criterionforum.org

Rossellini?

Josef von Sternberg?

Bergman! What are we doing?

Yeah, considering what came out in 2010, four middling-to-good, already readily available films from a (being generous) second-tier director don't really rock my boat. But, different strokes. . .

Saw these on another forum, don't know where they came from:



The Kalatozov cover kinda sucks.

zedz wrote:Yeah, considering what came out in 2010, four middling-to-good, already readily available films from a (being generous) second-tier director don't really rock my boat. But, different strokes. . .

You're just bitter that we were right about the cows spelling out a '4'.

Search under the director's name.... you can find all the new ones..

I didn't know Rod Blagojevich was in The War Room.

I like the new Brief Encounter cover (except for the obtrusive text box), but Blithe Spirit appears to have been reimagined as some kind of zombie movie. It looks awful. The Scorsese looks perfect, actually even better than it used to because the old black Criterion banner's been removed.

Great, another film I desperately want on BD confined to a box set.

Brian C wrote:I didn't know Rod Blagojevich was in The War Room.

I thought the exact same thing! Weird cover overall, the red color scheme feels nothing like the washed out film. Not that it's required but it just gives a completely different feeling than the film itself.

Brian C wrote:The Scorsese looks perfect, actually even better than it used to because the old black Criterion banner's been removed.

But now the "wacky C" looks rather blasphemous up there in the Redeemer's crown of thorns. And it kind of looks like He's squinting to read the date on the sidebar.

This Happy Breed makes me think of "Every Sperm is Sacred"!?!

Jesus Christ (har), what a bore of a month...

I agree with Brian C on Last Temptation of Christ - the first changing of a previous image to a wacky C that I feel has been successful! Though I disagree with Brian C on Blithe Spirit - I've always liked the green ghostly makeup and contrasting that with the bright red lipstick in the semi-reveal of the ghost works really nicely, I think! Both Blithe Spirit and This Happy Breed have kind of rough-looking, too zoomed in images, but hopefully that may just be the way that they look on the screen and the covers themselves will look less rough - they're all great, evocative images! (The boxset cover is wonderful too!)

I also like Letter Never Sent, especially the black and white with splashes of red and the title treatment which feels slightly like the clean lines of the "Keep Calm and Carry On" style just with the Bicycle Thieves font!

A Night To Remember is the true standout though - what a beautiful cover! Is it too early to put it forward for best cover of 2012?

colinr0380 wrote:A Night To Remember is the true standout though - what a beautiful cover! Is it too early to put it forward for best cover of 2012?

I agree with one change. I'd like to see a font that was more reminiscent of a 1912 newspaper headline.

colinr0380 wrote:Though I disagree with Brian C on Blithe Spirit - I've always liked the green ghostly makeup and contrasting that with the bright red lipstick in the semi-reveal of the ghost works really nicely, I think!

It's the 'semi-reveal' that ruins it, I think. If we could see her whole face, it might not look like so grim.

I agree triodelover, that would make it perfect!

duck duck wrote:This Happy Breed makes me think of "Every Sperm is Sacred"!?!

That's the wrong part of Britain, though I suppose Blitz-era London does look a little like the Third World!:

No Eclipse. Bummer...

The War Room is interesting, but not ultimately successful. Brief Encounter is just great, but the others in the box set don't do much for me. A Night to Remember is gorgeous, but Letter Never Sent might be my favorite.

Brian C wrote: Blithe Spirit appears to have been reimagined as some kind of zombie movie. It looks awful. The Scorsese looks perfect, actually even better than it used to because the old black Criterion banner's been removed.

Funny...I thought it was by far the best in the box, and of the month at that. It's gorgeous. Sure as hell didn't make me think of zombies. :shrug:

I wish they'll move that title treatment for Brief Encounter a bit lower; the space is slightly bothering me. Otherwise, the covers for this month are rather muted, no?

Letter Never Sent is a masterpiece of cinematography. I've been trying to import this from Russia for years without any luck. It's the perfect companion to "The Cranes Are Flying".

This is my most anticipated Criterion release in months.

HistoryProf wrote:Funny...I thought it was by far the best in the box, and of the month at that. It's gorgeous. Sure as hell didn't make me think of zombies. :shrug:

It could just be me, no doubt. I'm not really given to cover art freakouts, but that one made me recoil pretty hard.

In other news, I think the main problem with the black box on Brief Encounter is that it's just too black. It's way darker than anything else on the cover. If they'd gray it up a bit, like the box on In Which We Serve, it'd look pretty good.

Any screenshot grabbed at random would have made a gorgeous cover for The Letter Never Sent. Instead it looks like a puppet theater or a Lotte Reiniger animation.