Said Michael Nash, describing something that happened to him in 1992, a year after he became director of Criterion, quoted "Sure, It Won an Oscar. But Is It Criterion?/How the Criterion Collection became the film world’s arbiter of taste" (NYT).
Much more at the link.
Bowie was calling about Nicolas Roeg’s 1976 film “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” in which Bowie starred as an alien visitor who masquerades as human and succumbs to the human condition. Nash remembered seeing the movie years earlier and finding it “amazing” but difficult to understand. “I was totally confused,” he said. The reason audiences couldn’t make sense of it, Bowie explained, was that the theatrical release for “The Man Who Fell to Earth” was missing 18 minutes of film that was cut by the distributor. “It got butchered,” Nash told me. Years later, its star was hoping that Criterion might consider releasing Roeg’s original cut of the film on LaserDisc....
Criterion’s respect for creators was what caught Bowie’s attention. On the phone with Nash, he offered to record an audio commentary for the Criterion edition of “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” which was released on LaserDisc in March 1993 and quickly became a cult classic. “The thing about ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’ and so many of the other projects is you’ve got films whose greatness was squelched somewhat by the process of taking them to market, where the people who had the projects didn’t understand them and would recut them for commercial release,” Nash told me. His priority was to help make Criterion “an enterprise that would restore the director’s vision and get the film right for posterity.”
Much more at the link.
३४ टिप्पण्या:
“...you’ve got films whose greatness was squelched somewhat by the process of taking them to market, where the people who had the projects didn’t understand them and would recut them for commercial release,” Nash told me. His priority was to help make Criterion “an enterprise that would restore the director’s vision and get the film right for posterity.”
Hasn't it gotten worse? With films now being edited for ideological reasons.
The man who fell to Earth would be a good one to see behind a couple grams of magic mushrooms.
I've never heard of that movie.
Criterion isn't necessarily determinative of taste. There is also the consideration of a film being important, such as a film introducing or demonstrating techniques of production or artistic direction that are important to the industry. There are a lot of films that do not meet my taste, or that of other people, which I can still see and appreciate for being important to the history of film making.
And sure, the difference between a box office edit and a director's cut can make a world of difference. Bowie's film would need a really powerful extra 18 minutes to become a movie that I'd like.
I've seen Apocalypse Now in a large number of versions. As a young adult seeing it in a theater, I thought it was a brutal condemnation of inhumanity. It has become more and more a hilarious comedy to me over the years as I've aged and as the different editions have been released. "Redux" with its plantation scene is a laff riot.
Cool. I've a nephew majoring in 'film' and I tried to turn him on to the Criterion Collection. He let me know he knows everything already...
I love Criterion, but it's not for everybody. You can watch a lot of movies that are source material for more recent works, for instance "The Rules of the Game" is a precursor of "Sex and the City," where the only sin is old fashioned morality. Or movies that are low key insights into where the culture was going, when it was not obvious at the time, like "Car Wash." Or just oddball genius flicks like "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen."
I love Criterion.
I just made a Criterion tag and I had many old posts that I've added it to, going all the way back to the first year of this blog.
Oldest post is from March 28, 2004, less than 3 months into blogging, about "Scenes From a Marriage." Excerpt:
"Scenes From a Marriage made an interesting contrast to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, seen earlier yesterday, and written about below. Sunshine is all about how you'll regret leaving, but Scenes is all about how you'll regret staying. In Sunshine, you stand to lose the love of your life. In Scenes, you stand to lose your own senses. There was a different zeitgeist then! Anyway, if that partner you're trying to leave took you to see Sunshine to prove to you why you should stay, you can argue the other side with Scenes, which is designed to stun you out of your complacency. No one wants to be that woman 20 years into a relationship who can't even feel the reality of the table under her hand. I think she might be the most frightening character in the history of film."
Note: "Eternal Sunshine" is on the Criterion Channel now.
Brazil is top five ever for me, and I used to see everything. So many glorious that would otherwise be abandoned, or available only on the video system from the 70s at your local library...
