Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 6

[Drucker]

I think that cover's pretty clever and appropriate: thematically relevant and tongue-in-cheek, without completely forgetting the grim reality of Nazism.

We'll agree to disagree.

I'm with triodelover. Yes the acting (and Hamlet, specifically) are a big part of the plot in a way, I feel that the cover gives a very morbid feel. My first thought seeing the skull, before I made the Hamlet connection, was that the skull was a symbol of Nazi death and destruction. That's still my general instinct for the cover, which I don't think fits a movie that constantly pokes fun at the Nazis, and in a way, doesn't treat them as threatening considering how ridiculously inept they are portrayed.

[Cinéslob]

I'm with triodelover. Yes the acting (and Hamlet, specifically) are a big part of the plot in a way, I feel that the cover gives a very morbid feel. My first thought seeing the skull, before I made the Hamlet connection, was that the skull was a symbol of Nazi death and destruction. That's still my general instinct for the cover, which I don't think fits a movie that constantly pokes fun at the Nazis, and in a way, doesn't treat them as threatening considering how ridiculously inept they are portrayed.

Apt, then, that the featured skull belonged to a fool.

[Moe Dickstein]

My first thought seeing the skull, before I made the Hamlet connection, was that the skull was a symbol of Nazi death and destruction. That's still my general instinct for the cover, which I don't think fits a movie that constantly pokes fun at the Nazis, and in a way, doesn't treat them as threatening considering how ridiculously inept they are portrayed.

Look at this film and Great Dictator. The way of dealing with something of such a terrible nature is to mock it, make fun of it and tear it down through ridicule. It doesn't make the target any less threatening, and I would wager Lubitsch and Chaplin knew full well the sort of people and regime they were targeting, and the best place to hit them where it would hurt most.

[warren oates]

I'm with triodelover. Yes the acting (and Hamlet, specifically) are a big part of the plot in a way, I feel that the cover gives a very morbid feel. My first thought seeing the skull, before I made the Hamlet connection, was that the skull was a symbol of Nazi death and destruction. That's still my general instinct for the cover, which I don't think fits a movie that constantly pokes fun at the Nazis, and in a way, doesn't treat them as threatening considering how ridiculously inept they are portrayed.

Apt, then, that the featured skull belonged to a fool.

Good graphic design isn't necessarily about making a viewer take that many contingent mental leaps in a row. If there are layers implicit in a good film poster, it's always a plus, but it's much better to have those extra nuances be optional, rather than the kind of mandatory footnoting it takes to process this image and find it fitting -- even if you've seen the film and know what it's about.

[Drucker]

I'm with triodelover. Yes the acting (and Hamlet, specifically) are a big part of the plot in a way, I feel that the cover gives a very morbid feel. My first thought seeing the skull, before I made the Hamlet connection, was that the skull was a symbol of Nazi death and destruction. That's still my general instinct for the cover, which I don't think fits a movie that constantly pokes fun at the Nazis, and in a way, doesn't treat them as threatening considering how ridiculously inept they are portrayed.

Apt, then, that the featured skull belonged to a fool.

Again, though, that cover fills with me with dread and fear upon first glance. The first word that comes to mind is terror when I see that cover. That's not indicative of the film at all to me. And again just my opinion in the matter.

[triodelover]

But TBONTB is as much a film about acting as Bull Durham is a film about baseball. In the case of BD, we've seen this story arc - rising new thing, fading vet - many time,s not the least of which are the three sound versions of A Star is Born.

Similarly, with TBONTB, we've seen a number of Nazi spoofs come out of the period. None were as cutting as this film or as good because until the US involvement in the war the studios wanted to preserve the distribution channels to Germany. What makes TBONTB so special is not Hamlet's soliloquy or the theater itself but the double L's - Lubitsch and Lombard. Carole Lombard was the perfect Lubitsch female lead and the best he had since Miriam Hopkins, but you'd never know that from this cartoon cover.

If you want a film where the theater is inseparable from the story arc, there's All About Eve. But not this film.

[Moe Dickstein]

See and I think about Jack Benny when I think of this film far more than Lombard comes to mind. I get the point about someone coming cold might think "horror" but it still is masterful to me. To each their own!

[acroyear]

The Earrings of Madame de... is the best cover for this month

[karmajuice]

But TBONTB is as much a film about acting as Bull Durham is a film about baseball. In the case of BD, we've seen this story arc - rising new thing, fading vet - many time,s not the least of which are the three sound versions of A Star is Born.

Similarly, with TBONTB, we've seen a number of Nazi spoofs come out of the period. None were as cutting as this film or as good because until the US involvement in the war the studios wanted to preserve the distribution channels to Germany. What makes TBONTB so special is not Hamlet's soliloquy or the theater itself but the double L's - Lubitsch and Lombard. Carole Lombard was the perfect Lubitsch female lead and the best he had since Miriam Hopkins, but you'd never know that from this cartoon cover.

If you want a film where the theater is inseparable from the story arc, there's All About Eve. But not this film.

Not to disparage Lombard, because she's obviously great in this, but the culmination of a running gag into the poignant Shylock monologue at the end is one of the defining moments of the film for me, and it's precisely what makes this film special: the sublimation of comedy into poetry.

[HistoryProf]

To Be or Not to Be is amazing. the other 3 are god awful. perhaps the worst overall month they've ever had. just mind mindbogglingly bad choice for Seconds, and the Ray's are terrible - particularly The Big City. Just awful.

