From Shanghai Express to The Rocky Horror Picture Show: A brief history of vintage movie posters with LGBTQ themes

Posters for Shanghai Express (1932), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and Querelle (1982) (Images: Courtesy of 1001 Movie Posters: Designs of the Times)

The movie poster is a singularly unique cultural artefact, tasked with summing up the essence of an entire film in a single image – the very opposite, then, of a movie. Imagine the pressure involved in creating one!

Dick Tracy (1990) American Barbie (2023) American The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) American 

1001 MOVIE POSTERS: Designs of the Times is a 640-page tome charting the evolution of the art form, from the colourful Parisian lithographs heralding the first public film screening by the Lumière brothers in 1896 to posters for recent blockbusters such as Parasite and Barbie.

Here, writing for Attitude, the book’s co-creator Tony Nourmand explains the backstories

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