BFI Original Movie Posters and Film Stills

From Audrey Hepburn Movies to Roman Polanski Stills

Oct 31, 2009

An excellent resource for the history of the cinema, the archive of the British Film Institute holds a vast collection of original movie posters and film stills.

The movie posters and film stills collections of the British Film Institute (BFI) are part of the BFI's vast archival material on the history of cinema. Some 15,000 original movie posters from Britain, the USA and the world dating from the early 1900s are held in a humidity and temperature-controlled store outside London. The 2,500,000 film stills-strong collection, with stills that go back to the 1890s, includes images not only of famous film stars but also shots of cinemas and studios.

Audrey Hepburn Movie Posters and Film Stills

Billy Wilder said of Audrey Hepburn: "There will not be another. You cannot duplicate her, or take her out of her era... No actress should be expected to be Audrey Hepburn. That dress by Mr. Givenchy has already been filled". Hepburn starred alongside famous actors such as Gregory Peck, Gary Cooper, Billy Wilder, Fred Astaire, Burt Lancaster, and Humphrey Bogart.

The BFI collection holds original movie posters and film stills from all Audrey Hepburn movies including: Roman Holiday, US 1953, dir. William Wyler. Audrey Hepburn's starring debut that won her an Oscar; Sabrina Fair; War and Peace; Funny Face; Love in the Afternoon; The Nun's Story; The Unforgiven; Breakfast at Tiffany's; The Loudest Whisper; Charade; Paris when it Sizzles; My Fair Lady; How to Steal a Million; Two for the Road; Wait Until Dark.

Roman Polanski Film Stills and Movie Posters

In the BFI online gallery, Michael Brooke describes Polanski's film-school shorts as revealing "an unmistakable if disquieting talent". His success with Knife in the Water (1962) propelled him to the West and in Britain he made the classic Repulsion (1965). He went on with scoring major hits in Hollywood withRosemary's Baby (1968) and Chinatown (1974).

BFI holds Roman Polanski film stills and original posters from his movies that include: Knife in the Water; Repulsion; Cul-de-sac; Dance of the Vampires; Rosemary's Baby; Macbeth; What?; Chinatown; The Tenant; Tess; and a collection of 8 Short Films.

Other original movie posters and film stills available at the British Film Institute include those coming from famous Italian film industry productions: from The Last Days of Pompeii and Quo Vadis of 1913 to Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris and Cavana's The Night Porter of 1974, the BFI archive covers major themes of Italian cinema.

Stills and posters from Westerns, central to the American film industry from the beginning of the 20th century until the 1960s, also feature in the BFI archive: from John Ford films, like The Searchers (1956), Spaghetti Westerns like A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and the Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), Once upon a Time in the West (1968), Clint Eastwood movie posters like the Pale Rider (1985) to the more recent Dances with Wolves(1990).

BFI Stills is the Picture Research and Sales service of the BFI Still, Posters and Designs collection. To learn how to buy reproduction images and about the fees of their digital service, contact the Commercial manager or Still curator at BFI, 21 Stephen Street, London W1NT 1LN, UK.

The copyright of the article BFI Original Movie Posters and Film Stills in Historical Archives is owned by Lito Apostolakou. Permission to republish BFI Original Movie Posters and Film Stills in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.