criterionforum.org

VOTING NOW OPEN -- BALLOTS DUE BY CLOSE OF BUSINESS JANUARY 17 2014

Most people post their ballots in this thread but you can PM them to me as well. You may edit your ballots up until I tell you that you can't. Categories are as follows:

BEST RELEASE Numbered in order from 1-5. Must vote for five titles to have your ballot counted
BEST ECLIPSE Flip a coin
BEST BOXED SET Not including Eclipse
BEST MODERN FILM "New" (within the last two years) films released by Criterion
BEST COMMENTARY See list here
BEST ESSAY See list here
BEST "BONUS" FILM See bottom of this post for list of eligible titles
BEST (NON-COMMENTARY, NON-ESSAY, NON-BONUS FILM) SUPPLEMENT See exhaustive list here
BEST R1 RESCUE For a film already released in R1 by a label other than Criterion
BEST REISSUE
BEST UPGRADE
BEST DISCOVERY As the NBC ad for reruns used to say, "It's new for you"
BEST COVER
BEST PACKAGING
SECOND-MOST DISAPPOINTING RELEASE I'm going to spare us all the votes for the Earrings of Madame de... by preemptively declaring it the worst release of the year. So please, give us something interesting to read by voting for something else that disappointed you from Criterion in addition to this Blu-ray transfer

BEST THREAD The discussion or topic which generated the most interesting discussion this year
MEMBER OF THE YEAR The past winners of this award are, in order: David Hare, HerrSchreck, zedz, domino harvey, Cold Bishop, Michael Kerpan, swo17, MichaelB. These members are humbled and honored to have been selected already, and while they would never tell you not to vote for them again, feel free to spread the wealth to other deserving candidates this year
RICHARD CRANIUM AWARD You've honored the best, now honor the rest! AKA Worst Member

2013 RELEASES
643 the Man Who Knew Too Much
644 Pina
645 the Ballad of Narayama
646 the Kid With a Bike
647 On the Waterfront
648 Chronicle of a Summer
649 Ministry of Fear
650 A Man Escaped
651 Badlands
652 Monsieur Verdoux
653 Gates of Hell
654 Repo Man
655 Pierre Etaix
-- As Long As You've Got Your Health
-- Le Grand amour
-- Land of Milk and Honey
-- the Suitor
-- YoYo
656 Jubal
657 3:10 to Yuma
658 Medium Cool
659 Life is Sweet
660 Things to Come
661 Marketa Lazarova
662 Safety Last!
663 Shoah
664 the Life of Oharu
665 Babette's Feast
666 the Devil's Backbone
667 Seconds
668 the Big City
669 Charulata
670 To Be or Not to Be
671 La Cage aux folles
672 3 Films by Roberto Rossellini Starring Ingrid Bergman
-- Europa '51
-- Journey to Italy
-- Stromboli
676 I Married a Witch
677 the Uninvited
678 La Notte
679 Zatoichi: the Blind Swordsman
-- 25 films (Zatoichi's Pilgrimage only title not previously released)
680 City Lights
681 Frances Ha
682 Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
683 Nashville
684 Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project #1
-- Dry Summer
-- the Housemaid
-- Redes
-- A River Called TItas
-- Touki Bouki
-- Trances

Titles in this color previously released in R1 by DVD producers other than the Criterion Collection
Titles in this color are boxed sets
Titles in this color are modern/new film releases

ECLIPSE
38 Kobayashi Against the System
39 Early Fassbinder

REISSUES
043 Lord of the Flies
060 Autumn Sonata
173 the Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
213 Richard III
217 Tokyo Story
234 the Tin Drum

BLU-RAY UPGRADES
091 the Blob
123 Grey Gardens
139 Wild Strawberries
174 Band of Outsiders
220 Naked Lunch
247 Slacker
250-256 John Cassavetes: Five Films
-- Shadows
-- Faces
-- A Woman Under the Influence
-- the Killing of a Chinese Bookie
-- Opening Night
260 Eyes Without a Face
361 the Beales of Grey Gardens
386 Sansho the Bailiff
397 Ivan's Childhood
414 Two-Lane Blacktop
445 the Earrings of Madame de…
452 the Spy Who Came in From the Cold

