Last May, The Criterion Collection was nearing up on spine #600. The film-geek community was abuzz with speculation as to what that 600th title would be. We even took it upon ourselves to recommend 5 worthy titles. Well now that Otto Preminger's courtroom masterpiece Anatomy of a Murder has entered the pantheon as lucky #600, it's time to start speculating about #700!
Kundun
Scorsese's meditation on the life of the the 14th Dalai Lama would be a perfect addition to The Collection. It's a perfect companion piece to their other Scorsese religion film, The Last Temptation of Christ. Touchstone certainly isn't doing anything with this title and the already existing feature-length documentary In Search of Kundun with Martin Scorsese, would make for excellent bonus material.
Gas Food Lodging
The fine folks over at Criterion already seem to be pretty fond of director Allison Anders. In addition to releasing Border Radio (directed by Anders along with Kurt Voss and Dean Lent) they've also featured her in the bonus material for Magnificent Obsession and Two-Lane Blacktop. So it would make sense for them to release her solo-debut, which also happens to be the only title in her filmography to not have at least a commentary track on the disc.
Flaming Creatures
Criterion has never been one to shy away from controversy (Salò, Antichrist, I Am Curious), so why not release Jack Smith's Flaming Creatures? Can't you already just picture it? Beautiful cover design by someone awesome, an essay by J. Hoberman for the booklet, a featurette on how it was banned? Perhaps even an interview with Mario Montez AKA Dolores Flores! How is this not already a thing? Get on it people!
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
This film has been out of print for far too long! And now with Blu-ray it can look and sound better than ever! Criterion has released plenty of Agnès Varda, so why not add her equally talented late-husband Jacques Demy into the mix as well? Guaranteed to be a top seller since this film is beloved by both cineastes and lovers of great music. Heck, they could even get some musical experts to expound upon Michel Legrand's beautiful score!
The Black Cat
Sure it's short (only 65 minutes), but that's never stopped Criterion before. Island of Lost Souls is only 5 minutes longer and The Most Dangerous Game is only 63 minutes! And this isn't your average Universal horror film. Not only is it the first cinematic pairing of Karloff and Lugosi, it's also the best! Oh and did I mention that it's directed by Edgar G. Ulmer who worked on German Expressionist classics like The Golem and The Last Laugh, in addition to co-directing the legendary People on Sunday?
This film has been out of print for far too long! And now with Blu-ray it can look and sound better than ever! Criterion has released plenty of Agnès Varda, so why not add her equally talented late-husband Jacques Demy into the mix as well? Guaranteed to be a top seller since this film is beloved by both cineastes and lovers of great music. Heck, they could even get some musical experts to expound upon Michel Legrand's beautiful score!
The Black Cat
Sure it's short (only 65 minutes), but that's never stopped Criterion before. Island of Lost Souls is only 5 minutes longer and The Most Dangerous Game is only 63 minutes! And this isn't your average Universal horror film. Not only is it the first cinematic pairing of Karloff and Lugosi, it's also the best! Oh and did I mention that it's directed by Edgar G. Ulmer who worked on German Expressionist classics like The Golem and The Last Laugh, in addition to co-directing the legendary People on Sunday?
Bernardo Bertolucci also made a film about Tibet called Little Buddha.
ReplyDeleteI'm very impressive with the music in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,Godard used it in Band of Outsiders.