2011 Criterion Forum Awards

[Michael]

Best Release
1. The Complete Jean Vigo
2. The Music Room
3. Senso
4. The Times of Harvey Milk
5. Blow Out

Best Eclipse

Silent Naruse

Best Re(Discovery)

Senso

[videozor]

Best Release:
Kiss Me Deadly
Topsy-Turvy
Complete Jean Vigo
Kes
Phantom Carriage

Best Reissue - Shock Corridor

Best R1 Rescue - Sweet Smell of Success

Most Disappointing Release - Makioka Sisters

Best Cover - Kes

Member of the Year - MichaelB

[Murdoch]

Best Release
1. Kiss Me Deadly
2. Pale Flower
3. Sweet Smell of Success
4. Tokyo Drifter re-issue
5. Beauty and the Beast blu

Best Eclipse
Silent Naruse

Best Reissue
Tokyo Drifter

Best Blu-ray Upgrade
Beauty and the Beast

Best (Re)Discovery
Pale Flower

Best R1 Rescue
Kiss Me Deadly

Best Cover
Tokyo Drifter

[Finch]

Best Release (1-5, in order of preference)

1. Island of Lost Souls
2. Three Colours Trilogy
3. Kiss Me Deadly
4. The Times of Harvey Milk
5. Night of the Hunter

honourable mention for Blow Out

Best Eclipse Set: bought none this year

Best Reissue: Solaris

Best Blu-ray Upgrade: Beauty and the Beast

Best R1 Rescue (for title already available in R1 and re-released by Criterion): Night of The Hunter

Best (Re)Discovery: Pale Flower (honourable mention for Secret Sunshine)

Most Disappointing Release (for Criterion's treatment, not the film itself): Secret Sunshine (Still Walking also deserved better)

Best Commentary; n/a

Best Supplement: the Laughton directs featurette

Best Cover: Island of Lost Souls

Best Packaging: Kiss Me Deadly

Member of the Year: matrixschmatrix
Richard Cranium Award: all the forum members who went on forever about how they didn't like Tree of Life (we heard you first time, folks)

[jbeall]

Best Criterion Release
1. Kes
2. The Music Room
3. Sweet Smell of Success
4. Senso
5. Pale Flower

Best Eclipse
Basil Dearden's London Underground

Best Reissue
Solaris

Best R1 Rescue
12 Angry Men

Best Discovery
Secret Sunshine

Most Disappointing Release
Zazie dans le Metro

Best Cover
12 Angry Men

Best Packaging
Sweet Smell of Success

Member of the Year
MichaelB

Richard Cranium
Nothing

Best non-Criterion Releases [in no particular order]
1. Szindbad (Second Run)
2. The Colour of Pomegranates (Second Sight)
3. Coeur Fidele (Masters of Cinema)
4. Red Psalm (Second Run)
5. Landmarks of Early Soviet Cinema (Flicker Alley)

[dustysomers]

Best Release
1. The Complete Jean Vigo
2. Broadcast News
3. The Music Room
4. The Phantom Carriage
5. Les Cousins

Best Eclipse Set
Silent Naruse

Best Reissue
Branded to Kill

Best Blu-ray Upgrade
3 Women

Best R1 Rescue
Broadcast News

Best (Re)Discovery
Something Wild

Most Disappointing Release
Identification of a Woman

Best Supplement
Alternate ending and deleted scenes from Broadcast News

Best Cover
Blow Out

Best Packaging
Sweet Smell of Success

Member of the Year
swo17

[What A Disgrace]

Best Release
1. The Complete Jean Vigo
2. Blow Out
3. The Music Room
4. The Sweet Smell of Success
5. The Phantom Chariot

Best Eclipse Release
Silent Naruse

Best Reissue
Orpheus

Best R1 Rescue
Blow Out

Best Blu-ray Upgrade
Yi Yi

Best Commentary
James Naremore, The Sweet Smell of Success

Best Supplement
Murder a la mod, on Blow Out

Best Cover
Kuroneko

Best Packaging
The Eclipse series

Best (Re)Discovery
Koreyoshi Kurahara

Most Disappointing
Solaris, for the disastrous cover art

Forum Member of the Year
peerpee, because of the whole Masters of Cinema thing

Best Non-Criterion Releases
1. Treasures 5: The West (NFPF)
2. Landmarks of Early Soviet Cinema (Flicker Alley)
3. The Strange Case of Angelica (Cinema Guild)
4. Touch of Evil (Masters of Cinema)
5. Buster Keaton: The Short Films (Kino)
6. Deep End (BFI)
7. Red Psalm (Second Run)
8. Alice (BFI)
9. Szindbad (Second Run)
10. Humphrey Jennings Volume 1 (BFI)

[The Narrator Returns]

I'd like to add this category to my list:

Worst Cover Art:
Naked, for making it look like a comedy about a constipated man.
Runners-up are Something Wild and The Great Dictator, for being extremely half-assed, and Zazie dans le metro, for being ugly as hell.

