120 Years of Movie Magic

120 Years of Movie Magic

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  2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
  Estimate: £1,600-2,800

  This poster is an example of one of the earliest uses of holographic 3D display in cinema advertising so it’s perfect that it’s for Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi masterpiece, which celebrates its 50^th anniversary this year. At first the film divided critics and appeared to be a financial failure – it was a challenging watch with no dialogue in the opening 25 minutes. But it soon became a huge success, a cult favourite and is regularly voted as one of the greatest films of all time.

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  Festival International du Film a Cannes (1946) poster, French.
  Estimate: £8,000-12,000

  The first full-length Cannes Film Festival took place in 1946 after a previous incarnation in Venice starting in 1932 had bowed to fascist politics sweeping Europe. Although Cannes attempted to hold a festival in September 1939, the outbreak of the Second World War meant it was cancelled after the opening night. This poster for the 1946 festival was designed by Paul Colin, considered one of France’s great poster artists, and replaces a machine gun with a film camera in a poignant statement against the war which had only ended that month.

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  Cinématographe Lumière (1896) poster, French.
  Estimate: £40,000-60,000

  The most exciting lot in the sale is this inaugural poster for the first-ever public screening of a film. Held on 28 December 1895 at the Grand Café in Paris, a series of short films by the pioneering Lumière brothers was shown to an audience of fewer than 30 people and lasted under 30 minutes. This poster , designed by H. Brispot, illustrates people waiting to attend and was used in early 1896 to advertise further screenings. It is an exceptionally rare piece that is seldom seen by the public.

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  Top Hat (1935) Swedish.
  Estimate: £18,000-24,000

  Top Hat was the first film specifically written for dance partners Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and features one of the most famous movie musical scenes of all time: the stunning dance sequence Cheek to Cheek. This is an unused Swedish poster for the romantic comedy and is the only known surviving example of the Art Deco design.

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  Lawrence of Arabia (1962) special double-sided Roadshow display, US .
  Estimate: £10,000-15,000

  This special light box display for Lawrence of Arabia was one of the first double-sided film posters and only a few have surfaced in recent years due to the fragility of the materials. The film is widely considered one of the most important in cinematic history. Starring Peter O’Toole, Alec Guinness and Omar Sharif, it was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won seven.

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  King Kong (1933) poster, Swedish.
  Estimate £40,000-60,000

  Not just an iconic poster but an iconic image, this Swedish poster for King Kong shows the monstrous giant ape balanced on the top of the Empire State Building clutching heroine Fay Wray in his fist. It is an incredibly rare example and was previously in the collection of Kirk Hammett, lead guitarist of Metallica who performs with super-imposed images of his posters on his guitar.

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  Tales of Manhattan / Destino su Manhattan (1942) poster, Italian.
  Estimate £2,400-3,600

  Only a few unused copies remain of this billboard-sized poster designed by Italian artist Averardo Ciriello for Tales of Manhattan. The film is an ambitious anthology of five stories, connected by a man’s black formal tailcoat. Directed by Julien Duvivier, it has an A-list ensemble cast including Rita Hayworth, Ginger Rogers and Henry Fonda. A sixth story was written and filmed but cut from the cinematic release version of the film; it was later restored to a 1996 VHS release.

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  The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) poster, German.
  Estimate: £1,400-2,600

  This striking German banner poster for The Spy Who Loved Me was designed in the style of Andy Warhol. It was the third James Bond film to star Sir Roger Moore and the theme tune was Nobody Does It Better sung by Carly Simon. Along with For Your Eyes Only, this was one of Moore’s favourite of his own Bond movies.

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  Jaws (1975) deluxe hand printed candid file photographs, US.
  Estimate £800-1,200

  These two extraordinary photographs were taken by Louis Goldman during rehearsals for the film. They show director Steven Spielberg and production designer Joe Alves with one of the three mechanical sharks used during filming. Spielberg apparently named the shark “Bruce” after his lawyer. It was the director’s breakthrough film and is thought of as the first summer blockbuster with 67 million people in the US seeing it on initial release.

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  Tarantula (1955) poster, US.
  Estimate: £1,800-2,600

  Although this eye-catching poster is in colour, this classic horror B-movie was actually shot in black and white by Universal Pictures, probably because of budget constrictions. Telling the story of a giant spider that escapes from a laboratory and terrifies locals after being the subject of experiments in gigantism , it was actually made using a real live spider crawling over miniature scenery.

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  The Birds (1963) poster, US.
  Estimate: £800-1,200

  An original poster for one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best known films, The Birds featured his muse Tippi Hedren in her film acting debut as a woman tormented by vicious and unexplained attacks by flocks of crows. It is an adaptation of a short story by Daphne du Maurier and is considered one of the scariest films ever made. Hedren has since spoken about the obsessive relationship Hitchcock had with her and the traumatic time she had on The Birds set where she was filmed being attacked by real, rather than mechanical, birds.

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  Pulp Fiction (1994) video standee, British.
  Estimate £1,400-1,600

  This standee for Pulp Fiction was designed for use in video shops when the film was released on VHS and very few are known to have survived since then. Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, the film features some of the most iconic sequences in cinema history and marked a major acting comeback for John Travolta. It cost just $8 million to make but grossed over $200 million at the box office.

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  Blow Up (1967) poster, Japanese.
  Estimate £600-900

  A striking Japanese poste r for the cult classic directed by Michelangelo Antonioni that tells the story of a photographer who accidentally captures a murder on film while on a shoot. It stars David Hemming and Vanessa Redgrave, who filmed in London during the day while simultaneously playing the title role in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie on stage in the evenings.

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  The Letter / La Lettre (1940) poster, French.
  Estimate: £4,000-6,000

  The artwork of murderous Bette Davis brandishing a gun on this poster of the classic film noir was designed by Boris Grinsson. Davis frequently fought with director William Wyler during filming but both respected each other as artists. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards but did not win any in a tough Oscar race that also included The Grapes of Wrath and Rebecca.

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    Type: story

    Category: Prints

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    Type: story

    Category: Online Auctions

    How to Sell James Bond
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    Type: story

    Category: Online Auctions

    The Charming Art of Disney Posters
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    Type: auction

    Category: Past Auction

    Prints & Multiples

    26 September 2018 | 10:00 AM BST | London

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  • 

    Type: auction

    Category: Past Auction

    Contemporary Photographs

    3 October 2018 | 11:00 AM EDT | New York

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