Tajemství hradu v Karpatech poster

Czech film posters

Not often I discover a whole genre of films due to a film poster (it’s usually soundtracks which are the gateway drug) but these trippy 1960’s-70’s and 80’s Czech posters have made me check out (ho ho) the Czech New Wave films, like Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Fireman’s Ball, Cassandra Cat aka When The Cat Comes, a film about a spectacle wearing cat that when they are taken off, it colours people according to their true mood. Also features the delectable Jan Werich:

Cassandra Cat

This isn’t the strangest poster or movie though from this archive, the one featured above – Tajemství hradu v Karpatech (The Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians) is a weird time travel / historical / sci-fi comedy with props from Jan Švankmajer. Baron Gorcu who is pictured is played by Milos Kopecký, also played Baron von Munchausen in The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (1961) – yeah another Terry Gilliam influence. The man gets around! Music is also by the mysterious Luboš Fišer who also did the music for ‘Valerie…’ which I played on the podcast. Told you music was the gateway drug…

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Another surprise from this archive is how many Czech and Russian sci-fi films there were. Also this poster – ripped off by Moon, much? Naughty.

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(aka Camelot)

bandoleroi

Another discovery was Bud Spencer – an Italian film actor, he starred in a very cute looking film called The E.T. and the Sheriff. But it’s here for purely selfish reasons, I just fancy him 😉

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Even Mary Poppins gets the psych treatment!

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Some of these are more like pop art than a film poster! In fact one of the posters actually uses some of Roy Lichtenstein’s work.

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This was the fourth of Jean Girault’s popular Gendarme series, The Gendarme Takes Off.

Omen poster czech

Scary! Methinks this wouldn’t be possible in the US or UK…especially now. (link via Dangerous Minds / Ian Fondue)

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