Apocalypse Now, 1979

Apocalypse Now, 1979

Original Italian locandina theatrical poster, framed
28¾ × 14¼ inches (73 × 36.2 cm)
Black frame

The locandina is Italy's native cinema format — narrow, vertical, designed for doorways and columns rather than lobby walls, a proportional constraint that forced a different kind of graphic decision. This example, issued for the original 1979 Italian release of Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now through Titanus, makes the most of that constraint: the upper half given entirely to Vittorio Storaro's image of a blood-red river at dusk, helicopters crossing a sun that looks less like a sun than a wound, and the lower half to the title lettering in Coppola's own hand — that dripping, febrile red script that became one of the most recognizable title treatments in cinema history. At the very top, in bureaucratic Italian type: Vietato ai minori di anni 14 — forbidden to those under fourteen. The rating stamp of a republic encountering the full weight of what Coppola had made. Original 1979 printing, Zoetrope production credit intact at the bottom.