# Italian Painted Film Poster (Rome Studios) > Painted film advertising by Roman studios for Italian cinema and international co-productions, from the Ballester and Martinati era through peplum, spaghetti western and giallo. Big painted star faces and action beats sit under hand-lettered titles in saturated colour. Unlike other hand-painted film posters (Bollywood, Egyptian, Ghanaian), it is naturalistic and high-contrast, with no decorative display lettering. Photography and offset displaced it from the 1960s, with a painted revival in the 1970s and early 1980s. - Period: 1914–1990 - Where: Southern Europe - Origin: Rome, where Anselmo Ballester produced his first film poster in 1914 and studios such as BCM (Ballester, Capitani, Martinati) and Studio Favalli served the film industry around Cinecittà (opened 1937) - Branch: Pictorial & machine age - Also known as: Manifesto cinematografico dipinto, Spaghetti-western poster painting, Roman film-poster painters - Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/italian-painted-film-poster/ ## How it works - Set the star faces large, as a close-up testone or a stacked pyramid of heads, above or against the action scene. - Paint figures with illusionistic modelling so faces read from across a street. - Letter the title by hand, huge and tightly set, and let it join the picture. - Push colour to saturated heat, warm yellows and reds against dusk blues, to sell spectacle. - Pack several story beats into one montage rather than a single frozen moment. ## Its design choices Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then. ### Layout & composition - [Collage & layering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/collage-and-layering/) (defining) - [Full bleed](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-bleed/) (characteristic) - [Radial & concentric](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/radial-and-concentric/) (occasional) - [Diagonal axis](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/diagonal-axis/) (occasional) ### Space & hierarchy - [Extreme scale contrast](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/extreme-scale-contrast/) (defining) - [Horror vacui](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/horror-vacui/) (characteristic) - [Illusion of depth](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/illusion-of-depth/) (characteristic) - [Visual tension](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/visual-tension/) (characteristic) - [Layered information](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/layered-information/) (occasional) ### Typography - [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (defining) - [All caps](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-caps/) (characteristic) - [Type as image](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/type-as-image/) (characteristic) - [Tight setting](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/tight-setting/) (characteristic) - [Condensed display](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/condensed-display/) (occasional) ### Colour - [Full polychrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-polychrome/) (defining) - [Complementary clash](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/complementary-clash/) (characteristic) - [Gradients](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/gradients/) (occasional) ### Form & shape - [Naturalistic depiction](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/naturalistic-depiction/) (defining) - [Distortion & exaggeration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/distortion-and-exaggeration/) (occasional) - [Angular & zigzag](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/angular-and-zigzag/) (occasional) ### Surface & texture - [Painterly brushwork](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-brushwork/) (defining) ### Ornament - [Ornament-free](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornament-free/) (characteristic) ### Imagery - [Painterly illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-illustration/) (defining) ### Medium & production - [Hand-painted](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-painted/) (defining) - [Offset printing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/offset-printing/) (characteristic) - [Lithography](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/lithography/) (occasional) ### Tone & intent - [Agitational & persuasive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/agitational-and-persuasive/) (occasional) - [Playful & witty](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/) (occasional) - [Romantic & sensual](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/romantic-and-sensual/) (occasional) - [Nostalgic & retro](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/nostalgic-and-retro/) (occasional) Avoids: Generous white space, Typography only, Modular grid, Monochrome, Grotesque & neo-grotesque, Flat, Rational & objective Palette: #e8b32a, #c8321f, #2b3f6b, #f1e3c4, #1b1a1f, #5a8a5c Typefaces: Hand-painted block capitals, Custom brush-lettered film titles Known for: Anselmo Ballester (1897 to 1974): father of the Italian film poster, first poster 1914; Luigi Martinati (1893 to 1983): the testone close-up; Casablanca, On the Waterfront; Averardo Ciriello (1918 to 2016): figurative-realist posters incl. The Earth Trembles (1948), Ocean's Eleven (1960); Rodolfo Gasparri: Once Upon a Time in the West (1968); Renato Casaro (1935 to 2025): A Fistful of Dollars, Solaris, Flash Gordon, Conan the Barbarian, Octopussy, Dances With Wolves; Studio Favalli, Rome (Casaro's first employer, from 1953) ## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to - Alike in its design choices: [Yeşilçam Film Poster (Turkish Hand-Painted Afiş)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/yesilcam-film-poster.md) (1950–1988), 77% alike - Alike in its design choices: [Hand-Painted Bollywood Poster](https://stylogeny.com/styles/bollywood-poster.md) (1940–1999), 74% alike - Alike in its design choices: [Ghanaian Movie Poster](https://stylogeny.com/styles/ghana-movie-poster.md) (1985–2005), 70% alike - Alike in its design choices: [Mexican Golden Age Film Poster](https://stylogeny.com/styles/mexican-golden-age-film-poster.md) (1936–1956), 69% alike - Alike in its design choices: [Egyptian Painted Film Poster](https://stylogeny.com/styles/egyptian-film-poster.md) (1932–1996), 67% alike - Alike in its design choices: [Thai Hand-Painted Film Poster and Billboard](https://stylogeny.com/styles/thai-film-billboard.md) (1953–present), 66% alike ## Sources - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renato_Casaro - https://movie.it/en/storia-del-manifesto-cinematografico/ - https://movie.it/en/blog/luigi-martinati-cartellonista-cinema/ - https://movie.it/en/blog/averardo-ciriello-cartellonista-cinema/ --- From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Italian Painted Film Poster (Rome Studios)”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/italian-painted-film-poster/