This site covers the work of 413 known designers of 6930 film posters with 2126 uploaded images (so far). It contains a database of Polish film posters and a number of browsable sections, as shown on the navigation bar above and as described below.

Although my goal is to (eventually) provide all available information on all Polish film posters ever printed and every artist who ever designed one, back here on planet Earth my emphasis is on the best period of the mid 50s to early 70s. Since the Polish poster practically ceased to exist at the end of the 80s (and stopped being great long before that), some obscure titles might be missing from the database.

The site is about posters rather than films, so my primary concern is to provide the most complete information available on each individual poster : its designer, date, existing versions and variations, circulation, rarity and value. I also tried to identify original films and find as much data as possible for each title.

The most valuable information comes from the poster itself. While there are some variations in actors' or director's names spelling - especially in the earlier works - the artist's signature, date and circulation numbers are indisputable. If there are no such markings (or a poster to read it from), a variety of sources often make identification possible. First in importance are "Roczniki filmowe" ('Film Annuals') : an erstwhile monthly Polish trade publication that dealt with all films entering distribution. Apart from actors' photos and reviews of upcoming premieres, it often also showed (or at least named the designers of) posters for them. The only unreliable aspect was the sometimes-inflated, intended poster circulation, usually greatly reduced in actual printing.

Posters could also be dated by censor codes - a series of numbers printed at the edge of most prints - very reliable method if applied to the Nowogrodzka 64-A (Warsaw) printing plant output, but useless with others (Lublin, Gdansk, Kielce). Then there are various albums and show fliers, official artist biographies, etc. etc. Still, authors of 102 posters remain unidentified (listed in database as "Unk"(-nown), and 33 others (pre-war) as "Anonymous". Yet more are missing such basic data as : the country of film production (50), year (3) and original film title. Another 27 are dated by approximation.

- database

: search fields are : artist's name, poster (=Polish film) title, original film title & country, poster date (usually same as Polish film release date) , original film release date, director, cast, poster size and type of print, circulation, price, producers and additional remarks.

- artists

: start with the full list of all 413 names showing the artist's creative period and a number of film posters designed. There are lists for a particular decade ("50s",

"60s",

etc.) and "available images". I have also included highly subjective "classic"

and "undervalued"

categories. Since the work of many poster designers spanned several decades, you'll find some names repeated.

Each name is linked to a corresponding "bio"

page containing a brief CV and a table of all authored posters, grouped by the year of the poster's design (not the movie release date) & Polish title (with original film title if a well-known classic). The third column lists size, signature info (if any) and the country where the film was produced / film's original language. Titles in bold type are available for sale / trade.

From there, further links lead to individual poster pages

with pictures and additional information (exact size, circulation & value of poster + original film title, producer, director, actors and the year of original film release). If more than two images by a particular artist are available, the corresponding "bio"

page has a link to an individual "gallery"

of all available images of posters designed by that artist, all linked back to their separate pages.

- gallery

pages are divided by years, decades (with groups of posters by different artists from a given period), as well as "classic" and "undervalued" categories. The yearly section ("1956",

"1963",

etc.) could be a good place to see the trends for a particular time. The decade sections ("50s", "60s", etc.) are more of a 'best of' presentation. The "classic" is the 'best of the best' and "undervalued" is a self-explanatory, albeit highly subjective category.

- country

: for films from a particular country, or - in case of coproductions (especially of frequent French / Italian) - the film's original language

- theme

section might appear a bit whimsical with subsections like 'fear' ,

'love'

and 'dream'

but it also has 'erotica'..

- genre

: drama

, comedy

, animated

, adventure

, western

, costume

, sci-fi

, action

, thriller

, horror

, documentary

and war.

- the other browsable sections : directors

, titles

(Polish and original) & cast

are limited in scope to the most famous names / titles; for a complete search by these and other criteria (producer, release date, poster date, etc.), please use the database.

- glossary

: for abbreviations and a sample table please look up this page.

- site search : by keywords.

- what's new : updates, new photos, events, etc.

- links : list of galleries, databases, collections and other sites dealing with Polish posters.

- for sale / trade

: the most current list; in general, any of the titles in bold print from artists' pages are negotiable.

A lot of patronizing drivel had been written about the 'Polish School' of poster design being a 'product' of a 'resistance to Communism' or some such (and by extension, of an overwhelming desire to breathe free under the learned guidance of a Bushmonkey-on-a-cheney). That view, espoused by Western writers who don't know any better, and Polish ones (who should know better) has been omnipresent lately. No matter that the idea of art as an expression of political circumstance is par excellence a classic communist one.

