Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol.4

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#401 Post by **domino harvey** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 6:21 am

I think it's there as a nod to what we're no longer reliant on:

TheGodfather · #402 Post by **TheGodfather** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 9:52 pm

Received both Patriotism and Mishima today. Have to say they look gorgeous, especially the latter. And as said before: the artwork to Mishima does look better in real life.

Cinephrenic · #403 Post by **Cinephrenic** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 9:59 pm

I got a miniature Katana sword in mine.

Rupert Pupkin · #404 Post by **Rupert Pupkin** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 5:08 am

Flike wrote:Here's some Vampyr innards shots courtesy of B&N:

wow!

it looks great...

but, I really like the Criterion cover... .They didn't change it ????

what we can see here is the inside digipack, that's it ?

colinr0380 · #405 Post by **colinr0380** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 4:19 pm

Having spent a couple of days with the Mishima set I wanted to post to say how impressed I was with the packaging. I was unsure at first but the actual set is quite beautiful.

The more I look at it, the more I'm impressed by it. I like the literalisation of a family tree of one person(!) and the attempt to tie all the themes of the film together in one piece of cover art, from the clashing, conflicting colour scemes of the various staged sequences from the novels as the background of the tree, with the past versions of Mishima on top of that, and then on top of that the various adult Mishima personas. The golden rays of the sun coming somewhere in the middle, occasionally dull compared to the rest of the composition but occasionally blinding (or at least they were in the sunshine on my desk this afternoon!), seeming to suggest the final image of the film and the guiding, unifying force or throughline of Mishima's work.

Cinephrenic wrote:I got a miniature Katana sword in mine.

That had better be in the Patriotism set, otherwise I'll feel that I've been duped!

kaujot · #406 Post by **kaujot** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 4:37 pm

Well, the art for An Autumn Afternoon STILL isn't up on the main site, so I'm going to keep to my guess that they're changing the artwork, and that the one supplied in the press release was just a placeholder.

Tommaso · #407 Post by **Tommaso** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 5:11 pm

I have just received the two Mishima releases, and would agree with Colin, they look marvellous. I especially liked the look of booklet for the Schrader film, with its wonderful HUGE photographs/stills from the film. I'm still not so sure about the outer cover, though. It looks great and I find Colin's interpretation of the artwork entirely convincing, but to me the colour schemes in the end create a sort of psychedelic effect, and while I would have found that completely appropriate with, for instance, last year's Makavejev releases (it actually reminds me of the "WR" sleeve design), I'm not sure what a person like Mishima would have thought about it ... The booklet for "Patriotism" looks equally great, and here the cover completely fits the film, I think. In any case, two of the best releases CC ever released designwise. And probably contentwise as well if I look at the number and length of extras, which all appear to be totally relevant. Can't wait to watch these...

Cinephrenic wrote:I got a miniature Katana sword in mine.

I want one, too!!

As to the above "Vampyr" cover: looks gorgeous and, btw, wasn't this the pic that was originally intended for the MoC version's cover? Also good to see another two-page photograph in the booklet (a la "Mishima"); this should become standard at least for ambitious releases like this.

Jean-Luc Garbo · #408 Post by **Jean-Luc Garbo** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 5:15 pm

I got my copy of Mishima today. The praise of late is indeed warranted. I was impressed that the entire inside of the box was golden. Now that is detail! I must agree with Chris' review that the set photos are ruined by the middle of the book cutting them in half. Earlier stills are formatted in the manner he suggested so it's not inconceivable. They would be smaller however and I think that the producer wanted to bring out the detail in the sets in those photos. Otherwise, it's superb. Despite my earlier complaints, I'd nominate this for package design of the year.

colinr0380 · #409 Post by **colinr0380** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 5:25 pm

Jean-Luc Garbo wrote:I must agree with Chris' review that the set photos are ruined by the middle of the book cutting them in half. Earlier stills are formatted in the manner he suggested so it's not inconceivable. They would be smaller however and I think that the producer wanted to bring out the detail in the sets in those photos. Otherwise, it's superb.

I would agree somewhat but from a quick check it is not a total loss as all the stills turn up in the supplemental material on the second disc and look just as good on screen as on the page. In a way I thought the images split over two pages showed up in a nice fashion the symmetry of the way the sets were designed, as if the spine of the booklet were used as a vanishing point. Only the picture from the Runaway Horses story was framed in a different fashion in the booklet to emphasise the sunken, slanting gate in the foreground.

