 |
|
Here are a few pieces from around the world:
 Mexico
|
|
|
|
| Although Mexican lobby cards often feature completely different art than is found on their American counterparts, the Mexican lobby set for Phantom re-used the Corben art from the American style C posters. Each lobby card in the Mexican set incorporated a different black and white still with the artwork behind it.
|
 England
|
This 20" x 30" poster is actually the right-hand side of the combo Quad shown immediately below. Phantom and Rocky were sent around as a double-feature in England, but the combo poster would be provided even to theaters that had only booked one of the two films, with instructions to cut the poster in half and use the half intended for the film they booked. So we're not completely sure whether it's right to call this a double crown, or "a combo quad that somebody ripped in half".
|
|
|
|
This is the standard British poster for use in theaters. Called a "Quad Crown," it's 30" x 40". Despite the claims of some eBayers, this poster is fairly commonplace and relatively easily found today.
|
|
|
This exceedingly rare British Quad (30"x40") was used to promote a double bill of Phantom with Rocky Horror. These are rare precisely because they were so frequently split in half in connection with exhibitions of one film or the other.
|
British pressbook
This British pressbook specifies everyone's relative billing;
it's a sign of Paul Williams' clout at the time that his name was required
to be featured as large as the film's title, and twice as large as that of its director.
 Argentina
|
This 29" x 43" Argentinian one sheet is notable for being in really good shape. The Argentinian posters were printed on very thin paper, and it's hard to find one that's not thrashed.
|
 France
Unfortunately, The Swan Archives hires its archivists based on their performance in "Philbin's Audition Room," rather than their linguistic or archival talents. So, nobody here speaks French. If you do, maybe you could do us a favor and translate the French presskit into English for us? (Actually...someone finally did! The translation now appears below.)
|
|
|
|
| The French "affiche moyenne," or medium sheet, (about 24" x 31") came in both red (Style A) and yellow (Style B) tinting; in our experience, the red one is harder to find.
|
French presskit
The French Presskit is a big file, and takes a while to load; be patient.
Why not watch Blow Out while you're waiting? It'll be time well spent. When a nice fellow named Olivier Canut finally translated the presskit for us, we were disappointed (but not surprised) to find that it was pretty much crap, as follows: "PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE, CROSSROAD OF FANTASTICS: Musical or fantasy? Two years before the mythic "Rocky Horror Picture Show," Brian de Palma succeeded in the mix of genres. But, within the fantastic side, we witness another sacred union, the alchemy of three great mythologies of the imaginary, three great icons: the Phantom of the Opera, Faust, and the Portrait of Dorian Gray. The 1974 Phantom of the Opera is Winslow Leach, rock n roll and leather replica of the gothic avenger of Gaston Leroux. Brian de Palma doesn’t stray too far from the original novel, the tragedy of this brilliant composer, pushed to despair by social climbers and murderers. The costume changes, but so little. That phantom, at the height of the 70’s, and who resisted so well the passage of time, wears the inevitable elements of the outfit, meaning the mask and the large cape. It is not anymore a “Bel Canto” place of worship that he haunts with his invisible and flamboyant presence, but the rock nirvana, some kind of avant gardist and decadent Balajo patrolled by Swan’s praetorian guard. A place of stupor, lust and music, ironically called “Paradise.” Swan’s Paradise and Winslow Leach ’s hell. A sincere Winslow, abused by his morbid mentor. A Winslow in love with a singer corrupted by Swan. Swan is Faust. A composer who sells his soul for eternal fame, a youth standing the test of time. His Mephisto: his own double who appears to him in the mirror of his bathroom. The very same double insincerely angelic and reassuring who offers him a fool’s bargain. But Swan’s narcissism is such, and his fear of growing old so strong, that he signs with his own blood the voluminous contract handed to him by the Devil. It is a brilliant idea that is a satanic intervention in show business. Damnation’s candidates for a borrowed time of a few years, for a handful of groupies and glory, are legion. Through the myth of Faust, de Palma nails vanity and pride. It’s perfectly natural that the rock world didn’t applaud Phantom of the Paradise. Many recognized themselves in Swan, a cynical manipulator, plagiarist, and lustful megalomaniac who pushes the pretty throats of his choir in a bed to measure his sexual appetites. Faust naturally leads us to Dorian Gray, to Oscar Wilde and his dandy to explore the passage of time, quivering in fear of the idea of wrinkles and death. The devil of the Phantom of the Paradise offers Swan eternal youth while only his image, recorded on video tape, degrades as time goes by. This image is the emanation of his inner self, his deep corruption. While it inexorably suffers the ravages of time, Swan remains somewhere a little child cynically parading among a battalion of beauties mad about his body. Therefore Swan is some kind of vampire feeding on talents introduced to him, because Swan lost his creativity a long time ago, relying now only on his intuition, his knowledge of markets, and his skill to create fashions. Once more, Brian de Palma doesn’t hesitate to use biting satire. painting the portrait of the mocking rock star giving into erotic caprice of a swarm of indulgent admirer, trapped in the will-o’-the-wisp. Of course, Chronos ends up catching Swan, literally and figuratively unmasked in the final moments of Phantom of the Paradise, manhandled in a hippie and kitsch festival. The sorcerer seems carried to the stake by a galvanized crowd. That image directly refers to old paintings from the roots of the genre, those of Salem burning its so-called limb of Satan. Brian de Palma couldn’t give a more ringing homage to the fantastic mythology."
