''Picnic'', 1955 - art by Enrico De Seta

"Picnic" (1955) is a romantic drama starring William Holden and Kim Novak, set in a small Kansas town over a Labor Day weekend. Directed by Joshua Logan and based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning play, the film takes you into the lives of small-town folks, highlighting their hopes, dreams, and complicated relationships.

William Holden plays Hal Carter, a charming drifter and former football star who's down on his luck. He rolls into town looking for a fresh start and plans to meet up with his wealthy friend, Alan (played by Cliff Robertson), who’s dating the town’s beauty queen, Madge Owens, portrayed by Kim Novak. The sparks really fly when Hal and Madge start to fall for each other, setting off a love triangle with some serious emotional tension.

The town’s annual picnic serves as the backdrop for all the drama. The picnic brings out repressed desires, and the tension between Hal’s carefree spirit and Alan’s privileged life eventually leads to some big decisions for Madge. The famous dance scene between Novak and Holden, set to "Moonglow," is one of the most memorable moments, perfectly capturing the film's mix of romance and longing.

With its themes of love, freedom, and the struggle between following your heart and fitting into society, Picnic really captures the spirit of the 1950s. It’s a timeless story that still resonates today, especially for anyone who’s ever felt torn between what they want and what’s expected of them.

About the artist:

During his career, Enrico De Seta designed more than a thousand movie posters, giving the public and movie lovers a panorama of very different styles and moods. With a career as a cartoonist behind him, this poster artist represented characters in a realistic style but also caricatures in a satirical vein.

The caricature exaggerates the features of the protagonists while maintaining, in substance, the distinctive lines of the portrait. De Seta embodies the widest spectrum of emotions: irony and hilarity, lightness, playful sensuality, but he also realizes strong artworks which attract attention through the combination of contrasting colors.

Enrico De Seta (1908-2008) was born in Catania, Italy, and created film posters after World War II. He spent his childhood in Rome from the age of three. He began drawing professionally for an Italian newspaper at age 15. He later co-founded the satirical weekly "Il Cerino" ("The Match") with Ennio Flaiano, a leading novelist, playwright, and screenwriter best known for his work with Federico Fellini.

De Seta collaborated as a humorist-cartoonist from 1929 and later established himself as a comic author in 1941. Following the Allied liberation of Rome in June 1944, De Seta and Federico Fellini set up the Funny Face Shop. In their effort to survive the post-war recession, they earned some income drawing caricatures for American soldiers.

Eventually, De Seta gave up his cartoon work to concentrate on a far more lucrative career in film poster design. He had previously designed a poster for "La Grande Illusion" (1937) and created about 1,500 posters from the 1950s onward.

In 1953, he was awarded the Spiga Cambellotti for his work as an illustrator. Over four decades later, in 1995, he was awarded the honor of commander by the President of Italy. He died in Rome in 2008 at the age of 100.