Hollywood in France - classic film posters by Roger Soubie

The Shining Hour, 1938. (detail)

Roger Soubie (14 June 1898, Cambrai - 10 March 1984, Saint-Gaudens), French artist and graphic designer. He began his career by creating advertising posters for rail and transport companies, car manufacturers, and for regional tourism. He also designed magazine covers. And from the beginning of the 1930s until his retirement in 1966, he was responsible for creating nearly two thousand movie posters. Among these were the French titles of many of classic Hollywood's greatest films. 

Surrounded by all these wonderful images, I can't help but think of someone who knows and treasures many of these very films, who is a gifted and award-winning graphic artist herself, and whose birthday just happens to also fall on the fourteenth of June. Hmm? Who would that be, you ask? Well, that would be none other than my amazing wife, Gigi Little. 

(A few of the posters included here were designed for the re-issue of the film in question rather than its first French release.) 

Morocco, 1930.

The Sign of the Cross, 1932/1947.

Shanghai Express, 1932.

The Thin Man, 1934.

Tarzan and His Mate, 1934.

Mutiny on the Bounty, 1935.

Camille, 1936.

Camille, 1936.

Desire, 1936.

Conquest (aka Marie Walewska), 1937.

The Shining Hour, 1938.

Gone With the Wind (duh), 1939.

North West Mounted Police, 1940.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 1941.

Tarzan's Secret Treasure, 1941.

The Glass Key, 1942.

Double Indemnity, 1944.

Notorious, 1946.

The Blue Dahlia, 1946.

Song of The Thin Man, 1947.

Rope, 1948.

Under Capricorn, 1949.

Sunset Boulevard, 1950.

An American in Paris, 1951/1960s.

A Place in the Sun, 1951.

Ace in the Hole, 1951.

Deadline – U.S.A., 1952.

Ivanhoe, 1952.

Rancho Notorious, 1952.

Roman Holiday, 1953.

Rhapsody, 1954.

Sabrina, 1954.

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, 1956.

Forbidden Planet, 1956.

Meet Me in Las Vegas, 1956.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, 1958.

 North by Northwest, 1959.

The Misfits, 1961.

Lolita, 1962.

'Twas the night before Christmas - and, thus, this year's holiday card!

It was my turn to produce our holiday card this year, and I just couldn't come up with an idea; I was running out of time and I had nothing. I eventually conjured the thought that I'd like to find something with the saturated colors and rich detail of Early Netherlandish painting. When the amazing Arnolfini double portrait by van Eyck showed up in my search - as it certainly would - and I noted the predominant green and red in the composition, it seemed like a more than reasonable choice. And not too difficult to manage; not much more than face-swapping. It even had a dog in a supporting role!

The Arnolfini Portrait (aka The Arnolfini Wedding, The Arnolfini Marriage, Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife) by Jan van Eyck, 1434.

And yes, with such an iconic painting, all sorts of cheeky - or worse - things have already been done to this image, painted, photographed, and Photoshopped; I'd like to think our version is a little more subtle, more tasteful, a little more respectful of the original, that most. Since, unlike the way we usually concoct these things, I started with an image rather than a concept, when it came time to give it a title, we really had no idea what story our silly mugs were trying to convey. We eventually gave up. And now we're leaving the story for the viewer/recipient to imagine. So, what is the story?

Nicholas would like to wish everyone a happy holiday, a merry Christmas, or whatever lovely thing it is you do to celebrate at this time of year.
(Yes, it pretty much sounds like a bark, but it actually translates to "Joy!")

Józef Mehoffer - the artist and his wife

From another painter that was previously unknown to me. I love his work. And seeing that there are so many particular and interesting portraits of his wife - I expect there are even more - it got me to pondering how many times it is that I've included my own wonderful wife in my own work. Not a lot, really, inexplicably. If I only count full-on images of her, in ten and a half years of marriage, maybe three times...? That is going to change. Yes!

1898.

"Portrait with a Yellow Background", his wife Jadwiga, née Janakowska, 1907.

1894.

1913.

1898.

Circa 1915-20.

Unknown date.

1904.

1898.

1909.

1937.

1908.

Circa 1892.

Circa 1910.

1897.

1913.

1944.

"At the Summer House", 1904.

1892.

The "Florentine Portrait", 1900.

***

Józef Mehoffer (19 March 1869, Ropczyce – 8 July 1946, Wadowice), Polish painter and decorative artist, one of the leading artists of the Young Poland movement and one of the most respected Polish artists of his time. He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków and later at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, as well as in Paris at the Académie Colarossi and the École des Beaux-Arts; in Paris Mehoffer began painting portraits. He later expanded his work to include different techniques and artistic disciplines, such as stained glass, textiles, etchings, book illustrations, and other graphic arts. He produced set designs for the theater, and stylized furniture designs. Mehoffer received international acclaim for his stained glass windows in the Gothic St Nicholas Collegiate Church in Fribourg, Switzerland, realized between 1895 and 1936. He produced other important stained glass designs, mostly for churches and cathedrals in Poland. Besides his versatility in studio art, he is also known for his frescoes, which are often reminiscent of medieval art. He married Jadwiga Janakowska in 1899, with whom he had a son, Zbigniew, the following year. He died at the age of seventy-seven; his wife died ten years later, at the age of eighty-five.

Circa 1910.