[Tommaso]

My objection to the Lubitsch cover isn't because of the Hamlet/skull idea, but much more because of the lettering of the title. My first association was "Star Wars" before I discarded this because I compulsively began to think about some cover designs from Alpha Video...

[Moe Dickstein]

The one Alpha I have is the worst. 4 options for the cover of Obsession and all of them TERRIBLE

[mteller]

Charulata is the original poster art, and if I'm not mistaken, was designed by Ray himself.

The Big City is awful, though. And I'm mildly annoyed they didn't use the Mahanagar title.

[MichaelB]

Charulata is the original poster art, and if I'm not mistaken, was designed by Ray himself.

The first statement is definitely true, and the second is highly likely.

As for The Big City, maybe Criterion's treatment was inspired by the rendering of the title in this Indian poster?

[jindianajonz]

Are there any (preferably active) people who post about the design process for criterion covers? I know of ericskillman.blogspot.com and samsmyth.blogspot.com, but the former seems to have gone silent and the latter doesn't post often or as in depth as Skillman did.

[chatterjees]

And I'm mildly annoyed they didn't use the Mahanagar title.

Yes, this is weird that they used the Bengali name for one title and the English version for the other. When The Music Room was announced 2 years ago, I asked them (on their FB page) about this matter. They replied to me saying that they always use the name by which a foreign film is known in North America. That's for the front cover art. If they use the English name on the front cover art, then they use the native name on the back cover under parenthesis. This makes sense to me. So, I was expecting The Lonely Wife, not Charulata. Apparently, the film is well known by Charulata then...

[knives]

I've never seen it referenced as The Lonely Wife even on VHS where I first saw it so the use of Charulata is definitely in keeping with code.

[chatterjees]

I actually started to like the cover art for The Big City. The only thing that's puzzling me now is the red rectangle in that intricate meshwork. Does it mean anything?

I am not gonna say anything negative on the Charulata cover art as it was originally drawn by Ray himself for the Indian poster, but honestly I was expecting something like The Earrings of Madame de... /Belle de jour /Lola Montès!!!

I am trying hard to get over the shock I got from TO BE OR NOT TO BE ] cover (*,) , but I am happy that CC finally decided to release my all time favorite comedy and I don't have to import the French release (I cannot read French and I want a nice booklet to read ).

[jindianajonz]

I actually started to like the cover art for The Big City. The only thing that's puzzling me now is the red rectangle in that intricate meshwork. Does it mean anything?

I figured it represented a person lost in a city (reminds me of the old LucasArts game Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, where you had to follow an Algerian in a red fez through a topdown view of the city's streets)

Somebody also mentioned in this thread that it's a visual pun of a bindi, which makes sense when you put the two Ray covers side by side- same color and location for the girl's bindi and the red square.

[Professor Wagstaff]

Charulata looks like it belongs in the Glamour Collection DVDs Universal put out a few years back.

[chatterjees]

I actually started to like the cover art for The Big City. The only thing that's puzzling me now is the red rectangle in that intricate meshwork. Does it mean anything?

I figured it represented a person lost in a city (reminds me of the old LucasArts game Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, where you had to follow an Algerian in a red fez through a topdown view of the city's streets)

Somebody also mentioned in this thread that it's a visual pun of a bindi, which makes sense when you put the two Ray covers side by side- same color and location for the girl's bindi and the red square.

I will go with your first explanation, not the second one. Bindi is usually round, not rectangular. You can trust me on that. yeah, there are new innovations in the Bindi culture in last few decades, but that red box can't be a bindi. See the bindi on Charulata's forehead, its round. My wife thinks that red box might represent one particular household too.

[jindianajonz]

I actually started to like the cover art for The Big City. The only thing that's puzzling me now is the red rectangle in that intricate meshwork. Does it mean anything?

I figured it represented a person lost in a city (reminds me of the old LucasArts game Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, where you had to follow an Algerian in a red fez through a topdown view of the city's streets)

Somebody also mentioned in this thread that it's a visual pun of a bindi, which makes sense when you put the two Ray covers side by side- same color and location for the girl's bindi and the red square.

I will go with your first explanation, not the second one. Bindi is usually round, not rectangular. You can trust me on that. yeah, there are new innovations in the Bindi culture in last few decades, but that red box can't be a bindi. See the bindi on Charulata's forehead, its round. My wife thinks that red box might represent one particular household too.

Oh yes, I know that, but a round bindi doesn't go with the angular design of the rest of the cover. Think of it as a stylized bindi, or a bindi rendered on an old 8bit Nintendo system. Or that if a city were to have a bindi, it would probably correspond to it's gridlike anatomy in a similar way that a round bindi is usually placed on a round face.

[Ultimo]

The To Be or Not To Be cover is amazing, the others are so-so. Only really interested in picking up Seconds.

The Fassbinder set, i've seen all but Beware of a Holy Whore and i wasn't a fan. Strange they've left out Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? and Whity.

[Dragoon En Regalia]

I don't think the Big City cover's aiming for utter orthodoxy with the bindi ref. Compared to Charulata's, this release's cover is much too abstract to be interpreted as representative of real-life, only the abstraction of urban infrastructure and how one gets lost in the system.

[knives]

The To Be or Not To Be cover is amazing, the others are so-so. Only really interested in picking up Seconds.

The Fassbinder set, i've seen all but Beware of a Holy Whore and i wasn't a fan. Strange they've left out Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? and Whity.

There's been no indication to the best of my knowledge that they have those two titles which at least used to be with Fantomas last I checked. They also would strike me at least as being out of place.