List of "Bonus" Films Eligible only for "Best Bonus Film" category
Un É́té + 50 (Chronicle of a Summer)
Rupture
Happy Anniversary
Feeling Good (Pierre Etaix)
Probation
The Birth of the Goalie of the 2001 F.A. Cup Final
Old Chums
A Light Snack
Afternoon (Life Is Sweet)
Take a Chance
Young Mr. Jazz
His Royal Slyness (Safety Last!)
A Visitor from the Living
Sobibor, October 14, 1943, 4 p.m.
The Karski Report (Shoah)
The Coward (The Big City)
Pinkus's Shoe Palace (To Be or Not to Be)
My Dad Is 100 Years Old
The Chicken (3 Films by Roberto Rossellini Starring Ingrid Bergman)


Compiled with loving help from movielocke and swo17

Should be pretty easy to determine Best Eclipse Set of 2013.

Matt wrote:Should be pretty easy to determine Best Eclipse Set of 2013.

Pierre Etaix

Matt wrote:Should be pretty easy to determine Best Eclipse Set of 2013.

It won't be a category this year, so easier still!

EDIT: This is no longer true, I forgot there were two Eclipses this year, not one

I'd say that Colonel Blimp is a reissue, not an upgrade. Boy, I hope somebody got fired for that blunder.

A wizard did it

Here's a list I compiled of the commentaries on new spine numbers. for Tin Drum, I don't know if the commentary of the DC is different from the commentary on the previous edition.

2013 Commentaries you can vote for
The Man Who Knew Too Much – Philip Kemp
Pina – Wim Wenders
Medium Cool – Paul Cronin
Life is Sweet – Mike Leigh
Things to Come – David Kalat
Take a chance, Young Mr. Jazz, His Royal Slyness – Richard Correll and John Bengtson
The Devil’s Backbone – Guillermo del Toro
To Be or Not to Be – David Kalat
Journey to Italy – Laura Mulvey
City Lights – Jeffrey Vance


2013 Commentaries you cannot vote for*:
On the Waterfront – Richard Schickel and Jeff Young
Repo Man – Alex Cox, Michael Nesmith, Victoria Thomas, Sy Richardson, Zander Schloss, Del Zamora
Medium Cool – Haskell Wexler, Paul Golding, Marianna Hill
Safety Last – Leonard Maltin and Richard Correll
Seconds – John Frankenheimer
Nashville – Robert Altman


*because it was originated for Laserdisc, or it showed up ages ago on some long OOP non-criterion R1 dvd release.

movielocke wrote:for Tin Drum, I don't know if the commentary of the DC is different from the commentary on the previous edition.

You're in luck, there wasn't a commentary!

surely the commentary award will come down to which Kalat one is up to your preference?

We all know it's going to be Richard Schickel all the way

How many of them are new? I count The Man Who Knew Too Much, the second one of Medium Cool, Life is Sweet, Things to Come, To Be or Not to Be, City Lights. About one third.

With the website having identified all the cover artists, I put together this list of 2013 Covers. There are some perplexing omissions. Badlands doesn't have an artist, it just says 'from a painting commissioned by Malick' but doesn't identify the painter. I didn't include Pina in this list because the cover is based on the theatrical poster. Since I was sourcing this from the criterion website, I left a ? where the website doesn't identify them. Such as on the new releases and the June/July releases.

Edit: The narrator returns and swo17 PMed me with the artists for some of the missing ones.

2013 Covers:
Lord of the Flies – Kent Williams
Autumn Sonata – Robert Hunt
Tokyo Story – F. Ron Miller
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp – Fred Davis
The Tin Dum – David Plunkert
The Man Who Knew Too Much – Bill Nelson (design by F Ron Miller)
Ballad of Narayama – Yuko Shimizu
The Kid with a Bike – F. Ron Miller
On the Waterfront – Sean Phillips (design by Eric Skillman)
Chronicle of a Summer – Rodrigo Corral
Ministry of Fear – Geoff Grandfield
A Man Escaped – Sarah Habibi
Monsieur Verdoux – Yann Legandre
Gate of Hell – Eric Skillman
Repo Man – Jay Shaw & Tyler Stout (design by Rob Jones)
Pierre Etaix – Pierre Etaix
Jubal – Gregory Manchess
3:10 to Yuma – Gregory Manchess
Medium Cool – Fred Davis
Life is Sweet – Eric Skillman
Things to Come - Laurent Durieux (design by F. Ron Miller)
Marketa Lazarová - Neil Kellerhouse
Safety Last - F. Ron Miller
Shoah - Sam Smith
The Life of Oharu - Michael Boland
Babette’s Feast - Sarah Habibi
The Devil’s Backbone - Guy Davis (design by Eric Skillman)
Seconds - Saul Bass (design by Eric Skillman)
The Big City – Marian Bantjes
Charulata – Satyajit Ray (design by Marian Bantjes)
To Be or Not to Be – Caitlin Kuhwald
La Cage aux Folles – Maurice Vellekoop
Rossellini/Bergman – F. Ron Miller
I Married a Witch – Eric Skillman
The Uninvited – Sam Weber
La Notte – Lucien S. Y. Yang
City Lights – Seth
Frances Ha – Sarah Habibi
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion - Fred Davis
Nashville - Jay Shaw (design by Rob Jones)
Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project - Jason Hardy