In fact, quite the opposite seems to be true : free from commercial stranglehold, these artists produced brilliant works over an extended period of time. A lot of talented people found themselves in the right place at the right time. Like any artistic movement (or 'school'), it had its own dynamics, peaks and valleys. Indeed, some of the most accomplished works were political (pro-socialist). And now the fact that Polish film poster is dead (and had been so since 1989

when freedom dawned, and more to the point, film distribution was privatized) is further evidence of that.

The golden decade of Polish film posters, from approximately the mid 50s to the mid 60s was preceded by the pioneering work of a trio of artists in the 1940s. Henryk Tomaszewski,

Tadeusz Trepkowski

and Eryk Lipinski

were the original graphic designers commissioned in 1946 by Film Polski (a State film distribution monopoly) to design film posters. Their work soon revolutionized this particular form of advertising. Rather than use the stereotypical images of movie stars and exclamation points, they employed a whole new arsenal of graphic interpretation to convey a shorthand essence of the film. Two terrific early (1948)

examples are : Tomaszewski' Citizen Kane

and Ostatni etap

by Trepkowski.

In 1948 the political climate changed, Social Realism was introduced and other styles were severely restricted. Few works from the 1949

-1953

period retained the high standards established earlier. In the meantime though, more designers were drawn to the field : Wojciech Fangor, Waldemar Swierzy, Jan Lenica, Jerzy Treutler, Roman Cieslewicz, Wiktor Gorka, Jan Mlodozeniec, Julian Palka, Franciszek Starowieyski, Jozef Mroszczak, Wojciech Zamecznik - to mention the absolutely essential names. By 1955

the Stalinist policies were history and - with the restrictions gone - the field exploded with brilliant, classic works.

The golden period extended until 1965,

more or less. Designs from the late 60s, while by no means regressing to the corporate hack of Hollywood, generally lack the freshness and boldness of the earlier pieces. At the same time, the variety of styles widened. Many new designers brought with them their own vision, spanning the spectrum from the lyrical impressionistic style of Maria Ihnatowicz, to the pop designs of Andrzej Krajewski; from the cyberpunk montages of Ryszard Kiwerski and Maciej Raducki, to minimalistic expressions of Bronislaw Zelek and Mieczyslaw Wasilewski.

Then came 1990

and the State monopoly ended. Suddenly the distribution of movies in Poland was taken over by Warner, Paramount, etc., and the Polish poster as we knew it ceased to exist. Nowadays, most films are released with the same sort of ad display as in the US - essentially a photo montage of stars with approved typeface. Very few designers try to continue their work, rarely issuing a very limited series of posters (300 to 500). These are never displayed on the streets but are sold in galleries.

  ANCZYKOWSKI : Kanal 1957;

BACZEWSKA : Il Cappotto 1957,

Elena et les hommes 1958,

Porte des Lilas 1958;

BODNAR : Marianne de ma jeunesse 1958,

Sleeping Beauty 1962,

Old Yeller 1961;

BOROWY : Narzeczona Dzigita 1955,

Siamo donne 1957;

