The posters are for mostly US films, silent and ?talkies?, shown between 1912 and 1945. It was common during the period for films to be given just one screening at a single cinema, so the posters were printed in small numbers, with just 5-10 copies made. Because of the scarcity of paper, most of the posters were recycled. Only through the efforts of a few collectors did some of the poster remain intact.
The poster contain little text, but captivate with their colour and sharp images, drawing potential film-goers by showing the gist of the plot of a black-and-white film.
The exhibition, entitled ?The Golden Age of Hungarian Film Posters? is being shown as part of a film retrospective at Lincoln Center called ?Resistance and Rebirth: Hungarian Cinema 50 Years after '56?. It shows some 200 posters, many reproduced in a volume also called 'The Golden Age of the Hungarian Film Posters?, which won the ?Best Artbook of Hungary? prize in 2004.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
