CriterionCast

Blogging Through The Collection: This Week In Criterion Blogs

It appears that I should re-title this semi-regular column on the blog “this month in criterion blogs,” rather than “this week,” given that I haven’t written one of these since the end of March. If you’ve been following along with the various news items in my life, you’ll know that I have a lot on my plate these days, and it won’t be cleared for another 18 years or so. That being said, there have been a lot of great Criterion-related blog posts going up on my favorite sites in April, and I thought it was about time to share them all with you fine readers.

This month I’d like to highlight all of the amazing stuff going on at Film School Rejects. As you know from the past few entries in this series, they have their own weekly Criterion column, the Criterion Files. For April, our friends at Film School Rejects offered us the opportunity to write up some of our favorite Criterion films for them, and we happily obliged. Our own David Blakeslee kicked things off in April on the Criterion Files with a look at Science Is Fiction, the collection of films from Jean Painlevé. That is a set that I doubt will ever make it to Blu-ray, but one that I’m secretly holding out for. The next week on the Criterion Files, Joshua wrote up a fantastic piece on Jean-Luc Godard’s A Woman Is A Woman. While the Criterion edition is tragically out of print, we’re all crossing our fingers that the folks at Lionsgate will release it in some manner, or send it back to the Collection. Finally, Catherine just this past week posted her dissection of GW Pabst’s Pandora’s Box. I am so proud of all three of them, and I hope that Film School Rejects and CriterionCast.com can collaborate on projects like this more in the future. One last thing before I move on to another blog, the guys at Film School Rejects, known for their impressive April Fools Jokes, outdid themselves this year. They managed to fill their site to the brim with content related to Michael Bay’s Armageddon. You can find all of the material they wrote on the film here, and I highly recommend you check them out.

Going back to David Blakeslee, he has been diligently filing his weekly reviews over at Criterion Reflections. Over the past month he has covered Yasujiro Ozu’s Good Morning, the legendary 400 Blows from Francois Truffaut, as well as another member of the Monsters and Madmen box set: Corridors Of Blood. Don’t forget to follow David on Twitter.

Our friend Jamie S. Rich, who writes the Criterion Confessions blog, has also been posting some really great reviews of the various new releases from this past month. You can check out his pieces on the recent Le Cercle Rouge and White Material Blu-rays, along with a lengthy piece on the recent Silent Naruse Eclipse Series set. Make sure you’re following Jamie on Twitter.

Sadly, in the period between my last entry in this series and now, Cinematical has for all intents and purposes, died. However, our friend David Ehrlich has been loyally maintaining his Criterion Corner Tumblr, where he posts various reviews, video clips, and thoughts related to the Criterion Collection. While it’s not clear at this point where his Criterion Corner column will end up, it’s safe to say that it will certainly live on in the meantime. I’d recommend you follow him on Twitter if you’re not already, as he is apparently just as obsessive compulsive about tweeting about the Criterion Collection as I am. You can also still read David’s last few entries in the Criterion Corner on Cinematical. He wrote up reviews of the March Criterion titles, as well as posted his thoughts on the Ten Best Criterion Covers.

Our friend Matthew Dessem over at the Criterion Contraption has a great piece on the Neil Jordan film, Mona Lisa. While the Criterion edition is now out of print, you can pick up the recently released Blu-ray and DVD for a small fee.

The folks (or folk) at Criterion on the Brain are producing reviews at a break-neck speed these days. In April they reviewed Flesh For Frankenstein, The Times Of Harvey Milk, The Mikado, The Horse’s Mouth, Kill!, 3 Films By Louis Malle, The Scarlet Empress, Forbidden Games, Mafioso, as well as Band Of Outsiders. Really impressive work Criterion On The Brain!

Finally, while she hasn’t put up any new illustrations yet in April, Michele from the Criterion Affection blog was interviewed by our own David Blakeslee, and you can check that out here.

If you have any other Criterion Collection related blogs that you think I should add to my rotation, feel free to shoot me an email and let me know.

Ryan Gallagher

Ryan is the Editor-In-Chief / Founder of CriterionCast.com, and the host / co-founder / producer of the various podcasts here on the site. You can find his website at RyanGallagher.org, follow him on Twitter (@RyanGallagher), or send him an email: [email protected].