Zatoichi - Cover by Ron Wimberly. Additional illustrations by Greg Ruth, Paul Pope, Scott Morse, Samuel Hiti, Josh Cochran, Evan Bryce, Ricardo Venâncio, Robert Goodin, Yuko Shimizu, Jorge Coelho, Vera Brosgol, Matt Kindt, Connor Willumsen, Patrick Leger, Jim Rugg, Jhomar Soriano, Angie Wang, Ming Doyle, Caitlin Kuhwald, Benjamin Marra, Bill Sienkiewicz, Andrew MacLean, Polly Guo, Barnaby Ward, Victor Kerlow.

Seconds is Saul Bass of course, but is based on the original poster design (like Pina). Devil's Backbone is by Guy Davis, artist of Mike Mignola's BPRD series. Things to Come is by Laurent Duriex

edit: Would a category for best essay be of much interest to anyone, or do people generally view them as a diminutive relative to the various other aspects of a release? Do you react strongly enough to the written materials to evaluate one against another (or several against one another, in this case)? Of course, if the essays do not stand out clearly enough on their own, I suppose one might view the essays as being absorbed by the packaging category.

Shoah is done by Sam Smith.

andyli wrote:How many of them are new? I count The Man Who Knew Too Much, the second one of Medium Cool, Life is Sweet, Things to Come, To Be or Not to Be, City Lights. About one third.

That particular Devil's Backbone commentary is a new one.

FakeBonanza wrote: edit: Would a category for best essay be of much interest to anyone, or do people generally view them as a diminutive relative to the various other aspects of a release? Do you react strongly enough to the written materials to evaluate one against another (or several against one another, in this case)? Of course, if the essays do not stand out clearly enough on their own, I suppose one might view the essays as being absorbed by the packaging category.

I love reading the essays, and I've got a list of those from 2013 as well.

2013 Booklet Contents:
Lord of the Flies – Geoffrey Macnab
Autumn Sonata – Farran Smith Nehme
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp – Molly Haskell
Richard III – Amy Taubin
The Tin Drum – Geoffrey Macnab
The Man Who Knew Too Much – Farran Smith Nehme
Pina – Siri Hustvedt
Pina – Wim Wenders
Pina – Pina Bausch
Ballad of Narayama – Philip Kemp
The Kid with a Bike – Geoff Andrew
On the Waterfront – Michael Almereyda
On the Waterfront – Elia Kazan
On the Waterfront – Malcolm Johnson
On the Waterfront – Budd Schulberg
Chronicle of a Summer – Sam Di Iorio
Ministry of Fear – Glenn Kenny
A Man Escaped – Tony Pipolo
Badlands – Michael Almereyda
Monsieur Verdoux – Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
Monsieur Verdoux – Charles Chaplin
Monsieur Verdoux – André Bazin
Gate of Hell – Stephen Prince
Repo Man – Sam McPheeters
Repo Man – Alex Cox
Repo Man – Mark Lewis
Pierre Etaix – David Cairns
Jubal – Kent Jones
3:10 to Yuma – Kent Jones
Medium Cool – Thomas Beard
Life is Sweet – David Sterritt
Things to Come – Geoffrey O’Brien
Marketa Lazarová – Tom Gunning
Marketa Lazarová - František Vlácil
Safety Last – Ed Park
Shoah – Kent Jones
Shoah – Claude Lanzmann
The Life of Oharu – Gilberto Perez
Babette’s Feast – Mark Le Fanu
Babette’s Feast – Isak Dinesen
The Devil’s Backbone – Mark Kermode
Seconds – David Sterritt
The Big City – Chandak Sengoopta
The Big City – Satyajit Ray and Andrew Robinson
Charulata – Philip Kemp
Charulata – Satyajit Ray and Andrew Robinson
To Be or Not to Be – Geoffrey O’Brien
To Be or Not to Be – Ernst Lubitsch
La Cage aux Folles – David Ehrenstein
Rossellini Bergman – Richard Brody
Rossellini Bergman – Dina Iordanova
Rossellini Bergman – Elena Dagrada
Rossellini Bergman – Fred Camper
Rossellini Bergman – Paul Thomas
Rossellini Bergman – Rossellini Bergman (letters)
Rossellini Bergman – Roberto Rossellini (1950)
Rossellini Bergman – Roberto Rossellini (1954)
Rossellini Bergman – Roberto Rossellini (1963)
I Married a Witch – Guy Maddin
I Married a Witch – René Clair
The Uninvited – Farran Smith Nehme
The Uninvited – Lewis Allen
La Notte – Richard Brody
La Notte – Michelangelo Antonioni
Zatoichi – Geoffrey O’Brien
Zatoichi – Chris D.
Zatoichi – Kan Shimozawa
City Lights – Gary Giddins
City Lights – Charles Chaplin
Frances Ha – Annie Baker
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion – Evan Calder Williams
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion – Ugo Pirro
Nashville – Molly Haskell
Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project – Charles Ramirez Berg
Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project – Bilge Ebiri
Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project – Kyung Hyun Kim
Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project – Adrian Martin
Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project – Richard Porton
Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project – Sally Shafto

