Criterion Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol.2

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toiletduck! · #101 Post by **toiletduck!** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 3:01 pm

That strawberry looks so happy to be crazed! I think we could all learn a valuable lesson from it.

-Toilet Dcuk

javelin · #102 Post by **javelin** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 3:04 pm

Thank you thank you thank you. I really don't see how Criterion could top that. And if they don't, I'm doing my own cut and paste job - physically cutting and pasting that printed image on my Crazed Fruit case. That'll show 'em.

Andre Jurieu · #103 Post by **Andre Jurieu** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 3:12 pm

toilet dcuk wrote:That strawberry looks so happy to be crazed! I think we could all learn a valuable lesson from it.

Damn, that's hilarious!

Is anyone else creeped out by how buffed-up all these Crazed Fruit appear? Their athletic builds and access to fierce weaponry make me feel inferior. I wouldn't mind using that cover-art, but I doubt my fragile masculine ego could handle it.

Andre Jurieu · #104 Post by **Andre Jurieu** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 4:29 pm

Well, they decided to go another way with the artwork.

Jun-Dai · #105 Post by **Jun-Dai** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 4:30 pm

I still think the creator of the mock cover needs to forward it on to Mulvaney.

javelin · #106 Post by **javelin** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 7:12 pm

I see no fruit, I see no straight-jackets, I see no machetes - I'm fucking pissed.

Gregory · #107 Post by **Gregory** » Mon Apr 04, 2005 9:08 pm

I think the Crazed Fruit cover is fine. Coincidentally, I remember John Zorn using that very same image from the film on the back cover of one of his records.

Jean-Luc Garbo · #108 Post by **Jean-Luc Garbo** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 8:55 pm

Gregory, which Zorn record has that image on it?

Gregory · #109 Post by **Gregory** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 10:22 pm

It's the original release of Spillane, which contains a piece called "Forbidden Fruit" dedicated to the film Crazed Fruit and its star Ishihara. FYI, the CD Godard/Spillane is a fantastic release but it's not really a reissue of Spillane. It doesn't contain the second side of the Spillane album, and it also lacks the photo and has different liner notes. An explanation of the piece from the original notes:

John Zorn wrote:To balance the dramatic, narrative style of Spillane and the hot, live band quality of Two-Lane Highway, I came upon the idea of writing something for a more 'pure music' context when I was in Tokyo in January of 1987. I settled on an instrumentation featuring the Kronos Quartet; Christian Marclay, using only records of string music; and one of my very favorite voices in the world, Ohta Hiromi. The piece really came together, however, in July 1987, when, devastated by the sudden death of the great Japanese film star Ishihara Yujiro, I felt an inescapable desire to write a tribute piece for him and include it in this album. I worked quickly on a set of variations, inspired largely by the photo of him with his wife, Kitahara Mie, and Tsugawa Masahiko, from his debut film Kurutta Kajitsu. Mie is unbelievably gorgeous in this photo.
The actual theme of the variations is a set of twelve sound blocks - for instance, having all four instruments play glissandos - which instead of being presented in direct sequence are spread out over the entire duration of the piece. Composed of sixty sections in all, four sets of twelve variations each, and the twelve themes, all squeezed into ten minutes, this is perhaps my most compact and fast-moving piece to date.

Also, I'll add that the photo on the record cover is much less cropped and claustrophbic. I guess chopping into the images of people they put on their covers, as someone observed in detail in this thread, really is part of Criterion's visual style.

P.S. I wonder if Zorn showed Criterion the photo and talked with them about this film when he was working with them on Suzuki extras!

godardslave · #110 Post by **godardslave** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 1:49 am

its interesting that the au hasard cover seems to be a real divisive one. you either love it or hate it.

as for me, i love it. it conveys a certain compassion and purity to me.

#111 Post by **Matt** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 9:03 am

godardslave wrote:as for me, i love it. it conveys a certain compassion and purity to me.

