The standard French 1 sheet poster - of which there were two prepared for the Metropolis release - bore dimensions of 120 x 160 cm, or 47 x 63 inches. The other two posters included as part of the press book were larger and are commonly referred to as "2 sheet" or "4sheet" posters. The dimensions given correspond to three extant Bilinsky posters (listed below), and also indicate the possible dimensions of two posters of which only photographic copies are known. Furthermore, a photographic montage which graced the centre page of the press book (and which is reproduced at the top of this web page), subsequently appeared - in mirror image - on the cover of a Belgium program dedicated to the film and therein dated 1 November 1927. A graphic design trade magazine issued in France at the end of 1928 also included a plate relating to Metropolis. This image was possibly designed by Bilinsky, or at least influenced by him. Finally, a 1 sheet poster based on the orignal German design by Heinz Schulz-Neudamm, and not by Bilinsky, was also prepared for the ACE release and a copy of this work is known. It, along with all the other Metropolis French posters from 1927, is discussed and reproduced below. A brief biography of Boris Bilinsky and additional references pertaining to his life and work are also included.
These items range in size from a large, banner-sized "4 sheet" poster, through to the two French 1-sheets and the photomontages. The process of rediscovering and precisely identifying these images is relatively recent, and ongoing. It has been lead by the artist's grandson, René Clémenti-Bilinsky, with assistance from Metropolis researchers such as Aitam Bar-Sagi.
1. 'Metropolis - L'Alliance Cinématographique Européenne présente une production UFA réalisé par Fritz Lang d'aprés le scénario de Thea von Harbou. UFA ACE', 4 Sheet poster, (240 x 320 cm) 224 x 303.5 cm / 96 x 120 inches, Farblithografie, Bédos et Cie, Paris, 1927. Signed 'Boris Bilinsky', upper right. Collection: Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen / Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin. René Clémenti-Bilinsky catalogue no.1030.
This composition comprises the flat, featureless and strongly linear below-ground buildings of Metropolis' workers city, transformed and transposed into a mass of soaring, above-ground skyscrapers, huddled together and rather chaotically intersected by aerial roads and walkways. This interpretation of Fritz Lang's urban vision, as opposed to a mere reproduction of images from the film, makes a stunning poster. The strongly linear elements of Bilinsky's cityscape contrasts with the circular Tower of Babel and other soft-edged constructions which exist in Joh Fredersen's above-ground city for the rich and privileged. This poster has been reproduced in a number of publications dealing with European film posters, posters in general, and art movements of the 1920s. Bilinsky's work presents an artisitc bridge between Russian constructivism with is hard edges and linearity, and the soft, romantic elements so much a part of the French tradition.
References: Irina Antonova and Jörn Merkert, Berlin-Moscou 1900-1950, Prestel-Verlag, München, 1995, 310. Catalogue for exhibition held at Berlinishe Galerie, Berlin, 1995; Dietrich Neumann (ed.), Film Architecture: Set Design from Metropolis to Blade Runner, Prestel, Munich and New York, 1997, 100; Das Ufa-Plakat. Filmpremieren 1918-1933, Herausgegeben von Peter Mänz und Christian Maryska, Edition Braus, Heidelberg, 1998. A modern reprint of this Bilinsky poster was sold during the Ufa-Plakat exhibition in Berlin and Los Angeles, 1998 and 1999.
2. 'Metropolis', 4 Sheet poster, (240 x 320 cm) 224 x 303.5 cm / 96 x 120 inches [Approximate size].
The large 4-sheet Metropolis poster shown in this photograph is a version of poster #4 described below. It is only known from this photograph taken from Mario von Bucovich, Paris - The Face of the City, Paris, 1928, 277p.
3. 'L'Alliance Cinématographique Européenne présente Métropolis, réalisé par Fritz Lang d'aprés le scénario de Thea von Harbou. Production UFA ACE', 2 Sheet poster, (160 x 240 cm) 152 x 223 cm / 60 x 87.5 inches, Farblithografie, Bédos et Cie, Paris, 1927. Signed 'Boris Bilinsky', lower right. René Clémenti-Bilinsky cat. no.1029. Private Collection.
