1954
In this movie poster, the first thing you notice are the pictures of the stars. The second thing you notice are the names of the stars. The title is given the same billing as the star's names telling me that they considered the stars to be just as important as people recognizing the name of the movie (it was previously made as a play). This was only Audrey Hepburn's second Hollywood movie but she earned an Academy Award for her first movie, Roman Holiday in 1951. Humphrey Bogart was established as a huge star in the 1940's after starring in The Maltese Falcon followed by Casablanca. Bogart was near the end of his career when he made Sabrina, but was still a big star as evidenced by his Academy Award win in 1951. As for William Holden, his breakthrough film came in 1950 with Sunset Boulevard for which he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor. He didn't win that year, but did in 1953 for Stalag 17. The thing I like most about this poster is the play between the pictures of the stars. Humphrey Bogart is watching Sabrina, with the New York skyline in the background showing us that's where he "belongs". He is also seen holding a ream of papers, thereby emphasizing his role as businessman in the film. Sabrina, meanwhile, is looking at William Holden, setting us up with the information that she is more interested in him. William Holden is seen looking back at Sabrina but his playboy status is clear as he sits in a convertible and you can see his mansion in the background. The other thing I find interesting is that Humphrey Bogart is shown smoking a cigarette so we can see how socially acceptable smoking was at that time in history. According to the National Cancer Institute, at the beginning of the 1950's "...the practice of cigarette smoking enjoyed nearly universal acceptance and widespread social appeal...". One could even say it was meant to make Bogart's character look distinguished and important. I also found it interesting how bright the colors in the poster are considering the movie was filmed in black-and-white. I think the studio used the bright colors to bring attention to the poster, but more specifically the beauty of Hepburn's dress and the similar color employed in Holden's suit, again leading us to see them as a pair over Bogart's blue suit.
1995
The remake movie poster is drastically different from the original in several significant ways. First of all, Harrison Ford is the only actor we can actually identify. And his name is the first we see at the top of the poster. The poster is dominated by the hidden profile of a woman, though, whom we can assume is Sabrina but who is meant to be shrouded in mystery. We see at the top of the poster Julia Ormond's name next to Harrison Ford's so although we can not identify the woman on the poster, one can assume it is Ormond's face we see. Greg Kinnear, who plays the third actor in the famous love triangle does not appear anywhere on the poster, and his name is only seen in much smaller type buried in the middle of a bunch of credits. The layout of the actors and their names goes to show the popularity of those actors at the time the movie was made. Harrison Ford took the role in Sabrina in the middle of a long line of successful films, among them the Indiana Jones series, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, The Fugitive and Air Force One. In 1997, Ford was named #1 in Empire's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time". At the time Sabrina was made, Julia Ormond had only made one highly successful film and that was in a supporting role in Legends of the Fall. So while she was clearly the star of Sabrina, she wasn't known anywhere near as well as Ford. She is given equal billing on the poster, though, leading me to believe that the producers of the film knew she was going to steal the show. Greg Kinnear had only made one big film at the time of Sabrina, called Blankman, and it was not a commercial success. The fact that his name is buried in the credits goes to show that most people wouldn't have recognized his name as an actor but also that in this production of the film the producers wished to emphasize the relationship between Ormond's and Ford's characters. This is also emphasized by the text on the poster, "You are cordially invited to the most surprising merger of the year", telling viewers that there is going to be a merger and by the position of the characters on the poster, one would assume it is between Ford's character and the mysterious woman. The font and colors used on the poster I think are meant to focus our attention on the relationship of the characters and the mystery surrounding the female lead's character, as they are simple and almost mono-chromatic. And Ford's character is displayed quite differently than Bogart's was. Instead of being shown in a business suit in the city, he is shown wearing a tux and the wry smile Linus Larrabee's character was so well known for. This tells me that producers wanted audiences to focus on the "distinguished air" of the character and less on the ruthless businessman.
I enjoyed your article Cat. I would never had known that Sabrina with H.Ford was a second version. The smoking comment of yours in the first version was way cool, being I hit my six month of quitting on the 11th. Its cool how time, science and technology can change world view or what is in acceptance these days. after viewing theses two posters myself, I found that making Julie somewhat mysterious did in fact draw my attention in even more so. The power of imagination, wonder if they actually sold more tickets with this sense of mystery.
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