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I was so thrilled to be asked by Criterion's Eric Skillman (aka the best art director in the world) to contribute a new cover to their upcoming release of Fritz Lang's iconic noir flick, wildly considered one of it not his best American film. I'm a massive fan of Lang and a big noir devotee, and on top of that this would be my first proper "old hollywood" title with the Collection, I really wanted to flex my muscles on this one. The direction was very specific, highlighting the leads Gloria Grahame and Glenn Ford in an artful montage, with only a hint of Gloria's "reveal" near the end, and leaning hard into the aesthetics of the genre. I knew I wanted to nail this as much as possible and give it the time and care it deserved, but as always, I wanted to play around in the sandbox of a classic film that I love so I created some left field concepts too that offered a different perspective on this brutal film. Obviously, the elegant montage was the way to go so we focused on refining that to the elegant final piece.
I knew early on I wanted to illustrate this cover to bring out the silver screen glow of nitrate film stock. I'm admittedly not much of an illustrator and haven't done a proper illustrated piece for Criterion since the Elephant Man, so I had to develop a method that worked for my skill level. I started by collaging together images from the film to find the composition that worked and captured tropes of the genre (he can't not be holding a smoking gun and wearing a fedora, c'mon). From there, (since I didn't have any black paper or white pencils), I created a negative version of the image, and used that as reference for a pencil sketch (you can see a rough draft in a later slide). That was scanned in and then finished and brought to life using digital pencils and smudge techniques, even incorporating the film's original title card into the illustration and giving it some good smears. Ultimately I couldn't be happier or more proud of how it came out.

DimitriL wrote: Wed Apr 16, 2025 6:07 pm

zedz wrote: Tue Apr 15, 2025 10:31 pmRegardless of what anybody thinks about All We Imagine As Light, it just makes sense on paper: it's one of the most highly praised and highly awarded films in years, is directed by an emerging woman filmmaker, and comes from a major filmmaking nation drastically underrepresented in the collection. I would have thought they'd be falling over themselves to add it to the main line.

The way Peter Becker was raving about it at NYFF, pretty much making it clear he thought it was the best film of the year, I thought it was a sure thing. But Flow was going to go Contemporaries until it won Best Animated, so I can only imagine the failure of either France or India to even nominate it for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars had a lot to do with it.

guyetgenevieve wrote: Tue Apr 15, 2025 6:57 pm Worth noting that it looks like the Barry Lyndon 4K will be housed in a digipak instead of a standard case like its original release

Walter Kurtz wrote: Thu Apr 17, 2025 4:33 pm

guyetgenevieve wrote: Tue Apr 15, 2025 6:57 pm Worth noting that it looks like the Barry Lyndon 4K will be housed in a digipak instead of a standard case like its original release

The simple design will look much better on a slipcase than the flimsy worse-than-copy-paper inserts they put in the plastic cases. They could also do a 2-page spread of one of those panoramic shots for the disc holder jacket.

Having said that it certainly depends on whether the digipak is constructed more like Ambersons with a bit of sturdiness to it... or the flimsy piece-of-shit slipcase-er-slip-paper for the Europe Trilogy.

ryannichols7 wrote: Thu Apr 17, 2025 2:23 pmwhy must black and white movie = black and white cover? this is getting boring and is happening far too often, obviously especially on the noir side of things.

CSM126 wrote: Thu Apr 17, 2025 5:13 pm Ya know, with Criterion being owned by a legit billionaire now you’d think they could invest in sturdier digipaks. I mean, Indicator does it on a small label budget so realistically Criterion shouldn’t need the extra cash… but now they really have no excuse for flimsy digipaks. I’m sure there’s an added cost for thicker material but it can’t be that much worse when you’re doing it in bulk numbers.

olmo wrote: Fri Apr 18, 2025 5:50 pm

CSM126 wrote: Thu Apr 17, 2025 5:13 pm Ya know, with Criterion being owned by a legit billionaire now you’d think they could invest in sturdier digipaks. I mean, Indicator does it on a small label budget so realistically Criterion shouldn’t need the extra cash… but now they really have no excuse for flimsy digipaks. I’m sure there’s an added cost for thicker material but it can’t be that much worse when you’re doing it in bulk numbers.

The aesthetic quality of an item is not a billionaire's concern the profit margin is.

olmo wrote:

CSM126 wrote: Thu Apr 17, 2025 5:13 pm Ya know, with Criterion being owned by a legit billionaire now you’d think they could invest in sturdier digipaks. I mean, Indicator does it on a small label budget so realistically Criterion shouldn’t need the extra cash… but now they really have no excuse for flimsy digipaks. I’m sure there’s an added cost for thicker material but it can’t be that much worse when you’re doing it in bulk numbers.

The aesthetic quality of an item is not a billionaire's concern the profit margin is.

tenia wrote: Fri Apr 18, 2025 6:25 pm

olmo wrote:

CSM126 wrote: Thu Apr 17, 2025 5:13 pm Ya know, with Criterion being owned by a legit billionaire now you’d think they could invest in sturdier digipaks. I mean, Indicator does it on a small label budget so realistically Criterion shouldn’t need the extra cash… but now they really have no excuse for flimsy digipaks. I’m sure there’s an added cost for thicker material but it can’t be that much worse when you’re doing it in bulk numbers.

The aesthetic quality of an item is not a billionaire's concern the profit margin is.

It's not just an aesthetic thing : actually, thicker cardboard really isn't. It's a matter of sturdiness, in a world where most of these products are bought online and shipped, so it's ensuring customers will be happy with a product able to absorb transportation issues and not ask for a replacement (which cost money). Sturdiness also kinda sends a message of a more lavish product, and people don't like buying a supposedly high-end premium priced product and feel like it's made of cheapo material. It's a brand image, and this brings money when it's good.

Walter Kurtz wrote: Thu Apr 24, 2025 9:33 pm Just curious. Is that a spoiler on the disc holder? (But one of the most striking covers in the entire collection.)

Walter Kurtz wrote: Fri Apr 25, 2025 2:57 pm Great, thanks. I was going left to right and doing psych test evaluation/Pudovkin montage theory and saw 1) truck with nitro or dynamite 2) explosion... therefore 3) roll credits. After reading that someone wanted to put out Seven in a what's in the box package... I'm only sure of one thing. We all live in an idiocracy.

olmo wrote: Thu May 08, 2025 4:51 pm The inner design of The Three Musketeers brings to mind the illustrations of the much-missed Jason Polan.