This classic film poster presents the three incarnations of the film's heroine Maria - firstly, as the innocent, Madonna-like Maria (bottom-right) who is captured, stripped naked and placed in Rotwang's transformation machine; secondly, as the steely-cold female robot (centre), crafted by the mad scientist Rotwang in the image of his beloved Hel; and thirdly, as the evil, false Maria (top left) who brings death and destruction down upon Joh Fredersen's Metropolis. The bottom left of the image features a chaotic collage of technological artefacts, a modernistic rubbish dump reflecting the second half of the film during which the robot takes control of the workers and the machines of the city are left to run themselves to the point of destruction.
References: A copy of this poster was sold at the Chayette et Calmels auction, Paris, 8 December 1989, realising 122,000 francs (US$16,600). The poster was reproduced on the cover of the auction catalogue.
4. 'Metropolis - Mise en scène de Fritz Lang - Scénario de Thea von Harbou. ACE - UFA. Présenté par Alliance Cinématographique Européenne. 11bis Rue Volney, Paris', 1 sheet poster, 120 x 160 cm / 47 x 63 inches, Farblithografie, Bédos et Cie, Paris, 1927. Signed 'Boris Bilinsky', lower right. Collection Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris. René Clémenti-Bilinsky cat. no.1032.
This simple, yet effective design presents one of the defining images of Fritz Lang's film - the stark, monolithic apartment block of the workers underground city, rising ever skyward and devoid of decoration or ornament, in turn overwhelming its residents and those on the street below. The skyscraper came to represent the progress and modernism of the 1920s, and cities such as New York and Berlin sought to outdo each other in building ever bigger and taller structures. The skyscraper represented both progress and isolation, and was therefore a somewhat menacing element of the film. This image was also used for the design of the cover of the French Metropolis pressbook of 1927, a copy of which is preserved in the Musée d'histoire contemporaine, Paris. See item #5 below for a description of that item.
References: Illustrated in Lucie Derain, 'Les Affiches de cinéma - polychromie pour blancs et noirs' [Cinema Posters - polychrome for black and whites], Arts et Métiers Graphiques, no.22, Paris, 15 March 1931.
5. 'Metropolis - Cityscape Montage #1', ?poster, 120 x 160cm / 47 x 63 inches, Farblithografie, Bédos et Cie, Paris, 1927. Based on an original photomontage / collage by Boris Bilinsky, using images from the film. René Clémenti-Bilinsky cat. no.1033. No extant copy of this poster is known.
The history and precise identification of this poster / photomontage was, until quite recently, surrounded in mystery. Since the 1970s this famous image has been attributed to a variety of artists, including Fritz Lang (Ades 1976) and 1920s Berlin-based collage artists such as Paul Citroen and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946). Research indicates that Bilinsky was the creator of the photomontage and that it was first published in the Paris trade newspaper Ciné-Miroir on 16 April 1927, prior to the French release of the film. Therein it was presented without any labels, inscription, or attribution. That image was most likely based upon a photograph supplied to the magazine as part of the preliminary French release campaign. The montage was subsequently transformed by Bilinsky into a poster and presumably used during the local release of Metropolis. The montage as a fully realised poster, bearing the signature of Bilinsky, the full title, and the insignia of ACE, was reproduced in an anonymous article entitled 'Plakate für deutsche Filme in Frankreich' [Posters for German Films in France], published in the Berlin Zeitbilder during January 1928. Shortly thereafter, in March 1928, the montage image appeared once again, this time within Robert Rousseau de Beauplan's special Metropolis-edition of the La Petite Illustration magazine, issued in Paris at the time of the French release of the film.
It is possible Bilinsky was motivated to produce this montage following a viewing of the film during its initial German season (January-April 1927). Perhaps aware of Paul Citroen's famous 'Metropolis' series of montages, which first appeared in 1923, Bilinsky was moved to produce a variant using actual material from Lang's film. When, later in the year, the French distributors ACE came to assign an artist to work on posters and images for the local release, Bilinsky was an obvious candidate. He was perhaps moved to adapt his earlier montage into a poster for wider distribution, appropriately titled and inscribed, though the lettering is rough and haphazard, yet the artist may have meant this to be so. It had been stated in works such as Willett (1984) that this montage / poster was apparently derived from an original stage setting collage model for Metropolis, mounted as part of the German season, though there is no evidence for this and Bilinsky is undoubtedly its creator. The precise history of this collage and associated poster is therefore still shrouded in some mystery.
