This was not the post I had been intending to publish today; I had a film review lined up. But then, just the other day, I heard of this new exhibition that’s currently on display in Delhi, and I was intrigued enough to visit.
The Greatest Show on Earth: The Golden Age of Hollywood 1914-1964 is an exhibition of artwork curated by Neville Tuli of the Tuli Research Centre for India Studies. Spread across the spacious hall of the India International Centre’s main gallery, the art on display covers pretty much every aspect of Hollywood through several decades of its most glorious period. Photos, artworks, sales plans, booklets, and more.
There are movie posters, of course, mostly grouped together by theme: by director, for instance, or actor, or even genre. Among the posters on display, this particular quartet of Hitchcock’s films especially caught my eye.
As did this set of posters of films starring one of my favourites, the oh-so-charming Cary Grant (it reminded me, too, that I have not yet seen The Awful Truth: I must get around to doing that one of these days…)
That absolutely stunning poster of Sherlock Holmes that decorates the flyer (see the first image in my post) was my favourite. Not just because it’s so very well-designed, but also because the impact is heightened thanks to the size of it: it took up most of a wall.
Also taking up a good deal of space (and justifiably!) were the great comic actors: Chaplin, Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, and Buster Keaton among them. Buster Keaton, in particular, had an impressive clutch of memorabilia devoted to him, ranging from posters to stills, to a delightful little statuette which I thought quite endearing.
Besides the posters, there are photos (and other depictions) of the personalities of Hollywood. Orson Welles, for instance, who appears not just in photos but in paintings as well. And Gary Cooper.
Marilyn, who is there in many, many photos, both posed as well as candid.
And the random shot that really grabbed my attention. Of Fred Astaire, for instance, with some woman who doesn’t look like Ginger Rogers, but seems to be a good dancer…? (Edited to add: Cyd Charisse, as a Google search suggests).
What I liked about this exhibition was that there was something to appeal to any lover of old cinema And not just Hollywood, but cinema in general. True, the bulk of the memorabilia here is Hollywood, but there are instances aplenty of Hollywood’s impact and popularity outside of the US, for example in the form of posters for Hollywood films, but in other languages: Japanese, Spanish, Italian. Or the occasional poster of a non-Hollywood film (this one I was especially glad to see, since I liked Metropolis quite a bit).
Or even Hollywood’s many attempts—how successful I will not try to examine here—to set a story in an exotic space. The Man-Eater of Kumaon and The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, among others, were there on display in the form of posters or stills.
Actually, I have a feeling even somebody not devoted to Hollywood might enjoy this. It’s very eye-catching; many of the posters are absolute works of art, and just as a visual treat, this is worth viewing.
The artworks are displayed at the Art Gallery (2nd Floor, Kamladevi Chattopadhyay Block) of the India International Centre; the exhibition opened on the evening of February 25th, and is on display till March 3rd, open daily from 11 AM to 7 PM. When I visited, on the day after the opening, there were no captions on the displays (which can be a little frustrating if you’re looking at stills rather than self-explanatory posters); but I was told that the captions would soon be added.
More details are available here. The site, in fact, is a veritable rabbit hole for anybody interested in old cinema (not just Hollywood, but Hindi cinema too, if you’re interested). I had to tear myself away and get back to work.
Dustedoff 