2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

[hangman]

Releases of the year (both CC&Eclipse): yeah slim year for me, this is roughly almost everything I've bought this year from them.
The Exterminating Angel
Simon of the Desert
Jeanne Dielman 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
Travels with Hiroshi Shmizu
Dusan Makavejev, Free Radical

Best Eclipse Release
Dusan Makavejev: Free Radical
(simply because the Shimizu set wasn't exactly unavailable before)

Best Cover
Magnificent Obsession

Best Supplement
Autour de Jeanne Dielman (I don't know why this was seen to unfavorably it was quite a good extra, in that you see how the director and actress had to wrestle control over the character till eventually but slowly they reached an agreement. It was quite an interesting extra regarding their relationship.)

Best Package Design (including DVD menus)
Simon of the Desert

Best (Re)Discovery
All four Shimizu films, though the Makavejevs came really close.

Most Disappointing Release
Dumping "Le jour se leve" and "Mayerling" into Essential Art House was a major disappointment.

Forum Member of the Year
Still too new here

Richard Cranium Award
Still new here so... but if I did vote So Lightly Here gets it for his sudden blow up along with instilling the nagging feeling that he may just be around and eventually return to post covers...

Best Non-Criterion Release (5 Choices)
1. Daisies (Second Run)
2. Mabuse box set (MoC)
3. A Time to Love a Time to Die (MoC)
4. La Guele Ouvert (MoC)
5. Herostratus (BFI)

Edit: Pretty much on the same page with Tommaso regarding the Eclipses and disappointment releases.

[Tribe]

Let's see if we can get Joshua Goldberg to tally 'em up!

[Napier]

Let's see if we can get Joshua Goldberg to tally 'em up!

=D> You owe me new keyboard Tribe. Mine just got sprayed with winter lager after that post.

[domino harvey]

My List (or Preview of the 2009 Forum Awards If I'm Elected to "Count" Votes)

01 Homicide
02 the Golden Age of Television
03 Made in USA
04 the Last Days of Disco
05 the Taking of Power by Louis XIV

Best Eclipse: Rossellini's History Films
Best commentary: David Mamet and William H Macy, Homicide
Best supplement: Tag Gallagher on Louis XIV
Best cover: Magnificent Obsession
Best (Re)discovery: That Hamilton Woman
Biggest disappointment: My Dinner With Andre in 1.66
Best reissue: the Seventh Seal
Breast package design: Simon of the Desert

Still think we should have a "Best Rescue" category for films already out in R1 that Criterion rescued. In which case:
Best rescue: Z

[domino harvey]

I take the George C Scott route

[Wu.Qinghua]

Is there any deadline for voting?
I am still trying to get hold of the Imamura box, as Barnes and Noble weren't able to ship it to Europe.

[Tribe]

Is there any deadline for voting?

Hell, we can't even agree on who's gonna count the votes...this is worse than Florida in 2000!

[domino harvey]

I thought I was the only one who noticed LQ voted for Pat Buchanan three times in her top five

[ianungstad]

I think voting should run till the end of January. I'm still waiting on several titles to arrive from the Barnes and Noble sale. I'm sure there are a few other international customers waiting for titles to arrive, so it might be a few weeks before we can cast votes.

[domino harvey]

That darkhorse Downhill Runner campaign the Weinsteins are running in their off hours got to you, didn't it. Enjoy that basket of complementary Robert Redfruit, you turncoat

[Tribe]

Release of the Year:
1-Last Year at Marienbad
2-Jeanne Dielmann
3-The Human Condition
4-Pigs, Pimps & Prostitutes
5-The Exterminating Angel

Best Eclipse Release: Nikkatsu Noir

Best Re-issue: The Seventh Seal

Best Commentary: Tony Rayns, The Realm of the Senses

Best Supplement: Magnificent Obsession, 1935 version

Best Cover: Science is Fiction

Best Package Design: Last Year at Marienbad

Best (Re)Discovery: Il Generale Della Rovere

Most Disappointing Release: Bergman Island (wasn't the full uncut version)

Forum Member of the Year: Domino Harvey

Richard Cranium Award: Swimminghorses (and assorted aliases)

Best Non-Criterion Releases:
1-Sunrise (Masters of Cinema)
2-Une femme mariée (Masters of Cinema)
3-Careful (Zeitgeist)
4-Wendy & Lucy (Oscilloscope)
5-Three Monkeys (Zeitgeist)

[Des Esseintes]

Release of the Year

1. My Dinner with Andre
2. The Exterminating Angel
3. Jeanne Dielman
4. The Friends of Eddie Coyle
5. Last Year at Marienbad

Best Eclipse Release

Nikkatsu Noir

Best Reissue

The Seventh Seal

Best Single Supplement

The Gregory/Shawn + Baumbach interviews on My Dinner with Andre

Best Cover

Wise Blood

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

The Friends of Eddie Coyle

Most Disappointing Release (for releases that Criterion dropped the ball on: bad transfer, poor supplements, etc.)