The collage / photomontage is a classic example of an artistic technique which was in vogue in Europe during the immediate post-WWI years and throughout the 1920s. Photomontage and collage were used widely by German and Russian artists and set-designers (both for film and theatre) as a reaction to modernism and new technologies being introduced into everyday life in the form of, production line mass employment, motor vehicles, and electrical appliances. Strongly featuring in such works were images of skyscrapers and other modern buildings, factory equipment, and household aids. Bilinsky, in his Metropolis photomontage, has utilised some of the strongest images from the film, including the groups of slave-like workers at the base of the picture, supporting a mass of towering city skyscrapers, overhead carriageways, and cold, concrete steps and arches. Combined together these photographic snippets provide an impression of some of the themes presented in Lang's film. The opening scenes of Metropolis are themselves a cinematic montage, featuring a confusion of dissolving images of machines at work, gears turning and shafts pumping.
It should be noted that the above sepia-toned image has been reconstructed from the 1928 photomontage printed in Beauplan (March, 1928) - without signature or titles - and a copy of the poster as reproduced in the Zeitbilder article of January 1928. The exact size, printing details, and colours of the original poster are not known, though, based on information contained in the French Press Book, it may have been one of the 120 x 160cm posters referred to in that kit. If not, the ACE poster featuring the head of the robot (see below) may have been the fourth item. Unfortunately the Press Book does not contain any images of the accompanying posters, which is unusual.
6. 'Metropolis', 1 sheet poster, 120 x 160 cm / 47 x 63 inches, Farblithografie, Bédos et Cie, Paris, 1927. Collection Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris. Design based upon the original release German poster by Heinz Schulz-Neudamm. Boris Bilinsky did not design this poster. It is likely that this poster was part of the original French release campaign by ACE, though this has not been confirmed. It may have been the fourth poster issued with the press book.
7. Metropolis Press Book, 24.5 x 32cm, ACE, Paris, 1927, 28p. Designed and composed by Boris Bilinsky. Colour cover, similar in design to poster #3, though with signature 'Boris Bilinsky' upper right, as opposed to centre right. The text of the press book includes a detailed synopsis of the film, plus an item on Brigitte Helm. It is illustrated throughout with images from the film and original graphics by Bilinsky. It also includes a copy of the technology montage #2 as the centrepiece. This montage later featured on the cover of the magazine issued in Belgium for the release of Metropolis at the end of 1927.
8. 'Metropolis Technology Montage #2', 20.5 x 38cm / 8 x 15 inches - cover of the magazine Metropolis - Le Film Le Plus Fantastique, [French] Filmstar Edition No.16, "Patria", Anvers, Belgique, 1 November 1927, 16p. This image was reproduced in the French Metropolis press book of 1927 (refer item 6 above), though therein the image was a reverse of that which subsequently appeared on the Belgium magazine cover. This montage is not inscribed, though attribution is based on the comment in the press book that "Drawings and composing by Boris Bilinsky."
9 'Metropolis Technology Montage #2', cover of the magazine Metropolis - De Meest Fantastische Film, [Belgian] 1927. For sale in Belgium and Holland.
10. 'Metropolis - La Splendide Conception de Fritz Lang', 23 x 31 cm / 9 x 12.25 inches, advertisement from a French graphic-design trade magazine, Christmas annual, entitled L'Imprimerie et La Pensée Moderne, Bulletin Officiel des Maitres Imprimeurs, Paris, 1928, 362p. Includes a copy of an unattributed Metropolis poster, printed on heavy stock red paper, embossed with gold. This rather crude image has been attributed to Boris Bilinsky, though it is more likely by another artist, and based on Bilinsky's work - compare with item #3 above.
