Decorating

Seeing as I’m a fan of movies, it should come as a surprise that I often consider movie memorabilia to fall under the category of “décor” and that I often times see movie posters as art.

I moved into my first apartment back in August and still haven’t done much as far as decorating goes. The kitchen and living room area are done in red and black, and my room is white and turquoise. Thus far my room has a painting I did several years ago of a V for Vendetta poster. I’m torn between keeping things minimalistic and going all out.

But what really concerns me are the actual living spaces…where the walls are a flat white and have…nothing on them at all. Last year I picked up a beautiful poster from The Spirit that I intend to hang, but because of how much space is available and the location of the light switches on this one wall, I’m thinking of getting another poster to go with it to space across the wall next to the dining table.

Now, The Spirit wasn’t a particularly great movie as far as story goes, but I enjoyed the warped humor and the stylization. It did poorly for a comic book adaptation; it didn’t make money at the box office two years ago, but I still saw it the day after Christmas 2008 or some where in the vicinity there. Then we bought the DVD and I’ve probably watched it three times since it came out. (I think I just wait long enough to fool myself into thinking that it wasn’t nearly as bad as everyone says.) But forget the story—the art and the stylization was what drew me in.

Again, the living areas are done in red and black. Now I just need another poster to go with the one I’ve got. I’ve looked at the other Spirit posters (actually I’ve posted half of them here) but I’m not certain about having multiple posters for a movie I didn’t really like. Then I’m not sure if these are too busy or aren’t strong enough next to the “my city screams” image. I took a step back and googled black and white posters for an hour or two over the weekend, and the best ones I could come up with are below:

Now these three are all from movies I really like. Chicago was probably the first musical with real live people that I saw (both the movie and some months later I saw the theater performance). The music’s good and the story’s (corruption in criminal justice) great. I haven’t seen it in years because we lost the DVD, but I do remember enjoying it. Good Night and Good Luck I saw two years ago I believe, when I was trying to get into watching the award-winning movies. I’m a little fuzzy on how the story goes (it involves the government and early television broadcast medium), but I remember that the final speech by David Strathairn was incredibly powerful and moving. I intend to buy the movie as soon as I come into some extra money. Then there’s Sweeney Todd, a dark musical about a murderous barber featuring Johnny Depp and Alan Rickman—two of my favorites.

I think the Sweeney Todd image fits well as far as style goes, but I don’t like the blue in it and I’m not so certain on having a poster about a bloody musical next to the dinner table. It could unnerve guests. Chicago’s poster is a bit more yellow than The Spirit, but there’s some yellow elements in the kitchen as well. I personally like Good Night and Good Luck the best of the three movies, I think simply because of the message in it, but I don’t think the poster is stylized enough.

Anyone have any opinions on the matter? I’m happy to listen to suggestions, or other black/white/red posters I may have over looked.