Criterion Essay Collection

[Harold Gervais]

I'm sorry if I've not noticed it before but has Criterion ever published a collection of the essays featured in their laser & DVD discs before? I'm willing to bet there would be a nice degree of interest in a Criterion branded line of film books.

[Theodore R. Stockton]

No, people used to ask them if they thought about publishing books of the laser disc commentaries for films they had lost the rights to and Criterion said that it would end up costing too much money to be worth it.

[jedgeco]

They should sell mp3 downloads of commentaries from OOP laserdiscs on titles that they have little/no hope of ever getting the rights to. I'd pay $5/title, and there'd be minimal distribution fees. If Criterion dropped out any soundtrack from the background, I don't see a problem from a copyright standpoint. (Of course, given the litigiousness of our beloeved media conglomerates, that doesn't mean they would sue anyway....)

[Andre Jurieu]

They should sell mp3 downloads of commentaries from OOP laserdiscs on titles that they have little/no hope of ever getting the rights to. I'd pay $5/title, and there'd be minimal distribution fees. If Criterion dropped out any soundtrack from the background, I don't see a problem from a copyright standpoint. (Of course, given the litigiousness of our beloeved media conglomerates, that doesn't mean they would sue anyway....)

Yeah, but what prevents one person from purchasing an mp3 commentary track and sharing it with the entire forum?

[jedgeco]

Yeah, but what prevents one person from purchasing an mp3 commentary track and sharing it with the entire forum?

Sure, but that's a problem endemic to any distribution of audio on the internet, so I don't see that alone as a reason not to offer a service. I've made mp3s of my CC laserdisc commentaries and have shared them with people on this (well, the old) forum, so since demand is there, why not try to fulfill it?

[Tribe]

Sure, but that's a problem endemic to any distribution of audio on the internet, so I don't see that alone as a reason not to offer a service.

Well, that is at least one reason why they wouldn't do it. But more important, whatever rights they may have to the particular commentary likely does not include the right to sell the commentary as an individual file. That particular right is another right that they would have to specifically negotiate for at the time that they acquire rights to the commentary.

And this discussion has been exhaustively debated here (or in previous lives of this Forum) before.

Tribe

[FrauBlucher]

Bumping up this thread from way back when….

The essays are actually one of my favorite supplements. So, that left me wondering if members have either a favorite essay or a list of favorite essays from the collection? What’s neat is the essays appear on the website so you don’t have to own the discs.

[MichaelB]

On the subject of publishing essays separately as a book, Arrow did that once, and it didn't go down too well.

True, the marketing must bear a fair amount of the blame (and the design and pricing of the book were also contentious issues), but as you can see from the Amazon customer reviews, quite a few people weren't expecting the contents to be quite so familiar. There was some new material—I wrote a piece specifically for the book myself—but a huge chunk of it comprised essays that, as the customers pointed out, they mostly already had.

For historical context, this was back in the days before booklets became first-pressing-only, and of course now the widespread limited-edition model is a strong disincentive for labels to publish the booklet contents elsewhere, because that's one of the major reasons for buying limited editions in the first place—something that's an essential part of a boutique label's business model, because it encourages people to buy sooner rather than later and therefore keep cashflow going at a time of ever-tightening margins.

Well, that is at least one reason why they wouldn't do it. But more important, whatever rights they may have to the particular commentary likely does not include the right to sell the commentary as an individual file. That particular right is another right that they would have to specifically negotiate for at the time that they acquire rights to the commentary.

I actually planned to give away one of my commentaries (with the copyrighted film soundtrack stripped out) once the disc went OOP and it became clear that Arrow lost the rights when the film in question was reissued in the UK via a different label. But although Arrow was sympathetic—after all, they had no conceivable reason to hang onto it—it transpired that they no longer owned the rights to the commentary, which for various contractual reasons had ended up with the film's rightsholder. At which point I gave up.

[FrauBlucher]

Bumping up this thread from way back when….

