Criterion Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol.1

[zedz]

Accents, including the cedilla, are generally left off capital letters in French, so this isn't necessarily philistine - unless they chose to go with all caps for the director credit just to avoid the dreaded goatee.

I must say this thread has become amazingly obsessive-compulsive of late.

[ben d banana]

I must say this thread has become amazingly obsessive-compulsive of late.

the "Cover Art (and Packaging) Babble-on" thread has? no way.

[zedz]

I must say this thread has become amazingly obsessive-compulsive of late.

the "Cover Art (and Packaging) Babble-on" thread has? no way.

I mean, like, even more than usual. In the "I will refuse to buy this title I've been waiting for for years unless they change the title font" sense.

Not that title fonts aren't important. . .

[Faux Hulot]

Did anyone ever figure out why the words "jimmy crack corn" were printed on the inside of the Cassavetes box? Something to do with Ray Carney's bow tie, maybe?

[godardslave]

It's a love story, so how about this:

Everybody likes that scene with the bicycles, so why not this:

ah...hahahahhahaha!! too funny.

[manicsounds]

Did anyone ever figure out why the words "jimmy crack corn" were printed on the inside of the Cassavetes box? Something to do with Ray Carney's bow tie, maybe?

I just noticed that "Jimmy Crack Corn"... what the hell does it mean?

Anyone try to ask Mulvaney?

[zedz]

Dunno how reliable this is, but here's one explanation:

Filmbrain heard an interesting story yesterday regarding the first pressing -- if you look in the lower left hand corner of the inner spine of the outer box (the slipcover of sorts) you'll see the following text: jimmy crack corn. Apparently this was not meant to be there, tremendously angered somebody at Criterion, and will be removed from future pressings. If anybody has any background/inside information about this, please drop Filmbrain a line -- he'd like to hear the details about this.

So if this is to be believed, it looks like Jimmy Crack Corn has no Cassavetes-specific significance and is more likely a private joke for somebody in the design department (maybe at the expense of somebody in another department?).

We will no doubt soon be seeing authentic "Jimmy Crack Corn" editions of the box set going for ridiculous prices on Ebay.

And this should be in the Packaging Babble On thread rather than the Easter Eggs thread. . .

[zedz]

I couldn't remember if there was a thread on alternate cover art so I'll just post them here.

You can see a weird alternative cover for The Element of Crime here. Obviously some kind of an early draft, the film's title is miniscule (though it's used as a kind of wallpaper) and comes before "Lars von Trier's".

[Faux Hulot]

So if this is to be believed, it looks like Jimmy Crack Corn has no Cassavetes-specific significance and is more likely a private joke for somebody in the design department (maybe at the expense of somebody in another department?).

I read that Filmbrain posting too, but that doesn't really explain what "jimmy crack corn" means.

And this should be in the Packaging Babble On thread rather than the Easter Eggs thread. . .

Well, it's sort of a packaging easter egg.....

[Faux Hulot]

I was on the Future Shop site today [...] Their site is usually ripe with alternate covers [...] They still have alternates up for Written on the Wind, the Cassavetes, and the Kurosawa set.



For those that care for such things

Looks like they fixed the Cassavetes scan. I never saw the alternate, does anyone have it to post?

[mbalson]

[mbalson]

Here are all the other alternate cover I could fine that are not currently on display in this forum.
[There are a lot of links within this thread which now point to the replacement covers instead of the alternate].

[hammock]

Looking at your alternative covers above this post, I wonder what has changed on "Battle Of Algiers" except the CC logo has been added on top as usual. Maybe it's too early in the morning...!?

[colinr0380]

it would've been worth keeping the original title just for all of the americans phonetically pronouncing "et" (and don't tell me stores wouldn't be full of at least employees who would).

I remember trying to buy Darren Aronofsky's and was faced with a shop assistant who as she was searching for the disc said to her friend at the counter "It's not even a real word!".

