Polish Posters

My fascination with Polish film posters started a few years ago with a book of collected film posters from the 70's. There were a few Polish posters scattered in the mix, often shown next to the US, UK and Italian versions of the same films. I found the Polish posters ridiculous, as they usually had a trace of a connection to the film they were advertising, and they were often cartoony and crudely graphical compared to the slick, movie-star based images from the western posters.

Over the years, and after seeing many Polish posters, I have started to appreciate them more. I'm not an expert on this art form, but from what I understand, most of the American movies they represent made it to Poland a couple years after the initial release. The Polish artists either didn't have access to movie art and stills, or they took it upon themselves to create original works that only hint at the theme and tone of the film. In that sense, they are transcendent of the films they represent and almost work as independent works of surrealist art. Here are a few images of Polish posters I've found. I won't name the films, you have to figure that out yourself. Most of these are prominent American films from the 60's through 80's.