Yes, but have you seen the movie? It's not about the girl. It's yet another injustice comitted against Balthazar that his poor face is cut in half on the cover.

denti alligator · #112 Post by **denti alligator** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 10:29 am

Having now seen the movie, I'm with Matt on this one. However, it may be that this shot (which is from the film, of course) also crops the head, so that there wasn't a choice, except chosing another still.

Tribe · #113 Post by **Tribe** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 11:17 am

Let's just be grateful that all Balthazar had to deal with was Robert Bresson, and not Lars von Trier.

Tribe

jcelwin · #114 Post by **jcelwin** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 11:45 am

The cover seems lazy. I wish that Criterion wouldn't do this so often. Many covers look ok when they take photos/frames from the movie, but doing it so often (especially lately) just makes it boring and shows a lack of originality and creativeness.

This release is probably one where they could easily gain by employing a good artist for it.

Lino · #115 Post by **Lino** » Fri Apr 22, 2005 11:54 am

Tribe wrote:Let's just be grateful that all Balthazar had to deal with was Robert Bresson, and not Lars von Trier.

Tribe

Hah! Good one! But apparently that whole donkey mutilation scene was ultimately left out from the final product. Maybe on the third instalment of the America Trilogy he will re-insert it to a even more devastating effect (this time causing the whole cast and crew to quit en masse!

).

#116 Post by **cdnchris** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 8:23 pm

I don't know. The chick on the Au Hasard... cover is hotter than the ass, so it definitely wins for sex appeal.

Anyways, found the disc art for The Life Aquatic. Wasn't sure where to post it, but figured this was the safest place to post it.

I like them.

What A Disgrace · #117 Post by **What A Disgrace** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 6:51 pm

DVDEmpire has the back cover for Hoop Dreams.

http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_item.a ... b=5&back=1

Andre Jurieu · #118 Post by **Andre Jurieu** » Mon May 02, 2005 12:14 pm

Hrossa · #119 Post by **Hrossa** » Mon May 02, 2005 12:24 pm

I don't really care for either of those covers. I'm not sure about the Gate of Flesh cover. The jury's still in deliberation. I think my problem with it is the major contrast between the still from the film and the rest of the cover. I think I'd like it more without the screen capture, which frankly looks like a faded image from DVDBeaver. I'm curious to see if the Story of a Prostitute cover compliments it a la the YOTB/FE and BTK/TD pairs.

Lino · #120 Post by **Lino** » Mon May 02, 2005 12:48 pm

I'm having trouble with the Visconti cover. It just seems too dark although I like the mood it conveys which fits the film perfectly. And I wonder why they went with the original film's title instead of the english version one - maybe a nod to a discussion on this forum about the correct italian writing of "white" and "nights"...

Still, I hope they revise it.

As for the Suzuki one - way too many words around the picture. It just suffocates it. I like the concept, though.

cbernard · #121 Post by **cbernard** » Mon May 02, 2005 1:00 pm

The Gate of Flesh cover looks like a credit card from the year 3000.

Lemdog · #122 Post by **Lemdog** » Mon May 02, 2005 1:01 pm

I'm sorry but that Gate of Flesh cover is bad ass.

the dancing kid · #123 Post by **the dancing kid** » Mon May 02, 2005 1:08 pm

I'm not really feeling the Gate of Flesh cover. I'm glad they included to Japanese flag on it, but the abstract design of the patterns against the screen capture makes for a weird contrast. It just feels really angular and conflicted. I would have preferred some kind of blending of the main character's face into the flag. It's also interesting that the main character, Maya, doesn't appear on this cover.

I wonder if Story of a Prostitutep will be in the same style, since the other Suzuki releases (which always come in pairs) have had similar looks to one another.

Hrossa · #124 Post by **Hrossa** » Mon May 02, 2005 2:23 pm

Is it just me, or has that Gate of Flesh cover changed since I looked at it this morning? I don't remember the duplication of Suzuki's name being legible, or the bars of pink and green at the bottom of the image. I think we should expect for this one to change, at least a bit, before they release it.

Cinephrenic · #125 Post by **Cinephrenic** » Mon May 02, 2005 2:44 pm

Great cover, but they should lose the extra name and the still image in my opinion. Great month.