lobby cards
Zaza, the lobby card I have chosen was a film based on a 1904 French play by Francois Berton and Charles Simon. Zaza was a successful film played by nearly every major actress of the day. To quote Paramount, It is a story of 'sawdust and tears, backstage rivalries, dramas and heartbreaks'. For this Lobby card Paramount's advertising department has ingeniously incorporated the style and feel of the nineteenth century French posters of Toulouse-Lautrec. This image came about as a distinct change of style taking place within the Paramount publicity department. They started to steer away from the now too familiar photo and text cards and started to develop cards that would eventually change everyone's conception of cinema advertising. Paramount's publicity department cut out the figures of the stars and surrounded them in completely non-realistic backgrounds and highly stylised sets drawn in the most brilliant colours. Choice of lettering and overall layout of all lobby cards was essential to gain the correct impact need. In action films i.e., The Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941), Ben Hur (1931), film companies used bright bold colours and garish statements in a bid to lure audiences to their films by impression alone.
Being seen in most cinemas throughout America the consumer group and target audience for this lobby card and others like it is hard to define. Toulouse Lautrec was born in 1864 in Albi, France, and took up painting as a child whilst nursing two broken legs. Zaza is no exception, using a bolder version of the typeface used to portray the actresses first name, instantly draws you to the identification of the star of the feature, which in this case is Gloria Swanson. Some companies chose to take the look of photography to a higher plane using Ariel, circular and eventually panoramic images while some experimented with text alone i. However with films like Zaza, they used a different concept of design all together, using fine art as a template. Some good examples are La Goulou Entering the Moulin Rouge (1892), Au Salon de la rue des Moulins (1894) and Jane Avril dancing (1892), all of which are shown below. This piece of artwork has only one flaw as far as I am concerned and that is the major misplacement of the text. The image of the lead character obviously being warned or reprimanded by her co-star works well in fuelling the imagination and intrigues the public into finding out what the story is. It is also noticeable that the title of the film is shown in red and in bold as this not only draws attention to the name of the feature but the change in colour also pulls the text from the page in an almost 3D fashion. Others chose to take advertising away from the, by now, overused cards and began to branch out and develop, what is known in today's cinema world as, visuals. Lautrec, an accomplished illustrator, painter and lithographer, found pleasure in portraying the picturesque and often humorous side of the bohemian nightlife of late nineteenth century Paris. By using an idea obviously inspired by Tolouse-Lautrec, it not only gives the impression of a tale of glorious stage life in a late nineteenth century Paris but also gives the impression that, under all the glamour, the cracks are beginning to show. But, as with any film, by having such a wide output it leads me to believe that people of all ages could have watched this film and enjoyed it. I feel that this piece of advertising history sells the film well and also portrays the style and genre of the film perfectly.
Common topics in this essay:
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Gloria Swanson,
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Jane Avril,
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,
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using fine art,
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Acceptance Essays
