2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Message

fiddlesticks · #76 Post by **fiddlesticks** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 4:39 pm

Release of the Year (5 choices) (Eclipse titles eligible)
1. Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu
2. Playtime (Blu re-release)
3. Last Year at Marienbad (Blu)
Easy choices, since these are the only CC releases I bought this year...and I haven't gotten around to watching LYAM yet.

Best Eclipse Release
Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu

Best Reissue
Playtime

Best Commentary (inlcudes selected scene commentaries and visual essays)...listened to no commentaries
Best Single Supplement (not a commentary)...none memorable
Best Cover...couldn't care less
Best Package Design (including DVD menus)...couldn't care less

Best (Re)Discovery (for a film you knew little or nothing about before the Criterion release)
The Masseurs and a Woman

Most Disappointing Release (for releases that Criterion dropped the ball on: bad transfer, poor supplements, etc.)...no vote

Forum Member of the Year...MichaelB

Richard Cranium Award...Cinephrenic, for his contribution to the Polanski thread. Many worthy candidates, though, even after excluding those like oldshepherd and swimminghorses who were running for this award.

Best Non-Criterion Release (5 Choices)
1. Treeless Mountain (Oscilloscope)...great film with good extras and a lovely package
2. Auritemo Auritemo (Still Walking) (Bandai)
3. Forbidden Hollywood Vol. 3 (Warner)
4. Meotjin Haru (My Dear Enemy) (Premier)
5. Celia (Second Run)

tartarlamb · #77 Post by **tartarlamb** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 4:44 pm

fiddlesticks wrote:Forum Member of the Year...MichaelB

Has he never been Member of the Year? Yikes.

#78 Post by **swo17** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:11 pm

TMDaines wrote:So the Blu 8 1/2 booklet is less substantial than the DVD 8 1/2 booklet?

I'm not aware of anything that will be missing from the booklet for the 8 1/2 Blu. My comment was in reference to things like these that have all gone missing:

Complete Monterey Pop - introduction by Pennebaker, reprinting of an article by Jann Wenner for Rolling Stone (though I see now that the Blu release has an exclusive essay by David Fricke)
Gimme Shelter - filmographies for Zwerin and the Maysles, restoration demonstration, trailers for other films by the Maysles
Kagemusha - segment from Donald Ritchie’s book Public People, Private People, chapter summary
The Last Emperor - extended version of the film, several essays(?)
The Man Who Fell to Earth - complete novel by Walter Tevis

Not to mention titles with digipaks that were downgraded to Blu keepcases (i.e. Third Man, Last Emperor, Marienbad, Playtime, Monsoon Wedding).

GringoTex · #79 Post by **GringoTex** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:51 pm

fiddlesticks wrote:
GringoTex wrote:Does anybody want to take over the tallying of the votes from me?
It'd be my pleasure, if you don't have any better candidates. Just let me know.

I guess you'll have to do since you claimed first. Just make sure you set a no-edit date. And if you don't like the results, feel free to fiddle with them- nobody's going to double check your math.

fiddlesticks · #80 Post by **fiddlesticks** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:58 pm

GringoTex wrote:I guess you'll have to do since you claimed first. Just make sure you set a no-edit date. And if you don't like the results, feel free to fiddle with them- nobody's going to double check your math.

I defer to Domino, who seems to be dramatically more interested than I am.
As an aside, you're the first person who selected me for something by saying "I guess you'll have to do" since my ex-wife.

GringoTex · #81 Post by **GringoTex** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:02 pm

domino harvey wrote: I don't mind, if no one else steps up

You're it.

Now embrace your new responsibilities and get us a list of non-Criterion dvd releases for 2009. I can't remember what the hell was released this year.

Tribe · #82 Post by **Tribe** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:21 pm

fiddlesticks wrote: As an aside, you're the first person who selected me for something by saying "I guess you'll have to do" since my ex-wife.

How sure are you Gringo isn't your ex?

fiddlesticks · #83 Post by **fiddlesticks** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:32 pm

GringoTex wrote:
domino harvey wrote:...get us a list of non-Criterion dvd releases for 2009.

Here's 10,000 2009 releases you can start with, courtesy of our good friends at DVDAF.com. They are filterable using a number of variables. Have fun.

#84 Post by **domino harvey** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:32 pm

This is like when they dethrone the beauty pageant queen winner and replace her with the runner up after the first one lifts up her skirt at a fraternity hootenanny

#85 Post by **domino harvey** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:35 pm

Also, fuck that. I think there was a sixth boxed set of Garfield and Friends and the Wizard of Oz on Blu-ray and that was all the 2009 releases by the major studios

GringoTex · #86 Post by **GringoTex** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:39 pm

fiddlesticks wrote: Here's 10,000 2009 releases you can start with, courtesy of our good friends at DVDAF.com. They are filterable using a number of variables. Have fun.

