Tony
Nourmand the co-proprietor of the Reel Poster Gallery in London, and film
poster consultant for Christie's, has put together this fantastic collection
of posters from the Bond producers' own private collection. With the permission
of Eon Productions Ltd we are able to see rare and never published Bond
images. They are presented with careful attention to colour management
and in a volume printed to a high standard.
It is a treat to the eyes to see how Bond has been marketed throughout the world from his first adventures in Dr No to The World Is Not Enough. The early Sean Connery posters use colourful sketchy illustrations almost like pulp fiction book covers, whilst the latest have photo-realistic representations of the main characters. The certainty of all of them is that they will include half-naked women and variations on the 007 logo.
A foreword by Professor Christopher Frayling of the Royal Academy of Arts gives a brief summary of how the poster artwork has evolved, and Nourmand supplies a summary for each film and the background to its publicity campaign. He also shows posters designed specially for Bond festivals, and he gives us the profiles of the main Bond artists.
This is really a book to look at rather than to read. I found the Roger Moore 1970s and 1980s posters the most evocative, you can marvel at his flared trousers or at how they got away with using some very raunchy images. The campaign for the post-Star Wars Moonraker (1979) even put him in a tin foil spacesuit before they brought him back to earth.
For a Bond fan you must own this book even if you have to battle SPECTRE for it.
For more about Bond go here.
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