Someone will probably come in here and tell you to post this in some previously created thread, but to answer your question, I bought Breathless the other day and the packaging is fantastic.
I love the look and feel of the Cassavetes: Five Films and Eric Rohmer: Six Moral Tales sets. That being said, if you replaced the content of those sets and made them Christopher Nolan: Five Films and George Lucas: Six Heroic Tales and put the Cassavetes and Rohmer films in brown paper bags, I’m dumping the pretty packages in the nearest toilet and taking home two awesome paper bags.
I realize that was beside the point of your post but I find any serious interest in packaging to be somewhat questionable. My snarkiness is attributable to another thread where someone basically says they would be hesitant to pick up Godard’s Masculin Feminin because of the awful packaging.
I appreciate Criterion’s efforts to aestheticise their product but I think that it isn’t important at all and they ought not to bother. I just want the content and it can be fed to me in any form – though one condition is that I must be able to store it.
“Mike Spence”- Really? it’s questionable? For me, Menu and Package Design are only a huge bonus. I didn’t mention that at first because I think such things are understood. I’m not the type that likes icing without cake.
@AI
I figured. When i said “serious interest” i was more referring to anyone who would let the package turn them off as opposed to someone like yourself for whom the icing is simply a bonus for the cake. My gripes were more general than specific to your post:)
“I appreciate Criterion’s efforts to aestheticise their product but I think that it isn’t important at all and they ought not to bother.”
It’s not important to you, but it’s very important to earning more viewers and getting people’s attention. Whether you like it or not, a product has to market itself on shelves or people will not buy it. The logo for Criterion has changed twice in the time I’ve known them and both times it was towards an aesthetic of creating a recognizable, dependable label. I’m sure I’m not the only one who sees that label and, without even seeing which movie it is specifically, immediately let my eyes get drawn to it to see what it is. Many labels have, in fact, made slightly Criterion-like designs on their packaging to create just that effect, which is one of the reasons why Criterion has to keep changing their design, to keep ahead of their own popularity being subsumed by competition.
—PolarisDiB
“but it’s very important to earning more viewers and getting people’s attention.”
Which is a problem to be lamented, not celebrated.
Nor was I celebrating it, but it’s still downright common sense: how do you know to buy something if you don’t know what it is? In order to know what it is, your must be in some way attracted to it. In order to be attracted to it, it must be designed attractively. This isn’t a human nature argument, it’s the way brains work argument, and if you downplay the importance of it then you’re not understanding how people think. I personally do not lament that, uh, I am capable of finding good movies because of cover design, where individual research, recommendations, and even discussions and readings like here on the auteurs don’t mention it. How did I see Ink? Because the cover looked good. And now I can recommend it to all of you, and thus recommended, you know about it. That’s not lamentable. It’s not celebratable. It’s communication.
—PolarisDiB
I’m not saying attraction to package design only leads to eternal damnation, just that the idea of someone holding Kino’s ugly-ass Stalker in one hand and Criterion’s pretty Chasing Amy in the other and walking out with the shitty Smith film is a problem for me. My example isn’t very well thought out but, assuming they have only a limited knowledge of what both films are about, I’d prefer they dismissed the package design and did more research.
I realize it’s not realistic, I guess I’m just the king of wishful thinking on this one.
Seven Samurai and Spirit Of The Beehive
seven samurai
the furies
cassavetes’ five films
the double life of veronique
breathless
the third man
last year at marienbad
mr arkadin
i think these have some of the most inventive as well as the most lavish packaging in the collection, which is wonderful since the films the packages represent are all deserving of such great treatment.
It’s cool, I understand. There are some Criterion releases that look absolutely terrible, and it’s a shame because the movies are better than the things they’re sitting next to on the shelf. That’s why threads like this can be useful, in recognizing what works and what doesn’t, in terms of bringing people into a wider world of cinema. It’s an uphill battle but luckily the slope isn’t as steep as it very well could be.
Aside: Personally, I prefer the landscape images as covers—Human Condition, Walkabout, etc. Close-ups of faces always turn me off, like Under the Volcano.
—PolarisDiB
Beat me to mentioning Seven Samurai.
Wait, I know about one Criterion logo change, but what was the other? And who was copying it?
CJ, it’s such a perfect set, isn’t it?
The menu design for La Jetee / Sans Soleil is amazing, and, for packaging, I vote for Mishima… opening that box is an epic experience!
I think the package and menu design of Science is Fiction: 23 Films by Jean Painleve is the epitome of Criterion’s design team, truly gorgeous work and i enjoy looking at it just as much as i enjoy watching the films themselves. That’s just the kind of guy i am.
The best of the recent ones must be Vampyr. Beautiful box.
I agree about Vampyr ,Science Is Fiction, and The Seven Samurai. I’d also like to mention Two-Lane Blacktop.
I agree about Vampyr ,Science Is Fiction, and The Seven Samurai. I’d also like to mention Two-Lane Blacktop.
The Rules of the Game
Vampyr, most definitely. Also Pandora’s Box (thank you, Criterion, for such a masterful presentation of one of my favorite films). Richard III and Boudu Saved from Drowning feature beautiful artwork reproduced from the original promotional materials. Boudu also features a one-of-a-kind special feature — a virtual tour of 1930s Paris that is easily one of the coolest things I’ve encountered on a DVD.
Oh, and some love for Wages of Fear.
Cheers,
Steve
www.CinemaUprising.Blogspot.com
Ugetsu, no doubt about it
“Wait, I know about one Criterion logo change, but what was the other? And who was copying it?”
The very early releases of Criterion, especially during the laserdisc days, was of two almost cursive C’s, until it became the line that drew across the screen (and the top of the case), until it became the spinning disc and disc with a wedge removed of the third design.
Meridian collection was copying it, several Merchant Ivory DVDs were well aware of the design and had that same basic line across the top, Facets’ logo on opening screens is kinda hilarious because it starts with an arrow pointing to a very Criterion Collecion’esque “C” while the screen says “Le deuxieme” (or, the 2nd) before the rest of the FAcETS title fades in (I noticed this when I was watching Damnation the other day).
—PolarisDiB
The Merchant Ivory Collection was designed by Criterion themselves and can be found on their site
Nobody’s mentioned Videodrome? Seriously?
newest Seven Samurai edition
Last Year at Marienbad
also I love the drawings used for the Wes Anderson films
Two stand out off the top of my head…
My Own Private Idaho and The Double Life of Veronique
Ai
I really love a well put together finished product. The look, the feel, and the unity are all important to me.
Which Criterion Menu and Package Design do you love?
For myself it would be the “Three Films by Hiroshi Teshigahara” box set.
Hats off to the Art Directors: Sarah Habibi & Neil Kellerhouse , and the entire Art Team!
You all did an outstanding job!!! Thank you