Danton

Best Non-Criterion Release (5 Choices)

Wendy and Lucy
Careful
Ballast
Frownland
Ashes of Time Redux

[tojoed]

Best vote tallyer: Fiddlesticks.

[Michael]

Releases of the Year
1 Wings of Desire
2 Magnificent Obsession
3 A Christmas Tale
4 Repulsion
5 Simon of the Desert

Best Reissue
Seventh Seal

Best Eclipse Release
Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu

Best Supplement
Magnificent Obsession, 1935

Best Cover
Magnficent Obsession

Best (Re)Discovery
Repulsion

Best Package Design (including DVD menus)
Simon of the Desert

Forum Member of the Year
Mods

[jbeall]

Release(s) of the Year
1. Science is Fiction
2. The Taking of Power by Louis XIV
3. Simon of the Desert
4. The Human Condition
5. Makavejev Eclipse set

Best Eclipse Set: I'm actually gonna have to go with the Rossellini here. For me, this was the most interesting year Eclipse has had, and while I don't think it was necessarily a subpar year by Criterion, I will say that the Eclipse releases were more interesting to me.

Best Reissue: Seventh Seal. I posted this in the dedicated thread, but the new subs really brought out how funny this film is.

Best Commentary: Peter Cowie, The Seventh Seal

Best Single Supplement: nothing really stood out to me.

Best Cover: Science is Fiction: 23 Films by Jean Painlevé

Best Discovery: The Friends of Eddie Coyle

Most Disappointing Release: Le Jour se leve and Mayerling to the Essential Arthouse line.

Forum Member of the Year: Is it kosher to vote for a repeat winner? Zedz's posts are must-reads for me, so he gets my vote.

Richard Cranium: Initially, I thought forum members were a little harsh on swimminghorses' covers, but once his posts descended into whiny self-pity and continual baiting, he and his various personae became unbearably obnoxious.

Best non-CC Releases:
1. Muriel (MoC). The best Resnais release of the year, IMO. (Although I prefer Muriel to Marienbad, they should be watched together.)
2. Daisies (Second Run)
3. Diary for my Children (Second Run)
4. Grin without a Cat (Icarus)
5. Miss Mend (Flicker Alley)
although I may replace one of these with the Battle of Chile once it actually arrives and I can watch it.

[Izo]

Release(s) of the Year
1. Science is Fiction
2. My Dinner With Andre
3. Nikkatsu Noir
4. Wise Blood
5. The Human Condition

Best Eclipse Set: Nikkatsu Noir

Best Reissue: Pierrot Le Fou

Best Single Supplement: Yo La Tengo's isolated score on Science is Fiction

Best Cover: Magnificent Obsession

Best Discovery: A Colt is My Passport from Nikkatsu Noir

Most Disappointing Release: Bergman Island

[Tom Hagen]

Release of the Year:
1. Last Year at Marienbad
2. The Human Condition (the definition of a labor of love and a testament to all that we love about Criterion)
3. The Taking of Power by Louis XIV
4. Rossellini's History Films: Renaissance and Enlightenment
5. The Last Metro

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

Best Re-issue: The Seventh Seal

Best Commentary: David Mamet and William H. Macy, Homicide

Best Supplement: Noah Baumbach interviews with Wallace Shawn and André Gregory, My Dinner With André

Best Cover: Wings of Desire

Best Package Design: Last Year at Marienbad

Best (Re)Discovery: The Friends of Eddie Coyle

Most Disappointing Release: Le Jour se lève (after the long wait . . . it gets uncermoniously dumped on the EAH line)

Forum Member of the Year: Domino Harvey

Richard Cranium Award: Any of the innumerable long-dormant posters who inexplicably surfaced in order to have a spectacular meltdown. (Christ, I voted for Swimminghorses last year!)

Best Non-Criterion Releases:
1. Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics, Vol. 1 (Sony)
2. Doubt (Miramax)
3. Husbands (Sony)

[Tommaso]

Well, I never had more difficulties with picking my choices than this year. I only purchased seven 2009 Criterions, two of which were Eclipse releases and one was Essential Art House. I could have named "Dodeskad'en" and "Il generale delle rovere", too, and it's good they are out, but I didn't double-dip on these so I don't know how much better they are (if at all) compared to their Italian or French counterparts. So all in all, this year didn't excite me too much, and even though I have a top-five list, only the first two would have made it into the list in most former years. But thumbs up for the BFI: although their release schedule wasn't my cup of tea this year, I have to acknowledge that they really have retained their guts!

