Graphic Design and Cinema: Portuguese Movie Posters from the Nouvelle Vague Period

Abstract

Graphic design and cinema are closely related, especially by the divulgation, in which the poster is a major vehicle. This article discusses the Portuguese poster history, focusing the movie poster in a specific period – the Portuguese Nouvelle Vague – 1962–1982. The choice of this period is related to its particularities, as it was a moment of great transformations, especially in Portugal – by this time living the dictatorship and the revolution that led to democracy (in 1974). It was also an important moment in graphic design, where the development of phototypesetting and offset printing led to the graphic “third revolution”. This research is based on bibliographical review, on the systematic collection of posters, interviews with designers and the detailed analysis of a sample of these posters. In this manner, we try to further study a pertinent topic that we consider important to introduce in the Portuguese graphic design history.