Almost forgotten nowadays, Boris Bilinsky was an artist recognized during his lifetime as a master of decor and costume. It can be read, for instance, in the journal Cinémagazine of 20 May 1927, that: "In the field of illustration, costume and posters, Boris Bilinsky rapidly held one of the best places in France". He is quoted and photographed beside Alexandre Benois and Ivan Bilibine - they were called the three Bs - in the programmes that he illustrated with them, and which were published by the Opéra Russe à Paris at the beginning of the thirties.
Boris Konstantinovitch Bilinsky was born on 21 September 1900 in Bendery, Russia, near Odessa, where his father Konstantin, a senior military officer, was garrisoned. Young Boris was a cadet in a military school before going on to college. In 1920, after the defeat of the White armies and the death of his father, he left Russia for Germany with his mother and his three sisters.
In Berlin, Boris worked for several "Russian theatres", in particular the cabaret Der Blaue Vogel (Blue Bird). In 1923 he journeyed to Paris, where he integrated naturally into the community of Russian émigrés. This group included Léon Bakst (1866-1924) with whom he studied painting. At the beginning of this period he continued working for the theatre (the Chauve-Souris of Nikita Balieff, and l'Arc en Ciel) making friends with Georges Annenkov and Simon Lissim.
Bilinsky left theatre work for the cinema after meeting Ivan Mosjoukine, and started a rich and diversified career as a decorator, costumer, and poster artist in the Russian team of the Albatros studio in Montreuil. He returned to the design of theatre scenery in 1930, through the opera. The public has recently rediscovered the Albatros story and what role Bilinsky played in it, thanks to the exhibition held from October to December 1995 at the Musée de l'Histoire vivante in Montreuil, as well as to François Albera's accompanying book, published by Cinémathèque française / Mazzotta in 1995.
It is possible to follow Bilinsky' career in the European press as far back as 1921. First, in the newspapers of the Russian emigration, then in those of the French, German and Italian press, as he worked alternately in these three countries. Additional to this, Boris published articles explaining his personal conceptions on decor, costume design, and cinematographic poster composition. In 1924, renewing and modernizing Bakst's tradition, he drew costumes full of fancy for Jean Epstein's film Le Lion des Mogols (Films Albatros). This work immediately attracted attention to him. He was also the designer of the poster for the film, this work subsequently winning him a golden medal at the 1925 Paris International Exhibition of Decorative Arts.
In May 1928, the press announced that Bilinsky had just founded his own cinematographic advertising company in Paris, named Alboris. Between 1924-7 he had already produced posters which were among the very first really modern cinema posters. More than twenty of these now form part of the collection of the Cinémathèque française. Moreover, he was recognized by the press of the time as "one of the best" (François Mazeline, 'l'Affiche de cinéma - Boris Bilinsky', Cinéma, 1 August 1928) and as "the most famous poster designer for cinema" (Lucie Derain, 'Les Affiches de cinéma - polychromie pour blancs et noirs', Arts et Métiers Graphiques, , no.22, 15 March 1931). The artistic merit of his work in this area is reflected in the fact that one of the four posters he designed for Fritz Lang's Metropolis in 1927 was sold for 122,000 French francs on 8th December 1989 at the Hôtel Drouot auction sale. The design of that poster included striking visual elements from the film - such as the Maria robot - along with modernistic graphics and a collage of technological artefacts.
In 1930, Bilinsky started his collaboration with the Russian Opera. His decors and costumes for Rouslan and Ludmila, Glinka's opera performed for the first time in France, made a hit even if they were sometimes criticized. From that time onwards, Boris Bilinsky would not stop working simultaneously for the cinema and the various ballets which succeeded to the Diaghilev's Ballets Russes (Russian Opera of Paris, Russian ballets of Monte Carlo, ballets of Olga Spessivtzeva, Bronislava Nijinska, etc.) In Paris in 1934 he created the ornamentation for the famous Russian cabaret Sheherazade rue de Liège. In May 1937, in London, as part of the festivities held on the occasion of the crowning of the new sovereigns (George VI), the opera Pelléas and Melisande by Debussy was performed at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, with decors and costumes created by Boris Bilinsky.
