Writer Luke Georgiades unties the art of the erotic movie poster.
More than most other genres of movie poster, for films concerning the erotic, the devil is in the most intimate details. Take the Japanese poster for the 1978 re-release of Hiroshima Mon Amour, for example. A collage of nine dusty images of space, touch, location that come together to make a whole: a tender embrace between two lovers; a closeup of Emanuelle Riva indenting her fingernails into Eiji Okada’s shoulder blades as they make love, both at once a dominant marking of territory and a symbol of primal sexual submissiveness. It’s all about the taboo…what’s an image that will make even the most prudish bite their lips, the promiscuous catch their breath, and the romantic’s heart race?
Sometimes it’s the suggestion of the sensual that provokes excitement, a tease that begs to be unravelled further. The poster for Without A Stitch—a fantastic piece of artwork (for a not-so-fantastic movie) and by no coincidence another Japanese design (anyone who is a collector of vintage film art will know that the Japanese have a habit of producing the most consistently gorgeous in the medium)—probes the forbidden by taking advantage of the thrill of the voyeur. Though the imagery shows Anne Grete Nissen’s sexually frustrated high-schooler during several moments of erotic ecstasy, there’s not much forthcomingly explicit about the piece per se. Her arms are thrown back, her fingers curled, and she wears an expression of exasperated pleasure; the designer providing just enough visual information to whet the imagination and carry it forward.
There’s something about the sexploition poster, especially, that draws on male fantasies and fetishes to excite an audience. In these cases, there’s less a focus on hot-blooded romance than there is on a frosty penetrating cool. And in some cases, the trashier, the better. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, on top of quite simply being one of the most kick-ass exploitation titles out there, is the perfect cross between the stylish and the sleazy. Tura Saltana’s femme fatale Varla is front and centre of this roadshow-style artwork, clad in striking black jeans and a tucked-in tee barely containing her breasts. The type is as expressive as they come, fitting the loud, angry, sexy imagery like a leather glove. Everything in the frame, from title to tagline—SUPERWOMEN! BELTED, BUCKLED, AND BOOTED—is there to alarm and tantalise. The objective isn’t to grab your eye, but to seize you by the neck (or, like the unfortunate soul at the mercy of Varla, snap your arm in three places while you writhe in unimaginable pain).
The poster for Abel Ferrara’s Ms.45, a film which may not fall into sexploitation but certainly carries the influence of blood-stained erotic pulp, takes the male fetish for the sinful nun and the vengeful woman and uses it to sell and then subvert expectations. A revenge story through and through, the film, alternatively named The Angel of Vengeance (another mouth-wateringly metal title) follows Thena, a mute woman who swears bloody justice on all seedy men after being raped twice in one day on her way home from work. The poster, armed with the piercing tagline It’s no longer a man’s world, shows Zoë Tamerlis’ protagonist in her nun’s habit, sensually bringing a 45 calibre bullet to her lips with the same righteous intent as a rosary bead. The image tells us one thing—in this world, violence is a religion unto itself—and proves another—you don’t need to show skin to push eroticism. Like the best sex, when it comes down to it, it’s simply a matter of seduction.
If you liked this — see our last article on the art of the political film poster!
