THE POSTERS CAN BE WORKS OF ART, TOO

Author(s):    LOREN KING Date: June 29, 2003 Page: M9 Section: Travel

NEW YORK - "The best place to be reminded that all film art isn't on the screen." That's the proclamation in the street-level window of Posteritati, one of the places in New York, or anywhere, to view classic movie poster art from all over the world.

Posteritati (241 Centre St., between Broome and Grand in Lower Manhattan) is the place to go if colorful depictions of a surly Robert Mitchum or a sultry Rita Hayworth excite you more than Monet's lilies or van Gogh's skies. Posteritati treats vintage film art like museum pieces. To gaze at the vivid images advertising film noir classics like "Dark Passage," or the colorful paintings of Italian film poster artists, or the bold graphics for vintage horror films like "Godzilla," is to revisit a bygone era of film art. Collectors may covet this stuff, and indeed Posteritati sells these posters in the gallery and on its popular website for hefty prices, but even casual fans will enjoy browsing inside the intimate gallery or searching Posteritati's vast selection of movie memorabilia on one of four computers that line one wall.

Posteritati changes its gallery exhibits regularly. Currently it is showcasing international horror films, with a huge "Dracula il Vampiro" in a poster case to the right of the front door. The gallery boasts an extensive collection of Japanese posters for American films, which usually offer stunning artwork very different from the US releases. Several Japanese "Dracula" posters are also on display.

International versions of classic movie posters are also the stock-in-trade of J. Fields Gallery (55 West 17th St.). In addition to its display of French, Italian, Spanish, and American film posters, J. Fields is a well-known poster restoration company. While perusing the art-covered walls of this sixth-floor shop, or rifling through the stacks of linen-backed posters on a large table, it's hard not to marvel at the artists visible in the rear of the gallery as they meticulously restore tattered and torn original posters for "All About Eve," "The Birds," and "Jules and Jim" to near-pristine condition.

J. Fields has been at its current location for 10 years, and was on Varick Street in Tribeca for 14 years before that. A rent increase may force the company to relocate once again come October, but rest assured, J. Fields isn't going to vanish. Not as long as there are people eager to admire an original Audrey Hepburn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" poster, even if they can't afford the thousands of dollars it takes to put it on their wall.

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