However, if I had to name one label of the year, there simply is no competition for Filmmuseum. They are not only making (often extremely) important films available for the first time worldwide, but also what they do in terms of editorial quality is completely unparalleled at the moment. Watch out for Vertov in January!

Release of the Year (5 choices)
1. Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu
2. Dusan Makavejev: Free Radical
3. Mayerling
4. Last year at Marienbad
5. Empire of Passion

Best Eclipse Release
Dusan Makavejev: Free Radical
(simply because the Shimizu set wasn't exactly unavailable before)

Best Cover
Magnificent Obsession

Best Supplement
Tag Gallagher on The Taking of Power by Louis XIV.

Best Package Design (including DVD menus)
Last Year at Marienbad

Best (Re)Discovery
All four Shimizu films, though the Makavejevs came really close. Truly wonderful stuff in both releases.
Best of all in this respect, though, must be "Mayerling".

Most Disappointing Release
Dumping "Le jour se leve" and "Mayerling" into Essential Art House was a major disappointment.

Forum Member of the Year
Sloper
(thanks for the nice conversations, especially on Dreyer and Antonioni!)

Richard Cranium Award
This was a relatively civil year, and those few who flamed out got banned in due time, so no vote from me this year.

Best Non-Criterion Release (5 Choices)
1. Murnau-Borzage-Fox
2. Die freudlose Gasse (Filmmuseum)
3. Il Grido (MoC)
4. Wunder der Schöpfung (Filmmuseum)
5. Jean Cocteau Edition: Orphee/L'aigle a deux tetes/Les parents terribles (alamode). "Orphée" is no comparison to the CC in terms of image quality, but I'm SO glad to finally have "L'aigle" and "Parents" in more than acceptable editions. Not English friendly, though.

And how I wished I could wholeheartedly name AE's "Jeanne La Pucelle" here, but I simply can't bring myself to it. Greatest chance wasted this year.

EDIT: had to change my Top Five now, after watching "Mayerling" last night. Simply glorious.

[heredity4me]

Release(s) of the Year
1. Imamura box set
2. Jeanne Dielman
3. Last Year in Marienbad
4. Science is Fiction
5. Simon of the Desert

Best Eclipse Set: Shimizu. Great year for this line in general. Lack of votes for this set is because it was already released for regionless users?

Best Reissue: Seventh Seal. I can't believe how long it took me to buy one of my favorite films but I'm glad I didn't before this release.

Best Commentary: The Taking of Power by Louis XIV video essay. Only supplement of its kind I managed to view.

Best Single Supplement: Yo La Tengo

Best Cover: Science is Fiction: 23 Films by Jean Painlevé

Best Packaging: Human Condition

Best Discovery: Jeanne Dielman

Most Disappointing Release: Monsoon Wedding. I thought the terrific supplements would make this worthwhile, but I found myself disliking Mira Nair more and more.

Best non-CC Releases:
1. The General (Kino)
2. Sunrise (MoC)

[swo17]

Something I just remembered--my simultaneous vote for Best Theoretical Criterion Cover and Most Befuddling Abandonment of Superior Artwork goes to My Dinner with Andre and this lovely little napkin drawing:

[colinr0380]

Release of the Year (5 choices) (Eclipse titles eligible)
Pigs, Pimps and Prostitutes
The Exterminating Angel
Rossellini’s History Films
Nikkatsu Noir
The Human Condition

Best Eclipse Release
Rossellini’s History Films

Best Reissue
For All Mankind

Best Commentary (inlcudes selected scene commentaries and visual essays)
Only managed to listen to one commentary on a new release this year, so Stephen Frears, Peter Prince, Mick Audsley, John Hurt and Tim Roth on The Hit wins by default

Best Single Supplement (not a commentary)
Autour de “Jeanne Dielman”

Best Cover
Magnificent Obsession

2. Simon Of The Desert
3. The Human Condition
4. The Last Days Of Disco
5. Jeanne Dielman

Best Package Design (including DVD menus)
The Human Condition

2. Wings of Desire
3. Empire of Passion
4. In The Realm of the Senses
5. Magnificent Obsession


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

Pigs, Pimps and Prostitutes box set - I'd only known Imamura through Black Rain, The Pornographers, Warm Water Under A Red Bridge and the short film on the 11'9"01 anthology before this set of his three key films. Along with the Cinematheque Ontario collection of essays and picking up copies of MoC's Vengeance Is Mine and a Region 3 disc of The Eel, I really feel as if I've finally had my 'true' introduction to Imamura this year, in a very roundabout but extremely satisfying manner. Next to my cautious entry into the world of Hong Sang-soo's first two films, this would be my other interesting journey of the year. If there is an Eclipse set of the TV 'documentaries' and full Criterion editions of A Man Vanishes and Eijanaika released next year I think I may just explode with happiness!