|
French 16" x 24" re-release poster, probably from 1994. Can any of our French readers provide more information on this one?
|
|
|
|
This 13"x24" poster was used to advertise Phantom's release on VHS in France.
|
|
|
This poster was issued by Solaris Distribution in two sizes (17"x22" and 46"x62") in very limited numbers for an extremely limited DCP re-release in only a few theaters in France in 2014.
|
 Germany
Check out the unique Juicy Fruits/Undeads-themed poster! We like the fact that the German promoters chose to focus on the German-expressionism-inspired Undeads in their principal promotional image; shows a sense of horror film history and national pride (though you don't want that pesky German national pride getting too out of hand). Visiting Archivist Jochen B. has kindly translated the German souvenir program for us. Thanks, Jochen! Caress Beef with your mouse to see the entire German lobby card set.
These three 23" x 33" West German posters are called "A1's".
Austrian/German Commercially Sold Souvenir Program
Jochen's translation
German Lobby Cards - click on Beef to see the whole set.
|
There's an alternate version of the German lobby set with the title of the film in English. We believe this was used for screenings on US military bases in Germany.
|
|
And here's the corresponding English language version of the German A1 poster. The MPAA ratings box in the lower right corner supports our suspicion that these English language materials were intended for promoting the film to American audiences (probably US military personnel stationed in Germany.)
|
German Pressbook
Here's the German pressbook, which makes some really strange choices about whom to list in the credits, giving featured placement to Henry Calvert, who played the night watchman ("Hey, get away from that record press!") and listing Peter Jamison (the associate costume designer) rather than Roseanna Norton (the costume designer) for costumes, as well as listing Sissy Spacek (the set dresser) rather than Jack Fisk (the production designer). Really, we thought the Germans kept better records than that.
German Presskit
Thanks to longtime friend of the site Andreas Schade, here's the German presskit, which would have been provided to writers for German publications to aid them in writing about the film. It includes a plot summary, credits, and bios of De Palma and Williams. Weirdly, it states erroneously that cameraman Ronnie Taylor had worked on Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, and suggests that De Palma had hired him because he "needed an English cinematographer who was used to working in hard light." In fact, it was Larry Pizer, Phantom's cinematographer, who was brought aboard for that reason -- it's the cinematographer, not the cameraman, who deals with the lighting. That said, Taylor was one of the best camera operators in the business, who, in the course of his career, worked not only with De Palma but with Kubrick (though on Barry Lyndon, rather than Clockwork), Ken Russell, George Lucas (on Star Wars) and dozens of others.
|
Here's the German-language theatrical trailer! It's substantially identical to the North American original release trailer except that you get to hear Beef, Swan and Winslow speaking German! Huge thanks to our German pal Andy for getting an original 35mm copy to us; we had it color corrected, cleaned up and digitized for your foreign-film viewing pleasure. Don't you feel cultured now?
