "Pure form" was a philosophy of creating art (paintings and dramas) which came down to abandoning realism, and radically deforming reality. This term apllies only to works by Witkiewicz and you can see how it looks on his paintings like "Creation of the World" 1922. Despite that really great work!
I see I wasn't the only one who noticed:P
Ah, the long lost art of hand-crafted ( and painted/collaged) posters of pre-photoshop era... love those. I think that the original polish poster for Return of the Jedi is a timeless masterpiece
As a Pole, I really appreciate this video. Also, I discovered your channel because of your videos about Kieślowski when I was discovering him myself a few years ago 😅 Also, looking at the comments I'm suprised how many are from my country ❤
IMO the poster for "To Kill a Mockingbird" represents the hand of the black man on trial. The defense was, he could not commit the crimes he was accused of, because he had a hand disability. I haven't watched the movie either (so I don't know if it was portrayed in it), but the book was very popular in Poland. So maybe it's another case of the poster artist not seeing the movie, but in this case knowing the source material.
I'm from Poland, born in 1980 and I've seen some of these kind of posters on the advertisement poles or on walls in my home city, but i guess in the late 80's they were not that popular or prevalent as in 60's or 70's.
If you are interested in polish poster id recommend the book "The Art of Polish Poster" by Dorota Folga Januszewska, the same author as the one mentioned at the beginning of the video. It's pretty hefty, but very interesting to read and look through.
Great job on pronunciations of Polish names and surnames - still very incorrect, but I had no issue recognizing who you mean, and I heard "the effort" put into it. So no shade, no sarcasm, great job.
Hello. I'm polish. Cool - ppoland mentioned!
You forgot about important thing - many op this posters were made by artist who hasn't watched the movie. That's why sometimes poster is complete nonsense. Artists had a completely free hand but also a complete lack of idea what the film was about. And the communist system meant that the poster did not have to sell the film - that is why even blockbusters often had an abstraction instead of something concrete, such as an actor's face.
That's so interestsing! Thanks
Actually, those shown examples had a very deep meaning, that you get after watching the movie. Well OK 'Amator' was just straight forward
Actually he said it (right at the „close encounters of the fire kind” poster). Pozdrawiam :)
Solar Sands and Kino Corner?
In a video about foreign movie posters?
What is this?
My erotic fan-fiction?
What is this? A crossover episode?
what is this? a cameo for those of my taste?
When I was kid I used to follow a blog about horror and monster movies, and in one post the guy running it tried to collect every Godzilla poster he could find, and even then I noticed that the Polish ones where extra strange and unique.
The Seven Samurai poster reminds me a lot of medieval tapestry’s and paintings. Weirdly fitting for depicting the historic and epic battles of Seven Samurai.
I get strong folk art vibes from that poster, specifically the Polish Highlander style woodcuts, though I'm not 100% percent sure if that was the designer's intention. I guess it would also be fitting, as the samurai in question are basically folk heroes.
I didn't even realise these were just polish versions 😮 there truly is something about them - posters and also book covers. Always so dark, scary, sketchy and alluring. I will never forget when I picked a random book from my grandparents shelf and it was Orwell's 1984 with Zdzisław Beksiński "crawling death" for a cover. I got so scared, but i always think about how it fits just perfect. Such a great informative video, thank you!!!
i had the same edition of the book - found it in my parents' home library in middle school in the middle of my edgy phase and read the book during summer vacation somehow unaware of the plot beforehand and got obsessed with beksiński, i'm glad i did that before we talked about it in school 3 years later cause my polish teacher would've made me hate it like almost every book she made us read
Ahhh that Apocalypse Now one, they look like straight razors hailing down on him. Awesome
Should’ve looked like straight razors under him. And he looks like a snail. Crawling along their edge.
Wow, I did not think of them as razors but you're right. I guess it's inspired by the "snail creeping across the edge of a razor"- monologue.
Also, the reveal of Brando's shaved head I suppose.
It is a striking portrait. For all the amazing shots in that movie, it's cool that the artist chose to recreate a shot that gives absolutely no clues to what the movie is about.
Appreciate you making videos about movies from other countries than just the US. People seem to forget that movies are also being produced out of hollywood
Thank you so much for this video! Cheers from Poland 🫶☺️
OMG, I really appreciate how beautifully you try to pronounce (and really succeed!) those really difficult Polish surnames. In fact, many very complicated ones with a lot of ą, ę, sz, cz, ź, ż, rz etc. you came across this topic. Many thanks for such a thorough and respectful approach.
poland mountain💪
Any David Lynch poster is pretty much perfection for me
Got this in my recommended and man such a good piece on this topic. I loved it!
The conversation part is very cool, I could watch an hour of you two talking about different (not only polish) movie posters
Something I guess you didn't mention (I haven't watched the entire video yet but was skipping through looking for it) is Polish film poster... in the movies!
Some directors (and/or set designers) are fond of them too and include them in their own films. The main character of the 'Beginners' movie played by Ewan McGregor lives in a flat decorated exclusively by the posters from the Polish Poster School. I'm always delighted when I spot them.
