Czech Movie Posters: Poster-hunting competition has got no winner

Two months ago I have announced a donation contest with poster for a Soviet movie as an award. As I have received no donations during the last two months, the poster stays with me.

How to buy posters

It is simple: Please write an e-mail to czechmovieposters@gmail.com, we will sort out details (addresses, discounts, postage, currency conversion), then send the money to my Paypal account and you can expect the posters at your door.
Low prices: You can search the Web for other places where you can buy vintage Czech movie posters. Soon you will see that many retailers want hundreds of dollars for a single piece...
Authenticity assurance: All posters are 100% original prints dating back to 1960s, 70s and 80s. No reprints, no copies.
Postage fees: Flat shipping rate 7.99 USD worldwide (or your local equivalent). Shipping is free of charge if you spend at least 50 USD.
Shipping: Posters are sent as registered mail in heavy-duty mailing tubes.
Currency conversion: All prices are displayed in US dollars, but you do not have to pay in dollars if your domestic currency is different. We will calculate your price from dollars using the exchange rates published at X-Rates.com.

FAQ

Q1:Your posts include years - are those years when the movies were shot or years in which the posters were made?
A1:Some foreign movies were released in Czechoslovakia many years after they were made. That is why years may differ on various web sites. Dates on my pages refer to years when the movies were shot.
Q2: What size are the posters?
A2: All posters are roughly A3, ie. 29.7 x 42 cm, 11.7 x 16.5 inches. Actually, they always differ from one another by 1-5 milimetres.
Q3:I have seen different Czech designs for the same movies. Were they real?
A3:Some movies used to have alternative posters, so probably both versions are genuine. In some cases, you might get four different posters and still you ain't got 'em all.

About Czech Movie Posters

Movies from many countries, Czech posters for all of them. How come?

Once upon a time there was a small kingdom in Central Europe called Bohemia. Many centuries and political changes later, that sunny and friendly country actually became a vicious totalitarian state. Just like you would expect from any of your standard Communist regimes, all economic output in Czechoslovakia used to be planned and controlled by state monopoly.

But not even the strongest ruler can prevail if they just oppress people’s rights and ban things 24/7. You also gotta provide people with „bread and circuses“ to keep them from uprising. Some of the much-needed entertainment was catered by the state-owned movie distribution company that supplied cinemas across Czechoslovakia with domestic movie releases and imported flicks.

Czechoslovakia used to be member of Comecon, a kind of international business pact governed by the Soviet Union. The artistic value of some hard-core Communist propaganda movies was not much higher than one you can find in crude oil or timber, and so the movie industry was managed through this pact just like any other production industries. As a result, Czech and Slovak people could see a lot of movies from USSR, Poland, East Germany, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria etc. Luckily, not all the imports came from the East, so the cinemas also showed some contemporary western movies as well. Naturally, every piece of art that was showed, staged, sung or exhibited in Czechoslovakia had to be officially approved to prevent “politically subversive” culture influencing people (eg. movies criticising communism, movies about prisoners of conscience etc.).

Now for the best part: Today we are living in the era of globalized posters when you can get the same picture of actor faces all over the world. Back then it was different - Every single movie in Czech cinemas used to have original poster art created by skilled Czech designers! There was an original design for Rebel Without a Cause, an original design for Bullitt, an original design for The Great Dictator etc. etc. etc. created solely for Czech market. Sometimes the designers derived their work from movie screenshots, sometimes they just painted a brand new picture or put together a brand new montage.

In 1989 the Communist regime collapsed and few years later Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The system of government-controlled film distribution and poster art has been replaced by market economy, but what prevails is the beauty of all these artworks from the Era of Cold War. All originals, no reprints, stored for dozens of years…

Monday, 1 December 2008

Poster-hunting competition has got no winner

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Czech Movie Posters

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Monday, 1 December 2008

Poster-hunting competition has got no winner

0 comments:

Czech Movie Posters

Please make a donation to Czech Movie Posters

How to buy posters

FAQ

Labels

Blog Archive

Subscribe To

Friends

About Czech Movie Posters