Anyway I'm not a big fan of the Jules et Jim cover but I'd like to get it, even if its called Julian and Jimmy, a moving romantic comedy by Francis Truffit (the guy who was playing the music in Close Encounters!)

[unclehulot]

From this page on the subject of an old derogatory term for white southerners, "cracker":

The origins of the term are uncertain, though there are a few conjectures. Dave Wilton, who studies etymology as a hobby, presents the idea that the term may have come from the word corncracker, which describes someone who cracks corn for liquor, a common practice especially in early Appalachia. Wilton writes, "The song lyric 'Jimmy Crack Corn' is a reference to this. In the song, a slave sings about how his master got drunk, fell, hit his head, and died. And the slave 'don't care.' (This was a pretty subversive song for its day.) This usage, however, is probably not the origin of the ethnic term cracker" (Wilton, par. 1). Wilton also suggests that the term may have come from 16th century Old English, where "to crack" meant to boast. There isn't much to reinforce this belief, however.

[cdnchris]

I couldn't remember if there was a thread on alternate cover art so I'll just post them here.

You can see a weird alternative cover for The Element of Crime here. Obviously some kind of an early draft, the film's title is miniscule (though it's used as a kind of wallpaper) and comes before "Lars von Trier's".

I was looking for that to post. I actually like that one more than what they used, but that could just be me.

I have a CD somewhere with a few alternate covers on it that I want to find so I can post them. I've been through every CD I own and cannot find them. I had the Element of Crime, The Blob (black with Steve McQueen's mug and the Blob in the corner), Hidden Fortress (was a bluish-purplish shot of the princess in a fight stance with a really messed-up Criterion banner), Bank Dick (I think it only had one shot of FIelds on the cover), Hopscotch (had the same style as the Horse's Mouth cover with Matthau looking through a window) and the Written on the Wind and Kurosawa one I posted earlier. I also had a few that just had different banners or banner designs (like Spartacus, which was the same, except it had the old banner up top.) There was an alternate of the Fear and Loathing but I couldn't tell if it was fan art or not (though it most likely was.)

[cafeman]

I got a ton of alternates, but I don`t know how to upload them. Two for Jubilee, one for Quai des Brumes, Coup de Grace, 39 Steps etc...

[Tribe]

It's doubtful that whoever printed that "jimmy crack corn" graffiti on the Cassavetes box had any inlking regarding the origins of the term. It's one of those things that will forever be obscured by the passage of time. In any event, "Jimmy Crack Corn" probably refers to cracking corn for the purposes of making corn liquor. The tune was popularized by blackface minstrels back in the 1860s. However, it is probably even more likely that the tune has its origins in old Appalachia as an old-time banjo tune. The tune is more commonly know today as "Blue Tail Fly."

Tribe

[cdnchris]

I got a ton of alternates, but I don`t know how to upload them. Two for Jubilee, one for Quai des Brumes, Coup de Grace, 39 Steps etc...

I PM'd you if you want me to post them for you...

[Napoleon]

Excellent! My Own Private Idaho has taken up the challenge to beat Gabin's stranglehold on laziest cc cover art.

[Narshty]

It's doubtful that whoever printed that "jimmy crack corn" graffiti on the Cassavetes box had any inlking regarding the origins of the term.

I doubt that. It sounds like a very direct reference to Cassavetes' alcoholism.

[criterionsnob]

Do we know that this has already been removed from another printing? I just checked mine and it has it.

Does anyone have the box that doesn't have the Jimmy Crack Corn reference?

In that case, my next question...

I just sold mine for a profit! 8-[

How much of a profit?

[zedz]

I reckon "Jimmy Crack Corn" is a reference to Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. Why? I DON'T. KNOW.

[Steven H]

I bet when they called up Ray Carney to tell him his commentary had been nixed, he tightened his bowtie and yelped, "jimmy crack corn!" and thus we have our hilarious injoke.

[Steven H]

how about "Jules'n Jim, by France-wauh True-foe"? Has a nice ring to it, I think. Also "Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne" is really difficult to pronounce... instead "Hookers in an old Paris Park".