The essays are actually one of my favorite supplements. So, that left me wondering if members have either a favorite essay or a list of favorite essays from the collection? What’s neat is the essays appear on the website so you don’t have to own the discs.

[ianthemovie]

I always read the booklets after watching or re-watching the films. At the risk of being a naysayer I find most of the essays, especially for the more recent Criterion releases, to be lackluster. In many cases they're overlong and repetitive, and the writing strikes me as bland. It's rare that I read one and come away with an observation that really hits home or makes me understand/appreciate the film more deeply.

For me the most insightful Criterion essays are those by old-guard film critics like J. Hoberman (Pandora's Box, Ivan the Terrible, Andrei Rublev), Amy Taubin (sex, lies and videotape, Vanya on 42nd Street, Topsy Turvy, Naked), Geoffrey O'Brien (Beauty and the Beast, The Lady Eve, The Age of Innocence, The Magnificent Ambersons), Michael Wood (The Leopard, Viridiana), Adrian Martin (Masculin Feminin). Of the pieces by younger writers I did enjoy Beatrice Loayza's essay for Celine and Julie Go Boating.

[redbill]

Bumping up this thread from way back when….

The essays are actually one of my favorite supplements. So, that left me wondering if members have either a favorite essay or a list of favorite essays from the collection? What’s neat is the essays appear on the website so you don’t have to own the discs.

I've enjoyed the essays from Megan Abbott in some recent releases (Eyes Wide Shut, Peeping Tom)

[therewillbeblus]

Adrian Martin (Masculin Feminin). Of the pieces by younger writers I did enjoy Beatrice Loayza's essay for Celine and Julie Go Boating.

Martin's Masculin Feminin essay (as well as his old Madman commentary) are some of his best work. I haven't read Loayza's essay for Celine and Julie Go Boating, but Jonathan Rosenbaum's essay in the BFI blu-ray is one of my all-time favorites

[domino harvey]

I find the kind of contextual materials we get in Indicator booklets the most valuable these days, as there’s no shortage of critical takes for any film online but I love seeing press items or print interviews from decades ago that might otherwise be lost to time

[OstrichRidingCowboy]

The unique one for Boyhood immediately comes to mind.
The Amy Taubin author page also deserves a mention.

[MichaelB]

One thing about Indicator that hasn't been the case with any other label that I've freelanced for is that they have a wholly separate team working on the booklets (Jeff Billington, Bethan Roberts), and I only get to read the end result at the proofing stage as my responsibility solely revolves around what ends up on the discs.

I occasionally liaise with them earlier for things like co-ordinating the names of characters in credits and subtitles (not always obvious, especially if names don't ever appear onscreen—and there've been some cases where they have done but more than once and with different spellings!*) but otherwise I'm not involved until very near the end of the process.

(*We had this recently where a character's name was rendered differently in the onscreen cast list and a newspaper headline, but we put the latter down to harassed sub-editors on a deadline. And they must have been particularly harassed that day because much of the text under the headline was literal gibberish, an unfortunate by-product of us now being able to freeze and inspect such things in high definition, which the original newspaper prop designers never envisaged!)

[ianthemovie]

Adrian Martin (Masculin Feminin). Of the pieces by younger writers I did enjoy Beatrice Loayza's essay for Celine and Julie Go Boating.

Martin's Masculin Feminin essay (as well as his old Madman commentary) are some of his best work. I haven't read Loayza's essay for Celine and Julie Go Boating, but Jonathan Rosenbaum's essay in the BFI blu-ray is one of my all-time favorites

I agree, that piece by Rosenbaum is a classic. I believe the essay in the BFI booklet is a version of a piece that was earlier published in his book Placing Movies. Needless to say his Criterion essays on L'Eclisse and The Young Girls of Rochefort are also well worth reading.

[diamonds]

Molly Haskell's essay for The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp has long been a lodestar for me.

