The posters in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood advertise films to characters who work in the same industry. Their size and presence on the routes make cinema seem to spill out of the theatres and spread across the whole city.
Films are seen before entering a cinema
The streets of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood are full of images that promise other films. A canopy, a billboard or a poster beside an entrance foreshadow faces, genres and emotions before anyone buys a ticket. Advertising is part of the environment that Rick, Cliff and Sharon move through. The viewer may recognise some titles, but also senses their combined effect: entertainment takes up a considerable amount of the city’s surface.
Sweet Charity, Bob Fosse’s musical released in 1969, belongs to that visual repertoire. Its presence offers a different reference from the westerns that have defined Rick’s career. The adverts allow several forms of entertainment to coexist without the narrative having to stop and explain them. A musical, a comedy or an action film can share a route and show the diversity of products competing for the public’s attention.
Funny Girl introduces another recognisable image of the period’s film production. The figures and names of stars circulate around the city on a scale far beyond the human. For the main characters, this advertising belongs to a particular profession; for many other residents, it is simply part of the landscape. The film brings both perceptions together: those who work with images also have to drive, park and cross the same streets where those images are displayed.
The date of an advert requires care. C. C. and Company is a 1970 film, even though it appears among the visual references identified in Tarantino’s feature. It therefore cannot be used as proof of a strictly accurate billboard display for February 1969. The recreation mixes historical research and cinematic memory. Recognising an isolated discrepancy makes it possible to appreciate the design without turning the whole set into a literal document of the calendar.
The graphic language of a rebuilt city
Period advertising uses resources that differ from many contemporary campaigns: illustrated figures, emphatic compositions, large names and colours that must be legible from a distance. On a billboard, small detail can disappear from a vehicle; the face and silhouette need to retain strength in a brief glance. That condition explains why the scale of the design matters as much as the written information on it.
The painted appearance of an image does not prove that all visible pieces were executed using the same technique. A composition may come from an illustrated original and then circulate through reproductions. It is worth distinguishing the poster’s aesthetic from the procedures used to make each element of the shoot. The film allows its appearance to be analysed, but it does not justify indiscriminately attributing all the billboards to a single painter or to only one form of craft work.
Nor should the adverts placed within the fiction be confused with the commercial poster created to promote the 2019 film. They serve different functions. The former make the cultural offer surrounding the characters believable; the latter must present Tarantino’s work to an external audience. Both may share references to film illustration, but they belong to different moments and different audiences within the circulation of images.
Physical placement adds information that a stand-alone reproduction would lose. A poster raised above a building enters into relation with windows, roofs, lampposts and traffic. A canopy, by contrast, marks an entrance and promises an experience accessible from the pavement. The film uses these differences to construct a city where cinema is at once a distant product, turned into a monumental image, and a everyday activity one can walk into.
Watching adverts as the characters move along
Car journeys allow images to appear for a limited time. The camera does not always grant a dedicated frontal shot to each title. Often, the advert passes along the edge of the frame or accompanies the vehicle’s movement. This presentation prevents every reference from becoming a self-contained display. The landscape retains details that may be recognised immediately or discovered on another viewing, as happens when driving along a real street.
The cinematography of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood brings posters and characters together in the same light. A surface that is too new, flat or disconnected from its surroundings could interrupt the continuity of the space. Colour, shadows and distance help the advertising seem installed there before the scene begins. The commercial image must attract attention as an advert and, at the same time, belong naturally to the place where it is positioned.
For Rick, the advertising city offers a constant comparison with other careers. His own face has also circulated on posters and screens, but he fears that this recognition is wearing thin. There is no need to interpret every advert as a direct comment on his failure. It is enough to observe that he lives surrounded by signs of a moving industry. Facades announce new releases while he tries to find a place within that movement.
Sharon has another relationship with visibility when she approaches a cinema where her work is being shown. Advertising can lead her to a shared experience with anonymous spectators. The route from the street to the auditorium links the promotional image with a human reaction that no poster can guarantee. That continuity gives meaning to the landscape of adverts: the giant figures promise something, and behind an entrance there are people deciding whether the promise makes them laugh, move them or keep watching.
More context in the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood guide.