Way back on 1 February 2017, Poster of the Week looked at Der Januskopf (1920), a lost movie by F.W. Murnau. At the end of the post there was this:
NOTE: There’ll be more from Josef Fenneker throughout February 2017.
The idea was to show off more of Fenneker’s distinctive work, and provide some very basic information about the movies themselves. There were meant to be four such posts, but somewhere along the way, what with all the lead-up to the Oscars, and it proving suprisingly difficult to pick out just four posters, the idea got pushed back and back until February was over and done with. But a good idea is still a good idea, even if it gets delayed, and a rethought idea is even better. So instead of four movie posters to admire (or not, Fenneker is something of an acquired taste), here are eight examples of his work, all startling in their own right, and all testaments to Fenneker’s skill as a graphic artist.
Nerves (1919) / D: Robert Reinert
The Dictatorship of Love Part 2: The World Without Love (1921) / D: Fred Sauer
The Burning Soil (1922) / D: F.W. Murnau
Alcohol (1920) / D: Ewald André Dupont, Alfred Lind
Nemesis (1920) / D: Carmine Gallone
Madame de La Pommeraye’s Intrigues (1922) / D: Fritz Wendhausen
A Debt of Honour (1921) / D: Paul L. Stein
The Devil and Circe (1921) / D: Adolf Gärtner
NOTE: If you’re wondering what “Marmorhaus” (literally “marble house”) refers to, it was a cinema built in Berlin in 1912-13. It was for Marmorhaus that Fenneker designed these and over two hundred and fifty more posters.