The poster is a window into a golden age of cinema. With vibrant illustrations and color, this poster is a work of art in itself. It was created to promote the film “Bugsy Malone”, a musical comedy full of charm and mystery, in which children play the roles of the typical gangster characters of that era.
“A 1975 musical gangster kid movie mashup directed by Alan Parker and starring Jodie Foster. I saw it when I was quite young and it told me anything is possible. Full of movie love and smart about many genres plus a great score from Paul `Phantom of the Paradise” Williams.” – Larry Karaszewski, scriptwriter, contributor to CineEuroConnect
The other two 2-D exhibits I have chosen are the posters for Ghost Dog and Bugsy Malone. It’s no surprise that many film aficionados collect posters. They are often our first point of connection with the experience that we will have with the story on screen. As these two demonstrate, the language of graphic design, when well-executed, conjures the feelings that the film will invoke in the audience. The poster for Ghost Dog is deliberately jarring – blurry and difficult to comprehend in a glance. Like a lot of the work of Jim Jarmusch, Ghost Dog the film is demanding of its viewers, refusing to serve a story up without the audience working for it. In the case of Bugsy Malone, it is vibrant, exuberant, excessive. As contributor Larry Karaszewski says, it communicates to the attentive viewer, anything and everything is possible within film. – Mary Kate O’Flanagan, curator