Wow, what a great series of posts! I have to respond to all of you in this
one message or I'll bump up against my daily MOPO limit (wouldn't want to do
that...)
Talk about making a list and checking it twice! Hilarious stuff. This
one goes in my files... where I will steal quips from it the next time my
own well of sarcasm runs dry. Remind me never to do something to piss
you off, as you obviously never forget anything...
This is the funniest thing you've ever written. Applying Quantum Physics
and String Theory to poster dynamics. Brilliant! Your Nobel Prize is in the mail
(along with a free set of Bruce Hershenson's books).
A super evaluation of what's going on with the crazy auction bidding of
late. You've said it all. Except for why CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR is worth even $60
bucks. That one still puzzles me... not really great "art" because it's just a
big photo blow-up of Hannah's face with warpaint. Artistic use of a photograph,
yes. But $60 bucks worth of artistic use... for a post-NSS 1986 poster for which
there must be, um, a 'largish' inventory tucked away in dealer vaults around the
world? Oh well, no accounting for tastes... or the prices that some people will
pay regardless of current market value, as you so clearly point out. Some of the
other things we've seen going on in the last few days makes $60 bucks look like
the bargain of the century.
What's even stranger about the price variation between the TOUCH OF EVIL hs
and THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL is that they both contain super-fine graphic
imagery, and you'd think that would balance tings out even more between them.
Even though I'm a big sci-fi fan and cut my poster teeth on that stuff, I'd
rather have the TOUCH OF EVIL hs hanging on my wall to look at every day. I
guess we should be glad that the "investors" have such a relatively
narrow-focus. It does at least leave a few "other" nice posters for the rest of
us.
Congrats on saving almost $60 bucks on the COCB by looking outside the box.
I mean, even if I wouldn't pay $60 bucks for it, since you probably were
prepared to pay $120, getting it for half that means that the $60 bucks you
saved negates the $60 bucks you paid and therefore you got it for FREE! Sorry...
I'm still lost in Tom Martin's Quantum String Theory of Poster Dynamics...
The idea of dismembering a THE CHAPMAN REPORT to make a cool sign should
not be abandoned. Post a WTB for the 3-sheet or 6-sheet. Surely there are
others... If not, go hunting for a one-sheet to murder. The rest of the poster
world will rest easier once you succeed.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2004
8:44
Subject: Re: [MOPO] A little story about
Major Poster Auctions
Smart thinking with your head there, Saul! That
reissue Italian FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS that Strother sold you at Capitol is a
VERY nice poster and wise buy. As for CLAN, well, do I have to paint a
picture? You got the poster you wanted at the right price. If I was listing
that poster this week, and somewhere in our many thousands of posters I know
there is at least one... maybe more, that's about what I would be
expecting to get for it in the current market.
CLAN was a stiff of a film at the box
office, but it is a beautifully designed and executed poster. It's like
THE ROCKETEER advance - one stunning poster design for a film that didn't
cut the mustard at the box office.
Real collectors buy what appeals to their
aesthetic - whether it be the film that inspired the poster, or the poster
itself. People who buy for the value incentive are not collectors, they are
would-be investors filling their portfolios. I know several 50s SF
buyers (as opposed to collectors) who have not seen a single one of the films
they have invested in the posters for. They don't know that DAY THE EARTH
STOOD STILL is a richly evocative film, redolent of film noir imagery courtesy
of its director's tenure at RKO where he learned his trade as an editor on
films like CITIZEN KANE, and that it is enriched by a screenplay that has
parallels with the story of Jesus, and that it contains socio-political
subtexts that are as relevant today as they were 50 years ago.... all
they see is the "kitsch" value of the poster with the robot holding the woman
and the other SF elements.... and as on a par with THE ASTOUNDING SHE
MONSTER, or in dollar terms an ATTACK OF THE 50' WOMAN. Now while both of
these latter films may have a degree of entertainment value - the former
for its almost mind-numbing technical ineptitude, the latter for its
post-feminism "re-discovery" as an early feminist tract.... sorry guys,
it was a spin-off from the BIG Vs SMALL WORLD of THE INCREDIBLE
SHRINKING MAN's box office success, and nothing more...while the posters
themselves have a certain charm thanks to their execution and their
sexual imagery, they are not representative of any cinema milestone or even a
shallow benchmark.
For these folks it's just another dollar
investment that they will turn over in a year or two's time and get their
expected 15-20% profit on. It's just another shares receipt in the investment
portfolio.
But what is the real "value" of a movie
poster?
A few years ago, I bought a TOUCH OF EVIL 22x28
for $500, in almost the same week I sold a WASP WOMAN one sheet for $2500.
Where the hell is the equality there? Here is a poster for a landmark film
within film noir as a genre, and cinema overall as a major work by a
director who (short version) basically revolutionised American cinema in 1941
with CITIZEN KANE and whose significant body of directorial work can just
about be counted on the fingers of one hand... versus what? A very kitsch
poster for a near unwatchable film from a director who churned out a film
every few weeks in almost any genre. Yes, Mr Corman is indeed an important
person in the history of cinema, thanks to his unerring eye for talent hungry
for work and who had the cojones to keep going after they worked for Roger.
But does anybody buy a Corman (outside of the Poe films with Vincent Price)
for any sort of serious money? What sort of money does any non-horror
genre Corman collect?
John Landis said to me many years ago that film
was the most interesting of art forms, because you laid down the same
money to see some B, C or Z grade trash
as you did to see a classic. In the art world would you consider
paying a million dollars for a sculpture by Henry Moore, or a painting by
Monet, or Van Gogh? Sure you would. Would you consider paying several
millions dollars for a sculpture by an artist who lived at the end of the
street and knocked up something in his workshop on weekends, no matter how
stunning it was? Of course not.
Is film is the only art where trash commands
the same price to see as a major work of art? A few weeks back, I
bought the DVDs of LA GRANDE ILLUSION and M for a mere AU$3.50 each. That's
about US$2.00 and change. Yet go by last month's Giant Box Office Turkey and
its AU$30.00. What price art, indeed?!
Basic auction psychology - while you are the
high bidder, you own it. As soon as you are outbid, you don't own it and so
you want to own it again. Bid again - it's yours! Whoops, apocalypse, outbid
again! Hell, I gotta have that! Off you go again. You don't know in advance of
the bidding what your top dollar is? Then having the money to play - without
robbing the health fund payments, the kids educational funds, next week's
mortgage payment, you name it - is important. If, after the event, one
needs to rationalise why one spent $200 on that poster that one
could have bought from another dealer for $30 or $50 if one had bothered
to look outside of the heat of the moment, then maybe one has a problem to
deal with. Of course if $200 is the same as $50 in your wallet, then it
really doesn't matter. There are, after all, many, many people in this world
who buy things and never once ask the price or ask themselves if they
can find it for a better price.
As I said on an earlier post, what people pay
for something is their business and their money.
I don't doubt for a minute that Saul (who I
don't even know!) is likely to hang that CLAN and the BELL and enjoy every
square inch of them. Just as well you hit that BELL, I was also eyeing
it!
Phil
Phil Edwards Cinema Arts Pty Ltd
26 Vista Avenue
Soldiers
Point
NSW 2317
AUSTRALIA
Email:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]Phone/Fax
(International Dial) 0011 61 2 49847233
Phone/Fax (Domestic Dial) 02
4984 7233
Website:
www.cinemarts.com