Polish poster school lives on and there are new generations of artists adopting the aesthetics. If you ever find yourself in Warsaw, there's an entire poster museum next to the Wilanów Palace and a cool shop with polish posters (you can buy them in a postcard format too) in the Old Town.
I'm interested in Polish Movie Posters, so finding this video was a godsend, I enjoyed it. Really like the historical and propaganda background, found out something I didn't know, and felt encouraged to check out this 'Ah! Film Posters in Poland' book. I recommend posters made by Franciszek Starowieyski. Also, I'm not a big fan of that sort of cubist Seven Samurai example, it's fine, but I like the one made by Andrzej Pągowski (author of 'A Short Film about Love' poster featured here, btw. his artwork for the movie 'Kill Me, Cop' is great) better. Thank you for this video.
I had a beer with Starowieyski in Poznan when I was a student - we spent half an hour together. - it was late and nobody in the pubs anymore. I realised it was him only after many years… we were talking about women and types of tits 😂
Andrzej Pągowski also made a great poster to Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves (the Polish title Tańczący z wilkami), probably the last Polish artistic film poster before American companies sent their promotion materials with the films and enforced the change and the sad end of Polish film poster. It was the last artistic Polish film poster that was visible on the streets and not the niche thing known to film buffs.
@@ipodman1910 Yeah, I met him, too. He was a creep.
@@sylwiatime not really. You’re just not very bright :D
@@ipodman1910 Don't worry, I'm brighter than you. He was a creep and infamous for it.
My personal favourite, not mentioned in here, is Night train (1959r.). Both poster and the movie itself is fantastic piece of Polish cinematography. Highly recommend!
Great video. I learned more about my country's posters - and I thought I knew a lot. By the way, you were great in Gladiator II.
I really appreciate you trying to pronounce Polish names and movie titles.
Polish art really suffered from its commercialization after the fall of the People's Republic
everything suffers from commercialization
@@szymonbaranowski8184 correct
@@szymonbaranowski8184 i'd argue that gastronomy benefited from it.
what does that even mean?
@@uatnaustudios648 What exactly you don't understand in this comment? It's quite literal.
Props for genuinely trying to pronounce the Polish names. This doesn’t happen often enough. Really great video!
just a note about the Close Encounters of the Third Kind poster, in the 70s it was quite often the case for the poster artist to not see the movie while making the poster, maybe a few stills at best because movies were still going through the bureau of censorship
if you look at the original Star Wars poster it just shows C3PO, probably because he was the most characteristic element the artist could remember
I love the back and forth between you and Sands, I forgot I was listening to a video, not to mention riding a bus home at night, I was just immersed in the conversation, interpreting topics with real depth to them, would love to see more, if your friend is up for it!!
I have a gorgeous one-sheet of Andrzej Zulawski’s On the Silver Globe. I’d wanted to him to sign it when he was supposed to attend a major retrospective of his works in Los Angeles. He sadly passed away about a year later, but it’s framed and the centerpiece of my office
One of our Polish classes in high school was to analyze theatre posters for a known drama of a national bard. I had no idea how many cool, fascinating and highly detailed posters there were for plays both in small and big theatres. It was one of my favourite assignments i remember to this day. I cooked so hard on the analysis that the teacher gave me best score in class. (The drama was "Wesele" by Stanisław Wyspiański, sadly i don't remember how to find the poster i analyzed)
Love the video! And thank you for looking up the correct pronunciation of Polish names
I'm Polish and when I got the chance to make a poster in my collage (BSc in landscape architecture) I HAD TO pay homage to polish school of posters. We had to make a poster depicting endagered species and it's in the style of Ryszard Kaja. Instantly recognizable, everyone knew what that one was about, this art is very prevelant in our culture
That's it! If i ever become leader of poland i will make it maditory for every big movie to have Polish made movie poster!
I grew up with them so i just assumed that they where somewhat normal but seeing your reactions convinced me that they are really a treasure of an art form that needs to be supported.
Polska Szkoła Plakatu is a masterclass in transforming complex ideas into a graphic form designed for maximum emotional impact. I am Polish and my high school Literature class was full of those posters, one of them created for a National Theatre performance of Macbeth. It was just a monochrome painting of a bust of a man with a crown on his head, seemingly made of grey stone...but the crown looked as if carved out of his head and it's beginning to crumble. Bam. The whole idea of Macbeth distilled into this hard-hitting, surreal image that I can still recall clearly after more than twenty years.
Great video! The Polish School of Posters needs more recognition outside of Poland!
Ok, fine I'm subscribing! You've got my attention w/ the Angst review and now this. Good Job man!
it's clear that you really took in what you researched about, it's great to see you make videos about topics that genuinely sparked your interest as there's clear passion behind it that makes it so great tp listen to and learn, I was completely immersed in the video in no small part to the superb editing and the resulting atmosphere
subscribed and hope to hear more! have a nice day 😄
I love the Polish Deer Hunter poster on the site you linked to.
Kino and Solar Sands? 🔥 love the collabs! keep it up please🙏
Great video. Thank you for showing a piece of Polish culture. Love from Poland.
