The MoC Booklet Thread

[Gregor Samsa]

I know there's already a long-standing MoC packaging thread, but I thought that the care and attention they put into their booklets makes them worthy of their own thread, for any specifically booklet-related thoughts. (Favourite examples, general thoughts, discussion of articles within, etc: ) To start by suggesting a couple of my own favourites, I was highly impressed by the booklets for Tabu and Touch of Evil. What I think I like most about them is the way they have enough space to capture multiple perspectives (contemporary and retrospective) on the films, and help suggest new ways of thinking about them---the Welles interview excerpts in Touch of Evil are particularly useful to that end. The use of archival material is also great for placing a film in its individual context, and can sometimes even be poignant, like the anecdote recounted at the end of the Film Comment article in Tabu. For a less academic example, reading the one for Repo Man recently also reminded me that very few other companies if any would devote an entire 44 page booklet in that idiosyncratic style. For me, its a big part of what makes MoC what they are, especially with Criterion downsizing their own booklets in recent years.

[Altair]

Out of my Masters of Cinema collection, I particularly found the booklet for Pasolini's Oedipus Rex valuable, including as it does a long interview with Pasolini talking about the themes of the film and what drove him to make it. A real eye-opener for me (it was my first Pasolini) in terms of understanding "his" cinema.

[bugsy_pal]

An old thread revived... I just received my copy of the 3-film 2-disc set of Lugosi Poe adaptations, standard edition (Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Black Cat, The Raven). I'd like to commend MoC/Eureka for continuing to provide booklets with their standard editions. They have a history of great booklets for all most releases, but in this case, I must express my dismay - the text is tiny and very difficult to read, and reversed out type, as well as having lots of text printed on a purple background is a recipe for headaches. Did the limited slipcase edition have the same booklet?

It's a pity they couldn't get an ABC design primer from their old designer, Nick Wrigley.

[swo17]

I have the original 47-page booklet. Toward the end there is a section with smaller white text on a purple background. Is that what you're talking about? I don't find it hard to read but I suppose I could see others struggling with it

[bugsy_pal]

This must be a truncated booklet - it's only about 12 pages in my version (sorry, I don't have access to it right now to get the exact number). Perhaps it's case where they reduced the size of the booklet for the standard edition, both in terms of numbers of pages and page dimensions.
All of the writing, apart from credits, in the standard edition is about Murders in the Rue Morgue. No articles about the other two films.

[ChunkyLover]

Yeah, Eureka have been doing smaller font on their slimmed down standard releases from LEs. Particularly, the regular edition booklets of "High Noon", "Kwaidan", and "Vampyr" all also have small font.

[midnitedave]

Eureka announced today on Instagram that, "Moving forward the Masters of Cinema Collector’s Booklets will be exclusive to the Limited Editions (First print run only)."

[yoloswegmaster]

Wonder if this means the SE will cost slightly less

[ryannichols7]

it's unclear if this means older catalog titles that weren't an LE (stuff like Two Rode Together or The Old Dark House) will also lose their booklets. I can kinda understand if it's something like Touch of Evil where there's the hard box LE and then the SE doesn't have a booklet, but to have those titles that aren't like that not have a booklet would be disappointing

[domino harvey]

They’d have to redesign and reprint all of those anyways, because they list the booklets on the packaging. I think the scarier answer is that those older films just go OOP when sold out and don’t come back

[ryannichols7]

that's basically what's already going on anyway. there are so many that have gone OOP, but I've been surprised by some that have stuck around