Tommaso wrote:but to me the colour schemes in the end create a sort of psychedelic effect, and while I would have found that completely appropriate with, for instance, last year's Makavejev releases (it actually reminds me of the "WR" sleeve design), I'm not sure what a person like Mishima would have thought about it
The booklet for "Patriotism" looks equally great, and here the cover completely fits the film, I think. In any case, two of the best releases CC ever released designwise. And probably contentwise as well if I look at the number and length of extras, which all appear to be totally relevant. Can't wait to watch these...

True. I kind of get the impression that the Mishima film is an impression of the crazy jumble that an outsider gets of the man himself - parts of the design are recognisable but don't seem to fit together at all until we ignore the 'in your face', almost repulsive in its bad taste aesthetic and pull back to see how it fits together as a whole.

The Patriotism cover, which I also love (but which I haven't yet taken the wrapper off yet to have a closer look at!), is a complete contrast and as you suggest might be more in the style of the way Mishima would like a cover dedicated to him to be! I think that makes the releases fit together well in that they both inform each other - the carefully staged and minimal Patriotism with the classical sun imagery vs the frenzied, almost psychadelic Mishima showing the complexities and contradictions that would normally be carefully hidden beneath the surface.

Though I'll be embarrassed if I've read too much into this and it turns out the Criterion designers just thought "the colours looked cool"!

Morgan Creek · #410 Post by **Morgan Creek** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 6:18 pm

colinr0380 wrote:Though I'll be embarrassed if I've read too much into this and it turns out the Criterion designers just thought "the colours looked cool"!

The colors of the packaging are pretty much in keeping with Eiko Ishioka's palette for the novel sections of the film - compare the relevant stills in the booklet to the case design, and they're all of a piece.

Steven H · #411 Post by **Steven H** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 10:00 pm

perfect for the film, if you ask me.

godardslave · #412 Post by **godardslave** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 1:21 am

excellent cover for Ozu.
definite must buy for me anyway.

Highway 61 · #413 Post by **Highway 61** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 2:32 am

Love it. My favorite of their Ozu covers.

Ashirg · #414 Post by **Ashirg** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 4:35 am

Essential Art House covers:

exte · #415 Post by **exte** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 6:02 am

Totally lost... is Rashomon being re-released? New transfer, or just new packaging?

#416 Post by **domino harvey** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 6:04 am

Janus is releasing the barebones discs from the 50 Years collection individually for reduced price.

hammock · #417 Post by **hammock** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 6:16 am

Does this mean they are letting the 50 Box go OOP? It is pretty expensive to do a re-pressing of a set this size and I can't imagine they sold more than 500 - 1,000 copies of this monster, so maybe they are replacing it with induvidual DVD's.

domino harvey wrote:Janus is releasing the barebones discs from the 50 Years collection individually for reduced price.

#418 Post by **domino harvey** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 6:23 am

There's a press release a page or two back-- they're only issuing a half-dozen titles like this right now, probably to test the market.

The Fanciful Norwegian · Wed Jul 02, 2008 9:32 am

Steven H wrote:perfect for the film, if you ask me.

That looks like they just scanned it in from the press materials -- it looks too low-res to be final art. And there's no way it'll be the final cover unless Criterion is unilaterally changing the Japanese title (as esl noted on the last page, the first character should be "秋").

#420 Post by **mfunk9786** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 12:43 pm

This isn't necessarily final, there's nothing on the Criterion site as of yet.

Recieved Mishima and Patriotism yesterday... wow. Such beautiful packaging for both, but Mishima just blew me away. Never once did it look fingerprinted, even though it is so ungodly shiny... it just feels expensive. Maybe my favorite Criterion package design ever.

Steven H · #421 Post by **Steven H** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 1:26 pm

Re: Ozu. I'm betting they don't change it too much. It's excellent.

mbalson · #422 Post by **mbalson** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:52 am

I had almost no interest in Mishima, but when I saw the packaging I was amazed. It's stunning.

Murdoch · #423 Post by **Murdoch** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 5:22 am

mbalson wrote:I had almost no interest in Mishima, but when I saw the packaging I was amazed. It's stunning.

This was my experience with the Double Life of Veronique, I saw the film and liked it but didn't consider buying it, then I saw the entire criterion package and bought it right away. Hell, I might of bought that just for the gorgeous images of Irene Jacob.

souvenir · #424 Post by **souvenir** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 10:36 pm

The cover is up on the Criterion site and it's similar but still different than what Image and DVD Empire have:

tavernier · #425 Post by **tavernier** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 10:38 pm

Is that the Japanese spelling of "Autumn"?

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