Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol.5

[Anhedionisiac]

Lovely. These covers are crazy good

[Harmonov]

Who designed them?

I love them all. Set will look pretty on my shelf and in my player.

[rwaits]

I've really been liking the slim-digi boxes a la Rossellini and Sternberg. It will be interesting to see what they do in that regard. This thing would be a cube with six standard amarays.

[Cinephrenic]

Looks like Kellerhouse.

[godardslave]

I like the easy rider cover the best.

[ShellOilJunior]

Love them all.

I like Five Easy Pieces the best. Would make a great poster!

[oldsheperd]

They're all great except the Head cover could be little more Monkee-ish.

[jbeall]

I tend to be easier to please than a lot of the cover-art critics here, but with this set, Criterion have really outdone themselves. Fabulous work.

Not sure why, but my favorite is the Last Picture Show cover.

[zedz]

Excellent work. Bravo! I mean, that cover even makes Easy Rider look worth seeing.

[domino harvey]

And in a last minute squeaker, we have our (collective) Cover Art of the Year

[Mr. Ned]

What are you guys talking about, Modern Times is so much better.

[Dr. Geek]

What are you guys talking about, Modern Times is so much better.

I guess, if you like Archie comics.

[zedz]

And in a last minute squeaker, we have our (collective) Cover Art of the Year

It sure looks that way, and I didn't think anything could beat that extremely handsome Rossellini set, but I'll wait till I see the real thing.

Not relevant to this thread, but raising the ghost of the Forum Awards prompts me to wonder if there have ever been any other years in which there were five box sets released in the main line. I'm pretty sure there haven't been, but I tend to overlook the obvious.

[knives]

I can't think of any other year with six eclipses either. I think they just finally have the resources to make such an increase in output.

[zedz]

Not relevant to this thread, but raising the ghost of the Forum Awards prompts me to wonder if there have ever been any other years in which there were five box sets released in the main line. I'm pretty sure there haven't been, but I tend to overlook the obvious.

Just to prove my point about overlooking the obvious, Criterion have actually released six box sets in the main line in 2010, level with their Eclipse output.

[swo17]

What are you counting? Under a very loose definition, I see:

Che
War Trilogy
Yojimbo/Sanjuro
Letters from Fontainhas
by Brakhage
The Only Son/There Was a Father
3 Silent Classics
BBS

[felipe]

They're all great, except maybe for Last picture show, which is just too plain.

[Jun-Dai]

Without having seen the film, I must say I quite like the cover for The King of Marvin Gardens. That was always my favorite Monopoly square, probably because I could never get it.

[D50]

For two disc set packaging, could the fixed two disc overlap securing harm or damage the top disc? The other type of two disc packaging with one disc per plastic circular "page" seems more secure, excepting of course when they arrive with the disc loose in package - hate when that happens.

[zedz]

What are you counting? Under a very loose definition, I see:

Che
War Trilogy
Yojimbo/Sanjuro
Letters from Fontainhas
by Brakhage
The Only Son/There Was a Father
3 Silent Classics
BBS

Che isn't a box set (single spine number, like The Human Condition) and Yojimbo / Sanjuro is a 'gift set' (no spine number, packaging previously released individual titles) - at least according to Criterion's numbering rules.

[HistoryProf]

those aren't just nice, those are fucking beautiful - an embarrassment of riches in one set. I will go so far as to say they are collectively the best package they've ever put together. I'm stunned.

[rwaits]

I will go so far as to say they are collectively the best package they've ever put together.

Agreed. We know they're capable of this kind of stuff...why can't they just do it every time out?

[zedz]

You know the weirdest thing about those (lovely) covers might be that conceptually and in terms of execution they're probably closer to fan art than most of what Criterion puts out. But this also handily demonstrates the difference between accomplished and amateurish takes on the same ideas.

[movielocke]

I can't think of any other year with six eclipses either. I think they just finally have the resources to make such an increase in output.

We had seven eclipse releases in its second year, 2008, iirc it started off with four months of consecutive announcements, and by april I was wondering if there would be an eclipse release every month that year:
Kurosawa - January
Lubitsch - February
Klein - March (delayed to May
Ozu - April
Shepitko - August
Kaurismaki - September
Mizoguchi - October

[CSM126]

For two disc set packaging, could the fixed two disc overlap securing harm or damage the top disc? The other type of two disc packaging with one disc per plastic circular "page" seems more secure, excepting of course when they arrive with the disc loose in package - hate when that happens.

Considering that Criterion have been using the overlapping style for years without issue, I'm guessing it's fine.