The booklet essays were invaluable to me early on in introducing me to many great writers and ways of thinking about films. But I concur with ianthemovie in finding some of the more recent ones lacking, which is a shame. Going off memory, Sarah Weinman's essay for La Cérémonie is clearly not the work of a film scholar (from her bio, it sounds like she's more of a specialist in crime novels). And while Mark Anthony Neal's piece for 'Round Midnight is largely fine, I'm not really a fan of the way it marginalizes Tavernier to focus on Dexter Gordon. This is certainly a valid and interesting angle to take with the film, but I don't necessarily think it should be presented as the default; here's a film that would have benefited from an essay taking a filmmaker-centric approach alongside one focusing on Gordon and jazz in general. (But I suppose the likelihood of something like that happening is fairly low these days!)

[knives]

I find the kind of contextual materials we get in Indicator booklets the most valuable these days, as there’s no shortage of critical takes for any film online but I love seeing press items or print interviews from decades ago that might otherwise be lost to time

I find a lot of Second Run booklets great for the same reason. I like the context.

[dwk]

This is a general, not a Criterion specific issue. I used to love to read the booklets/inserts that come with releases, the first thing I'd do after opening a new pickup is read the essays. Since most labels now include them as limited edition bait, essays tend to be written by the same handful of people that (probably) work cheap, turn in their essays on time, and have little to say about the films they are writing about. So I find myself reading them less and less often.

[MichaelB]

This is a general, not a Criterion specific issue. I used to love to read the booklets/inserts that come with releases, the first thing I'd do after opening a new pickup is read the essays. Since most labels now include them as limited edition bait, essays tend to be written by the same handful of people that (probably) work cheap, turn in their essays on time, and have little to say about the films they are writing about. So I find myself reading them less and less often.

I genuinely don't think that's true of Indicator booklets.

For instance, these are the authors of the main booklet essays for the first half of 2026:

Sergio Angelini: The Survivor
Jeff Billington: Jazz Boat
Josephine Botting: The Ugly Duckling
Steve Chibnall: The Man Inside
Philip Concannon: All My Sons
David Cottis: Idle on Parade + A Weekend with Lulu
Roberto Curti: Macabre
Paul Duane: Dead Kids
Pamela Hutchinson: Ivy
Mark Fryers: Watch It, Sailor!
Leon Hunt: Four Times That Night
Steve O'Brien: Cliff in Color
Michael Pattison: You Must Be Joking!
Elizabeth Purchell: The Grapes of Death
Will Sloan: The Living Dead Girl
Peter Stanfield: Undertow
Melanie Williams: Don't Panic, Chaps!

So that's just one writer with more than one essay across this six-month period, and those are the only two that David Cottis has written for Indicator. (He's an academic with specific research expertise in the field of 1950s British cinema.)

In fact, I have his essay for A Weekend with Lulu open right now, as I'm proofreading it, and it's exactly what one would reasonably expect, combining well-researched context with close critical analysis.

A sample paragraph:

Scrutton’s apparent belief is that Lulu (‘Your mobile love nest’) will be the location in which Timothy changes this, finally consummating the relationship with his girlfriend Deirdre, played by Shirley Eaton, a few years ahead of her career-defining death in Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 1964), and still mostly cast in comedy glamour-girl roles. Timothy assures Fred that he and Deirdre will be sleeping apart – ‘What do you think I am?’ – but neither Fred nor the film seem to believe him. The opening scenes are full of double entendres positioning the caravan as a passion wagon: ‘Young Timmy’s been dying to have a go. At, er, caravanning, I mean.’ Although Timothy and Deirdre are ostensibly a couple, it’s Fred and Deirdre who initially behave like one; when she says wistfully, ‘I met ever such a nice sailor boy from Plymouth once’, it’s Fred who gets the jealous lover’s line, ‘Thanks for telling me. Made my day.’ There may be a sort of intertextual echo going on here; Monkhouse and Eaton had played newlyweds in Carry On Sergeant (Gerald Thomas, 1958), the first film in the long-running series.

("Lulu" is a caravan.)

[dwk]

I genuinely don't think that's true of Indicator booklets.

