You may have seen some of the unusual posters drawn for films in Poland in the 70s and 80s, when the task was given to artists who had creative freedom rather than an order to “put ten guns and a sun behind Mark Wahlberg, and make sure to use the front shot for every flying head”. There are many such lists online, but they always show only US-made films:

[https://www.deathbyfilms.com/latest-artcles/top-20-greatest-polish-movie-posters/](https://www.deathbyfilms.com/latest-artcles/top-20-greatest-polish-movie-posters/)

So I found some posters from the same era, but for some European films instead.

– Here’s one of the classic Gendarmes from France. Looks like a comedy, and although Cruchot seems to be Quasimodo dreaming about torturing someone, he could sometimes be a malicious runt, so it might fit:

[https://polishposter.com/697/697.jpg](https://polishposter.com/697/697.jpg)

– But here’s an Olsen Gang film from Denmark, and this is more of the typical “Poland’s 80s film poster” style: the fun comedy is now a gloomy introspective piece about the horror of being imprisoned in one’s mind:

[https://polishposter.com/3012/3008.jpg](https://polishposter.com/3012/3008.jpg)

– “Hunger”, from Denmark, Norway *and* Sweden:

[https://polishposter.com/1860/1856.jpg](https://polishposter.com/1860/1856.jpg)

– Denmark’s “The Man Who Thought Life” is now about hippies in USA:

[https://polishposter.com/2525/2521.jpg](https://polishposter.com/2525/2521.jpg)

– Denmark’s Olsen again: Benny finally went insane and cracked Egon’s skull:

[https://polishposter.com/1023/1022.jpg](https://polishposter.com/1023/1022.jpg)

– Denmark, “The Woolen Stocking Peddler”:

[https://polishposter.com/3921/3917.jpg](https://polishposter.com/3921/3917.jpg)

– Sweden’s “Emil i Lönneberga” uses the German name “Michel”:

[https://polishposter.com/2830/2826.jpg](https://polishposter.com/2830/2826.jpg)

– Luc Besson’s “Big Blue”:

[https://polishposter.com/4295/4289.jpg](https://polishposter.com/4295/4289.jpg)

– “Babette’s Feast” from Denmark:

[https://polishposter.com/271/271.jpg](https://polishposter.com/271/271.jpg)

– It’s obvious that “Les Ripoux” is about dirty cops in France:

[https://polishposter.com/1259/1256.jpg](https://polishposter.com/1259/1256.jpg)

– You won’t recognize “The Man Who Quit Smoking” as a Swedish comedy from this poster:

[https://polishposter.com/2585/2581.jpg](https://polishposter.com/2585/2581.jpg)

– Winnetou is really, really red:

[https://polishposter.com/401/401.jpg](https://polishposter.com/401/401.jpg)

– But sometimes he gets daltonism and goes green:

[https://polishposter.com/1511/1508.jpg](https://polishposter.com/1511/1508.jpg)

– Czech cowboy “Lemonade Joe” becomes quite literal:

[https://polishposter.com/2824/2820.jpg](https://polishposter.com/2824/2820.jpg)

– Slovakia’s “Thousand-year-old Bee” is not a horror film, no matter what the poster says:

[https://polishposter.com/1613/1610.jpg](https://polishposter.com/1613/1610.jpg)

– Sweden’s “Fanny and Alexander”…

[https://polishposter.com/1069/1068.jpg](https://polishposter.com/1069/1068.jpg)

– …in two takes:

[https://polishposter.com/2343/2339.jpg](https://polishposter.com/2343/2339.jpg)

– “ABBA” the movie, is well, Abba!

[https://polishposter.com/1267/1264.jpg](https://polishposter.com/1267/1264.jpg)

– Sweden and Norway joined forces to produce “Games of Love and Loneliness”, so the poster joins colours, too:

[https://polishposter.com/1400/1397.jpg](https://polishposter.com/1400/1397.jpg)

– The Leningrad Cowboys! From Finland to USA!

[https://polishposter.com/926/925.jpg](https://polishposter.com/926/925.jpg)

– Yugoslavia’s “The Rage Within” could be used by biker clubs as is:

[https://polishposter.com/4509/4503.jpg](https://polishposter.com/4509/4503.jpg)

– The poster for Italy’s “Confessione di un commissario di polizia al procuratore della Repubblica” was as serious as the film, although it had fewer images than the title had words:

[https://polishposter.com/742/742.jpg](https://polishposter.com/742/742.jpg)

– Czech “Days of Betrayal”:

[https://polishposter.com/420/420.jpg](https://polishposter.com/420/420.jpg)

– The poster promises that Yugoslavia’s “Visitors from the Galaxy” is a violent horror rather than a sci-fi comedy:

[https://polishposter.com/2792/2788.jpg](https://polishposter.com/2792/2788.jpg)

– Louis de Funes did *not* eat people in “L’ aile ou la cuisse”:

[https://polishposter.com/147/147.jpg](https://polishposter.com/147/147.jpg)

– Can’t you tell the story of Czech “Katapult” from the poster?

[https://polishposter.com/1247/1244.jpg](https://polishposter.com/1247/1244.jpg)

– Yugoslavia’s “Anticasanova” is has things on his mind:

[https://polishposter.com/1090/1088.jpg](https://polishposter.com/1090/1088.jpg)

– And Fellini’s “Casanova” has things in his mind:

[https://polishposter.com/3830/3826.jpg](https://polishposter.com/3830/3826.jpg)

7 comments

  4. They’re all fantastic, soooo much better than the “15 minutes of photoshop” crap we get today, but that poster for “The Man Who Quit Smoking” is… Well, it looks like a human headed turd, more than what i suppose should be a cigar…

Leave a Reply