Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

[tenia]

They aren't particularly bad, but probably because they look like bland and quick fan-arts. I'm quite certain I've seen this Raging Bull cover 10 years ago during swimminghorses' peak activity, Okja looks like a Criterion Channel thumbnail, Drive My Car like a collage poster variant, and Devil in a Blue Dress like a theatrical poster pointlessly redone as a paint-type drawing.

[Brian C]

I know these things are typically contractual obligations, but “A Carl Franklin Film, Written and Directed by Carl Franklin” sure seems redundant on the cover.

[Furstemberg]

Can we bully them into doing better for Raging Bull? I wasn't a member here for The Tree Of Life but how did y'all get results?

[domino harvey]

The only cover we actually had a hand in changing was Viridiana. Any other changes were a result of wider outrage or internal decisions

[aox]

Was it A Christmas Tale where the cover got the bully treatment all over the internet (especially here), and the internet won?

[movielocke]

I kind of like how “Martin Scorsese” is the same font as the sidebar “criterion collection” but diagonally mirrored in placement. Keeping the image clean of the text is interesting as well but could be a reason for the delay if the relative sizing of the star credit is insufficient.

[domino harvey]

Not sure if the site still exists but Criterion Dungeon used to have all the alternate covers that were changed after publicly appearing on Criterion’s website or retailers. There were way, way more than most people probably realize

[Michael Kerpan]

Drive My Car's cover looks like a (relatively uninspired) Japanese DVD release from around 20 years ago.

[eerik]

[FrauBlucher]

Easily the best for last

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

One of the more underwhelming Boland covers I've seen. I wish they'd called on Sister Hyde to do another Scorsese cover.

[ryannichols7]

I actually really like the Drive My Car cover, it reminds me of Tokyo Story. glad they included both the native name for both the film (even if it's just a transliteration) and Hamaguchi

[zedz]

Well, at least they got one right.

[Finch]

I like it as well but then I'm partial to this design style.

[soundchaser]

Apart from Summertime, this has got to be an all-time stinker of a month.

[JayAlmighty]

Well the covers for DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS and SUMMERTIME are certainly an improvement. While I do see a couple of missed opportunities in the DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS cover, for the most part I like it. Same with the SUMMERTIME cover; I can't help but get a BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN vibe from the hair, and I think they maybe made Hepburn look a little TOO old (for shits and giggles I made a version without any wrinkles, see below), but overall I like it.

Overall, a pretty disappointing month for covers. That said, I'll gladly accept the RAGING BULL cover if it means the OKJA cover gets changed; THAT cover, in my opinion, may be one of criterions worst.

[DimitriL]

Can we bully them into doing better for Raging Bull? I wasn't a member here for The Tree Of Life but how did y'all get results?

I mean, like it or don’t like it and that’s fine, but it’s basically the original movie poster key art they had for forty years with a slightly different font choice. It’s gonna be a long road to convince CC to change anything but minuscule details when they went back to the fairly famous source.

[cdnchris]

Walker
Miracle in Milan
The Girl Can't Help It
Eyimofe
'Round Midnight

[Boosmahn]

Is it pretty much a guarantee at this point that future Fox titles will come with neat little bonuses?

[cdnchris]

It's not based on the poster : it's the poster. Nothing was redrawn, except for the face they removed. Why?

Other than that they're all great covers I think.

So coming back to this after listening to the commentary again (14 years after listening to it on the DVD), it appears that the blank face may have been the original concept for the poster, apparently to [paraphrasing] symbolize that whoever was sent down to Nicaragua was really just a puppet and could literally be anyone as long as they represented the corporate interests. If it wasn't Walker, it was going to be someone else, and of course American interference didn't end there. If I understood correctly, Universal was the one to add Harris' face for actor recognition. But the original concept was to have no face, so it looks like Criterion was simply following their wishes here.

[Saturnome]

Interesting! Thank you for coming back on this.

[swo17]

[tenia]

For a moment, I thought we were in the Fake Criterion covers thread.

[domino harvey]

I mean, some films get the covers they deserve

[Saturnome]

Never seen Daddy Longlegs but it's old dvd cover was an inspiration for my drawing style when I was still a teenager

That's all I'll say