CriterionCast

A High Resolution Look At The November Criterion Collection Covers

This past Monday, Criterion announced their November 2010 titles, and the internet exploded with people complaining about how broke they are going to be this holiday season, as they must own ever single one.

As always, the covers for each DVD/Blu-ray are absolute works of art, worthy of framing above one’s mantle. I’m actually hoping that they allow Sam’s Myth’s Modern Times cover art to find it’s way into their store, despite already have a fantastic poster for sale.

Since I shared a high resolution copy of the recent Darjeeling Limited art last week, I thought it’d be fun to do the same with the November titles as well. One thing that’s particularly interesting about the gruesome Antichrist art, upon closer examination, is the fact that the title is made up of twigs and branches, which might not be noticed in the low res version on the Criterion website. Click on the images below to see their high-resolution counterparts.

I’m also including links to the Criterion site for all of the titles below, where you can pre-order the discs. Which are you planning on picking up this November? Leave your comments below.



Pre-order The Night Of The Hunter from Criterion.com

Night of the Hunter

Charles Laughton

The Night of the Hunter‘”incredibly, the only film the great actor Charles Laughton ever directed’”is truly a standalone masterwork. A horror movie with qualities of a Grimm fairy tale, it stars a sublimely sinister Robert Mitchum as a traveling preacher named Harry Powell (he of the tattooed knuckles), whose nefarious motives for marrying a fragile widow, played by Shelley Winters are uncovered by her terrified young children. Graced by images of eerie beauty and a sneaky sense of humor, this ethereal, expressionistic American classic’”also featuring the contributions of actress Lillian Gish and writer James Agee’”is cinema’s quirkiest rendering of the battle between good and evil.


Pre-order Antichrist from Criterion.com

Antichrist

Lars Von Trier

Lars von Trier shook up the film world when he premiered Antichrist at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. In this graphic psychodrama, a grief-stricken man and woman’”a searing Willem Dafoe and Cannes best actress Charlotte Gainsbourg’”retreat to a cabin deep in the woods after the accidental death of their infant son, only to find terror and violence at the hands of nature and, ultimately, each other. But this most confrontational work yet from one of contemporary cinema’s most controversial artists is no mere provocation. It is a visually sublime, emotionally ravaging journey to the darkest corners of the possessed human mind; a disturbing battle of the sexes that pits rational psychology against age-old superstition; and a profoundly effective horror film.


Pre-order Modern Times from Criterion.com

Modern Times

Charlie Chaplin

Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin’s last outing as the Little Tramp, puts the iconic character to work as a giddily inept factory employee who becomes smitten with a gorgeous gamine (Paulette Goddard). With its barrage of unforgettable gags and sly commentary on class struggle during the Great Depression, Modern Times‘”though made almost a decade into the talkie era and containing moments of sound (even song!)’”is a timeless showcase of Chaplin’s untouchable genius as a director of silent comedy.


Pre-order The BBS Story Box Set from Criterion.com

America Lost And Found: The BBS Story

Like the rest of America, Hollywood was ripe for revolution in the late sixties. Cinema attendance was down; what had once worked seemed broken. Enter Bob Rafelson, Bert Schneider, and Steve Blauner, who knew that what Hollywood needed was new audiences’”namely, young people’”and that meant cultivating new talent and new ideas. Fueled by money made from their invention of the superstar TV pop group the Monkees, they set off on a film-industry journey that would lead them to form BBS Productions, a company that was also a community. The innovative films produced by this team between 1968 and 1972 are collected in this box set’”works created within the studio system but lifted right out of the countercultural id, and that now range from the iconic (Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Picture Show) to the acclaimed (The King of Marvin Gardens) to the obscure (Head; Drive, He Said; A Safe Place).


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].

2 comments

  • Nice to see some love for the Modern Times cover. I find it absolutely fantastic. I was away from internet all week and only got to see the covers on my phone up until tonight. Seeing it up close and personal now I love it even more. I’ve bee surprised at some of the negative thoughts elsewhere on the Internet as I was sure people would consider it a true home run like I do.

    I wrote a report on Charlie Chaplin in the the 8th grade but haven’t delved into his catalog as much as I should have. I’m looking forward to the CC exposure after all these years.