Thanks. No wonder you have an ex-wife.

Hey- if y'all really want to make domino's tallying life difficult, fill this thread up with useless posts like mine.

Tribe · #87 Post by **Tribe** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:59 pm

GringoTex wrote: Hey- if y'all really want to make domino's tallying life difficult, fill this thread up with useless posts like mine.

That and then edit your choices after posting without telling anyone.

#88 Post by **zedz** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 8:02 pm

Release of the Year

The Taking of Power by Louis XIV / Rossellini’s History Films –
Sorry whiners, but if you can bring yourself to squint past a handful of recent middlebrow titles, Criterion bounced back with a vengeance this year in terms of the quality and adventurousness of their releases, and launching a concerted one-label Rossellini revival with a bunch of his late, exacting television works was a smart, brave move. The Bunuels, Marienbad, Jeanne Dielman, My Dinner with Andre, 2 or 3 Things and Dodes’ka-den are all titles people here have been gagging for for years, and their investment in the exemplary Imamura, Painleve, Kobayashi and early TV sets (not to mention Shimizu and Makavejev on Eclipse) are hardly signals of terminal conservatism. If MoC had released all those titles in 2009, the fawning would be deafening.

That said, there are a lot of titles I’ve bought but haven’t got around to watching yet, so the rest of my vote will be a bit haphazard!

Runners Up

Pigs, Pimps & Prostitutes
Simon of the Desert
Science Is Fiction
The Friends of Eddie Coyle

Jeanne Dielman and the Shimizu box were fantastic, of course, but they’re essentially reissues of things I’d already voted for in previous years.

Best Eclipse Release

Rossellini History Films

Best Reissue

Haven’t seen either of them yet

Best Commentary

I’m not going to include visual essays, because I think they’re vastly different (and generally better)

The Hit (but I’ve only heard a handful)

Best Single Supplement

The Rolling Stone piece in the Eddie Coyle booklet – one of the best text supplements I read all year.

Best on-disc supplement: Taking Power – Tag Gallagher’s visual essay on Louis XIV

Best Cover

Il Generale della Rovere – Beautiful, powerful image. The rest of the package doesn’t work anywhere near as well, but I love that cover

Best Overall Package

Pigs, Pimps & Prostitutes – Striking images, great choice of font, and the delicate / vulnerable magenta interior is a great touch.

Best (Re)Discovery

The Friends of Eddie Coyle – I actually saw this on TV about twenty years ago, but I completely missed what was so distinctive about it at the time, so it really was a rediscovery for me.

Most Disappointing Release

It’s probably still in my kevyip.

Actually, the release of only a truncated version of Bergman Island is a good call for this.

Forum Member of the Year

Whole Lotta Newbies. Thanks in part, no doubt, to the admins’ newish practice of probation for new members, it seems like there have been far more of them making fine contributions from Day One and far fewer vexatious and twaddlish typists. Not all of the newbies were gems, and not all of the gems felt welcome enough to stay around, but this was a very promising trend.

I also want to raise a glass to those posters who kept their head in an argument. There were quite a few instances of robust and articulate disagreement that didn’t result in spontaneous combustion of any of the parties, but the only one I can think of off the top of my head was aox sailing determinedly through an all-out assault on his disc-buying practices.

Richard Cranium Award

I thought this had been all sewn up early in the year, but then the Child Rape Circus came to town. I’m not going back in there just for the sake of naming names, but the Polanski thread hosted some of the ugliest and stupidest posts I’ve ever seen on this forum, which is saying something.

And I’m tempted to nominate Matt as Member of the Year simply for locking it.

Best Non-Criterion Releases of the Year

Or, for those living in the real world, Best Releases of the Year:

Alexander Kluge Megaset
This had threatened to be the DVD release of 2008 and 2007 as well, and it didn’t disappoint: an entire body of work by one of the most important directors of the last fifty years available as a single shelf-sized box. An incredible achievement by one of the world’s greatest niche labels.

Comrades
Impeccable release of a major ‘lost’ film. This rediscovery alone would have put BFI among the most important labels of the year, but it was just a tiny part of the most expansive and adventurous BluRay release schedule in the world.

Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde
An absolutely essential package. Ten-plus years into the ‘golden age of DVD’ and this is the first comprehensive survey of a crucial era. This pips Kino’s 3rd Avant Garde set, but that’s essential too, if only for Rien que les heures.

