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

[SpiderBaby]

I didn't know CHAPLIN was in Topsy-Turvy!

[TheGodfather]

I like the Solaris and Diabolique covers. And the idea behind The Great Dictator is ok but my God: that colour!!! my eyes

[matrixschmatrix]

I would be surprised if the Chaplin doesn't look better in person, but then, how could it look worse?

[Flike]

As someone who owns a couple of his prints, Olly Moss would never produce something with a low-res font. I'm sure that is temporary, not that it matters to those that don't like the design (which is actually a three(?)-year-old poster). I love it. Others are fine, Diabolique is fantastic. Great month for me (covers and purchases).

[Crab Society North]

Which cover is worse: something wild or pepe le moko? I can't decide

[domino harvey]

There's a cover for everyone to hate this month!

[Napier]

Which cover is worse: something wild or pepe le moko? I can't decide

I rather like the Pepe le Moko cover. It's got the whole, Jean Gabin meets a girl in the Casbah thing going for it.

[Guido]

The Great Dictator cover is typographic sabotage of the highest order. The original poster is incredible!

[Saturnome]

For a second I thought Diabolique was Man With the Golden Arm.

Ha, same thing.

About The Great Dictator, is this ad older than the red poster?

[swo17]

The Great Dictator cover is typographic sabotage of the highest order. The original poster is incredible!

I agree--I like the poster.

[Doctor Sunshine]

About The Great Dictator, is this ad older than the red poster?

The designer acknowledged the ad in the flickr comments section linked on the previous page:

Yeah, that comparison has been made and I agree it is similar, but I hadn't seen that ad when I made this poster.

I came up with the idea when I was playing around with an idea for a threadless tee based on disguises, and realised that if you used a comb as a mustache you could be mistaken for either Hitler or Chaplain. Then I remembered Chaplain had played a Hitler-like character in The Great Dictator and this reversible poster seemed like a pretty logical extension of the image.

[Matt]

The Great Dictator cover is typographic sabotage of the highest order. The original poster is incredible!

I agree--I like the poster.

I also agree. The poster is actually fairly clever and nicely done. The translation of that into the DVD/BD cover is an abomination, wrecked mainly by the scale of the image, the changes in typeface and background color, and the presence (on one side only) of the pink Criterion branding.

[Doctor Sunshine]

Like it or not, no one's going to miss it with the warning red. Hopefully they'll come around and redo the branding in retroreflective white.

[Jeff]

For a film like Something Wild, am I the only one disappointed at it's non-eighties design? It looks more like a Saul Bass imitation.

I'm usually more likely to be the one complaining about all the complaining in this thread, but I'm very disappointed too. The cover for Something Wild is pretty lousy in general, but it's mostly guilty of not fitting the tone of the film at all. I would have loved an 80s vibe -- at least the totally awesome type treatment from the poster.


The Great Dictator looks like a bad fake cover from the late 90s when people were still making them with MS Paint. Just awful. Apparently there is some sort of "Chaplin Curse" affecting the covers of his films. If City Lights and Monsieur Verdoux are this awful, heads are gonna roll.

Solaris would be pretty good if ghost wife weren't rising from the abyss. I wish they had just gone with Andrzej Bertrandt’s iconic poster art.

I'll save my bitching about the dearth of supplements on Something Wild and Pale Flower for another thread.

Don't worry, Criterion. Despite their unsightliness, I will still be buying six of the seven Blu-rays you are releasing in May. The Diabolique and Pale Flower covers are pretty great.

[Doctor Sunshine]

I'm usually more likely to be the one complaining about all the complaining in this thread, but I'm very disappointed too. The cover for Something Wild is pretty lousy in general, but it's mostly guilty of not fitting the tone of the film at all. I would have loved an 80s vibe -- at least the totally awesome type treatment from the poster.

Maybe I just had a different experience in the 80s but weren't awful neon colours and abstract shapes a good chunk of the experience? They've toned it down and grittied it up a bit--I like the cover--but it still says 80s to me.

[HistoryProf]

Fat Girl: Logically, there was no need for this to see Blu-ray. Ever, even.
Something Wild/The Great Dictator: Holy crap, those are some godawful covers.
Diabolique/Pale Flower/Solaris: Holy crap, those are some excellent covers.

Ditto. Exactly my sentiments. Especially that third bit. Sold Diabolique a month ago in anticipation of this...and i'm very very excited for it.

But the Chaplin? Holy shit. It makes the pink Viridiana look like the Mona Lisa. I'm in awe of how horrible it is. I can't understand how they could put that out with a straight face. it's almost like they're taking a piss.

and to emphasize, as much as i LOVE the Diabolique cover, the Pale Flower design is among the best they've ever done. just beautiful. That's the kind of work that makes people buy movies they've never seen.

[Cinephrenic]

Why in the hell would you go around and change one of the best covers of Solaris to practically shit. I'm not gonna even go into the dictator. rrrrrrrrr....

[cdnchris]

Though not to take away from the current cover art bitching, I thought I'd point out that Sweet Smell of Success IS a digipak, NOT a clear case in a sleeve. It's similar to Breathless and Amarcord. I'll post pictures when I have the time.

EDIT: Ok, was waiting to hear back from someone before I went to bed and ended up taking the photos:

Fish Tank
Senso
Sweet Smell of Success

[SpiderBaby]

Yeah!

[hammock]

When I saw this months covers I immediately thought "now I'm going 100% digital".

[Crab Society North]

All this talk of the horrible something wild and chaplin covers just reminded me of a couple years ago when the initial cover for A Christmas Tale was just a plain white front in front of blurry sparkling colors. Anyone else remember that? it was pretty funny.

[Feego]

Now that would have made an interesting cover (caption and all).

[swo17]

The Solaris and Something Wild covers were done by Sam Smith.

[mfunk9786]

That explains it.

[cysiam]

I hope they get the person responsible for that Gap logo redesign to do the next Chaplin. Complete the trifecta of awfulness.