Curio: Bootleg Posters from Ghana

Alexa here to share some arts and crafts for your Tuesday. I recently came upon a story about the strange world of bootleg movie posters from Ghana and I've become a little obsessed. In the 80s and early 90s, when VHS tapes from Hong Kong, Bollywood and Hollywood started making their way to Ghana, mobile cinemas were set up to screen films on the fly.  Promotional posters were needed quickly to get people into the theaters but there was a catch: the artists knew little about the films before making the posters. Armed with titles and their own imaginations, the poster artists created versions of these films stuffed with more violence and pulpy thrills than the films themselves.

More false advertising after the jump

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Posterized: Russell Crowe

What was the precise moment that Russell Crowe became a superstar? Here's my guess. The moment LA Confidential introduced him, with that piercing stare (you can count the number of times he blinks in the movie on one hand) with his character name punched out on screen like a case file report.

They might as well have typed out

R-U-S-S-E-L-L C-R-O-W-E

...in giant letters right then. But enough about L.A. Confidential which we've been discussing a lot this week. His film career started 7 years earlier than that with Australian pictures in 1990. With Noah opening today his name is back on marquees.

I tried to find the earliest poster of each of his films since a lot of the posters have been retrofitted to put his face and name huge as the only selling point, even if he was a supporting characters. It's better to see the slow rise of his marketability with original posters. He's made 38 films thus far. How many of these have you seen? 

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Posterized: Lars von Trier

Denmark's most important and most self important troublemaker Lars von Trier is back with the two-part Nymphomaniac. Charlotte Gainsbourg stars as the title character and recounts her lifelong sexcapades. Is there really 5 hours of story to tell? Or is it just hard to edit yourself when you're doing something vignette style? And how do we count this in his filmography anyway... as one or two films?

Is it really one film delivered at two separate chunks or two separate films? Not that Von Trier's filmography is easy to parse in the usual way, making posterized a bit more challenging. [more...]

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Posterized: Jake Gyllenhaal

Jake on the set of Everest (2015)With Enemy, Dennis Villeneuve's trippy new thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Jake Gyllenhaal opening this weekend,  it's time to look back on this actor we've loved ever since he stared in a mirror and saw a demonic rabbit staring back at him. Jake's been picky in his career making less features than other stars who've been in the business for nearly a quarter century. (Since his parents are both in the industry, he started young.) Jake recently turned 33 --  the Jesus year (!) which we'll pretend explains the hair --  and he's already built an enviable filmography having starred in at least one bonafide classic (Brokeback Mountain) and two others that might also stand the test of time (Donnie Darko, Zodiac).

So the question is now, what kind of a second act is his career going to have now that he's in Hollywood's preferred age range for male movie stars (thirtysomething through the fortysomethings is when most of the iconic roles happen)? His last three pictures have all been very good and very different (End of Watch, Prisoners, Enemy) which is probably a good sign. 

Enemy is his 24th feature. How many have you seen? Let's take a trip back in time...

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New "Under The Skin" Posters in the Order That They Freak Me Out

From a floating iris that seems to have an infinite sclera (aiiiyeeee) to the foggy beauty of Scarlett Johansson. Here they are...  

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