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The only Criterion digipak that I really like is the Jacques Demy box. I'm very curious to see if they change the packaging for the Blu-ray-only edition that's supposed to be coming out September 6. I love the idea of it being smaller but I really hope they don't redesign it as a slotted book like the Varda box or something else similarly impractical.

ianthemovie wrote: Tue Aug 23, 2022 2:33 pm The only Criterion digipak that I really like is the Jacques Demy box. I'm very curious to see if they change the packaging for the Blu-ray-only edition that's supposed to be coming out September 6. I love the idea of it being smaller but I really hope they don't redesign it as a slotted book like the Varda box or something else similarly impractical.

It'll be the same as the UK blu-ray-only box.

Is the packaging for that edition any different from the original Region A box?

It's slimmer IIRC.

I assume it will be sized the same as the Dietrich/von Sternberg set, which also contains six films

Le corbeau
Blow Out [4K] (Booklet)
Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project No. 4 (Booklet)
Take Out
Exotica
Sound of Metal [4K]

Also, it appears to be another slipcover based on the image included in the newsletter.

Ribs wrote: Thu Sep 08, 2022 4:08 pm Also, it appears to be another slipcover based on the image included in the newsletter.

It is. The artist, Jason Raish, confirmed it on Twitter.

the more I look at this cover the more I like it. so many little easter eggs to be found here

I think it should be said that Criterion somehow pulled off leaving out "A Disney Pixar Film" or something along those lines. wonder if that sticks?

I was rather surprised the cover is devoid of any Disney or Pixar branding and gets to be treated like any other addition to the collection, but then again this is just the slipcover.

I also like how the cover doesn't even feature the film's two main characters but instead trashpiles that resemble them. Brava.

I also like how the cover doesn't even feature the film's two main characters but instead trashpiles that resemble them.

But why? I've never been one to post about cover art but this is driving me nuts: yes, it's not really Wall-e and EVE, it's garbage that looks like them--and how does that relate to the story? This makes it feel like a "velveteen rabbit" kind of story, like there was some poor boy who's only friends were the ones he made out of garbage until one day they came to life. The characters being made from garbage don't even fit a theme of the film; EVE is future technology and Wall-e's whole arc is that he is much more than a junky robot.

I guess it's clever in that when you first glance at it you think it's just Wall-e and then see what's really going--cool--but it seems completely disconnected from the actual movie. And I know that book cover illustrators often go their artwork based on only a quick synopsis without reading the actual story, but everyone has two hours to watch Wall-e (if they haven't already seen it.)

IMPROMPTU MONTHLY COVER THOUGHTS: November 2022 (but it's for one movie)

• WALL•E: Retroactively the best cover of the month. The idea of making the main characters out of trash could have come off as cutesy, twee nonsense, but this cover wisely doesn't make this the point. It's simply a nice added detail, which I appreciate. I also appreciate that this cover primarily highlights both WALL•E and EVE's romance and the themes of consumerism and climate disaster; much of the key art simply markets the film as a cutesy talking robot movie for the whole family, and completely misses all the nuances that make WALL•E such an eccentric, sly piece of social commentary. A nice cover all-around. Props too for not slathering Disney•Pixar branding on the cover (no idea how much convincing that took the Mouse)

Still a disappointing month of covers in my opinion (one that appears not to commonly held), but WALL•E's excellent cover at least allievates some of it

Dreadful month for covers again. I like Cooley High and nothing else. Why are the fonts on the Velvet Underground cover backwards? The Metterling covers look like something swimminghorses might have put together on a better day and the Haneke covers are very bland.

I knew The Velvet Underground would be controversial, but I love it. the cover is meant to reflect screen printing!

I actually like the Zetterling ones and Haneke I'm sure is supposed to emulate the coldness of his movies or whatever

I think these all basically work though it feels like if the guy wearing the "Cooley High" jacket turned to the side his torso would vanish

swo17 wrote: Thu Sep 15, 2022 5:14 pm I think these all basically work though it feels like if the guy wearing the "Cooley High" jacket turned to the side his torso would vanish

This is what happens when an artist has to improvise!

I like the Velvet Underground one, but shouldn't the C be backwards and in the upper-right corner?

I don’t like Haneke but I love negative space so those covers appeal to me. Kinda like the Zetterlings too. I know nothing about her work, though so for all I know they might be wildly inappropriate.

The Zetterlings remind me somewhat of Pasolini's Trilogy of Life. Same artist?

The Cooley High one looks more odd the longer you look at it.

agnamaracs wrote: Thu Sep 15, 2022 5:40 pm I like the Velvet Underground one, but shouldn't the C be backwards and in the upper-right corner?

I love the idea and would be fully on board, but after Le Corbeau didn't feature anything fun with the spine, I'm not too surprised. I would've loved to have seen the bitching that would've caused!

Haneke and Zetterling were interestingly both designed by Eric Skillman, Criterion's head of design.

I probably have bad memory but is the original DVD of Le Corbeau the only time they ever played a bit with the branding on the cover?

Saturnome wrote: Thu Sep 15, 2022 7:43 pm I probably have bad memory but is the original DVD of Le Corbeau the only time they ever played a bit with the branding on the cover?

Robocop chrome-plated the old-school logo, while Eric Chase Anderson hand-drew the branding on Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums (very tidily).