[Forrest Taft]

Best Release
1. Sweet Smell of Success
2. Blow Out
3. The Killing
4. Kiss Me Deadly
5. Island of Lost Souls

Best Eclipse Set
Silent Naruse

Best Re-Issue
Naked Kiss (and the other Fuller, if we can split votes)

Best Blu-Ray Upgrade
High and Low

Best R1 Rescue
People on Sunday

Best (Re)Discovery
Insignificance

Most Disappointing Release
Cul-de-sac

Best Commentary
James Naremore, Sweet Smell of Success

Best Supplement
Killer's Kiss

Best Cover
The Killing

Best Packaging
Sweet Smell of Success

Member of the Year
Swo

Richard Cranium Award
N/A

[ptatler]

Best Release
1. ISLAND OF LOST SOULS
2. CARLOS
3. THE MUSIC ROOM
4. KES
5. THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE

Best Eclipse Set
The Warped World of Koreyoshi Kurahara

Best Reissue
RULES OF THE GAME

Best Blu-ray Upgrade
YI YI

Best R1 Rescue (for title already available in R1 and re-released by Criterion)
DESIGN FOR LIVING

Best (Re)Discovery
THE MUSIC ROOM

Most Disappointing Release (for Criterion's treatment, not the film itself)
SOMETHING WILD

Best Commentary
Gregory Mank, ISLAND OF LOST SOULS

Best Supplement
Southbank Show profile of Ken Loach, KES

Best Cover
THE KILLING

Best Packaging
THREE COLORS

Member of the Year
Domino Harvey

Richard Cranium Award
Gary Gnu

[skuhn8]

Best Release
1. The Sweet Smell of Success
2. The Killing
3. Blow Out
4. Kiss Me Deadly
5. Broadcast News

Best Blu-ray Upgrade
Beauty and the Beast

Best R1 Rescue
Kiss Me Deadly

Best Commentary
James Naremore on The Sweet Smell of Success

Best Supplement
Killer’s Kiss on The Killing

Best Cover
Sweet Smell of Success

Best Packaging
Sweet Smell of Success

Member of the year: MichaelB

Non-CC releases of the year:
Szindbad (Second Run)
Deep End (BFI)--3 discer is a lot of fun
Touch of Evil (MOC)

[zedz]

After last year’s incredible output, I found 2011 a pretty drab year from Criterion. Lots of very nice editions of very nice films, but no new ground broken. There were no ballsy releases in the main line (I refuse to concede that finally getting around to releasing a film by one of the most important filmmakers in the history of the medium is a brave move on their part, even though The Music Room was by such a huge margin their most important mainline release of the year that it just about lapped its closest competition), and it’s very hard to sustain the image of the label as ground-breaking when almost all of their releases were of films already available on the market, in some cases still in print in very good editions in the same region.

So it was without all that much enthusiasm that I put together my Criterion Best of ’11 list:

Best Release

Silent Naruse – Well, duh: major films, major filmmaker, hitherto unavailable. This is what Criterion, at its best, is all about.

The Music Room – Ditto, and a fine package to boot. Here’s hoping the floodgates are now officially open.

The Times of Harvey Milk – Another exemplary Criterion release. It’s a great film in its own right, but the contextualising extras they built up around it were expertly curated and incredibly valuable. Easily the most impressive overall package of the year for Criterion.

The Complete Jean Vigo – Deserves to be here simply for comprehensively trumping one of the all-time great DVD packages.

The Phantom Carriage – I was actually scratching my head for another title that was up to the level of the above, and I figured I had to acknowledge that this was a great year for silent films on Criterion, so it was a toss-up between this and the excellent People on Sunday. This gets the nod because it’s such a great film, even if the Bergman-centric extras are a bit irritating.

Best Eclipse Set

Silent Naruse – No contest. Kurahara was a lot of fun and a great discovery; but Matarazzo was no Sirk, despite the over-egged liner notes; and the rest was pretty minor stuff.

Best Reissue

Branded to Kill – Caveat: I haven’t received this disc yet, but it’s a great film and was certainly one of the ones most desperately in need of AV salvage.

