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The French Connection movie poster

Contributed by Tony Mayer on Apr 2nd, 2023. Artwork published in
circa 1971
.
The French Connection movie poster 1
Source: filmartgallery.com License: All Rights Reserved.

From Wikipedia:

The French Connection is a 1971 American neo-noir crime action thriller film starring Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, and Fernando Rey, and directed by William Friedkin. The screenplay, written by Ernest Tidyman, is based on Robin Moore’s 1969 book of the same name. It tells the story of fictional NYPD detectives Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle and Buddy “Cloudy” Russo, whose real-life counterparts were Narcotics Detectives Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso, in pursuit of wealthy French heroin smuggler Alain Charnier (played by Rey).

The title appears to use a phototype version of bold condensed Beton, with stretched letterforms. On a similar note, the yellow tagline looks like the bold weight of Kabel Condensed, but isn’t a perfect match when compared to the metal original (or to the adaptation by Lettergraphics, for that matter), see for example the ear of g. The oblique grotesque used for the blue text is unidentified [it’s Venus, see comments]. Credits are set in Helvetica Condensed.

The French Connection movie poster 2
Source: www.ebay.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Typefaces

  • Beton
  • Kabel Condensed
  • Venus
  • Helvetica Condensed

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3 Comments on “The French Connection movie poster”

  1. Is the oblique grotesque Venus Bold Italic?

  2. Nailed it! Thanks, Bryson.

  3. Thank you to everyone who took my first meager contribution to the site and turned it into a treasure trove! :)

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