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

[colinr0380]

I love all three of the new covers - it's the foreground/background contrasting focus month!

[Finch]

It would be wrong to have a Blow Out cover where it was easy to decipher, I think it's pretty excellent.

Ditto. Also keen on the Fear & Loathing cover if not the film. Disappointed that Criterion didn't revamp the Melville cover, the Studio Canal Blu artwork is much better.

[Cold Bishop]

I don't know. I think of Blow-Out as much more colorful than what that cover depicts.

[Alan Smithee]

I'm not a fan of the type but the Blow Out cover is brilliant in my opinion. Perfectly appropriate to the films subject and reminds you that there was a time when filmmakers weren't afraid of frames that allowed the eye to wander and select.

[oldsheperd]

I dig the covers to the new releases. The cover for Blow Out nearly motivates me to buy it.

[TheGodfather]

Nice covers. Again, a cheap month for me. Not that that`s a bad thing though: february will be expensive enough.

[Tom Hagen]

The "JOHN TRAVOLTA NANCY ALLEN BLOW OUT" equal font sizes line is a little different.

[colinr0380]

I like the way that the line of the cast and title in Blow Out feels similar to the lines of the unspooled tapes - a simple, straight line of information through a tangled and convoluted mass of dead ends, leading straight into the viewer.

It's also nice that the title and director credit neatly fits into the only black space on the cover!

[Cinephrenic]

Blow Out nice cover. Kes is horrible.

[Crab Society North]

This is the first in a very long time that I like every cover of every new release in one month. Blow Out is perfect, KES makes wonderful use (for once) of the simple close up on a main character that Criterion likes to use a lot these days and I haven't seen White Material but I like the simple composition of the cover

[movielocke]

Huh, when I scanned the new release page and only saw the small versions of the covers, I glanced at Blow Out and though the picture was a birds-eye-view of a City. Funny how different it actually is.

[HistoryProf]

I like em.

[Duncan Hopper]

I really like the 'Blow Out' sleeve, but 'Kes' is awful. They shoud have looked at the original quad.

[Noiretirc]

It's weird but the only reason I own the dvd is because of the packaging, didn't care for the film.

Um, please help me out here. You bought the Criterion DVD of this film, not because of the film itself?

More like it means I have to keep my DVD copy AND upgrade

Or, you could just keep the DVD and watch it on an old tv like me and still be blown away by the enigmatic masterpiece that this film is.

Hahahaha.....just kidding. We must all have the very latest technological upgrades. Carry on.

[matrixschmatrix]

I only watch movies on third generation vhs copies. Screw you, technocrats! I want to enjoy the movie, not look at it!

[Noiretirc]

I only watch movies on third generation vhs copies. Screw you, technocrats! I want to enjoy the movie, not look at it!

I see what you did there.

[Matt]

A couple of fan covers I came across:



I really like the type treatment.

[Jeff]

^ I think the "two-finger salute" image has run its course for Kes and been used more than enough, but I love the one on the right, especially the type treatment. I don't really have any major problems with Criterion's cover, but I love this one.

[domino harvey]

Wow, that last one rules. Scrolling quickly I thought Criterion actually changed it!

[zedz]

The second one is nice, but that (or one of its close variants) is probably the next-most iconic Kes shot, so it could attract the same criticism as the first (not to mention the obvious 'why wouldn't you put a kestrel on the cover' one).

[dwk]

Eric Skillman on The Sweet Smell of Success cover

[domino harvey]

The variation with the sister in the foreground would have been great, too bad contractual BS prevented it from proceeding on

[Murdoch]

Seriously, reminds me of a pulpy Edward Hopper, but maybe they're incorporating it into the interior. The current cover is a wait-and-see deal, I don't particularly like it but it might look better once I get it in hand.

[Jeff]

The "JOHN TRAVOLTA NANCY ALLEN BLOW OUT" equal font sizes line is a little different.

I feel fairly certain that there is a contractual requirement that Travolta and Allen's names appear in the same font and type size as the film title. Many of the other MGM-licensed titles have had similar requirements (as Eric Skillman pointed out in his post about Sweet Smell of Success). The original Filmways poster and MGM DVD appeared to be attempting to satisfy this requirement:


Interestingly, the image used for the Criterion cover has been altered to create the black space on the Moviola for the title and DePalma credit. It helps to set them off from the Travolta and Allen credits (which I'm sure the Criterion designer would have preferred not to use).

[hammock]

They should have used the same yellow for the title they used in the Italian poster.