Best (Re)Discovery

I can’t exactly remember what this category is supposed to celebrate, but if it’s previously unknown films there were mighty slim pickings this year, since almost everything in the main line was already available elsewhere. Thank heavens for Eclipse! I’ll go ahead and nominate Thirst for Love.

Most Disappointing Release

Regrettably not slim pickings here, since so many films had scaled-down, or no, extras. Probably Something Wild. Considering how many of the participants in that film are still alive and kicking, you had to wonder why they even bothered licensing the thing. I was all prepared to slot the bare-bones Identification of a Woman in this slot, but having now seen it, it strikes me as a rather poor Antonioni alleviated by a couple of strong sequences. Maybe a spirited critical defence would have helped, but I doubt it.

Best Commentary

The Times of Harvey Milk – Both for its inherent liveliness and interest and for the impressive way it dovetails with the other copious extras on that release. Also worth listening to: Island of Lost Souls and Broadcast News, two really engaging conversations that I probably enjoyed more than the films they accompanied.

Best Supplement

Tough call, this, since the strength of the great Harvey Milk package is that all of the individual supplements are all part of a larger whole. I guess I’ll go with the Assayas interview on Carlos. That release is also very impressive as a total package, but he’s such a great talker – the section about his music selection alone is priceless (whoever would have suspected that the Feelies would be so uncool?) Ins Blaue hinein for runner-up.

Best Cover

The Killing

Special mention: The Dearden set was the best-looking Eclipse set to date: excellent and creative use of that sturdy template.

Best Packaging

Carlos

Member of the Year

MichaelB – he hasn’t had it yet, has he? If not, it’s way overdue.

Richard Cranium Award

I’ve tried to blot them out, and the ones I remember have either departed or (somewhat) redeemed themselves.

Best of the Rest

Ooh, smell that lovely fresh air. . .

In no particular order:

Jose Val de Omar set – A major, major discovery for me and many others, and probably the best release of the year (if it was released this year) in terms of comprehensiveness and quality, even down to the innovative packaging. Many thanks to knives for drawing my attention to it!

Tagore Stories on Film – Some iffy transfers, but some great films and all at an unbelievable price.

Mysteries of Lisbon 6 DVD set – Even if the film version was redundant because I had to have it on BluRay, this is an essential release. Nice to see Ruiz’s capping masterpiece getting the treatment it deserved.

The Colour of Pomegranates (Second Sight)
Alice (BFI)
Two desert island classics finally receive the releases they’ve always deserved. Looking at these releases makes me think about how much time Criterion wasted this year on less deserving and less essential upgrades of available material. Both included exemplary sets of extras, with Pomegranates boasting what’s almost certainly the best set of academic on-disc extras of the year.

Szindbad (Second Run) – Not exactly an unknown film to me, given skuhn and MichaelB’s cheerleading over the years, but kind of an emblematic release for Second Run, who turn up overlooked gems with frightening regularity. Szindbad is one of the most glistening of them all, and the kind of film I know I’m going to enjoy growing old with.

The Terrorizers BluRay – Yes, the DVD was on my list last year, but one of the greatest films of the last 50 years just got greater, so hooray.

American Dreams / Landscape Suicide (Edition Filmmuseum) – Two phenomenal films launching what looks to be a phenomenal project for Edition Filmmuseum. Both of these are rich and dense, with American Dreams (Lost and Found) the kind of work that is simply overwhelming on a first viewing.

The Strange Case of Angelica (Cinema Guild) – It’s painful to say it, but maybe Criterion should take a look at this disc to see how to do a properly stacked BluRay of a contemporary film. I saw more de Oliveira movies this year than I had in my entire life (see below), and it only reinforced the greatness of this film.

The Complete Humphrey Jennings Volume One (BFI)
The Soviet Influence: From Turksib to Night Mail (BFI) – The BFI do academic, archival releases better than anybody and here are two cases in point. Jennings is long overdue a comprehensive retrospective, but even in my wildest dreams I never expected he’d be treated quite this lavishly – every jot and tittle of his surviving output, including alternative edits, beautifully transferred in HD and lovingly annotated. And the thing is, it just gets better in Volumes Two and Three. The Turksib disc is exemplary in another way, a persuasive scholarly release of the sort that I wish had become more standard. Off the top of my head, I can only think of the Unseen Cinema as another instance of a collection that explores a particular thesis through a curated programme of films, though in that case the supporting textual documentation was scanty, to say the least. Here we get a well-argued essay, with the films to illuminate the argument. A wonderful release and I can’t wait for the follow-ups.