The old studio system that was eviscerated by anti-trust lawsuits is entirely responsible for butchered theatrical cuts. When Louis B. Mayer controlled MGM and the cinemas that exhibited MGM releases, questions of scheduling and timing were non-issues. If the finished cut of Gone With the Wind ran four hours, dictating only two showings per day, one matinée and one evening performance, then so be it. Money would be made. The cinemas could retain their prints as long as ticket sales were good, all the money went into one big pot and divyed up later according to established procedures.
When the cinemas were cut loose, cinema owners could only make a profit by multiple showings per night (two matinée performances were icing on the cake if the cinema could justify them economically) thus the preference for films under 120 minutes runtime. Post-divestiture filmmakers had problems with the distributors. If your finished cut ran more than 120 minutes, pressure would be applied to re-edit the film to a more profit-friendly format.
There is a perennial question in aesthetics, how does the artist know when he's finished? That question apparently flummoxed Tolkein. He found himself unable to stop writing The Lord of the Rings. By the same token, many filmmakers are unable to stop filming, they just continue until the money is exhausted, leaving their projects lacking dramatically sound conclusions. Consequently, Criterion, ought not to be afraid of cutting the runtime of a film if aesthetic integrity is their aim. More is not necessarily better.
"Hasn't it gotten worse? With films now being edited for ideological reasons."
Any examples of that?
"Any examples of that?"
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/15/entertainment/home-alone-2-trump-trnd/index.html
At the intersection of Criterium and David Bowie stands the beloved professor.
Anything by Disney, Robert.
Criterions foreign film collection. "400 Blows", "The City of Lost Children" it goes on and on. Film noir classics. "The Postman Always Rings Twice" etc.
“Any examples of that?”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_censorship_in_China#List_of_edited_films
"I've seen Apocalypse Now in a large number of versions. As a young adult seeing it in a theater, I thought it was a brutal condemnation of inhumanity."
I've never thought it was about that at all. I think it's an examination of ambition and the hubris (madness) that grows therefrom, as it manifests in individual humans (e.g., Kurtz) and in nations, (in this case, American neocolonialism in Indochina, just one part of our larger ambitions), and in Heart of Darkness, the novella it's based on, European colonialism in Africa).
It does illustrate that "civilized" societies are as (or more) wantonly savage as any peoples the advanced societies condescend to see as "primitive."
Criterion Channel presents new collections each month. I've especially enjoyed the pre-Code movies. I also love when the get me interested in an actor I've ignored and can suddenly specialize in. In the past year, in that way, I've done Randolph Scott, Sterling Hayden, and Maurice Chevalier! I would never have cared about them without Criterion.
I've bought a few Criterion DVDs and/or Blu-Rays, and the quality and supplemental content are excellent. I wish, though, that it would reissue some of their earlier films. Prices for some of them (only available from resellers) are obscene.
I saw MWFTE in the theater (probably a drive-in) when it was released.
Much weed was smoked and the movie was confusing.
Now I know it wasn't just the weed...
I've seen Apocalypse Now in a large number of versions. As a young adult seeing it in a theater, I thought it was a brutal condemnation of inhumanity. It has become more and more a hilarious comedy to me over the years as I've aged and as the different editions have been released. "Redux" with its plantation scene is a laff riot.
And now, in 2024, we're all living the Do Lung Bridge scene.
"Who's the commanding officer here?"
"Ain't you?"
tim in vermont said: "Hasn't it gotten worse? With films now being edited for ideological reasons." and he subsequently posts the following url as "proof":
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/15/entertainment/home-alone-2-trump-trnd/index.html
A handful of grumbles and the stated desire by a few hardly amount to a wave (or even a ripple) of "films now being edited for ideological reasons."
"'Any examples of that?'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_censorship_in_China#List_of_edited_films"
Uh...John. We're not China, are we?
Quaestor:
There is a perennial question in aesthetics, how does the artist know when he's finished? That question apparently flummoxed Tolkein. He found himself unable to stop writing The Lord of the Rings.
