Brad Brevet over at Rope of Silicon points me today over to the Turner Classic Movies website, which, in preparation for August’s mega “Summer Under the Stars” program, has released a modest series of redesigned posters for a few of the classic films set to be screened. The “Magnificent Seven” and “Grapes of Wrath” posters are, of course, exquisite, but I was taken by the arresting simplicity of this one for “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?”:

Speaking of Stanley Kramer’s film, I finally got around to Mark Harris’s book “Pictures at a Revolution” last week, maybe 100 pages in so far. It’s a look at a pivotal time in American film history through the lens of 1967’s five Best Picture nominees (“Bonnie & Clyde,” “Doctor Dolittle,” “The Graduate,” “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” and “The Graduate”), and I can’t put the damn thing down. It’s expertly rendered journalism that reads like a novel and every chance I get, I’ve been recommending it to film enthusiasts. So it only makes sense I bring it up here. Seek it out.
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5 responses so far
1 7-13-2009 at 11:37 am
John H. Foote said...
Amazing book!!!! Read it a year ago when it was first released and got through it in three days — compulsive and brilliant — would it not be cool if there was such a book for every year in cinema exploring how the five nominated films become such?? The “Bonnie and Clyde” story alone was mesmerizing.
2 7-13-2009 at 11:52 am
Kristopher Tapley said...
Not only that, I feel like “Pictures” would make a fascinating film adaptation if anyone had the balls.
3 7-13-2009 at 12:13 pm
Harmonica said...
This is, without a doubt, one of the best posters I’ve ever seen. It is one of those rare posters you can call “brilliant”.
And I can’t seem to find that book anywhere, been curious for quite some time about it.
4 7-13-2009 at 1:05 pm
Mike_M said...
man, love the Grapes and Mag Seven posters…
for each one of the site, remove the Summer 2009 text and they are perfect Criterion covers, no?
5 7-14-2009 at 2:58 am
Glenn said...
That really is a great “poster”. The ones for “The Big Heat”, “The Grapes of Wrath”, “The Magnificent Seven” and “Safety Last” are also excellent.