Tucked into the back of “Criterion Designs,” a new coffee-table book from the Criterion Collection ($100), is a visual index of every cover the New York-based art-house and cinema video distribution company has ever produced. The tome, which will be released Nov. 25, celebrates the company’s 30th anniversary and its longstanding mission to “marry publishing and movies” for discerning fans of film.
For those unfamiliar with Criterion, the company’s president, Peter Becker, likens it to the Modern Library and the Norton Critical Editions, doing for movies what the latter do for literature. “Even when an impossibly iconic image already exists for a film, we usually like to start over, look for a new way to present it graphically,” he explains. “These films are not museum pieces. They are alive, and we want our designs to reflect that, so we turn to top contemporary artists to look at the classics of world cinema with fresh eyes and communicate their vitality to today’s audiences.” The book showcases some of the best examples of the brand’s designs, beginning with Orson Welles’s “Citizen Kane” — originally released on laser disc, a state-of-the-art medium back in 1984 — and ending with Guy Madden’s “My Winnipeg,” coming out on digital Blu-ray this fall.
Like any great retrospective, the book includes works-in-progress, alternate covers and cutting-room-floor drafts of the 100 original interpretations represented, like Rossellini’s “War Trilogy,” early Cronenberg, select Hitchcock, vintage Charlie Chaplin, the complete Wes Anderson and more.
For now, the first printing of 5,000 copies are already sold out — but another 5,000 are set to ship before the end of the year.
An earlier version of this post misidentified Peter Becker's role at the Criterion Collection. He is the president, not the founder and publisher. Also, the book will be released on Nov. 25, not Nov. 26.