At the outbreak of the war, he presented himself to the authorities like many other Russian émigrés, but being aged 39 and a breadwinner, his enlistment in the French army was refused. Bilinsky then went and settled in Rome with his wife, who was of Italian nationality. All through the war, as far as is known, he worked only in Italy, specially for the production company Titanus film. In 1946, during a stay in Paris with his wife for a film project, his disease broke out. Bilinsky returned to Italy and died in Catania on 3 February 1948.
Following his death, on 3 February 1956 the commune of Catania, on the initiative of a group of the artist's friends, ordered the transfer of Bilinsky's tomb to the "Alley of the illustrious people" within the cemetery. The sculptor Pietro Papallardo is the author of the bust surmounting it. Numerous exhibitions of his drawings continued to be held in Italy (Capannina di Porfiri Gallery, Rome, 1955 ; Bowinkel Gallery, Capri, 1960), in the United States (Leonard Hutton Galleries, New York, 1975) and in France (Mairie du 7e arrondissement, Paris, 1999). Many of Bilinsky's works are today kept in museums in Paris (Bifi / Musée du Cinéma), the United States (Metropolitan Museum, Harvard Theatre Collection, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, McNay Art Museum, etc.), Jerusalem (Israel Museum) and Canada (University of Calgary). Over 850 drawings have been indexed to date, and more than 500 of these are part of the Bilinsky family collection, among them costume designs for comedians such as Ivan Mosjoukine, Jacqueline Delubac, Danielle Darrieux and Edwige Feuillère. Approximately 150 are not identified, and neither correspondence nor working notes have yet been found. All this material, as well as a great number of drawings and watercolours, disappeared when Bilinsky's family came back to France in 1953. Many of them reappeared recently and will soon enter the collections of a modern art museum in Italy, after having briefly passed through a French auction sale in April 1993. The majority of Bilinsky's drawings for ballet and opera were sold in 1969, then scattered, from the beginning of the seventies, by their purchaser. About ten of these still belong to the beautiful collection of Nikita Lobanov-Rostovsky which is regularly exhibited all over the world.
Very different from his professional productions is Bilinsky's work on the Book of Apocalypse by Saint John (also known as the Old Testament Book of Revelations). About thirty watercolors were produced during the war time in connection with this project. They actually convey tragedy and death feelings. Bilinsky wanted the very last issue (part of the family's collection) to be exhibited in Paris, but he died before this project could be achieved.
If cinema was his work, and painting a talent, then music was Bilinsky's passion. His will to ally the pictorial, musical and silent arts (as cinema was called up to 1929) would be achieved through his research aiming at retranscribing some pieces of music in the form of coloured animated cartoons. But this, as Kipling says, is another story. It should be noted that Bilinsky's subsequent reputation, linked to the absence of reliable information sources over a period of more than fifty years, contributed to the spreading of a few mistruths with regards to his work. Such is the case with the Sheherazade decors. They are sometimes wrongly attributed to Bilinsky, whereas they were drawn by Ivan Loshakoff, another great figure of decoration at Albatros. An anonymous poster for Metropolis has also been attributed to Bilinsky in the reference book Affiches de cinéma, trésors de la Bibliothèque nationale de France 1896-1960 (Stanislas Choko, Editions de l'Amateur 1995). The Bibliothèque nationale de France holds one of the four posters that Bilinsky drew for Metropolis, but this is very different. On the contrary, a stage setting collage model for the same film, used as a poster signed by Bilinsky, and moreover reproduced in the Berlin Zeitbilder of January 1928, is often wrongly attributed to Fritz Lang (cf. Dawn Ades, Photomontage, Thames and Hudson, London 1976).
A lot of information on Boris Bilinsky is still missing, especially covering the Italian period. Any information on this subject, such as press articles, drawing locations, biographic elements, etc., is welcome.
Boris Bilinsky, Metropolis [Pressbook], UFA and ACE (L'Alliance Cinématographique Européenne), Paris, 1927. Copy held at Musée d'histoire contemporaine, Paris.
