International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Vol. 3 No. 8 [Special Issue – April 2013] 76 The Element of Myth in the Post-War Greek Movie Posters Dr. Johannis Tsoumas Art and Design Historian Hellenic Open University / Technological Educational Institute of Athens Faculty of Fine Arts and Design Department of Interior Architecture, Decoration and Design Greece Abstract The post-war Greek movie posters are considered as art and in fact, a particular art form inspired by the very seventh art. Their main objective was to propagate among potential dark room visitors by promising something more than a two-hour entertainment: a happier and better quality of life. Artistic, 'nervous', minimalist, striking, elegant, evocative, still collectible items, the posters of that era were a form of narrative that seemed to serve the multiple dimensions of myth in order to attract the potential audience. The purpose of the following article is to research the unexplored, but at the same time, very interesting area of the post-war Greek movie posters and to highlight the importance of their myth concept. It claims to reveal how the painters, graphic designers and photographers of the time through their movie poster creations made Greek people dream again after both the disastrous World War II and the civil war that followed. Keywords: post-war era, Greek cinema, poster, advertising, myth 1. Introduction Posters constitute a communication tool and also one of the most prevalent methods of advertising events for the general public. The messages that they broadcast take effect almost automatically and often unconsciously. Studies have shown that a poster has only eleven seconds at its disposal to attract public attention and to convey its message and that is why the public does not stand to read or comment generally but it only casts a glance at it. Therefore the time to spread the message of the poster is effectively minimized. Nevertheless posters contain all the elements of the promotional ideals defined by the concept of myth and idealization. Especially the film posters of post-war Greece are the functional and perhaps the propaganda brightness of visual communication, but also as a unique field of artistic expression and creativity, namely two fundamental elements which quickly revealed them as the ideal precursors of the postwar Greek cinema magical era. This paper aims to identify, annotate and analyze all the essential characteristics of these promotional creations, which quickly have raised them on the sphere of the ideal. More specifically, in the course of our research we will comment on the importance of the historical context in which the functionality, aesthetics, and the semantic value of film posters were fashioned. There, we will discover that Greece, tattered from B! World War was trying to get back on track both socio- politically and economically, often seeking psychological support breaths through the regenerated domestic film production. Moreover, the evidence which in our view would advocate widely in revealing the mythic dimensions of these types of advertisements are very important references not only to their creators, but mainly to their technical and aesthetic characteristics which are identified through the analysis of selected pieces. 2. The Post-War Conditions and the Role of Cinema After the Second World War and the Civil War that followed, Greece got hurt, drenched in blood with huge losses, from not only an economic but also an ethical point of view. At an economic level, apart from the loss of a human beings who died from starvation or military operations, a large part of the population was devastated, agricultural production declined by more than 70%, shipping slumped over 73% and the currency was annihilated, a fact that forced our country into commitments of a both financial and political nature (Daniel. A and Korkovelou, A., 2008: 19).