So, this is happening, per a Tweet this morning (and a follow-up clarifying “early 2012”) from second-generation downtown art star Lena Dunham.
This comes after the blog of the CriterionCast podcast alluded to a conversation with IFC Films about future titles getting Criterionized.
The last several years, Criterion has had something like a right-of-first-refusal deal with IFC Films. The idea being, I guess, to build their brand among Junior Cinephiles by getting the kids excited over which recent import has been tagged as a part of film history. This will, presumably, draw college kids back deeper into the Janus Films library, and into the weirder recesses of the collection. The end result of all this has been the instant canonization of a couple of genuine contemporary classics, and a couple of real head-scratchers. There are some, uh, divided opinions on this.
From the CriterionCast blog post, incidentally, we also learn a bit about some possible Errol Morris titles, and the likely if somewhat inexplicable rejection of Certified Copy.
Anyway. This instant induction into cinema history is not helping our envy any. Will Richard Brody do the liner notes? Or is that too obvious?
I was surprised that Fish Tank made the Criterion cut but I most certainly did NOT scratch my head. That movie is pretty great. I think probably apart from drawing the kids into Criterion, it’s a prestigious way of drawing attention to movies that may have been discussed heavily within certain hardcore film circles but also may not have played in more than, you know, 25 screens at a time (Fish Tank got to 15; Tiny Furniture, 21!) (and RE: Fish Tank, I feel like that movie was barely even covered when it came out in January — certainly it didn’t get a Lena Dunham amount of press). In place of the theatrical revivals of yore, or something.
Aw, dammit Mark, now you’ve made me want to buy the Fish Tank Criterion Blu-Ray even though I think it’s still hanging out on Netflix Streaming.
I think that’s probably true, that it’s necessary to stump more aggressively for film history being made, but in practice it ends up being a weird cross-section of a certain midsized distributor’s copious festival-circuit pickups. For obvious licensing reasons, of course, but that’s the problem with making history on the fly. Although we could probably all stand to put this one particular DVD company on a slightly shorter pedestal, really.
Fish Tank’s fine. Fine! Michael Fassbender’s really good in it.
I think Fish Tank, Summer Hours, and Hunger are all well deserving of inclusion in the collection. Tiny Furniture on the other hand . . .
I made my comment here – CC