Subjunctive Selection:

Spirit of the Beehive / El Sur BluRays – I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw that not only were these two films being released on BluRay, but they had English subtitles - though I knew I wasn’t dreaming when I saw how much fnac was going to sting me for shipping. But that pain will hopefully be worth it. Also exclusive to fnac: Erice’s La morte rouge. These are in the mail, but unless the transfers are a complete debacle, it deserves a place on my list

Catch Up Edition:

A couple of great releases I was slow to pick up:

Sopralluoghi in Palestina – Just as Pasolini has become the surprise front runner in the ‘classic Italian cinema now available in HD’ stakes, this excellent release plugged one of the last holes in my viewing of his output.

100 Anos – Manoel de oliveira

A shitload of Slovak Films – Dirt cheap, with an obscene proportion of unknown masterpieces (or near-misses) amongst them


Best Extra

An Untitled Film – on Requiem for a Village (BFI) – Simply the best BluRay transfer I’ve seen, and a hell of a film too.

Best Package of Extras

It’s Twins! The Strange Case of Angelica and The Colour of Pomegranates

[primolandia]

Best Release
1. SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS
2. ZAZIE DANS LE METRO
3. THE MUSIC ROOM
4. ISLAND OF LOST SOULS
5. THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE

Best Eclipse Set
KOREYOSHI KURAHARA

Best Reissue
NAKED KISS

Best Blu-ray Upgrade
HARAKIRI

Best R1 Rescue
12 ANGRY MEN

Best (Re)Discovery
DESIGN FOR LIVING

Most Disappointing Release
MAKIOKA SISTERS

Best Commentary
SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS

Best Supplement
KILLER'S KISS

Best Cover
THE KILLING

Best Packaging
SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS

[Tribe]

Best Release:
1-The Complete Jean Vigo
2-Sweet Smell of Success
3-Kiss Me Deadly
4-People On Sunday
5-Pale Flower

Best Eclipse Set:
The Warped World of Koreyoshi Kurahara

Best Reissue:
Tokyo Drifter

Best (Re)Discovery:
Cul de Sac

Best Commentary:
James Naremore on Sweet Smell of Success

Best Supplement:
Killer's Kiss on The Killers

Best Cover:
Island of Lost Souls

Best Packaging:
Sweet Smell of Success

Member of the Year:
matrixschmatrix

[HistoryProf]

Best Release (1-5, in order of preference)
1. The Phantom Carriage
2. Fish Tank
3. The Killing
4. Complete Jean Vigo
5. Kiss Me Deadly

Best Eclipse Set
Basil Dearden's London Underground

Best Reissue
The Rules of the Game

Best Blu-ray Upgrade
Le Cercle Rouge

Best R1 Rescue (for title already available in R1 and re-released by Criterion)
Kiss Me Deadly

Best (Re)Discovery
Blow Out

Most Disappointing Release (for Criterion's treatment, not the film itself)
Identification of a Woman for lack of supplements

Best Commentary
n/a

Best Supplement
Sterling Hayden on The Killing

Best Cover
The Phantom Carriage

Best Packaging
Fanny & Alexander Blu

Member of the Year
SWO

Richard Cranium Award
James Mills

[willoneill]

Best Release
1. The Killing
2. Jean Vigo set
3. Phantom Carriage
4. Blow Out
5. Island of Lost Souls

Best Eclipse Set
Basil Dearden's London Underground

Best Reissue
Orpheus

Best Blu-ray Upgrade
Fanny and Alexander

Best R1 Rescue (for title already available in R1 and re-released by Criterion)
The Killing & Killer's Kiss

Best (Re)Discovery
Design For Living

Most Disappointing Release (for Criterion's treatment, not the film itself)
Something Wild

Best Commentary
Didn't listen to any of them.

Best Supplement
Sterling Hayden Interview on The Killing

Best Cover
People on Sunday

Best Packaging
Carlos

Member of the Year
MichaelB

Richard Cranium Award
mfunk

[domino harvey]

Deadline to edit / submit your list is Midnight EST on January 14th. You can edit your posts up through the 13th without needing to inform me. Once I've collected all already-posted lists, I'll make a note of it in the thread, at which point you will need to PM me for any changes.

