Brochures, press books and publicity guides

Brochures

Over 400 promotional brochures distributed to the specialized press, to professionals during film festivals and to the public at film premieres. The brochures contain information about the cast and crew, outline the plot and include many images from the film, but it is their aesthetic packaging that provides the real attraction. From the ornate covers to unusual folding styles, every type of format was exploited for maximum appeal.

Press books

Films come with a detailed mass of information that needs to be distributed to critics and journalists in order to get media attention. This is the function of the press book, which includes plot details, an international press review, interviews, photos of the director and main actors and their filmographies, stills, press office information and news about the cast, credits and production. An inexhaustible source of information on individual films, the collection of press books is still being inventoried and is not yet consultable.

Publicity guides

The archive’s collection of publicity guides includes around 1,000 documents of varying types and formats. These guides were produced by film production houses to inform cinema employees about the release of new films. They served as a kind of manual, often prepared long before the actual release date, which would suggest how to promote the film locally. As well as presenting the film, these documents also list all the minor forms of advertising which were intended to accompany the film’s launch. The principal nucleus of the collection is composed of material from MGM and WB, some from as far back as the 1930s, and is joined by guides from the 1970s from many other production houses, notably Italy’s Lux.