“Il Grido / Sasurai”, Original Japanese First Release Movie Poster 1959, Very Rare, B2 Size (51 × 73 cm) S40

This is an original Japanese B2 theatrical poster printed for the film’s first Japanese release in 1959 of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Il Grido (さすらい / Sasurai), approximately meaning “Wandering.” Originally made in Italy in 1957, the film stars Steve Cochran, Alida Valli, Betsy Blair, Dorian Gray, Gabriella Pallotta, and Lynn Shaw.

Released in Japan on 12 April 1959, this exceptionally scarce first-release poster is a beautiful surviving example of Japanese promotion for early Antonioni, predating the international breakthrough of L’Avventura, La Notte, and L’Eclisse.

Film background

Set amid the bleak industrial towns and flat landscapes of Italy’s Po Valley, Il Grido follows Aldo, a refinery worker whose long relationship with Irma abruptly ends when she tells him that she loves another man.

Unable to accept the loss, Aldo leaves town with his young daughter and begins an increasingly aimless journey through northern Italy. Along the way he encounters several women and repeatedly attempts to reconstruct a sense of intimacy and belonging, yet each relationship only deepens his alienation.

The film is a crucial transitional work in Michelangelo Antonioni’s development as one of the defining directors of modern European cinema. Its working-class setting retains elements of Italian neorealism, but the emphasis increasingly shifts away from conventional social drama towards the emotional isolation, failed communication, desolate landscapes, and existential uncertainty that would become central to Antonioni’s later masterpieces.

The film’s international reputation was established early. Antonioni received the critics’ prize at the 1957 Locarno Film Festival, while cinematographer Gianni Di Venanzo won the 1958 Nastro d’Argento for Best Cinematography.

Poster design

This Japanese B2 is an exceptionally elegant example of late-1950s Japanese art-house film advertising, combining restrained photographic imagery with enormous hand-rendered typography.

Across the upper portion appears the Japanese title:

「さすらい」
“Wandering”

The title is painted in huge, irregular deep-red brush characters against a pale cream-grey sky. Its rough, almost calligraphic quality gives the poster an emotional immediacy that contrasts beautifully with the quiet photographic composition below.

Beneath it appears the original Italian title:

“IL GRIDO”

together with:

“Un film di MICHELANGELO ANTONIONI”

The central image shows Steve Cochran as Aldo walking along an empty road with his young daughter, surrounded by the bleak and almost featureless landscape of the Po Valley. The muted brown, grey, and cream tones reinforce the film’s atmosphere of exhaustion and emotional displacement.

The landscape itself is crucial: the empty road, distant trees, overcast sky, and broad horizontal horizon visually express the film’s central idea of a man who is physically travelling yet emotionally unable to escape his loss.

At lower right appears a large colour-tinted portrait of Alida Valli as Irma, whose rejection of Aldo sets his wandering journey in motion.

Along the lower edge are four additional portraits identifying the women encountered within the film:

Lynn Shaw
Betsy Blair
Dorian Gray
Gabriella Pallotta

The juxtaposition between Aldo’s lonely walk and the succession of female portraits elegantly summarises the structure of the film: a journey through different relationships in search of something that cannot be recovered.

Japanese campaign copy

The vertical campaign line at right reads:

「二つの愛 二つの面影求めて さすらう男の旅路！アントニオーニの芸術大作！」

Approximately:

“A man’s journey of wandering in search of two loves and two remembered faces! A great artistic masterpiece by Antonioni!”

Across the upper section, the blue award billing proudly announces:

「ロカルノ映画祭国際批評賞 ★ 銀リボン撮影賞 ★ 受賞作品」

Approximately:

“Winner of the Locarno Film Festival International Critics’ Prize and the Silver Ribbon Award for Cinematography.”

The lower credits identify:

「監督 ミケランジェロ・アントニオーニ」
“Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni”

「撮影 ジャンニ・ディ・ヴェナンツォ」
“Cinematography by Gianni Di Venanzo”

「音楽 ジョヴァンニ・フスコ」
“Music by Giovanni Fusco”

The original Italifilm and Shingai Eiga co-distribution markings remain visible along the bottom, providing clear Japanese first-release provenance.

Cultural significance

Il Grido occupies an important position immediately before the extraordinary run of films that established Antonioni internationally.

The emotional emptiness of Aldo’s journey and the use of landscape as an extension of psychological state anticipate L’Avventura, La Notte, L’Eclisse, and Red Desert. The film therefore represents a pivotal moment when Antonioni began moving decisively beyond the conventions of Italian neorealism towards his own highly influential form of modernist, psychologically driven cinema.

Original Japanese first-release paper for Antonioni’s earliest films is exceptionally difficult to find, particularly compared with later material for Blow-Up and his celebrated 1960s works.

Condition

Very Good — especially considering its age and rarity.

This is an authentic, theatre-used Japanese poster now approximately 67 years old, and it retains strong overall colour and excellent display character.

There are original horizontal and vertical fold lines, scattered age-related foxing, several original pinholes, general handling creases and surface wear. The reverse shows significant natural age toning consistent with paper of this period.

These imperfections are clearly visible in the additional photographs and are entirely consistent with a genuine late-1950s Japanese theatrical poster that was actually used for display.

Importantly, the principal imagery, title lettering, cast portraits, and campaign text remain complete and visually strong. Once professionally framed, the poster will display extremely well, while retaining the genuine patina and physical history of an original 1959 cinema artefact.

Please review all photographs carefully—they show the exact poster for sale.

This poster is an original Japanese theatrical B2 from the 1959 first-release campaign.
It is not a reproduction or a modern reprint.

It is approximately 67 years old.

Certificate of Authenticity included.