[Zaki]

Best Release

Three Colors Trilogy
The Music Room
The Phantom Carriage
The Complete Jean Vigo
People on Sunday

Best Reissue
Shock Corridor

Best Blu-Ray Upgrade
La Cercle Rouge

Best (Re)Discovery
Kiss Me Deadly

Most Disappointing Release
Identification of a Woman

Best Commentary
The Sweet Smell of Success

Best Supplement
Satyajit Ray documentary (The Music Room)

Best Cover
The Rules of the Game

Best Packaging
The Sweet Smell of Success

Member of the Year
Michael Kerpan

Best Non-Criterion Releases
Buster Keaton: Our Hospitality (Kino)
Alice (BFI)
Taxi Driver (Sony)
The Strange Case of Angelica (Cinema Guild)
Buster Keaton: The Short Films Collection 1920-1923 (Kino)

[Volta]

CRITERION (First Run)
1. The Times Of Harvey Milk (High hopes for The War Room!)
2. Three Colours Trilogy
3. Carlos
4. Fish Tank
5. Insignificance

CRITERION (Reissue)
Solaris (Tokyo Drifter in an extremely close second!)

CRITERION (Blu-Ray Upgrade)
The Battle Of Algiers

ECLIPSE
Aki Kuarismäki's Leningrad Cowboys

BEST R1 RESCUE
12 Angry Men

BEST (RE)DISCOVERY
Island Of Lost Souls

MOST DISAPPOINTING RELEASE
Zazie Dans Le Métro (Perhaps the best film released all year.... with the shittiest cover art I've ever seen and supplements that lent the film no context! Message received, Criterion: You may retract your middle finger now!!)

BEST COMMENTARY
The Times Of Harvey Milk

BEST SUPPLEMENT
In The Beginning Was The End: The Truth About De-Evolution (Island Of Lost Souls)
*I'm excluding Murder À La Mod and Killer's Kiss, 'cause they're fucking feature-length films!! (.... on your fucking phone!!)

BEST COVER
Blow Out

BEST PACKAGING
Carlos

MEMBER OF THE YEAR
Mr. Sausage!!

RICHARD CRANIUM AWARD
I rather like Finch's answer. I swear, if I hear the word "pretentious" again, it'll be a fucking bloodbath!! (That goes for Melancholia haters, too!)

Haha!! I use so many ellipses! My entry looks like a Shabazz Palaces song title!!

Edit: I saw some members posting things like "Best Non-Criterion" and "Best Videogame," so I thought I'd do music. It was an amazing year for Icelandic music, with offerings from Nolo, Caterpillarmen, and Sóley; but the best "conventional" album I've ever heard was released by Björk just this year. It's called Biophilia.... but it is not the best thing I've heard all year.

BEST MUSIC
24 Hour Song Skull (The Flaming Lips): You can catch the stream here. It's a hard sell, but listening to this "song" was one of the most visceral and affecting experiences of my life.... Fair Warning: This alienated Flaming Lips fans. (Just let that sink in a little.)

[Mr Sausage]

Richard Cranium Award(?????)
domino harvey!!.... if this is a good thing.... otherwise, no comment!!

It would be the opposite of the Member of the Year award. (Hint: diminutive for Richard, synonym for cranium).

[Volta]

Richard Cranium Award(?????)
domino harvey!!.... if this is a good thing.... otherwise, no comment!!

It would be the opposite of the Member of the Year award. (Hint: diminutive for Richard, synonym for cranium).

Haha!! (Sorry, domino!) Thanks for telling me, mate! (That really went over my head. Clever, I must admit!) I ought to nominate you for member of the year, but I'm not sure if admins qualify....

In my defense, that's not a common phrase in Iceland, but in case you go there, it's "typpihöfuð." You won't have to bust it out much, but just in case....

[skuhn8]

I believe admins do qualify for either category.

[Volta]

Thanks, mate. (Who in their right mind would put an admin down for the latter category??)

[Numero Trois]

Exactly. No need to name names, though, right?

[LQ]

Best Criterion Releases
1. Sweet Smell of Success
2. Blow Out
3. Kes
4. The Killing
5. 12 Angry Men

Best Eclipse: N/A

Best Reissue: Naked Kiss

Best Blu-ray Upgrade: 3 Women

Best R1 Rescue: Blow Out

Best [Re]Discovery: Sweet Smell of Success

Best Commentary: James Naremore on Sweet Smell of Success

Best Supplement: Baumbach's interview with De Palma on Blow Out

Best Cover Art: Blow Out

Best Packaging: Sweet Smell of Success

Most Disappointing Release: Black Moon

Forum Member of the Year: Swo

(I know it doesn't officially count, but I also have to honor tarpilot as Best New Member).