Home Decor for the Film Fanatic

I remember as far back as my early teens (tweens?) I developed a fascination for movie memorabilia, especially wall art. I had several posters on my walls back then, the themes of which changed with my moods and advancing age. Hockey images were replaced by movie posters once I'd been seriously bitten by the film bug. Only a few of those survived the years, two of which I gave away, and one is still in my collection - though it's out of rotation at the moment. And that is my original 1977 Hildebrandt Star Wars poster. My daughter, a music fan, appreciated my old Beatles poster when I handed it to her one day. 

I still hate the fact that a couple of my old posters from the 70's went missing. A Close Encounters of the Third Kind original is one that I still pine over occasionally. Another fave that I cannot locate anywhere - even online to re-purchase (it's hard to even recall details so I can plug in meaningful search words) - was a Star Trek (the 60's TV series) painting reproduction that I ordered from Starlog Magazine back then, too. My parents swear they didn't throw out anything I left behind without consulting me first. Hmm. 

There was a spell when my walls were covered with nothing but Rush posters, with dozens more in storage. My Rush mania compelled me to purchase over thirty, maybe close to forty, posters of the band over the years. But there came a point where I decided I didn't really want this sort of thing on my walls anymore, and there was the fact that most of the pics would never even go on display. Just sitting there, taking up space. So I sold off the lot of them one day. Cold turkey. I sometimes regret that... but not too much.

Then I shifted my focus back to the movie category, not in a huge way, but just very gradually picking up some favourites. I now have a different Star Wars poster up, nicely framed, and a sharp Casablanca dry-mounted on wood. A couple of variations of James Bond Goldfinger posters grace my walls. And a large, colourful Lost In Translation is in full view in my bedroom. Being a big Bond fan, I've also got framed album covers of some of the earliest of the 60's movie soundtrack records. And as mentioned in another post, there's a framed set of Universal classic monsters postage stamps in my front hall. Oh, and a reproduction of a Pinnochio lobby card is tucked in a corner of the living room. The remainder of that lobby card set is tucked safely away.

There is also the stuff in storage, more Star Wars (a giant Return of the Jedi, to name one), more Bond (like Thunderball full size, and a handful of smaller dry-mounted reproductions), and old horror classics such as Dracula and Frankenstein (modern prints, of course), which sometimes come out of the closet for Halloween. Plus a nice big Apocalypse Now - which I like to put up for at least a while each year. I'm sure there are others, but these are the meat of my collection.

An apartment doesn't offer much wall space for movie art, but I have made the most of available surfaces, and have learned to rotate some posters for variety throughout the year. And some favourites stay put for years. Like Star Wars (pictured above).