Anon., 'Un Bel Effort - Les Productions de L'Alliance Cinématographique Européenne', Ciné-Miroir, 120, 16 April 1927, 128-9. Includes a reproduction of the Bilinsky Metropolis montage #1, without inscriptions. This is the earliest known appearance in print of this work.
Anon., Metropolis - Le Film Le Plus Fantastique, Filmstar Edition No.16, "Patria", Anvers, Belgique, 1 November 1927, 16p.
Anon., 'Plakate für deutsche Filme in Frankreich' [Posters for German Films in France], Zeitbilder, Berlin, January 1928, 5. Includes a reproduction of the Metropolis montage #1 poster, with signature and lettering.
Robert Rousseau de Beauplan, 'Metropolis', La Petite Illustration, Paris, 372, 3 March 1928, 12p. Special issue dedicated to Metropolis. Includes a copy of the Bilinsky Metropolis photomontage #1, similar to the Ciné-Miroir version of 16 April 1927, but without inscriptions.
François Mazeline, 'l'Affiche de cinéma - Boris Bilinsky', Cinéma, 1 August 1928.
Boris Bilinsky, 'Le Costume', [Le Décor, Le Costume, Le Maquillage, La Technique], L'Art Cinématographique, volume 6, Librairie Félix Alcan, Paris, 1929.
Lucie Derain, 'Les Affiches de cinéma - polychromie pour blancs et noirs' [Cinema Posters - polychrome for black and whites], Arts et Métiers Graphiques, no.22, Paris, 15 March 1931, 201-5.
Dawn Ades, Photomontage, Thames & Hudson, London, 1976. Includes reproductions of, and reference to, Paul Citroen's 'Metropolis' photomontage series, plus a copy of the Bilinsky Metropolis montage #1.
Jean-Louis Capitaine and Balthazar Charton, L'Affiche de cinéma, Frédéric Birr, 1983.
John Willett, The Weimar Years - A Culture Cut Short, London, 1984. Includes a reproduction of the Bilinsky Metropolis montage #1.
Jean-Louis Capitaine, Les affiches du cinéma français [French Cinema Posters], Seghers / Archimbaud, 1989.
Maitres Chayette et Calmels, [Auction catalogue], Drouot-Richelieu, Paris, 8 December 1989.
François Albera, Albatros, des Russes à Paris, Cinémathèque française, Paris; Mazzotta, Milan, 1995.
Irina Antonova and Jörn Merkert, Berlin-Moscou 1900-1950, Prestel-Verlag, München, 1995, 310. Catalogue for exhibition held at Berlinishe Galerie, Berlin, 1995.
Stanislas Choko, Affiches de cinéma, trésors de la Bibliothèque nationale de France 1896-1960 [Cinema posters: treasures from the Bibliothèque nationale de France 1896-1960], Editions de l'Amateur, 1995.
----, 100 ans d'affiche de cinéma [100 Years of Cinema Posters], Editions de l'Amateur, 1995.
Dietrich Neumann (ed.), Film Architecture: Set Design from Metropolis to Blade Runner, Prestel, München and New York, 1997, 207p.
Boris Bilinsky. A biographical page in French from the L'Encinematheque web encyclopedia of cinema site.
Les maquettes inedites de Boris Bilinsky pour les robes d'Arletty. A webpage in French about Bilinsky's work for the director Marcel Carné and French actrice Arletty.
Movie poster of the week: Metropolis and the posters of Boris Bilinsky. English language article on film posters by Boris Bilinsky.
Russi in Italia. Italian language site with some images of Bilinsky. 2008.
Fantasy Scenes and Costumes from 100 Years of Variety Theatre, 1850 - 1950, The University of Calgary Libraries - Special Collections, Occasional Paper Number 7, The Nickle Arts Museum, The University of Calgary, April 7 - May 10, 1981. Reproduction of an exhibition catalogue, featuring descriptions of items by Boris Bilinsky.
This page was compiled by Michael Organ and René Clémenti-Bilinsky. If you would like any further information on Boris Bilinsky, know of additional resources relating to this artist, or would like permission to reproduce a Bilinsky poster or artwork, please contact René Clémenti-Bilinsky [clementibilinsky@free.fr].
Last updated: 30 April 2016.