Arnaldo Putzu (6 August 1927 – 1 September 2012) was an Italian artist renowned for his
film poster
A film poster is a poster used to promote and advertise a film primarily to persuade paying customers into a theater to see it. Studios often print several posters that vary in size and content for various domestic and international markets. The ...
s for Italian and British films, such as ''
Get Carter
''Get Carter'' is a 1971 British crime film written and directed by Mike Hodges in his directorial debut and starring Michael Caine, Ian Hendry, John Osborne, Britt Ekland and Bryan Mosley. Based on Ted Lewis's 1970 novel ''Jack's Return Hom ...
'' and the ''
Carry On
Carry On may refer to:
* ''Carry On'' (franchise), a British comedy media franchise
*Carry-on luggage or hand luggage, luggage that is carried into the passenger compartment
* ''Carry On'' (film), a 1927 British silent film
* ''Carry On'' (novel), ...
'' films.
Biography
Born in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, the son of an Italian navy officer, he studied art at the
Rome Academy Roman academies refers to associations of learned individuals and not institutes for instruction.
Such Roman Academies were always connected to larger educational structures conceived during and following the Italian Renaissance, at the height of w ...
. While doing illustration work in Milan, he met the poster artist Enrico de Seta in 1948. De Seta took him to Rome to work in the Italian film industry.
After four years with De Seta, Putzu set up his own studio. He worked for several artists including Augusto Favalli, who then controlled many artists employed by the
Cinecittà
Cinecittà Studios (; Italian for Cinema City Studios), is a large film studio in Rome, Italy. With an area of 400,000 square metres (99 acres), it is the largest film studio in Europe, and is considered the hub of Italian cinema. The studios we ...
film studios.
An executive of the
Rank Organisation
The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment conglomerate founded by industrialist J. Arthur Rank in April 1937. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the United Kingdom, owning production, distribu ...
based in Rome was impressed by the poster artwork coming out of Studio Favalli and spotted an opportunity for Rank to have high quality posters for the low wages paid to Italian artists in the postwar era. In collaboration with
, then creative head of Rank's Downton Advertising (who also handled
United Artists
United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studi ...
), Rank began employing Italian artists to work on their film publicity. At first Pulford brought the artwork to the artists in Rome by personally flying between the two cities, but by the late 1950s the artists themselves, such as
Renato Fratini
Renato Fratini (October 1932, in Rome – 1973 in Mexico)Branaghan, S. & Chibnall, S. (Ed.) (2006) ''British film posters: An illustrated history''. London: British Film Institute, pp. 185-190. was an Italian commercial artist who specialised ...
, best known for designing the British poster for '' From Russia with Love'' were being brought over to live and work in Great Britain.
Putzu began to work for Pulford in the late 1950s. His first British poster was for '' The Secret Place'' (1957). He arrived in Britain in 1967 with his first poster in England being for
Morecambe and Wise
Eric Morecambe (John Eric Bartholomew, 14 May 1926 – 28 May 1984) and Ernie Wise (Ernest Wiseman, 27 November 1925 – 21 March 1999), known as Morecambe and Wise (and sometimes as Eric and Ernie), were an English comic double act, working i ...
's film ''
The Magnificent Two
''The Magnificent Two'' is a 1967 British comedy film directed by Cliff Owen and starring Morecambe and Wise in the third and final of their 1960s trio of films.
Plot
Two British Action Man travelling salesmen are sent to the South American co ...
''; he had designed their previous ''
That Riviera Touch
''That Riviera Touch'' is a 1966 British comedy film directed by Cliff Owen and starring Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise. It is the second feature-length film made by the comedy duo Morecambe and Wise.
The film opened at the Leicester Square Thea ...
'' in Rome.
He worked on posters in a variety of film genres, such as the Carry On series and
Hammer Films
A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nails into wood, to shape metal (as wi ...
including ''
Creatures the World Forgot
''Creatures the World Forgot'' is a 1971 adventure film directed by Don Chaffey and produced and written for Hammer Films by Michael Carreras. The film concentrates on the daily struggle to survive of a tribe of Stone Age men. Very little dia ...
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933) is an English actor. Known for his distinctive Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films in a career spanning seven decades, and is considered a British film ico ...
in a pink tie and floral jacket that he never wore in the film
From 1973 through to 1981 Putzu illustrated the covers of a children's TV magazine called ''
Look-In
''Look-in'' was a children's magazine centred on ITV's television programmes in the United Kingdom, and subtitled "The Junior ''TVTimes''". It ran from 9 January 1971 to 12 March 1994.