French Yoshida Releases, part two
More Yoshida masterpieces from Carlotta. This year’s batch didn’t represent the intoxicating rush of last year’s twin box sets, but as a whole, this has been one of the greatest cinephile gifts of the DVD era.

La Gueule ouverte
One of Pialat’s greatest films and, with the inclusion of all those shorts, hands-down the greatest package MoC has ever compiled. La Corne d’or alone would justify the purchase price.

The BFI GPO Collections
I know the first (and maybe the second) of these came out last year, but the set was completed in 2009, and it’s one of the grand achievements of DVD scholarship: an amazing and important body of work distilled into six discs with 200+ pages of high quality text in support. Just seeing the retina-searing new transfer of Trade Tattoo made the purchase all worthwhile, and makes me hope that BFI has their eye on a Complete Len Lye set in the near future.

And I know it’s not officially a category, but:

Label of the Year

I voted for BFI last year, but in 2009 they really pulled out all the stops, with a bold commitment to experimental cinema and BluRay (and, wonder of wonders, both at the same time) that no other label could match. They’ve also seriously stepped up their booklets, rivalling MoC for compendiousness and, given the obscurity of several of their releases this year, these booklets often constitute the most sustained critical appreciation of the films ever published.

GringoTex · #89 Post by **GringoTex** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 10:14 pm

Release of the Year
1. The Taking of Power by Louis XIV
2. Rossellini's History Films
3. Simon of the Desert
4. Travels with Hiroshi Shmizu
5. Hobson's Choice

Best Eclipse Release
Rossellini's History Films

Best Single Supplement
Tag Gallagher's visual essay on The Taking of Power by Louis XIV

Best Cover
Science is Fiction

Best Overall Package
2 or 3 Things I Knew About her

Best (Re)Discovery
Rossellini's History Films

Most Disappointing Release
Gomorrah- A Blockbuster Exclusive

Forum Member of the Year
Michael B

Richard Cranium Award
I can't separate the 2008 dicks from the 2009 dicks.

Best Non-Criterion Releases of the Year
1. Wagon Master (Warner)
2. La Gueule ouverte (MoC)
3. Comrades (BFI)
4. Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble (MOC)
5. Death in the Garden (Microcinema)

foggy eyes · #90 Post by **foggy eyes** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 9:56 am

Crit:

1. Shimizu (Eclipse), all the way.
2. ...Louis XIV
3. 2 or 3 Things...
4. Rossellini (Eclipse) + 5. Imamura box. Haven't watched all of either yet, but they're exemplary sets.

Discovery / Eclipse: Shimizu, naturally.

Non-Crit:

1. La vallée close (Jean-Claude Rousseau / Capricci / FR). No question.
2. La gueule ouverte (Pialat / MoC / UK). MoC: ever-generous, totally essential.
3. Treasures IV (Image / US). For (nostalgia), Fog Line, Chumlum, Sharits, Baillie (etc.) ALL IN ONE BOX!
4. O Sangue (Costa / Second Run / UK). For (the other) Costa's video essay, if nothing else.
5. Forbidden Hollywood III + Wagon Master (Wellman, Ford / TCM, Warner / US)

Anti-Craniums: zedz, Mike B, d hare, Matt, Oedipax, Gropius, etc. Honourable mention: my bro, Nothing.

TheGodfather · #91 Post by **TheGodfather** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 8:12 pm

My favorite releases of the year:

1: The Human Condition trilogy
2: Last Year At Marienbad
3: 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her
4: The Seventh Seal - re-release
5: Empire Of Passion (the film itself more than the release, even though it was a decent release)

headacheboy · #92 Post by **headacheboy** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 11:28 pm

Release of the Year:

1. Last Year at Marienbad
2. The Human Condition
3. The Exterminating Angel
4. Jeanne Dielmann
5. Science is Fiction

Best Eclipse of The Year:

This was one of the finest years for Eclipse with some of the wildest sets yet (Rossellini and Dusan Makavejev) but since I'm locked into the Region 1 world, Travels with Hiroshi Shmizu really made me sit up straight in my chair.

Best Reissue:

Seventh Seal.
Had they delivered more reissues this still would have been my choice. Absolutely wonderful and I can't stop watching it.

Best Commentary:
Peter Cowie on Seventh Seal.

Best Single Supplement:
Tag Gallagher's visual essay on The Taking of Power by Louis XIV and his written essays in Rossellini's History Films. I know that is two, but Gallagher was doing fine work on Rossellini!

