It’s a passion that may flip into the actual factor – some fan-art movie posters are so good that they find yourself in galleries and even earn the artist an opportunity to work with Hollywood’s greatest names.
That has been the case for Belgian artist Laurent Durieux, 52, whose pastel-toned, retro posters have their own fan base, including filmmakers.
Durieux remembers falling out of his chair when he obtained a congratulatory e mail from Steven Spielberg for his reimagined model of the Jaws poster.
It was a daring transfer to supply a brand new tackle one in all cinema’s most iconic photos, however his model is a basic instance of fan-art, which regularly makes playful, delicate references to the film.
‘I like to tell my own version of the film, while being respectful of the director’s imaginative and prescient,’ says Durieux. Photo: AFP
Rather than the terrifying shark of the unique, Durieux reveals a peaceable seaside scene with only a trace of the hazard offered by the shark fin form on a parasol.
“I like to tell my own version of the film, while being respectful of the director’s vision,” he mentioned on the Annecy Animation Festival, for which he designed the poster and the place he offered his works.
“I’m saying the same thing but in a slightly left-field way. I’m looking for elements that the director, and especially the PR, have not highlighted,” he added.
“The big difference is that my posters don’t have to worry about real marketing.”
‘We worked hand in hand. He was a real fan,’ mentioned Durieux about Coppola handing him the ‘Apocalypse Now’ re-release artwork fee. Photo: Laurent Durieux
Commissioned by Coppola A letter from Spielberg was one factor, however one other legendary director, Francis Ford Coppola, went one higher by truly utilizing Durieux’s design as the quilt artwork for the re-release of Apocalypse Now.
“We worked hand in hand. He was a real fan,” mentioned Durieux.
His tackle 1969 basic French movie The Swimming Pool was equally used for its re-release final yr.
All his posters comprise neat insider references, reminiscent of the hearth station that doubles as a ghost entice for Ghostbusters.
Or for The Shining, he opted for a tricycle that includes the quantity 237 – a reference to the forbidden room that’s immediately recognisable to followers of the basic horror by Stanley Kubrick.
For ‘The Shining’, Durieux opted for a tricycle that includes the quantity 237 – a reference to the forbidden room that’s immediately recognisable to Kubrick followers. Photo: Laurent Durieux
His silkscreen prints take as much as three months to make and promote for round US$100 (RM464) a chunk, however some have since been resold for as much as US$7,000 (RM32,460).
Durieux is way from the one artist to create his various posters – “fan art” is a well-liked style on Instagram beneath hashtags reminiscent of #AlternativeMoviePosters or #altposter.
The greatest examples have proven up in well-established galleries from Brooklyn to Paris, whereas a Texas-based retailer, Mondo, specialises within the sector and commissioned a lot of Durieux’s works.
A devoted public sale in July at Heritage Auctions within the United States introduced in additional than US$100,000 (RM463,700).
Thanks to their high quality and punctiliously restricted editions, they have change into “true works of art”, mentioned Hope Grubbs, a supervisor on the public sale home. – AFP
