The first Oyster card

Renovation work at Richmond station has revealed a handful of posters dating from the mid-1980s (see date top right, above), including one explaining how to use train-door buttons (bottom).

Ha!

Jonas Milk has given way on this blog - I've been inadvertently outed by this poster for a tremendous new film, see top left (click for larger image). It's not even my quote.

Poster post

When I briefly lived in Paris I collected some very big posters for Luc Besson films Le dernier combat (1983), Subway (1985) and The Big Blue (1988). They went up on my walls as a student and I still have Subway on show in my flat, though I've never found a reliable method of securing it.

I wish I'd picked up a - smaller - poster for an early Olivier Assayas film, Paris s'éveille (1991). It's not an amazing film, about a father, played by Jean-Pierre Léaud, and son who fall for the same woman, but it and Subway showed me the possibilities of cinema. Both movies star beautiful women - Judith Godrèche and Isabelle Adjani, respectively - and the poster images are great (see above).

The films are also notable for their soundtracks, another fascination (the score for Paris s'éveille is by John Cale). As is the way with French actresses, Godrèche recently recorded an album to support her directorial debut, Toutes les filles pleurent (2010). Benjamin Biolay features on the title track, while Piers Faccini guests on the album's stand-out number, Farewell.