Fair enough, and I should make clear that I agree with Domino's point that Indicator's booklets are usually a cut above the rest of the boutiques (it is a shame that I am not interested in more of the films they release.) Unfortunately, it is an issue I find with a majority of the titles from other labels that I do collect.

I really wish that the essays for limited editions got reviewed, preferable early enough to judge whether they are worth the extra money, but I understand why that isn't really possible.

[FrauBlucher]

I really love the responses to my question. Later I will list my favorites and comment on others.

But just a quick question...And MichaelB can answer this maybe the best. What is the cost of putting together a booklet/pamphlet compared to other supplements?

[MichaelB]

For reasons given above, I haven't been involved in that side of things for nearly a decade!

But it definitely varies - the essayist will get paid, of course, but the other contents may need licensing too. Sometimes the rightsholder is happy to let their stuff be reproduced for nothing (I had a particularly good relationship with one publisher in this respect), at other times they'll want a small (typically low three-figure) fee, and sometimes they ask for something ridiculous, which they almost invariably don't get.

In the case of an Indicator booklet, I'd assume they don't need to pay for things like original marketing materials, and quotations from reviews clearly fall within "fair dealing" copyright guidelines, but other stuff may need specific licensing.

The 100-page book that accompanied Arrow's Taviani Brothers set was an interesting one. Normally, I'd have commissioned a new booklet essay, but in this case I had the opportunity to reprint Pauline Kael's original New Yorker reviews for a surprisingly affordable sum (since we went via her UK publisher Marion Boyars rather than the New Yorker themselves), and the reason I was trying to save money there is because I wanted to devote the rest of the book to the six Luigi Pirandello short stories that fuelled Kaos. Pirandello himself had died in 1936, so was unarguably in the public domain even in 2016, but most of these stories had never been translated into English before as far as I could see, and they amounted to some 20,000 words in total—and because I wanted a good translation, I paid a proper literary translator at the standard going rate. Which cost so much of the total production budget that I ended up making my commentary debut, just to make savings elsewhere - fortunately, I genuinely did know a lot about The Night of the Shooting Stars.

Oh, and one of the reasons the 350-page book that accompanied Arrow's original Walerian Borowczyk set ended up being that long is because people were incredibly generous—pretty much everyone we asked said we could reproduce their previous writing on Borowczyk for nothing more than a copy of the finished product, and Daniel Bird and I (the project co-producers) wrote the original material. So the only thing we paid for besides the physical production costs were the Borowczyk short stories.

[FrauBlucher]

Thanks MichaelB. It's a shame Indicator and the other boutiques don't post the essays on their websites like Criterion does. Especially the ones that are limited edition

I always read the booklets after watching or re-watching the films. At the risk of being a naysayer I find most of the essays, especially for the more recent Criterion releases, to be lackluster. In many cases they're overlong and repetitive, and the writing strikes me as bland. It's rare that I read one and come away with an observation that really hits home or makes me understand/appreciate the film more deeply.

I couldn't agree more. It's frustrating for me to read an essay that has me disinterested while reading. Moonstruck was one example

For me the most insightful Criterion essays are those by old-guard film critics like J. Hoberman (Pandora's Box, Ivan the Terrible, Andrei Rublev), Amy Taubin (sex, lies and videotape, Vanya on 42nd Street, Topsy Turvy, Naked), Geoffrey O'Brien (Beauty and the Beast, The Lady Eve, The Age of Innocence, The Magnificent Ambersons), Michael Wood (The Leopard, Viridiana), Adrian Martin (Masculin Feminin). Of the pieces by younger writers I did enjoy Beatrice Loayza's essay for Celine and Julie Go Boating.

You listed some really good ones. I very much like a lot of Adrian Martin's essay. I love Molly Haskell's essay for Ace in the Hole and El Sur's (Elvira Lindo) essay is a recent one I read that I very much liked. And Kent Jones' essay for the Tree of Life, and really anything by him. I'm sure I'm missing some others

[Beloved Aunt]

The essay with the Rosemary's Baby disc was not. good. It was bullshit, to be specific. Boy, I hope the guy who wrote it doesn't post here!