Erotissimo

Erotissimo is a 256-page book measuring 7.5 X 10.6 inches, with a hard cover with selective varnish, featuring 250 posters from the 60s to the 80s, hand-painted by various poster artists for the release of the films they promote in Italian cinemas. The preface to the book is in French, English and Italian..

They say that cinema is the meeting of two desires. The desire to show and the desire to see. These two outstretched hands grope for each other in the darkness of the movie theater. But first the roads, the paths and the destinies must cross.

Moviegoers, theatre managers, distributors and filmmakers can, however, count on a first-rate matchmaker: the movie poster. It has to catch the eye, seduce in the blink of an eye, in a fraction of a second. It must show as much as possible, without revealing everything, while complying, as it should, with the rules of censorship, decorum and the morality of the time.

And at this game, Italian poster designers have become masters. Mirroring the fantasies of an era and serving as a measure of the sexual revolution, their works have fired the imagination of several generations of moviegoers and young men and women, while accompanying the rise of erotic and then pornographic cinema. Their names were Enzo Sciotti, Renato Casaro, Mario De Berardinis, Mafé, Ferrari, Ezio Tarantelli, Avalli, and Piovano… and many others, who often preferred not to sign their work.

Their often iconic posters have become rare for the most part, and some are impossible to find. We decided to bring together the cream of the crop in a limited-edition luxury art book, a book object mischievously titled Erotissimo. This large-format, hardback book has 256 pages covering three decades of saucy hand-painted movie posters Made in Italy. You will discover or rediscover 250 artworks, each more evocative and sensual than the previous one. 250 lovingly reproduced posters, each celebrating in their own way the mystery and beauty of women. Timid virgins, naughty ingenues, lecherous widows, fiery Swedes, very diligent teachers… Every (male) fantasy fills the canvases and the screen. In short, Erotissimo is an exceptional work to be placed on every bedside table, to be leafed through to keep you awake or to make you have sweet dreams.

A Damon Christian T.T.R Production DE MAUPASSANT'S in FOLLI PIACERI DELLE VOGLIE EROTICHE DI UNA PRIGIONIERE di con BRIGITTE LAHAIE EASTMANCOLOR Regia MICHAEL THOMAS PORNO Starring PIZZAIOLA DESEREE COUSTEAU Also with JOHN C.HOLMES Starring Produced by Candida Toni Royalle by Laurien John T Christine De Shaffer Released Edited by Elle by EASTMANCOLOR Releasing

These films are not all strictly speaking erotic films: the distributors often asked the artists to depict assets that were simply absent from the feature films themselves! For each poster, you will find the different titles under which the films in question were distributed not only in Italy, but also in France, the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. It’s an opportunity to appreciate the great artistic license taken by Italian distributors when it came to attracting spectators. You will be amused by their imagination to come up with titles full of sensual promises.