Criterion News and Discussion

[Ravi]

Its a little known fact that Criterion's director-approved DVDs are actually approved by the directors of other films.

[Stefen]

haha I don't even want to open it now. It's a collectors item. Criterion is so perfect so when they're not, it's gotta be worth tons of cash!

[ono]

I doubt that'd be worth too much.  Since those "approved by" stickers go on the outside of the sticky wrap, I've had to peel it off and stick it on the box itself.  Kinda dumb, and that error isn't gonna be worth that much.

[samsong]

no one updated on the january releases and the feburary releases were announced today.  all will be on blu-ray, too.



DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION

New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director James L. Brooks and editor Richard Marks (with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
New audio commentary featuring Brooks and Marks
James L. Brooks—A Singular Voice,a new documentary on Brooks's career in television and film, featuring actresses Marilu Henner and Julie Kavner, among other collaborators
Alternate ending and deleted scenes, with commentary by Brooks
New video interview with veteran CBS news producer Susan Zirinsky, one of the models for actress Holly Hunter's character and an associate producer on the film
Featurette containing on-set footage and interviews with Brooks, Hunter, and actor Albert Brooks
Original theatrical trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Carrie Rickey




New high-definition digital transfer, approved by director Andrea Arnold, director of photography Robbie Ryan, and editor Nicolas Chaudeurge (with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
All three of Arnold's short films: Milk (1998), Dog (2001), and the Oscar-winning Wasp (2003)
New video interview with actor Kierston Wareing
Interview with actor Michael Fassbender from 2009
Audition footage
Stills gallery by on-set photographer Holly Horner
Original theatrical trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Ian Christie




DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:

New high-definition digital transfer, approved by director Hirokazu Kore-eda and director of photography Yutaka Yamazaki (with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
New video interviews with Kore-eda and Yamazaki
Making "Still Walking"
Trailer
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film critic Dennis Lim and recipes for the food prepared in the film




New, restored high-definition digital transfer (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
New audio commentary by film scholar James Naremore
Mackendrick: The Man Who Walked Away, a 1986 documentary featuring interviews with director Alexander Mackendrick, actor Burt Lancaster, producer James Hill, and more
James Wong Howe: Cinematographer, a 1973 documentary about the Oscar-winning director of photography, featuring lighting tutorials with Howe
New video interview with film critic and historian Neil Gabler (Winchell: Gossip, Power and the Culture of Celebrity) about legendary columnist Walter Winchell, inspiration for the character J. J. Hunsecker
New video interview with filmmaker James Mangold about Mackendrick, his instructor and mentor
Original theatrical trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Gary Giddins, two short stories by Ernest Lehman featuring the characters from the film, notes about the film by Lehman, and an excerpt from Mackendrick's book On Film-making




New, restored high-definition digital transfer, created in collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna and Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation, supervised by director of photography Giuseppe Rotunno (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
The Making of "Senso," a new documentary featuring Rotunno, assistant director Francesco Rosi, costume designer Piero Tosi, and Caterina D'Amico, daughter of screenwriter Suso Cecchi D'Amico and author of Life and Work of Luchino Visconti
Viva VERDI, a new documentary on Visconti, Senso, and opera featuring Italian film scholar Peter Brunette, Italian historian Stefano Albertini, and author Wayne Koestenbaum
The Wanton Countess, the rarely seen English-language version of the film
Visual essay by film scholar Peter Cowie
Man of Three Worlds: Luchino Visconti, a 1966 BBC special exploring Visconti's parallel masteries of cinema, theater, and opera direction
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by filmmaker and author Mark Rappaport and an excerpt from actor Farley Granger's autobiography, Include Me Out



New, restored high-definition digital transfer (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on
the Blu-ray edition)
New video interview with star Constance Towers by film historian and filmmaker Charles Dennis
Excerpts from a 1983 episode of The South Bank Show dedicated to director
Samuel Fuller
Interview with Fuller from a 1967 episode of the French television series Cinéastes de notre temps
Interview with Fuller from a 1987 episode of the French television series Cinéma cinémas
Original theatrical trailer
PLUS: Illustrations by cartoonist Daniel Clowes and a booklet featuring an essay by critic and poet Robert Polito and excerpts from Fuller's autobiography, A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting, and Filmmaking



New, restored high-definition digital transfer (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
New video interview with star Constance Towers by film historian and filmmaker
Charles Dennis
The Typewriter, the Rifle and the Movie Camera, Adam Simon's 1996 documentary on director Samuel Fuller
Original theatrical trailer
PLUS: Illustrations by cartoonist Daniel Clowes and a booklet featuring an essay by critic and poet Robert Polito and excerpts from Fuller's autobiography, A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting, and Filmmaking

and blu-ray re-releases of:

[Gold Trumpet]

The Sweet Smell of Success is one of my favorite films so very welcome news. Broadcast News is on Fox Movie Network all the time so I need to watch all of it finally. Senso is a Pasolini film that has passed me by, but any new Pasolini is good news. I'm still waiting for the Gospel According to St. Matthew to make hit the collection somehow. Also, I like all the covers, but that seems to be the last thing that needs to be to said.