Best Cover:
Magnificent Obsession

Best Packaging Design:
The two Godard packages of Made In The USA and 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her.

Best (Re)Discovery:
Il Generale della Rovere.

Most Disappointing Release:
I'd have preferred all three parts of Bergman Island but I'll take what I can get at the moment.

Forum Member of the Year:
I'm starting to dig into the silents and Herr Schreck knows the silents.

Richard Cranium Award:
I'll take it for hiding and not engaging in more discussions anywhere on this forum, but the Design Your Own Criterion Cover Man has a sense of style that might work better for Black Moth Super Rainbow than it does for any of the films offered up.

Best Non-Criterions:
1. Bardelys The Magnificent (Flicker Alley)
2. 13 Most Beautiful Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests (Plexifilm)
3. Miss Mend (Flicker Alley)
If I ever break out of the Region 1 world, I'm snatching up MOC's Mabuse box.

Let me toss in a quick note of thanks for Gervaise in the Essential Art House series. I was blown away by the movie and ended up buying Emile Zola's L'Assommoir and the sequel about her daughter Nana. Upon learning that these two novels were part of a larger story that covers five generations and 20 novels, needless to say, I've been drowning in these things!

I thought it was a great year. As someone else said, there were many films released by Criterion this year that we have been shouting about and waiting on. And how about the odd things like Rossellini's history lessons, Jean Painleve's science lessons and then to end it with The Golden Age of Television! Hell, this was an intriguing and enjoyable year for this viewer.

Cash Flagg · #93 Post by **Cash Flagg** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 1:21 am

Release of the Year:
1. Last Year at Marienbad
2. Magnificent Obsession
3. The Human Condition
4. Repulsion
5. Jeanne Dielmann

Re-issue of the Year:
The Seventh Seal

Eclipse Set of the Year:
Travels with Hiroshi Shmizu

Best non-Criterion release:
MoC Pialats
Of Time and the City
A Time to Love and a Time to Die
Sunrise
L'important C'est D'aimer

Forum Member of the Year:
David Hare

Saturnome · #94 Post by **Saturnome** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 2:36 am

Release of the Year
1. Science is Fiction (bought this one because of «Le Vampire» Included in Kino's Avant-Garde Vol.1 set ...and the pretty cover. Amazing discovery!)
2. Last Year at Marienbad
3. The Human Condition
4. Travels with Hiroshi Shmizu
5. Simon of the Desert

Best Criterion I haven't bought: Nikkatsu Noir. I keep forgetting it, and I'm sure I'd love it.

artfilmfan · #95 Post by **artfilmfan** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 3:03 pm

A very slim year indeed! From Criterion, I only bought three main line releases and two essential arthouse single-disc releases. I bought five MoC releases. I bought none of the Asian (R2/R3) releases and none of the BFI releases.

Best Criterion Release (5 choices):
1. Pigs, Pimps, and Prostitutes
2. no vote
3. no vote
4. no vote
5. no vote

Best Non-Criterion Release (5 choices):
1. Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble (MoC)
2. Waterloo Bridge (R1, Warner)
3. no vote
4. no vote
5. no vote

Wu.Qinghua · #96 Post by **Wu.Qinghua** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 7:24 pm

Release of the Year
1) Dusan Makavejev. Free Radical
2) Imamura: Pigs, Pimps and Prostitutes
3) Nava: El Norte
4) Shimizu: Travels
5) Golden Age of Television (I am voting for this without having seen it - at the moment, it's not my cup of tea, but I guess it's surely a rather interesting package)

Best Eclipse Release
Dusan Makavejev. Free Radical

Best (Re)Discovery
Nava: El Norte
(I have seen lots of movies dealing with migration but I hadn't even heard of this one. Well, I am living in Europe ... El Norte might be no masterpiece - so what? - and I pity those poor rats which were thrown at the actors down in the sewer but I am actually very happy that Criterion has released it)

Forum Member of the Year
I am rather new on this forum, but I've already written who 'made' me join it ... (Please don't look that up, Domino, I don't like to vote here ...)

Richard Cranium Award
I don't want to revisit that dreadful Polanski thread ... Btw, I don't want to start no argument, but I think, Joshua Goldberg pulled himself together on facebook ...