Most Disappointing Release (for releases that Criterion dropped the ball on: bad transfer, poor supplements, etc.)

Bergman Island - not in quality terms, just for not releasing the entire series when this could have been the only opportunity to do so

Forum Member of the Year
John Cope, for constantly excellent and enthusiastic posts that often have me reconsidering my previously held attitudes towards a film.

Best Non-Criterion Release

1. Treasures IV (Image)
2. 42nd Street Forever Volume 4 and 5 (Synapse)
3. The MoC Pialats
4. Herostratus (BFI)
5. Face To Face (2 Entertain)
6. Blood (Second Run)
7. The Joy of Sex Education (BFI)
8. Tokyo Sonata (MoC)
9. Red Cliff (5 Hour version) (Entertainment In Video)
10. Aria (Second Sight)


Sadly this was a polarising year, as DVDs were marginalised by everyone, including Criterion. I certainly bought the fewest Criterions in many years in 2009, instead finally picking up the releases of Robinson Crusoe on Mars, Martha Graham, Stranger Than Paradise etc. Despite some typically high quality releases of the Oshima films, Z, Wings of Desire and the TV films etc I eventually found myself looking elsewhere for items that really captured my interest. This might have been because the DVDs were undermined by their Blu-Ray releases, leading me to hold off on buying many discs until I eventually get an all region player.

I found myself getting more and more frustrated with Criterion this year – the most interesting releases were split between either sparkly Blu-Rays or ‘unrestored’ Eclipse sets, as the main line was completely cannibalised of its classic films after a relatively strong beginning with the Bunuel and Rossellini films. This perceived contempt was only confirmed by the stealthy introduction of Blu exclusive features and compounded with the expensive AK box set including long unavailable films.

Eclipse truly showed its potential with the wonderful Rossellini and Nikkatsu Noir sets. The Makavejev also sounds wonderful but is something that I have not had a chance to see at this point.

Some excellent non-Criterion releases this year however and in particular a wonderful year for the BFI. I voted for Herostratus but really that should be considered a vote for all of the Flipside releases and the Jane Arden films. It was a truly great year for the BFI’s curated collections too, with the Joy of Sex Education set just the naughtiest of a whole range of film compilations! Second Run is still the most impressively daring of all the DVD labels, performing a valuable service in making rarities more widely available. Image’s troubles may mean that the fourth volume of the Treasures series may be the last, but it is up to the same excellent standards of the previous entries in the series. MoC had a great year too - A Married Woman and the Fritz Lang set were just pushed out of my list because I wanted to mention the long version of John Woo’s Red Cliff and show my thanks for the release of Aria!

[Murdoch]

Something I just remembered--my simultaneous vote for Best Theoretical Criterion Cover and Most Befuddling Abandonment of Superior Artwork goes to My Dinner with Andre and this lovely little napkin drawing:

That cover would have been my second all-time favorite CC cover - after Chungking's - I really hate that they abandoned it. But I try (very hard) not to think about it.

[swo17]

This perceived contempt was only confirmed by the stealthy introduction of Blu exclusive features

The new documentary on 8 1/2 is the only Blu exclusive feature that they've announced so far, that I'm aware of anyway. While there may be a valid argument against Criterion doing that, this seems more appropriate for a discussion of next year's titles. If anything, the trend this year has been to drop a couple of essays and sacrifice the sometimes superior packaging of the DVD version (goodbye digipaks) in order to fit everything into tiny, uniform plastic cases.

[TMDaines]

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

[feckless boy]

Best Classic Films/Sets of Films to Enter the Collection
1. Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu
2. Pigs, Pimps and Prostitutes
3. The Human Condition
4. Dodes'ka-den
5. Nikkatsu Noir

Best Eclipse Release
Travels with Hiroshi Shmizu

Best Reissue
The Seventh Seal

Best Commentary
Tony Rayns on In the Realm of the Senses

Best Single Supplement
Koji Wakamatsu entering the collection as interviewee [In the Realm of the Senses & Empire of Passion]

Best (Re)Discovery [for a film you knew little or nothing about before the Criterion release]
The Friends of Eddie Coyle

Most Disappointing Release [for releases that Criterion dropped the ball on: bad transfer, poor supplements, etc.]
No major f*** ups this year

Forum Member of the Year
Mods

Best Non-Criterion Release
1. Borzage Vol 1 & 2 [BFI]
2. Die freudlose Gasse [Filmmuseum]
3. The Complete Fritz Lang Mabuse Box Set [MoC]
4. A Grin Without a Cat [Icarus Films]
5. Japanese Summer: Double Suicide [Carlotta]

Hopes for 2010
Night and Fog in Japan on Blu-Ray with a commentary by Jim O'Rourke
Georg af Klercker Eclipse-set