[Alexandro]

the golden age of criterion covers is officially over.
they are ok, some of them.
the samuel fuller ones suck big time. they seem so lazy.

[samsong]

senso is visconti.  more pasolini would be great though.  as for visconti, i've only seen the leopard, death in venice, and white nights, all of them lovely, so i'm interested.

criterion posted a picture on facebook of the work they were doing on the sweet smell of success, so it was a matter of time, and i'm glad it's relatively soon.  it's one of my favorites too.  did you ever get around to seeing make way for tomorrow?

and yes, the covers blow.  as much as i love daniel clowes, his fuller covers aren't great, especially the color scheme.

[Gold Trumpet]

senso is visconti.  more pasolini would be great though.  as for visconti, i've only seen the leopard, death in venice, and white nights, all of them lovely, so i'm interested.

criterion posted a picture on facebook of the work they were doing on the sweet smell of success, so it was a matter of time, and i'm glad it's relatively soon.  it's one of my favorites too.  did you ever get around to seeing make way for tomorrow?

and yes, the covers blow.  as much as i love daniel clowes, his fuller covers aren't great, especially the color scheme.

First off, thanks for calling me on my Italian filmmaker confusion. It happens to everyone and makes you smile in dumb embarassment, but it's good. And about Make Way for Tomorrow, thanks for the reminder. I'll honestly try to have that be my B&N purchase before the end of the month. I want to buy it and show it to my dad because he's a huge old Hollywood fan and he actually knows a lot of the actors in the movie but he has never seen the movie so I want to surprise him with it.

[Alexandro]

they all look designed by graphic designers on their supercool graphic designer software. there is a lifeless element now, its hard to pinpoint. you look at that "the killing" cover and has a special quality that captures the essence of the film and at the same time stands alone as an illustration. really, the cronos cover is painful. there's nothing in it that feels like that film, which is what they were so good at doing before. the red shoes is another case, I will forever prefer the dvd cover to the blu ray cover. the blu ray cover is nothing, no real atmosphere, nothing. the crumb cover is pretty swell, though...but it seems like an exception now, when excellence used to be the expected rule.

[Gold Trumpet]

I'm fine with the new Red Shoes cover. In fact I disliked the original cover a little bit becaue it makes you think you are going to watch a typical Hollywood production, but the film's most memorable moments are its hyper realistic scenes when it stretches the boundaries of its initial happy-go-lucky look and takes the "A Star is Born" model into some interesting areas. It changes the outlook and feel of all the other scenes that follow it. It reminds me of what Rififi does for the gangster genre. Starts out standard, but eventually takes you to also a few unexpected avenues. It's just those "interesting avenues" is what becomes staples of the genre.

But honestly, it's a fucking cover, who gives a shit?

[Pubrick]

But honestly, it's a fucking cover, who gives a shit?

criterion used to.

[squints]

i'm happy because

a) shock corridor is on criterion

and

b) Army of Shadows, Robinson Crusoe on Mars, and Videodrome  on Blu-Ray

[Sleepless]

Recently bought Night Train To Munich (Recommend), but now kicking myself that I didn't also pick up Black Narcissus. So I'm going to buy online. In order to qualify for free shipping I need to order something else too though. Right now I'm torn between Joan Of Arc, Pickpocket and The Red Balloon - none of which I've seen. Probably leaning toward JoA, but wondered if there were any recommendations?

[Stefen]

I assume you're shopping at B&N and taking advantage of the 50% off sale? The Red Balloon is like $8 so if that puts you in the free shipping zone, I'd get that one. If not and you have to spend a little more, I'd go with Pickpocket, but another great Bresson is Au Hasard Balthazar and that's only $15 right now. Can't beat that. It's a difficult movie tho, it was for me at least. I've never seen JoA, so can't really say there.

About the covers...

Criterions covers have always been amazing, but if you look at some of the older ones, they seem a bit dated now and not as beautiful as they once were. Alot of them feel that way. I fell in love with the covers for High & Low and In The Mood For Love when they were first released, but when you look at them now, they really don't seem like anything special. Altho the new High & Low is much better. Bad Criterion covers are still 10 times better than giant faces.

[samsong]

but wondered if there were any recommendations?

make way for tomorrow. http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=10542.0