Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol.4

[HerrSchreck]

lol domino harvey and covert art

[bearcuborg]

lol domino harvey and covert art

Applause on all covers for the most part. Yet, I wouldn't be shocked if some changed over the next few months.

[neuro]

lol domino harvey and covert art

I'm more drawn to the concept of "covert art."

[HerrSchreck]

Residue of my old days hitting the trains in the 80's.. graf = covert art.

[Feego]

I was a big fan of the fake Repulsion cover a few weeks back, but I must say that I think the Criterion cover will make a most attractive addition to my collection. Can't wait for it!

[knives]

The one problem I have with the Repulsion cover is that it gives me a feeling of deja vu.

[kaujot]

Well, it and the Knife in the Water cover share the same design theme.

[Murdoch]

I get the feeling that the Repulsion will change, pure speculation but I fear for the the worst...

Anyway, the Kobayashi and Godard are simply superb.

[knives]

Well, it and the Knife in the Water cover share the same design theme.

That's not what I was thinking, not nearly identical enough. The one I'm thinking of had the split with the arm also.

[CSM126]

That Repulsion cover looks like one of those Wacky Sticky toy hands you fling at a wall.

[kinjitsu]

That's not what I was thinking

Think Saul Bass.

[cdnchris]

[img]http://criterion_production.s3.amazonaws.com/release_images/2272/482_box_348x490.jpg[/img]

[mfunk9786]

Hmmm... if not for that little bottom sliver, I'd say that's a perfect cover.

[ptatler]

But don't you get it? That "little bottom sliver" represents the "or 3"!

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

2 or 3 is rather lazy, but Made In USA is superb. It'd be nice if that was a poster later on.

[Dr. Snaut]

The 2 or 3 and USA covers seem to be the same style. The look extremely similar side by side. So, I don't really understand how one looks "lazy" next to the other one. 2 or 3 looks great, in my opinion.

[TheGodfather]

WOW, excellent month title-wise.

Just love the Human Condition and the Made in USA cover. The 2 or 3 things cover should`ve done without the bottom bit.
Otherwise: really, really excited about this month. Best one in a long, long while.

[Mr. Ned]

The 2 or 3 and USA covers seem to be the same style. The look extremely similar side by side. So, I don't really understand how one looks "lazy" next to the other one. 2 or 3 looks great, in my opinion.

The two new covers also have the same cover style as Pierrot le Fou, with the french flag color ensemble and uneven frame-images. This will make the inevitable release of Vivre sa vie that much classier with its maroon font and single B&W image of Anna Karina (assuming Criterion uses that lovely poster on its online store).

[TheGodfather]

The 2 or 3 and USA covers seem to be the same style. The look extremely similar side by side. So, I don't really understand how one looks "lazy" next to the other one. 2 or 3 looks great, in my opinion.

The two new covers also have the same cover style as Pierrot le Fou, with the french flag color ensemble and uneven frame-images. This will make the inevitable release of Vivre sa vie that much classier with its maroon font and single B&W image of Anna Karina (assuming Criterion uses that lovely poster on its online store).

I`m guessing they`re not gonna use that, as they`ve done so many times in the past. So many great posters wich are lovely and easy to use, but they end up with something completely different that isn`t even close to the poster art

[karmajuice]

I'm actually consistently glad that Criterion chooses not to use movie posters for their covers. I simply don't understand movie poster fetishism and I find covers that resort to this (even Masters of Cinema) boring more often than not.

That's not to say that Criterion covers are always, or even mostly, better than the movie posters. But I'm really not into movie posters (unless we're talking Russian/Polish stuff). Besides, packaging design is a horse of a different color, because the cover is a part of a scheme that also includes the back cover, the interior, the booklet, the DVDs themselves, and whatever else might be included with the package. It's much more sensible to build a design scheme from the ground up rather than shoe-horning some movie poster in, which forces the package as a whole to adhere to a design which was not conceived with that purpose in mind.

But I understand the sentiment, and the Vivre sa vie poster is very nice.

[MyNameCriterionForum]

[img]http://criterion_production.s3.amazonaws.com/release_images/2272/482_box_348x490.jpg[/img]

Surely someone more familiar with the film could (if they haven't already) make the now-requisite joke about how the "2" and the "3" should instead be composed of 23 little... somethings...

[visuallyimpaired]

With regard to recent CC covers and packaging news:

I wait impatiently for my first plastic blu-ray disc from Criterion. I felt as if we Blu-ray buyers were being left in the dust when receiving those flimsy cardboard and flatten by the US post editions. I know this is picky, but I do hope the top title labels come off with the ease that they do on those slippery blue Blu-ray covers.

I am surprised that my favorite cover is one of the simplest that Criterion has put out. Huston's "Wise Blood" looks just like a Flannery O'Connor novel might look like if it were printed in the early 1960's and that is just fine with me. If you look quickly near the end of the trailer at the Criterion website you can see where the artist took the drawn image from. It doesn't look a bit like Brad to me, but it really works.

With regard to the ever unpopular "Last Year...", must we all be reminded of how so many hated "Mishima" until it arrived at our doorsteps? One never knows what little surprises lurk unsceen in those tiny teases they give us every month. Who woulda thought there were holes in the "Last Metro" cover? That's why I hope against hope that Criterion will do an embossed white plastic cover for "Last Year..." much like the Pet Shop Boys did for their CD "VERY".



The more disheartening idea would be that it is embossed paper that gets worn out and rubbed to its drab brown innards or take on a rainbow of colors of albums rubbing next to it like my Talking Heads' "Fear of Music" LP with its protruding man hole cover ridges did oh so many years ago.



Worst yet would be for the fine, simple, and stately design be printed flat, pretending to be 3-D.

[mfunk9786]

Who woulda thought there were holes in the "Last Metro" cover?

I hope those are actual die-cut holes and Wacky C on a sleeve for the cover of The Last Metro, with a digipak or keepcase that slides out to reveal the image.

That makes total sense; Depardieu is almost certainly hidden behind the curtain.

Sorry: as soon as I read that, I couldn't resist.

[cdnchris]

Alexander Korda's Private Lives Packaging

[cdnchris]

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button DVD Packaging

It's a slip over a keep case and was obviously done by Paramount, but doesn't look too bad. It must have killed them to have to keep critic blurbs off of it.