DAMNED 1969 Luchino Visconti WIKTOR GORKA POLISH POSTER

Original Polish 23 inch x 33 inch Poster for the 1969 Luchino Visconti Drama THE DAMNED starring Dirk Bogarde, Ingrid Thulin, Helmut Griem, Helmut Berger, Renaud Verley, Umberto Orsini, Albrecht Schoenhals, Rene Koldehoff, Florinda Bolkan and Charlotte Rampling.

In the early days of Nazi Germany, a powerful noble familymust adjust to life under the new dictatorship regime. The transition from democracy to dictatorship is thus dramatized through the lives of the family which also owns a powerful German industrial firm (a thinly veiled reference to the Essen-based Krupp family of steel industrialists). Through such characters as a German Baron, a child molester, a Nazi Storm Trooper, an innocent man framed for murder, and a Captain in the German SS, “Damned” thus shows how so called “German Upper Class Nobility” first resented Adolf Hitler, then accepted him, and at last embraced him.

Poster art by Wiktor Gorka (1922 - 2004). Born in Komorowice, Poland, Górka obtained a degree in graphic design from the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków in 1952 where he was under the supervision of Jerzy Karolak. He was a co-founder of the so-called Polish School of Posters, whose most important principles were: simplicity and clarity, the use of concise symbols and poetic metaphors, as well as diverse means of expression. Between the 50s and the 80s Wiktor Górka worked with the biggest Polish publishers and film distributors. He designed posters (amounting to nearly 300), book and magazine covers, commercial logos and prints.

The poster is in good condition and has been linen-backed. The title has been double printed.