criterionforum.org

swo17 wrote: Mon Apr 15, 2024 3:43 pm

Didn't notice at first, but Risky Business is an illustration, not a cap, from the artist that did Criterion's Police Story and Throw Down covers.

Le Samouraï seems to be a rare example of giving a completely new cover to what is a simple format upgrade and not a new addition with more supplements.

The old cover was perfect, one of their best.

None are great, none are horrible - a curious choice for Perfect Days, but it's both in step with the spirit of the film and made me laugh in its bald irony

and of course the Concubine cover gets to be the one that looks like garbage, dont recall that being original poster art or anything.

Finch wrote: Mon Apr 15, 2024 4:37 pm I find the empty space on the Farewell cover baffling, too

Maybe the bifurcation between the colorful left-top and pure-red bottom-right is meant to visually highlight the political bifurcation/end of the happy/good times contrasted with the new austerity under the little RED book waving commies of Chairman Mao?

Or is it simply that everyone who is in love (red) with Gong's acting is shocked (thus a shocking bifurcation) that she's finally in the collection?

Farewell, My Concubine is a thoroughly decent effort and the Rocha cover is actually pretty terrific!

Finch wrote: Mon Apr 15, 2024 4:37 pm I find the empty space on the Farewell cover baffling, too, and the placement of the word Farewell is really awkward. Skillman could have applied some shadow to the title fonts if he was concerned about the title not standing out enough against the busy background.

Yeah, the title treatment is the real issue with Farewell's cover. Farewell crossing out of the red into the picture just looks sloppy.

Matt wrote: Mon Apr 15, 2024 4:40 pm Le Samouraï seems to be a rare example of giving a completely new cover to what is a simple format upgrade and not a new addition with more supplements.

If memory serves, this was the first such instance:

Randall Maysin Again wrote: Mon Apr 15, 2024 7:24 pm Farewell, My Concubine is a thoroughly decent effort and the Rocha cover is actually pretty terrific!

That's the original poster, so Criterion only deserves credit for not screwing it up.

But that may be shortchanging the genius of the person at Criterion who changed the red color from Pantone #485a to Pantone #485b!

I don’t aesthetically love the Farewell My Concubine cover but the idea is strong: the yellow and red combo is symbolic of the CCP, and it cuts through the image like a knife, with all the red almost like blood spilled.

The Le Samouraï cover is terrible. The old cover was one of my earliest memories of seeing a Criterion cover, it's a shame they changed it.

La haine [4K]
Picnic at Hanging Rock [4K] (Booklet)
I Am Cuba [4K]
Werckmeister Harmonies [4K]
Dogfight

Odd, it appears that the Three Colors boxset is getting broken up into individual releases in standard Scanavo cases. (and Blue and White have different cover art.) There is no listing for these on Criterion's site, but the op at reddit works at B&N,

dwk wrote: Fri May 03, 2024 3:46 pm Odd, it appears that the Three Colors boxset is getting broken up into individual releases in standard Scanavo cases. (and Blue and White have different cover art.) There is no listing for these on Criterion's site, but the op at reddit works at B&N,

Those comments are bizarre-- why are all of those commentators acting like this is the norm when it's never happened before

They have changed packaging and broken up boxsets before, but this is the first time I can think of them doing it to a Blu-ray set.

The Three Colors trilogy seems like a very odd set to break up. Is there significant demand for, say, a standalone edition of Blue the way there was enough demand for standalone releases of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg or The Young Girls of Rochefort from the Demy set?

Yeah, outside of any individual title previously on digi and re-released in Scanavo, this seems like a weird first time to split a digi boxset to individual plastic case releases. I'd understand stuff like Pasolini's Trilogy of Life, World Cinema Project movies or Demys, but the 3 colors trilogy ?

fiendishthingy wrote:Is there significant demand for, say, a standalone edition of Blue

Don’t shoot me, but it’s the only one I really like. I would buy a standalone. But this is probably just easier for them to manufacture and package. I doubt they’d split up something made specifically as a trilogy.

These films weren‘t specifically made as a trilogy?

Of course this is a trilogy. The titles of the films are the three colors of the French tri-color flag. Each film keys in on the colors of the titles. And the last five minutes of the last film make it obvious this is a trilogy...

As far a packaging goes, I always thought this was one of Criterion's best efforts. All three images are mediated reality... from a TV screen, from a dream (or fantasy), and from a photograph. It's weird that they bust this concept up.

Matt wrote: Fri May 03, 2024 9:03 pm

fiendishthingy wrote:Is there significant demand for, say, a standalone edition of Blue

Don’t shoot me, but it’s the only one I really like. I would buy a standalone. But this is probably just easier for them to manufacture and package. I doubt they’d split up something made specifically as a trilogy.

I still have my Miramax DVD of Bleu and never bothered to upgrade to the box set, so I'm not opposed to just picking that one up either... but this is one of the more interconnected of trilogy/three-film boxes they've released, so I'm still a little bumfuzzled

Does anyone know who did the cover for Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid? It's not listed on the page