How much of that is supposition? Sometimes a story is historic and as such rather unending. As the man said, “I have long ceased to invent…I wait till I seem to know what really happened. Or till it writes itself.” He had a nicely detailed prehistory in The Silmarillion that exerted influence.
One can always put down the series.
My daughter bought me a 1 year subscription and I've really been enjoying it. I rewatched some Rainer Werner Fassbinder films and saw others I hadn't watched before. The 15 hour miniseries Berlin Alexanderplatz could have been trimmed, but it's very powerful and well-filmed. I also watched Le Nuit de Varennes, which I saw in the 80s and really enjoyed seeing again. A friend recommended a 1960 film by Michael Powell called Peeping Tom. It was controversial that it pretty much ended Powell's career, and I don't know if I understand why. Psycho was the same year and should have been similarly shocking. The Powell film is worth a view. I checked out a couple of Jacque Tati films. Heard lots about him but hadn't seen his movies and they're really very good.
My kids gave me a subscription to Criterion Channel this past Christmas, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it! I've gone down the Alfred Hitchcock and MGM Musicals rabbit trails, among other one-off movies.
'A handful of grumbles and the stated desire by a few hardly amount to a wave (or even a ripple) of "films now being edited for ideological reasons."'
Let me know the next time 'Blazing Saddles' plays on TV unedited or without some whiny intro to give 'context.'
Anti-racism is one if its primary themes built around a comedy.
“ Uh...John. We're not China, are we?”
It’s not just movies censored for release in China: the desire not to piss off China affects how some movies are made for U.S. release too, and even whether movies on some topics get made at all.
https://pen.org/report/made-in-hollywood-censored-by-beijing/
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/aug/05/china-hollywood-films-damaging-impact-report
Apocalypse now is mainly about how civilized people become insane when they are imbedded in third world countries with the natives.
Laurence of Arabia hints at this a bit.
Imagine Cortez and his men encountering the Aztecs.
Colonialism was hell on the middle management of the colonialists.
The moral of the story is let the Third World be the Third World.
You asked for an example, Robert, but nice deceptive edit of my post in your reply, too bad the original is still there.
I don't remember you posting dishonestly before, this is a new thing from you.
I was a big fan of Bowie so of course I went to see "The Man..." Not impressed. Boring. I'd rather have watched the Bing Crosby Christmas duet which was, at least, weird af.
“The man who fell to Earth would be a good one to see behind a couple grams of magic mushrooms”
Meh, it was ok.
“The man who fell to Earth would be a good one to see behind a couple grams of magic mushrooms”
Meh, it was ok.
"You asked for an example, Robert, but nice deceptive edit of my post in your reply, too bad the original is still there.
"I don't remember you posting dishonestly before, this is a new thing from you."
I apologize, Tim in Vermont. That was my fault, but it was unintentional. I reacted to your response to my question, but my question was directed at another commenter, Wince. I should have identified him as the original author of the statement I questioned (and whose statement I pasted in above yours), and identified you as the person who answered me. I was careless.
I also love when they get me interested in an actor I've ignored and can suddenly specialize in. In the past year, in that way, I've done Randolph Scott, Sterling Hayden, and Maurice Chevalier!
One of the coolest gags in Blazing Saddles is when all the cowboys put their hands over their hearts and repeat out loud, "Randolph Scott." When I was a kid, I didn't know who he was! Famous for all his B westerns, of course.
And he's kind of awesome as an anti-hero. He pops up in a screwball comedy with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, My Favorite Wife, one of the funniest screwballs out there. And he's the bad guy in Ride the High Country, which is arguably the finest movie Sam Peckinpah ever made.
Scott's co-star in that movie, Joel McCrea, also did a bunch of westerns. He would be a fun guy to binge on. For a B actor, he's done a surprising number of great movies.
The Palm Beach Story
Foreign Correspondent
Sullivan's Travels
Ride the High Country
The Most Dangerous Game
The More the Merrier
I'm surprised Bowie could remember such detail about the movie because he was completely out of his gourd on cocaine during production. And it shows.
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