Nice presentation. Well done!👏
you know what? as a pole, its really interesting to see how many posters get the "this looks like a horror movie" reaction out of solar sands. as someone who grew up with parents who love movies, i would see posters like that on the daily, whether they were prints or dvd covers, and i wouldnt say that most of these are horror-esque (tho i see why they could look like they would be lol). there are so many more of those that i love and they made such an impression on me that i still remember them to this day, even if i never watched the movie itself
Cool video. I really respect you for really trying to pronounce Polish names and surnames which is not a piece of cake, thumb up from me. I think that you could add more images of polish classics that became legendary, like Terminator, Alien, Rocky, Star Wars posters
Polish movie posters go INSANELY hard for no reason and I love it, I genuinely wanna watch some of these by the poster alone
As for "Close Encounters" it's also important to note that Poland in 70/80 and early 90s didn't treat as seriously anything sci-fi/fantasty as seriously- although we had our own great classics like "Mr. Blot's Academy", "Kingsajz" (fonetics for Kingsize), "Sexmission" or "Hydro-puzzle"- they all had those cartoony like vibes on their posters.
We made parodies before the originals AND IM SO HERE FOR IT
@zgredczwartyniesamowity363 yup. I was born in 89, but my parents raised me on polish comedy, so when I was in apropriate age, they introduced me to 'Hydro-puzzle' and 'sexmission' and I swear - nothing for a long time was as funny as those movies to me
I did not expect Solar Sands to be in this video. Also I like Wieslaw Walkuski's posters
RUclips probably recommended me this video because I'm Polish myself lol. I'm glad other people can appreciate our posters, I learned a bit about them in I think high school? The only thing I had a small problem with is I couldn't quite understand which artists and directors you were talking about sometimes due to your pronounciation. But it was overall good. Nice video
What you said about posters being true art for the masses is absolutely true, they had actually way bigger impact on XX century Poland than many realise. I personally remember some of these posters hanging in my town in the 80s when I was a kid. They definitely had a massive influence on me, they pulled me onto certain path in terms of interests and imagination, and that’s before I even watched movies.
Imagine learning about something in your country from a video from another country
Thank you for your great pronunciation of polish names! 👍🏼
If you want to see some of polish posters and you are in Poland there is posters exibishion in Katowice "Biennale Plakatu Polskiego".
28:30 for me this look like the person is trying to protect themselves with the hand. The hand is going from below like the person is not standing, but sits on the ground trying to back out using one hand and legs while defending with the other. The face of the men also would confirm we see him from below. There's possibility it's just way smaller person defending instead of person on the ground. I didn't see the movie so maybe I'm missing crucial hints.
Based and Beksinskipilled.
I think that I can thank you very much in name of the whole country of Poland for you trying to pronounce polish names correctly
In Polish highschools we actually do analyse film posters and other posters, just like you did at the end, at Polish language class. The posters are mostly of adaptations of books we need to read for school, and it's pretty fun! We also do that on our final highschool exams
Best video ive already seen
What does this mean
@@valenges3317 Garmonbozia
@@CloseUpLover??!?!?!
Always been interested, thank you for the video
Great material, my respect for very good pronunciation of names of Polish artists, which may be tricky for English native 👍🏻
Great vid love you reading those polish names🎉
Great video overall.
I just wanted to highlight and thank you for actually attempting to pronounce polish names correctly.
As in using the polish phonetic pronunciations of letters, instead of just reading them in english.
Its rare to see in any english-speaking media that discusses Poland and I truly appreciate it.
14:00 the name is Andrzej Żuławski for anyone interested! I believe he's not in the description, so here you go
I’d like to also bring to everyone’s attention Piotr Jablønski. He’s a fucking phenomenal concept artist and his work is fucking amazing
Not to nitpick but you mean Jabłoński?
As you briefly mentioned: Those posters often were created by people who did not know much about movie. The best they could get was the full script but often it was just general plot description plus short interpretation.
One of my art school projects was to make movie posters inspired by Polska szkoła plakatu. It was a great challenge, you had to analyse the contents of a movie in order to pick the most suitable art media. I think the idea is to make a poster that conveys the essence of a movie. It encourages you to watch the film, but only after doing so, you fully notice the details and overall message of the poster
You got a new subscriber in me, great work on this video
Thanks a lot! I do appreciate it.
22:10 when Apocalypse Now came out, Poland was on the verge of martial law. After it was inforced on 13th of December 1981, an iconic picture was taken:
'Moskwa' cinema, with these red posters all over the wall... and a tank in the front of the cinema.
Finally a yt clip about this. I've been in love in polsih movie posters for almost 20 years :)
Pozdrowienia z Polski 🇵🇱💪🏻
I'm a big fan of Andrzej Krajewski. His posters were used in the film Beginners, with Ewan Mcgregor. Main character's father has lots of them on the walls in his apartment. Since this film, I've become a huge fan of posters in general and I have a few of his works on the walls in my house (e.g. Pulp Fiction, Hunting in Poland and a few more). Really worth checking.