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

[Zot!]

I think Heaven's Gate is the odd duck here. Doesn't feel right for that movie.

[ryannichols7]

I like all of them (though I wish they kept the poster font for Week End) but the Heaven's Gate cover is literally as awful as the movie is. looks unbearably fanmade.

[Drucker]

I like all of them (though I wish they kept the poster font for Week End) but the Heaven's Gate cover is literally as awful as the movie is. looks unbearably fanmade.

Tell us how you really feel.

[Dragoon En Regalia]

I can appreciate the direction they took with the Trilogy of Life, though I'm rather indifferent to it. But Rashomon has an amazing, elegant cover that totally deserved the poster print made for it. Weekend looks fitting enough, the Shociku set should be worth a watch, and Heaven's Gate doesn't look too bad.

Heaven's Gate's cover reminds me of Michael Cimino in a way, what with the spotlight on the character's face. But the still they chose for the cover is one of the more iconic images in the film.

[Cold Bishop]

I know its from a poster and all, but that Heaven's Gate cover does nothing to capture the grandeur and beauty of the film (say what you will about it, but Vilmos Zsigmond kicks cinematography's ass in that film).

Yeah, and the fonts awful.

I really hope that's not final.

[colinr0380]

I don't mind the Trilogy of Life covers, even if it does look as if they were trying to go for some sort of Monty Python cut out homage.

And I quite like the Heaven's Gate cover - it really captures Kristofferson at his most weatheredly sensual.

[SpiderBaby]

Trilogy of Life is my favorite artwork of all of them. Will look great as a digipak set.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

More like Trilogy of WTF. Rashomon and Weekend look really good, but Rashomon is cover of the year. I'm glad that Williams' art here will be exposed to an even larger audience now.

[movielocke]

More like Trilogy of WTF. Rashomon and Weekend look really good, but Rashomon is cover of the year.

I agree. Most stunning cover since The Killing

[farfisasynth]

I just want to chime in here and defend the TRILOGY OF LIFE art. I for one absolutely love it. It's obvious that the person who did it was inspired by the artwork of painter Jean-Michel Basquiat (who I love).....

Examples:






The whole package has that kind of wild rebellious attitude that I think suits Pasolini to a T.

[Matt]

I just want to chime in here and defend the TRILOGY OF LIFE art. I for one absolutely love it. It's obvious that the person who did it was inspired by the artwork of painter Jean-Michel Basquiat

John Baldessari, too.

[farfisasynth]

I just want to chime in here and defend the TRILOGY OF LIFE art. I for one absolutely love it. It's obvious that the person who did it was inspired by the artwork of painter Jean-Michel Basquiat

John Baldessari, too.

I forgot about those works of his... thanks!!!

[HistoryProf]

is that prostate exam going on?

[Gregory]

Embarrassing faux-art-brut pretense. The idea of someone doing the lettering that way, as an artistic conceit, with crossed-out phony "mistakes" (The Canterbury Tales is the worst) ... words fail me.
Plus, they're just plain cheap-looking, valuing their own flimsy aesthetic over anything really true to the films themselves.

And now, I'm off to spray-paint some Hanna-Barbera characters onto paper napkins to hang in a blue-chip gallery in Chelsea.

[Sloper]

What's particularly annoying about the Canterbury Tales cover is that the designer seems to have crossed out 'TAIlS' underneath 'TALES' - but why, having written the word out correctly, would you then mis-spell it; it's as if they didn't quite have the balls to disrupt the title, but couldn't let go of this cute little 'designed by a moron' conceit. And they credit 'G. Chaucer' but not 'G. Boccaccio'? Is that supposed to be part of the freewheeling awesomeness too? I actually don't think the approach is a bad idea as such (having only seen The Canterbury Tales, and hated it I'm sorry to say), but somehow the details make these covers seem insufferably smug.

[Cold Bishop]

You people are crazy. Those covers are great and perfectly encapsulate the film.

[CSM126]

For what it's worth, I've never seen the Trilogy of Life, but those covers make me want to.

I also have to chime in and say that I'm kinda sad that The X From Outer Space cover doesn't have a giant picture of the giant guinea hen monster dominating it. That thing is so absurdly awesome.

[movielocke]

Trilogy of life covers are a great example of mr.brainwash's "artistry"

[Dragoon En Regalia]

I've got nothing against the Trilogy of Life covers. They capture the Pasolini style in an interesting way, and they work for the films presented. And I'm not going to go around calling the designer(s) smug unless I have good reason to. From what I can tell, Skillman and the rest of the design team seem to know what they're doing, and I think they do too.

[Gregory]

You people are crazy. Those covers are great and perfectly encapsulate the film.

I've got nothing against the Trilogy of Life covers. They capture the Pasolini style in an interesting way, and they work for the films presented.

How so?

[TheGodfather]

At long, long last Week-End get`s released! one of my most anticipated Criterion blu-ray.
Rashomon is great news as well and the Eclipse box looks interesting.

[Alan Smithee]

Trilogy of Life kinda looks like its by John Baldessari.

edit: sorry someone else already pointed this out.

[Matt]

Don't apologize for drawing attention to Baldessari. He ought to be better known.

[knives]

Agreed. Usually I don't take to that sort of art, but he does it with a level of control and care that few practice.

[Cold Bishop]

How so?

Because despite being based off "classics" of literature, Pasolini's approach isn't that which one usually associates with literary, period adaptations. These films aren't stately or prestigious. They're earthy, carnal, vulgar, erotic, grossly humorous - in other words, proletariat - films, and all the more joyous for it. They are, essentially, the ultimate Italian Sex Comedies. Perhaps going with "primitive" artwork is overstating that, but its much closer in tone than most other approaches I could think of.