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I think the "Breathless" cover will go over much better with 'repeat viewings.' I seem to like it a hell of a lot better now than I did 5 minutes ago!

"Under the Volcano," on the other hand is a disaster. That skeleton at the bottom makes it look like a bad Romero ripoff!

Criterion's art department really dropped the ball this month. (Hope the "Days of Heaven" cover does not suffer.) Plus, I'm really getting tired of the overuse of image slicing in every other artwork of theirs...

Is anyone disappointed that they used Breathless instead of À bout de souffle on the cover? I think I recall someone posting that they hoped they used À bout de souffle as the title.

Personally it doesn't bother me what title they used - I'm just glad it's here.

mpippia wrote:Is anyone disappointed that they used Breathless instead of À bout de souffle on the cover? I think I recall someone posting that they hoped they used À bout de souffle as the title.

Personally it doesn't bother me what title they used - I'm just glad it's here.

To me Breathless will always be a film with Richard Gere.

I clicked the Breathless link with dread -- it's the film that turned me on to cinema and will always feel like a film Godard made just for me.

And now it has a cover that feels like Criterion made just for me. Bravissimo, Criterion art dept!

-Toilet Dcuk

I think it is safe to assume that Breathless will be a digipak given the potential size of the booklet. The cover leads me to think the finished product could look a little like a folded newspaper.

What newspaper do you read that looks like that? Is your newspaper made out of concrete with the words spray-painted onto it?

I really dislike the BREATHLESS cover. Especially the fact that GODARD is in bigger type than the name of the film.

ByMarkClark.com wrote:I really dislike the BREATHLESS cover. Especially the fact that GODARD is in bigger type than the name of the film.

Wasn't the film about Godard?

justeleblanc wrote:

ByMarkClark.com wrote:I really dislike the BREATHLESS cover. Especially the fact that GODARD is in bigger type than the name of the film.

Wasn't the film about Godard?

aren't all of his films about "GODARD"?

Breathless cover... ballsy, perhaps, but ultimately foolish. Much too standoffish a facade for one of the most inviting and charming art films ever. I can't imagine it drawing the interest of anyone not already in-the-know. I don't buy any of the conceptual justifications, either.

I bet we'll see a new cover before this hits the shelves.

I agree completely. Godard said re: Breathless that he'd thought he was making a gangster movie like "Scarface," but he discovered that he had in fact made "Alice in Wonderland." This cover invokes neither--in fact it's the most nondescript and austere cover in the collection. I'm really baffled--what are they trying to say?

"This is a film titled BREATHLESS. It was made by a fellow named Jean-Luc Godard". I thought that was fairly straightforward.

Mmm...taste the delicious unnecessary sarcasm.

If all a design can communicate is who made what, why isn't every other film in the collection designed like a Post-it note? What did Breathless do to deserve this?

Des Esseintes wrote:Mmm...taste the delicious unnecessary sarcasm. If all a design can communicate is who made what, why isn't every other film in the collection designed like a Post-it note? What did Breathless do to deserve this?

It didn't have a credit sequence.

I really like the Breathless cover too. Reminds me of a movie ticket stub. With shades of "Jane Austin by Emma".

Kudos to Under the Volcano and even the Mala Noche cover is growing on me--I'm a big fan of narcissism.

Doctor Sunshine wrote:Kudos to Under the Volcano and even the Mala Noche cover is growing on me--I'm a big fan of narcissism.

Is the film Narcissistic or just the cover art?

Des Esseintes wrote:Mmm...taste the delicious unnecessary sarcasm.

If all a design can communicate is who made what, why isn't every other film in the collection designed like a Post-it note? What did Breathless do to deserve this?

It wasn't unnececessary. Seems perfectly necessary to me.

Maybe I'm a damn fool, but I love the cover for Breathless, and I think mostly of the fact that it's the most Godardian of all the Godard covers. Simple font and white background. Love it.

Also reminds me of the French covers for his histroy of cinema docs.

I think the Breathless cover art is perfect, provided it's a Digipack it will look incredibly cool.

But the red C has to go.

If any Godard DVD cover has to recall the brash intertitles that, if used in someone else's film, invite someone to immediately call it "Godardian", shouldn't it be Breathless?

SncDthMnky wrote:Is the film Narcissistic or just the cover art?

A friendly reminder to keep all non-trivial discussion here.

I joke. I haven't seen the film. The cover strikes me as photo boothesque. Like something I would do, or do do frequently.

Personally, I like all three of these covers well enough, and in particular the cover of 'Under the Volcano' (which seems to really suit my memories of the film) and the cover of 'Mala Noche' which is one of the most overtly and strikingly erotic covers I've seen from Criterion.

Methinks the Breathless cover isn't the real thing. They're just trying out an alternative to 'Box Art Coming Soon'.

I'm gonna pipe in and declare myself with the minority. That Breathless cover is excellent...it's stark and to the point and imaginative. I wouldn't change a thing about it.

Tribe

Tribe wrote:imaginative

mind=blown

domino harvey wrote:mind=blown

Only when I'm watching Armageddon.

Tribe

Like I said, I think it's a daring failure. Which makes it better than a flat-out failure (Milky Way), which is why I can accept it and be happy.