One of my favorite subgenres of film is the detective noir. To me, nothing beats watching hyper-masculine men and femme fatales spit out witty lines of dialogue and act tough as nails. The birth of the anti-hero largely came from these films, and its characters still enthrall us all. There is great escapism to be found in the detective who won’t take no for an answer, the dame whose duplicity lies in eroticism, and those characters and films have in turn created some fascinating artwork for their posters. The following is a collection of interesting posters for detective noir classics.
To be honest, I don’t know what language this foreign poster for Robert Altman’s classic is, but it stuck out to me because of two simple things. You don’t see Marlowe, you see his cat and his gun – his two most important things in his life. It’s nicely done minimalist work that highlights this character’s core principles.
This is a pretty generic poster for this classic detective noir, but one thing about it really made an impression on me — there is a reversal of roles here. In nearly every other poster for the film, Humphrey Bogart is positioned looking down on Lauren Bacall with her enthralled by him romantically. Here, it is the opposite, with Philip Marlowe being overpowered by Vivian Rutledge, which is more representative of their dynamic in the film.
I’m really only highlighting this poster for the tagline “A STORY AS EXPLOSIVE AS HIS BLAZING AUTOMATICS”. That has to be one of the greatest taglines ever printed, and perhaps the most detective noir tagline in existence. When I die I want that tagline put on my gravestone.
This poster by Mondo, created for Rian Johnson’s incredible debut Brick is a great piece of heightened minimalism. The famous tunnel that features several scenes of tension is placed right in the center of Brendan below his battered face, representing the dark depths he plunges to to solve the mystery of who killed his ex-girlfriend.
