An Uncomfortable Mass

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CRITERION ANNOUNCES AUGUST 2012 RELEASES!!!

wooooows. for the past few years, it seems as if criterion has been on a mission to single-handedly save august from being the dog days of summer, and so it’s not too surprising that their line-up for this august is patently insane. but still… wooooows. 

#620 LA PROMESSE (dir. Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne) 1996

welcome to the Criterion Collection, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne! their breakthrough film is still among their best, the story of a boy coming of age while working for his father (the great Olivier Gourmet) as a human trafficker. a light release with just some interviews and new subs, but this is a film worth owning as best you can. spare, evocative cover art is pitch-perfect.

#621 ROSETTA (dir. Dardennes again!) 1998

and here we are 2 years later, as the Dardennes claimed their first Palme d’Or with this story of an impoverished young woman struggling to support herself and her alcoholic mother. if it sounds like dreary stuff, that’s because it totally is, but those Belgian brothers bring it to life with a rare immediacy and a poetic touch that confounds the limits of verité cinema. perfectly pitched cover art, just over the girl’s shoulder as it should be.

#622 WEEKEND (dir. Andrew Haigh) 2011

welllll, what have we here? i’m a bit surprised by this, it slipped under my radar as a potential Criterion release under the IFC partnership, but it is hugely deserving of a place in the Collection. this is the time to be horribly reductive, but come august Weekend can no longer be referred to as a gay Before Sunset, cause this beautifully observed film is so much more. Disc is pretty loaded with goodies (but no commentary. boo) and the cover is as pitch-perfect as it was inevitable.

#623 LONESOME (dir. Paul Fejos) 1928

in a month loaded with essentials, this might be the neatest release of all. a rarity / cinephile fetish object for years and years, this early-era talkie is a crazed, stylistically restless visit to Coney Island on the fourth of july, from an unsung filmmaker / anthropologist / doctor / legend. it’s like Scott Pilgrim for the pre-Depression set. and the disc is packed with two other Fejos films, visual essays, and a commentary track, all wrapped up in some of the most striking Criterion artwork of the year.

#624 QUADROPHENIA (dir. Franc Roddam) 1979

what better time to release the cinema’s most rocking rebel yell than right before the start of the new school year? the year was 1979, the band was The Who, and the songs were all anthems. this is an anti-authority classic, and a release that Criterion has been building towards for some time. and hey, is that… Sting? more Sting in the Collection is always a good thing. i mean, it’s definitely *a* thing, at the very least. you get some interviews and an audio commentary from director Franc Roddam, himself. and the art… i mean, it’s Quadrophenia!

#157 THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS (dir. Wes Anderson) 2001

and so ends the dark age of The Royal Tenenbaums not being on blu-ray.

Eclipse Series 35: Maidstone and Other Films By Norman Mailer 

three films by everyone’s favorite dead curmudgeon: Maidstone (duh), Wild 90, and Beyond the Law. how Mailer’s episode of Gilmore Girls didn’t make the cut, we’ll never know.

Ooooommmmmmggggggggg