Arabian Nights (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1974)
Todd Spence’s poster for New Beverly’s David Lynch film series.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Brmmmmmphhh and Bryyaawww | Prometheus
(I’m seriously way to excited about this movie.)
I CANT WAITTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
CRITERION ANNOUNCES AUGUST 2012 RELEASES!!!
wooooows. for the past few years, it seems as if criterion has been on a mission to single-handedly save august from being the dog days of summer, and so it’s not too surprising that their line-up for this august is patently insane. but still… wooooows.
#620 LA PROMESSE (dir. Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne) 1996
welcome to the Criterion Collection, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne! their breakthrough film is still among their best, the story of a boy coming of age while working for his father (the great Olivier Gourmet) as a human trafficker. a light release with just some interviews and new subs, but this is a film worth owning as best you can. spare, evocative cover art is pitch-perfect.
#621 ROSETTA (dir. Dardennes again!) 1998
and here we are 2 years later, as the Dardennes claimed their first Palme d’Or with this story of an impoverished young woman struggling to support herself and her alcoholic mother. if it sounds like dreary stuff, that’s because it totally is, but those Belgian brothers bring it to life with a rare immediacy and a poetic touch that confounds the limits of verité cinema. perfectly pitched cover art, just over the girl’s shoulder as it should be.
#622 WEEKEND (dir. Andrew Haigh) 2011
welllll, what have we here? i’m a bit surprised by this, it slipped under my radar as a potential Criterion release under the IFC partnership, but it is hugely deserving of a place in the Collection. this is the time to be horribly reductive, but come august Weekend can no longer be referred to as a gay Before Sunset, cause this beautifully observed film is so much more. Disc is pretty loaded with goodies (but no commentary. boo) and the cover is as pitch-perfect as it was inevitable.
#623 LONESOME (dir. Paul Fejos) 1928
in a month loaded with essentials, this might be the neatest release of all. a rarity / cinephile fetish object for years and years, this early-era talkie is a crazed, stylistically restless visit to Coney Island on the fourth of july, from an unsung filmmaker / anthropologist / doctor / legend. it’s like Scott Pilgrim for the pre-Depression set. and the disc is packed with two other Fejos films, visual essays, and a commentary track, all wrapped up in some of the most striking Criterion artwork of the year.
#624 QUADROPHENIA (dir. Franc Roddam) 1979
what better time to release the cinema’s most rocking rebel yell than right before the start of the new school year? the year was 1979, the band was The Who, and the songs were all anthems. this is an anti-authority classic, and a release that Criterion has been building towards for some time. and hey, is that… Sting? more Sting in the Collection is always a good thing. i mean, it’s definitely *a* thing, at the very least. you get some interviews and an audio commentary from director Franc Roddam, himself. and the art… i mean, it’s Quadrophenia!
Eclipse Series 35: Maidstone and Other Films By Norman Mailer
three films by everyone’s favorite dead curmudgeon: Maidstone (duh), Wild 90, and Beyond the Law. how Mailer’s episode of Gilmore Girls didn’t make the cut, we’ll never know.
![criterioncorner:
THE 5 BEST QUOTES FROM MICHEL GONDRY’S BEING JOHN MALKOVICH COMMENTARY
someone at Criterion got the brilliant idea of getting Spike Jonze’s friend / arch-nemesis Michel Gondry to record the commentary track on their Being John Malkovich release. some legal shenanigans have prevented Criterion from using the entire track, but the selected-scene commentary that’s included on the disc packs an absurd amount of genius into its 57 minutes. Gondry isn’t shy about his bitter rivalry with Jonze — most of the track is a hilarious meta-commentary on the perils of jealousy among artists, as Gondry, to put it generously, gets a *bit* distracted from the task at hand.
this is something that you should really experience for yourself, so all the quotes i’ve included below have been plucked exclusively from the first 15 minutes of the commentary. it only gets more amazing from here. trust.
(note: best read with a very thick French accent. all of Gondry’s imaginative sentence structure has been kept intact)
Gondry on the opening credits:
“What the fuck? I didn’t do this movie! I’ve been tricked.”
Gondry discussing an encounter he and Spike Jonze had when they were struggling to get their first films into production:
“We run into the guy who did Buffalo 66 (Vincent Gallo), and he said he’s gonna retire from movies and become a lawyer. And he’s such an asshole, talking to us who are struggling to have a movie made and he’s complaining cause he has too much work? I felt like he was, uh… just an arrogant bastard. So everyone hate him after this commentary.”
Gondry on the introduction of Mr. Lester:
“I don’t know who this actor is, I bet he’s not alive anymore. It’s kinda gross to watch movies, everyone is dead… I remember watching the movie and thinking the shoes of the guy survived the guy, the guy was dead, but maybe his shoes were somewhere still functioning. Anyway, I’m supposed to be talking about this movie… who is this actor? [Gondry is told it’s Orson Bean] Is he still alive… [a few moments pass] Great news, Orson Bean is still alive.”
Gondry on the Malkovich portal:
“Charlie imagined more of a vagina, but Spike imagined more of an asshole, I guess it’s just a matter of taste.”
Gondry trying to get back on task:
“Jealousy is a very ugly feeling, and i hate to have this feeling, so the best way to get rid of it is to say to everyone, and this is retarded because everyone thinks i’m a bitter person, which i don’t think i am. Oh, here he’s finding the portal.”](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3vgh0H2y61qebry0o1_r2_1280.jpg)
THE 5 BEST QUOTES FROM MICHEL GONDRY’S BEING JOHN MALKOVICH COMMENTARY
someone at Criterion got the brilliant idea of getting Spike Jonze’s friend / arch-nemesis Michel Gondry to record the commentary track on their Being John Malkovich release. some legal shenanigans have prevented Criterion from using the entire track, but the selected-scene commentary that’s included on the disc packs an absurd amount of genius into its 57 minutes. Gondry isn’t shy about his bitter rivalry with Jonze — most of the track is a hilarious meta-commentary on the perils of jealousy among artists, as Gondry, to put it generously, gets a *bit* distracted from the task at hand.
this is something that you should really experience for yourself, so all the quotes i’ve included below have been plucked exclusively from the first 15 minutes of the commentary. it only gets more amazing from here. trust.
(note: best read with a very thick French accent. all of Gondry’s imaginative sentence structure has been kept intact)
Gondry on the opening credits:
“What the fuck? I didn’t do this movie! I’ve been tricked.”
Gondry discussing an encounter he and Spike Jonze had when they were struggling to get their first films into production:
“We run into the guy who did Buffalo 66 (Vincent Gallo), and he said he’s gonna retire from movies and become a lawyer. And he’s such an asshole, talking to us who are struggling to have a movie made and he’s complaining cause he has too much work? I felt like he was, uh… just an arrogant bastard. So everyone hate him after this commentary.”
Gondry on the introduction of Mr. Lester:
“I don’t know who this actor is, I bet he’s not alive anymore. It’s kinda gross to watch movies, everyone is dead… I remember watching the movie and thinking the shoes of the guy survived the guy, the guy was dead, but maybe his shoes were somewhere still functioning. Anyway, I’m supposed to be talking about this movie… who is this actor? [Gondry is told it’s Orson Bean] Is he still alive… [a few moments pass] Great news, Orson Bean is still alive.”
Gondry on the Malkovich portal:
“Charlie imagined more of a vagina, but Spike imagined more of an asshole, I guess it’s just a matter of taste.”
Gondry trying to get back on task:
“Jealousy is a very ugly feeling, and i hate to have this feeling, so the best way to get rid of it is to say to everyone, and this is retarded because everyone thinks i’m a bitter person, which i don’t think i am. Oh, here he’s finding the portal.”
April 26th
1:05 PM EST
1:05 PM EST
PULP FICTION is one of the most overrated films of the last twenty years.
“Why do you have to die to let go?”
CRITERION CORNER GIVEAWAY!!!
LATE SPRING edition.
hey there. it’s been a while since i’ve randomly given stuff away, and that doesn’t jive well with my philosophy that love and / or readership should be shamelessly bought. so in honor of Criterion’s first Yasujiro Ozu blu-ray (the cover art of which, as with the original DVD, looks sorta like a Tumblr photo post), i thought it might be fun to give everyone out there a chance to take home one of the most beautiful stories about home ever told.
THE PRIZE: 1 Criterion DVD or Blu-ray (your choice, but choose the blu-ray) of Yasujiro Ozu’s LATE SPRING. Depending on the response, i may have more than 1 winner so that the ratio of entrees to prizes isn’t silly.
TO ENTER: just “like” and / or Re-blog this post (or RT on Twitter @Criterioncorner). each note will count as a separate entry, so everyone can theoretically submit a maximum total of 3 entries, if that’s how you roll.
giveaway will be closed at 11:59 P.M. EST on Friday, 4/20/2012. winners will be randomly selected. the odds may not be ever in your favor, but someone (or a few someones) are gonna get something sweet for nothing.
good luck, and thanks for reading!
April 18th
7:53 PM EST
7:53 PM EST
Magic Mike - Official Trailer (dir. Steven Soderbergh)
“Woke up, felt like shit. Went to work, felt like shit.”
This is one of the greatest movies of the last 20 years.
Happy Easter, everyone.
Criterion Cover for Andrew Dominik’s 2007 Western “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”
Last week I requested movie titles that you’d like to see get made with the criterion treatment. This movie was the # 1 request …. so here you go !!
MM
One of my all time favorite movies.
The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky
Ivan’s Childhood | Andrei Rublev | Solaris | The Mirror | Stalker | Nostalghia | The Sacrifice
Replicant Criterion Covers of Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner”