Before anything, I just want to say that you guys compilating all these lists are going to make it much easier than past years to vote thoroughly among all what Criterion has released in 2013. So thanks a lot.

Things To Come has a previous R1 release.

So are all of the box sets new to Region 1?

No, most of the Zatoichis have been released in R1

Drucker wrote:Things To Come has a previous R1 release.

Shoah was also previously available on DVD in R1, I'm pretty sure. I remember it being famously expensive.

All queries should be addressed by now. Added Best Essay category because why not

knives wrote:No, most of the Zatoichis have been released in R1

If someone wants to list all the titles in the boxed set and indicate which ones were previously released, I'll edit it in

Movielocke, can you edit your commentary post to include only those commentaries which are new, ie ditch the ported commentaries?

domino harvey wrote:Movielocke, can you edit your commentary post to include only those commentaries which are new, ie ditch the ported commentaries?

I moved the ones I think are ineligible based on the posts here, but I don't know for certain, so my splitting it was something of a wild guess as to which commentaries have appeared before on laserdisc, other regions or OOP non-criterion R1 DVDs.

Zatoichi films in order:
Tale of Zatoichi, The
Tale of Zatoichi Continues, The
New Tale of Zatoichi
Zatoichi the Fugitive
Zatoichi on the Road
Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold
Zatoichi's Flashing Sword
Fight, Zatoichi, Fight
Adventures of Zatoichi
Zatoichi's Revenge
Zatoichi and the Doomed Man
Zatoichi and the Chess Expert
Zatoichi's Vengeance
Zatoichi's Pilgrimage
Zatoichi's Cane Sword
Zatoichi the Outlaw
Zatoichi Challenged
Zatoichi and the Fugitives
Samaritan Zatoichi
Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo
Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival
Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordman
Zatoichi at Large
Zatoichi in Desperation
Zatoichi's Conspiracy

***
This is perhaps the most diverse year, by country in criterion's history:

They've released 70 new films with spine numbers (not including bonus films, though counting all 25 zatoichi, pierre etaix, and WCF) covering 18 countries. For comparison, 2011 had 40 films from 9 countries and 2012 had 43 films from 10 countries

Perhaps for the first time in the companies history, a majority of the films were not from the United States (usually US comprises 30-40% of a given year's releases), fully 40% of their 2013 main line releases were from Japan (25 Zatoichi films really put them over the top!)

Here's the year's breakdown by country and number of films:

Japan 28
USA 16
France 9
United Kingdom 3
India 2
Germany 1
Belgium 1
Czechloslovakia 1
Denmark 1
Spain, Mexico 1
Italy 1
Senegal 1
Mexico 1
Bangladesh 1
Turkey 1
Morocco 1
South Korea 1

Thanks! I believe On the Waterfront is on the Sony disc, Safety Last was on the New Line DVD, and Pina wasn't on a previous R1 release-- I'm okay with the commentary being ported over from a non-R1 source (So Journey to Italy is also eligible)