Tag: Criterion

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Edgar Wright Selects “Rushmore” as One of His Top Ten Criterions

British boy wonder Edgar Wright recently participated in Criterion’s on-going sales push/feature wherein they ask folks to list their Top Ten Criterion titles. One of his titles is Rushmore. Here’s why:

This film and the Criterion label are synonymous for me. Its beautiful cover art and immaculate menus seem to fit perfectly with its lead character; it’s almost as if Max Fischer himself were unsatisfied with the original vanilla DVD release from Disney and produced a handcrafted one instead. The actual film is a brilliant gem by Wes Anderson, and one that still shines brightly today. Just in the past year, we’ve seen a number of films that walk in the shadow of this one. Of course, it wouldn’t have inspired so many movies, music videos, commercials, and TV shows if it wasn’t such a distinctive effort.

This is an undeniable cult classic, one that every Max Fischer on the planet has on their shelf.

I love that backstory he created for the new release. I wonder how he’d explain the upcoming Blu-Ray.

Edgar Wright is the awesome director of the awesome films Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Hot Fuzz, and Shaun of the Dead, as well as the awesome television series Spaced. Read his full Top Ten over at Criterion. Check out Wes’ top ten here, and Bill Hader’s Bottle Rocket loving list here.

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Rushmore Director’s Cut Coming to Criterion on Blu-Ray in November!

Criterion announced their November releases this afternoon, and none other than Criterion stand-by Rushmore is coming to Blu-Ray!

The disc will feature everything from the original, stellar, DVD edition, plus a brand new Wes supervised transfer of  his “Director’s Cut.” We’re excited to see it, and hopefully this means we’ll be getting similar upgrades for The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic.

Click on the cover above to pre-order from Criterion, the disc will be released November 22nd.

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DVD Beaver Rates Criterion’s “Darjeeling” Blu-Ray

DVD and Blu-Ray watchdog DVD Beaver has taken a look at the new Criterion Blu-Ray of The Darjeeling Limited…and they love it.

(click to enlarge)

You can read their review at their site, where you’ll find more hi-res screen caps, and visit our previous story on the DVD and Blu-Ray where you’ll find links to pre-order. By using our links you help to support the site.

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Film.com’s Top 20 Criterion DVDs

Amanda Mae Meyncke at Film.com has compiled her list of the twenty must-own Criterion Collection DVDs, including films by Francois Truffaut, Noah Baumbach, and Wes Anderson.

 Rushmore, directed by Wes Anderson (1998)
Rushmore is easily the best of Wes Anderson’s films, a carefully crafted vision from one of the best new American directors of the ’90s. A young man named Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) finds himself too busy enjoying school to attend to the mundane nature of actually graduating and getting anywhere with his life. Throw in a crush on a teacher and a friendship with a sad sack played by Bill Murray, a host of strange characters and fantastic music, and you’ve got a good look at quirk done right. Nobody other than Cameron Crowe and Quentin Tarantino understands the importance of a good soundtrack quite like Anderson, and Rushmore comes close to perfection in the musical department. Funny, heartwarming and intensely likable, Rushmore is the ideal film.

To read the rest of the list, head on over to Film.com and let us know what you think of their choices.

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50% Off All Criterion, Vote For Wes

Barnes & Noble are having an in-store and online sale on all Criterion DVDs until August 3rd, including both the standard and Blu-Ray editions of Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Quite a good time to complete your Anderson collection. Note: The online store doesn’t seem to indicate that The Life Aquatic is included in the sale but if visit an actual location all Criterions are included.

Also, today’s IMDb poll asks “What is your favorite Wes Anderson film?” Right now Tenenbaums is far ahead of the others. Vote in the poll and tell us your pick in the comments below.  Update: Poll closed, Tenenbaums came out on top with 42%. Over 10,000 people voted. See the results here.

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indieWire: Scorsese’s Saves The World (Cinema)

Martin Scorsese is saving world cinema, or trying anyway. The goal of his new World Cinema Foundation, with Kent Jones as its executive director and allied with Criterion and the Auteurs,  is “preserving and promoting films from around the world.”

The Foundation, which has four films in this year’s Cannes Classics section at the Festival de Cannes, will use its alliances to take films from the fest in France to other festivals and museums, followed by a roll out to universities, film clubs, online at The Auteurs, via iTunes and Netflix, through to Criterion DVDs.

“These are considered to be the best films to have ever been made,” praised Cakarel from The Auteurs, adding that the films need to be made available worldwide, for free, so that they can be discovered by international audiences. His site has launched four preserved WCF titles online today.

The Auteurs, a virtual Internet-based cinematheque, will present a World Cinema Foundation portal on their emerging international platform online, incorporating discussion forums, video interviews and editorial content built around the films themselves. B-Side will re-launch and re-develop the WCF website. Criterion will create special DVDs of WCF titles.

“Film culture is richer now than fifteen years ago,” proclaimed Becker from Criterion, saying that these alliances can arm engaged audiences while also reaching out to new moviegoers.

Link

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Criterion cut of Bottle Rocket

I recall noticing that something was off when I watched the robbery scene for the first time on the Criterion edition of Bottle Rocket but didn’t know what at the time.

From an Amazon review:

The Criterion 2-disc Bottle Rocket is outstanding, but don’t toss your original disc just yet… the new edition is a slightly different edit that loses one laugh and adds another. I couldn’t find any reference to these changes in the supplementary material at all.

MISSING: Originally, during the book store robbery, Anthony grabs a random book off the shelf and opens it, revealing the title page “Job Opportunities in Government – 1995” which always gave me a little chuckle. Now for some reason the book opens to a black and white photograph of a military plane (it goes by so fast you’d have to freeze frame to make it out.)

ADDED: Originally, when Bob hands his earnings over to Future Man to cover his attorney fees, he asks if he can keep a few bucks for gas, and the scene ends. Now the scene plays a few seconds longer, and we hear Future Man’s reply: “No, you can’t.”

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NYT: Dave Kehr reviews the new Bottle Rocket Criterion DVD

An old favorite of ours, Dave Kehr, has a great review piece on the new DVD:

Stylistically, “Bottle Rocket” swings between poles of tension and release, order and chaos. In purely visual terms the film is tightly structured, with a systematic use of color (white for Dignan, bright red for Anthony), frontal compositions anchored by the horizon line, and a self-consciously theatrical sense of space: an open foreground for the action, played against a flat, immobile background (just as the motel rises from the flatlands around it). And there is no more linear plot structure than that of the heist film, in which pleasure lies in the orderly fulfillment of a precise program.

Read the full piece.

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Bottle Rocket available for pre-order on Amazon

The Criterion Collection edition of Bottle Rocket — out 25 November — is now available for pre-order from Amazon.com. Order yours here, and help support this site.

We’ve decked out the page in a Bottle Rocket theme to celebrate. Let us know what you think.

And, now, to the original BR trailer: