British quad poster for Mean Streets, directed by Martin Scorsese, USA, 1973. Poster design by Peter Strausfeld, 1973. Courtesy Sikelia Productions
You don’t become one of the world’s most famous filmmakers without having a great eye, and that’s certainly the case for Martin Scorsese as even a brief glimpse at his record of cinematic masterpieces attests. But more than that, Scorsese is one of Hollywood’s consummate connoisseurs of film history, a well-known preservationist with an encyclopedic historical knowledge of the medium he works in. And judging from “Scorsese Collects,” which is on view at the Museum of Modern Art, he brings that same passion to movie memorabilia. For this exhibition, the director presents his personal archive of movie posters for his favorite films, which include well-known classic like On The Waterfront and Sullivan Travels, and more esoteric fare like T-Men and I Walked With A Zombie. Many of the ads are French, Italian and Spanish, representing foreign releases for American titles. They’re all as vivid and compelling as the films themselves, which is obviously why Scorsese collected them in the first place. See for yourself in this handy preview of the exhibit.