|
Tele-Movie-Shop
A German company calling itself "Tele-Movie-Shop" has been offering for sale their dossiers from various films, displaying reproductions of the films' original marketing materials. (They're kind of pushing their way into our turf...) Here's their offering for Phantom, with good colors on nice shiny paper. They do make a few unforgivable errors: They list the film's running time as 108 minutes (it's 92), and the budget as a whopping $3M (it was actually around half that). The poster on the front, with the Juicy Fruits, which they list as "Style B" is actually the German re-release poster, and the one they list on the third page as A0 size was actually A1. All that aside, it's a nice little piece, and we greatly appreciate our longtime German correspondent Andreas for sending it to us! Tele-movie-shop can be found on the web here: https://www.tele-movie-shop.de
 Denmark
|
Danish 1-Sheet, 24" x 33". You don't see too many of these. Unless, you know, you're in Denmark or something.
|
 Italy
Our archivists voted, and the Italians won first place in the poster competition, with this gorgeous painting of the phantom...and their lobby cards (which they call "fotobuste") are great (and HUGE) too. Select the fotobusta to see the whole set.
|
This one's 39" x 55", which makes it a "2 Fogli".
|
|
|
|
This is a 13" x 28", which in Italy is called a "Locandina".
|
|
|
|
This one's a huge 55" x 78", and is referred to in Italy as a "4 Fogli".
|
|
Fotobuste, each 19" x 27". Click on icky Swan to see the whole set.
 Spain
|
This Spanish poster is 27" x 40".
|
|
|
|
The Spanish pressbook isn't really a book; it's a two-sided glossy flyer, about 8" x 12". On the front, it's identical to the poster, and has a synopsis and credits (as shown here) on the back.
|
|
 Finland
The Swan Archives staff had been convinced that all that Finland had contributed to civilization was vodka, Linux, and saunas, but the beautiful coloring on this thing totally puts Finland on the map!
This is the smaller size Finnish poster, 16" x 23".
 Japan:
Two really nice posters here, and a lovely full color souvenir program book; click on the program to see all the pages. Can anyone translate the Japanese program into English for us? If you're able to, let us know, at archivist at swanarchives.org, and we'll send you higher resolution scans of the program pages.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| These two Japanese posters are both 20" x 28", and are referred to as "B2"'s. The one on the left is from the film's original release in Japan in 1975; the one on the right is from the 1988 re-release. The language at the top of the lefthand poster translates to, "Give me back my soul!!!....Give me back my lover !!.....Sad, painful Winslow's screaming crushed by strong rock and roll. Paul Williams' rhythmic drama touches deeply. New style rock and roll masterpiece." Thanks to visiting archivist Tomoko for the translation! We also have the one on the right in the incredibly rare B1 size (28.5" x 40.5"), which looks exactly the same, only larger. |
|
Without question, one of the most beautiful and desirable Phantom collectibles is this completely over-the-top souvenir program book from the film's 1988 re-release in Japan. These could be purchased at the movie theaters where the film was exhibited, but it seems not many of them have survived. Designed to look like an EP vinyl record, it opened up into a series of posters with beautiful graphics, comics, and other silliness. Totally fun!
 Belgium
This Belgian poster is about 14" x 22". Be careful, because there are reproductions of this poster being sold as originals. The originals were printed on very thin paper, almost like newsprint. The reproductions are on much heavier stock.
 Australia / New Zealand
The Australian poster. The "M" is for "Mature".
In Australia, they call these 13" x 30" posters "daybills". They had four different styles, but two of them look like they were doodled on a bar napkin after one too many Foster's. Aussie professionalism, mate. New Zealand, except for films that were actually produced in New Zealand, generally got their posters from other countries, mostly from Australia. But you can tell that a poster was used in New Zealand from the New Zealand censor's stamp (also called a "snipe"), visible on the poster on the lower left, below, where New Zealand has pasted its R (for "Restricted") rating stamp over the M (for "Mature") that had originally appeared on this Australian poster.
This link will take you back to the NORTH AMERICAN CAMPAIGN.
Some images not loading? Try refreshing the page, but wait for all the images to load BEFORE clicking on any of the pop-up links. (Some browsers stop loading images as soon as you click on anything in the page.)
Inquiries may be directed by email to archivist at swanarchives.org. The words "grand guignol" appear nowhere on this site. All website text, design, and coding is Copyright 2006-2024, Ari the Principal Archivist. No claim is made to the copyrighted works, trademarks or service marks of Harbor Productions, 20th Century Fox or A&M Records, and The Swan Archives is in no way affiliated with any of these entities.
|
|