BUTENKO Tre notti d'amore 1964, Plein soleil 1969; CHERKA Faibles femmes 1961; CIESLEWICZ Broken Arrow 1957, Adorables créatures 1958, The Fallen Idol 1958, Ludzie i wilki 1959, Krzyzacy 1960, Taxi for Tobruk 1963; CZERNIAWSKI 3 Days of Condor 1978; DABROWSKI Sons and Lovers 1963, Cléo de 5 à 7 1964, The Hill 1966, Cul-de-Sac 1967; EROL Star Wars 1980; FANGOR Au-dela des grilles 1952, Maclovia 1955, My Teenage Daughter 1958, Carmen Jones 1959, Love in the Afternoon 1959, Niewinni czarodzieje 1960; FLISAK Roman Holiday 1959, All in a Night's Work 1963, The Firemen's Ball 1968, Cable Hogue 1972, Day for Night 1974; FREUDENREICH America America.. 1965; FRYSZTAK Lipstick 1961, A Kind of Loving 1963; GORKA La Bigorne 1958, Tamango 1959, Ludzie i bestie 1963, Kwaidan 1966, Sweet Charity 1970, 2001 : A Space Oddisey 1973, The Cabaret 1973; HEIDRICH Spellbound 1960; HIBNER The Mill on the Po 1957, Les Amants de Vérone 1958, The Idiot 1959, Rocco 1962, Two Way Stretch 1963; HILSCHER L'Affaire Maurizius 1957, Torrente Indiano 1957; HOLDANOWICZ Faraon 1965; HUSKOWSKA Il Letto 1957, Muerte de un ciclista 1957, L'Idiot 1958, Maria Candelaria 1959, Black Orpheus 1960; IHNATOWICZ Hud 1965, Night of the Iguana 1967, The Night of the Seagull 1972, Le Temps de mourir 1972, The Last Picture Show 1974, Don't Look Back 1977; JAGODZINSKI Moulin Rouge 1957; JANISZEWSKI Archimede 1960, Champion 1961, Drunken Angel 1961, Jewdokia 1962; JANOWSKI Ivan's Childhood 1962, The Mountain 1962; JAWOROWSKI An Inspector Calls 1956, The Misfits 1962, The Rebel 1962;; KIWERSKI Lord of the Flies 1969, Rebel Without a Cause 1970; KLIMOWSKI Taxi Driver 1976, The Omen 1977; KRAJEWSKI On the Beach 1967, A Trap for Cinderella 1967, Sanjuro 1968, Woman x 7 1968, La Curée 1969, The Pink Panther 1969, Max et les ferrailleurs 1972; LENICA Rio Escondido 1954, The Wages of Fear 1954, Maxim 1956, La Strada 1956, Il Bidone 1957, Kanal 1957, Ascenseur pour l'échafaud 1958, La Grande illusion 1960, Le Million 1960, Knife in the Water 1962; LIPINSKI Ulica graniczna 1948, Background 1958, Le Notti di Cabiria 1958, The Paradine Case 1959, All About Eve 1960, Me and the Colonel 1961, Yojimbo 1962, Le Bonheur 1966, Cleopatra 1968, Planet of the Apes 1969; MLODOZENIEC Le Fruit défendu 1959, L'Imprevisto 1962, Pot-Bouille 1962, Barbarella 1970, Dodes'ka Den 1971, Klute 1973, The Conformist 1974; MROSZCZAK Amici per la pelle 1958, The Moor of Venice 1961; NEUGEBAUER Lets Make Love 1965, My Geisha 1965, Harper 1970; OPALKA Le Bossu 1961, Serengeti 1963; PAGOWSKI Platoon 1988; PALKA Les Enfants du paradis 1954, Romeo and Juliet 1961, Comicos 1965; PROCKA The Getaway 1965, The Sting 1965; RADUCKI La Verite 1962; RAPNICKI Le Mepris 1966, Bus Stop 1967, Rodan 1967; SROKOWSKI The Ghost Goes West 1954, Huckleberry Finn 1962, Son of Flubber 1964; STACHURSKI Sitting Pretty 1958, High Noon 1959, The Horse's Mouth 1959, The Snows of Kilimanjaro 1959, 7 Samurai 1960, The White Sheik 1960, The Sheepman 1965, The Time Machine 1965, A Patch of Blue 1968; STAROWIEYSKI Das Feuerzug 1960, Jeu de massacre 1968, Operazione San Gennaro 1968, Les Creatures 1969, Un Bellissimo novembre 1970; STRYJECKI Droga na Zachod 1961, The Bad Sleep Well 1963, Viridiana 1963, The Small World of Sammy Lee 1964; SWIERZY 08-15 1957, Sunset Bv 1957, 400 Blows 1960, Matka Joanna od Aniolow 1961, Adam's Rib 1962, The African Queen 1962, Billy Liar 1964, Midnight Cowboy 1973; SYSKA Queen Christina 1964, Monkey Business 1965, Zorba the Greek 1966; SZAYBO The Diary of Anne Frank 1961, The Mistress 1965; TOMASZEWSKI Black Narcissus 1948, Citizen Kane 1948, Bellissima 1951, Ditta 1952, Hellzapoppin' 1959; TREPKOWSKI Ostatni etap 1948; TREUTLER Stagecoach 1961, A Child is Waiting 1965, The Vikings 1966, Los Golfos 1970, Five Easy Pieces 1974; WASILEWSKI Three Women 1978; WENZEL That Hamilton Woman 1957, Marty 1957, Donnez-moi ma chance 1958, Rebecca 1959, Shane 1959, The Bachelor Party 1960; ZAGORSKI Hiroshima mon amour 1959, Yesterday's Enemy 1962; St. ZAMECZNIK Czlowiek na torze 1957, Il Grido 1960, Cone of Silence 1961, One-Eyed Jacks 1963, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane 1965, The Battleship Potiomkin 1967, 100 Rifles 1970; W. ZAMECZNIK Lotna 1958, Sommaren med Monika 1958, Pociag 1959, A Night to Remember 1961, Mondo cane 1964; ZBIKOWSKI Yoyo 1966, Closely Watched Trains 1967, Red River 1967, Deadline USA 1970, Tristana 1971, The Graduate 1973; ZELEK The Birds 1965, To Kill a Mockingbird 1965, Hunger 1967...

A1 vertical  A1 horizontal  2 x A1 vert.= A0 horiz.  2 x A1 horiz.  A2 vertical  A2 horizontal  B2 vertical  various square formats  B1 vertical  B1 horizontal  1/2 B1 horiz.  1/2 A1 vert.  1/2 B1 vert.  1/2 A0 vert.