Best Non-Criterion Release
1) Douglas: Comrades (BFI)
It's a great film, but also an unevitable choice after the election victory of the neoliberal camp in Germany this year ...
2) Portrait of a Miner/Miners' Campaign Tapes (BFI)
Awesome collections ...
3) Kim: Hanyeo aka The Housemaid (Kofa/Blue Kino)
Yeehaw, this movie is a monstrosity. I assume it's, well, as hypnotic as reactionary ... And, although I usually hate digipacks, I love the design of this one ...
4) Forbidden Hollywood 3 (Warner)
This is a box which works quite similar to Criterion's magnificent Robeson box: There's no masterpiece to be found here but it's a collection of movies which have been produced during the great depression and which complement one another in the most beautiful way. Great box though I consider WB to be the worst company of the year. Expropriate them!
5) General Post Office Film Unit (BFI)
Zedz is quite right, I dont have anything to add ... though I'd prefer volume 2.
6) Yoo Hyeon-Mok Collection (Kofa/Dukson?)
I am still waiting for the box to arrive, but it would rank much higher, if I had already gotten it, provided Kofa hasn't screwed it up ...

Label of the year
In contrast to some others, I am very happy with Criterion's output, but: BFI all the way!

Hopes for 2010
Wakamatsu Eclipse set ... and 'United Re Army' in the main line
And, as I have nothing to lose, world revolution ...

bjeggert82 · #97 Post by **bjeggert82** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 12:18 pm

Release of the Year
1. The Human Condition
2. Homicide (was waiting for this one a long time...)
3. Magnificent Obsession
4. Dodes'ka-den
5. Repulsion

Best Eclipse Release
Alexander Korda's Private Lives

Best Reissue
The Seventh Seal

Best Single Supplement
Bergman Island (on The Seventh Seal disc)

Best Cover
Magnificent Obsession

Best (Re)Discovery
That Hamilton Woman

Most Disappointing Release
Gomorrah - That they even released this was a disappointment

Forum Member of the Year
Domino Harvey

Non-Criterion Release
1. Star Trek (for Paramount making all of the movies and the original series available this year... and on Blu-ray to boot)
2. North by Northwest
3. M. Butterfly
4. Inglourious Basterds
5. Wagon Master

criterionsnob · #98 Post by **criterionsnob** » Sun Dec 20, 2009 11:48 pm

Release of the Year
1. Last Year at Marienbad [Blu-ray]
2. A Christmas Tale [Blu-ray]
3. Rossellini's History Films: Renaissance and Enlightenment - Eclipse Series 14
4. My Dinner with André
5. The Seventh Seal [Blu-ray]

Best Eclipse Release
Rossellini's History Films: Renaissance and Enlightenment - Eclipse Series 14

Best Reissue
The Seventh Seal

Best Commentary
Alain Resnais Audio Interview (Last Year at Marienbad)

Best Single Supplement
Interviews with André Gregory and Wallace Shawn by Noah Baumbach (My Dinner with André)

Best Cover
Wings of Desire

Best Package Design
Last Year at Marienbad

Best (Re)Discovery (for a film you knew little or nothing about before the Criterion release)
A Christmas Tale [Blu-ray]

Most Disappointing Release
All releases that didn’t have simultaneous Blu-rays.

Forum Member of the Year
Mods

Richard Cranium Award
swimminghorses

Best Non-Criterion Release
1. Blood (O Sangue) [Second Run]
2. Tokyo Sonata [MOC Blu-ray]
3. Careful [Zeitgeist]
4. The Man from London [AE]
5. Ashes of Time Redux [AE Blu-ray]

movielocke · #99 Post by **movielocke** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 1:33 am

Release of the Year (5 choices) (Eclipse titles eligible)
Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu
Golden Age of Television
In the Realm of the Senses
AK 100
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Best Eclipse Release
Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu

Best Reissue
The Seventh Seal

Best Commentary (inlcudes selected scene commentaries and visual essays)
In the Realm of the Senses

Best Single Supplement (not a commentary)
Curious Case of Benjamin Button Post Production

Best Cover
In the Realm of the Senses

Best Package Design (including DVD menus)
Golden Age of Television

Best (Re)Discovery (for a film you knew little or nothing about before the Criterion release)
Monterey Pop bluray

Most Disappointing Release (for releases that Criterion dropped the ball on: bad transfer, poor supplements, etc.)
Z not on Bluray

Bluray Upgrade of Catalog Title:
400 Blows

Best Non-Criterion Release (5 Choices)
Disney Treasures Zorro Season 1
Disney Treasures Zorro Season 2
Wizard of Oz Bluray
North By Northwest Bluray
Gone with the Wind Bluray

I bought all the eclipse and most of the blus this year, none of the mainline in SD

oldsheperd · #100 Post by **oldsheperd** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 1:35 pm

If I don't get more votes for my classic non-sequitirs to posts I'll hold up the vote. Just call me Joe Lieberman. Joe-mentum!

2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

Re: 2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards