I'm no expert on movie posters so I can't say for definite which countries had each poster campaign. But I've tried to show the main types of original poster art, without showing every minor variation in layout. Many of these have since been reproduced as postcards and posters, though many of the originals can be found on eBay and specialist sites.
This beautiful artwork was used across Europe and America. The artist is Robert McGinnis, whose most famous posters were for several James Bond movies from Sean Connery's era, as well as Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun (thanks to IMP for that info). The long, wide version (at top) was a spectacular 20 feet wide!
One character isn't recognisable from the film (the one in the spacesuit, centre right), so I'm guessing this was produced for advanced publicity. Note that Durand-Durand's ship is the one shown crashing, rather than Barbarella's.
UK 'quad', 1968
Spain, 1968
Mexican over-sized lobby card, 1968
Japan, 1968.
A couple of Italian variations on the McGinnis artwork.
Italy also has their own style of collage posters, called fotobustas, of which many variations are produced for each film. These are the ones I know of...
As you can see, many of the costumes are the wrong colours and the fleshtones look strange, probably because they're black and white photos that have been coloured in.RE-RELEASE POSTERS
Czechoslovakia, 1971
Germany, 1973
Cult fantasy artist Boris Vallejo painted this artwork for the 1977 re-release that followed the space madness of Star Wars. Note that Pygar is wingless. This has become familiar as the art on all home video releases - on VHS, laserdisc and DVD. Note also the new, longer title (which never appeared onscreen).
Lastly there's this spectacular art by the Hildebrandt Brothers, famous for a classic early Star Wars poster, for a 1979 re-release. Seems like a lot of re-releases, but I guess it's because there was no home video yet.A wide selection of Barbarella repro posters here at Movie Poster Shop.
Some fantastic original posters here at Poster Nirvana.
Some fantastic original posters here at Poster Nirvana.
Don't miss out on any previous chapters of The Ultimate Guide to Barbarella:
Nice selection. The Japanese and the Czech posters are easily my favourites...the latter reminds me (though bear in mind, I'm no art expert) of Red Sonja as envisaged by Frank Thorne (though apparently first drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith in 1973).
ReplyDeleteI purchased this film at a thrift store on VHS and as you had mentioned, it's adorned with the "post-Star Wars" imagery. I have never seen this film and I realize that I might have to do that soon. Along with Pleasurecraft of course.
ReplyDelete-mAQ
The only post-STAR WARS imagery is in the re-release posters. The film was of course ten years before STAR WARS.
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