We are still back and still a little behind. Our guest was Dave Eves. He and Jill share their favorite Criterions of 2022. We also talk about February and March 2023 announcements, as well as immediate reactions to the Sight & Sound 100 list. With the upcoming announcements, we took a deep dive into Romeo and Juliet and the impacts of the lawsuit filed by the young stars. 

Episode Links

Romeo and Juliet: Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting sue over 1968 film’s ‘sexual abuse’
BFI’s Sight and Sound poll results

Now that we’re back, we had some catching up to do. This week Drew Morton joined to go back through all of the months that we missed during hiatus. We were surprised how many months that was. We did sort of a speed record for the 2022 releases, getting into a little more detail on a few. We then looked at the recent January 2023 announcements in a little more detail. We had some interesting discussions about Sarah Polley, Atom Egoyan, and also the tendency for directors to change films for the home media release. Apologies for Aaron’s audio. Accidentally used the internal Mac mic but we think you’ll get used to it.

Episode Links

Canopy Film Club – Chapter 1 – Cinematography
Criterion Now – Episode 110 – A Conversation with Atom Egoyan
‘I Couldn’t Breathe’: Sarah Polley Says Terry Gilliam Created Unsafe Conditions on ‘Baron Munchausen’ SetFoundation – Giant
Sarah Polley Addresses Munchausen Criterion
Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime – Drew Morton’s Visual Essay on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Filmmaker Sean Baker returns to the podcast, and his co-director for Take Out and frequent collaborator Shih-Ching Tsou joins for the first time. We talk about their origins of working together, the style they established with Take Out and how that impacted future films, the feeling of being in the Criterion Collection, the restoration process of the film in preparation for release, the supplements on the disc, and more. We also have occasional digressions where we talk about filmmakers we love such as Lee Chang-dong, David Lynch, and others.

Episode Links

Criterion Collection – Take Out
Shih Ching Tsou’s Instagram
Sean Baker’s Instagram
Sean Baker’s Taco Bell Commercial

We took an unannounced hiatus for a lot of reasons. Jill and Aaron are now officially back and ready to resume the show. This one was just us “shooting the s**t” without an intro or anything. We just wanted to get back into the swing of podcasting, plus sharing what we’ve been up to, and what we’re looking forward to. As it happens we have two other episodes that are in the pipeline so expect more soon.

This is our special “one take” episode. Jill and Aaron get into June announcements, a lot of David Lynch news, and speculate about François Truffaut. Note that this was recorded prior to the announcement of Kino securing some Truffaut titles, but our speculation still stands for other titles.

Episode Links

Classic Film Collective
David Lynch Remastered Inland Empire because it was Ugly.
Film Foundation – Giant

Marcus Pinn joins as we discuss announcements for June and other news. Some of the discussion was not Criterion related as we discussed the Indicator Columbia Noir set featuring Humphrey Bogart. We also discuss Kinuyo Tunaka, the release cycle of Janus Films, the NYC arthouse theater scene, and much more.

Episode Links

Classic Film Collective
Hokuto Empire – Marcus’ new Twitter account
Zebras in America podcast
“Kinuyo Tunaka retrospective trailer

Drew Morton joins again, and we have a lot to talk about. Come for the Criterions, stay for his Jimmy Stewart impressions. We discuss the May 2022 Announcements, and then dive into numerous big topics. We talk at length about the Criterion edition of Miller’s Crossing and how it differs from previous versions. We also talk about Pink Flamingos since it is all but confirmed. And there’s so much more, from Drive My Car getting Oscar nominations, to Paul Schrader’s Facebook, to Neil Young’s rotoscoped booger.

Episode Links

Classic Film Collective
Greg Ruth’s Double Indemnity Art
Time article confirms Pink Flamingos is coming
Drive my Car coming to HBO Max first
“Garrett Bradley’s Criterion Closet Video

Grady Hendrix and Chris Poggiali, authors of These Fists Break Bricks join to talk about all things martial arts, ranging from the early films of King Hu up to the present. We also discuss the titles on physical media. This includes Criterion where Grady has been a periodic contributor, and other labels such as Arrow, Eureka, and numerous others. We talk about the films that influenced styles within martial arts films, which ranged from silent comedies to Spaghetti Westerns, to French New Wave Films.

Episode Links

Classic Film Collective
These Fists Break Bricks
Temple of Schlock

Celeste de la Cabra joins to discuss the April announcements, the error on the 4k edition of A Hard Day’s Night, plus other potential Criterion releases including Shaft and The Conversation. We also celebrate what is unquestionably the best Citizen Kane destruction video thanks to Caleb Porto.

Episode Links

Classic Film Collective
Ellie’s Girl Scout Cookies
Criterion Close Up – Episode 19. A Conversation with Alex Cox
Caleb Porto’s Citizen Kane Destruction Video
“The Clog” – Caleb Porto’s Short Film
Caleb Porto Films
3d Blu-Ray Rental

Jill and Aaron spend New Year’s Eve reflecting on the year of 2021, including the big news of Jill joining the show. We talk about favorite 2021 episodes and also hint at what to expect in 2022. Good stuff coming. Finally we both attempted to put together a favorite films of all time list, which is no small feat. We talk through that. Aaron’s list is linked in the show notes.

Episode Links

Classic Film Collective
Aaron’s Favorite Films of All Time

Brad McDermott joins to talk with Jill and Aaron about a lot of Criterion news that we had missed with our last few episodes. We begin with the March 2022 Announcements, many of which were a total surprise. We also talk about some of the rumors, whether they are valid or otherwise, and cheer the acquisitions that Janus has made for films contending for awards and top 10 lists. 

Episode Links

Classic Film Collective
Tick Tock Pictures – Brad and Fred’s Production Company
Magic Lantern Podcast
Criterion Cast – Best of 2021
Kemp Powers – Criterion Closet Video