Peter Strickland: A Curzon Collection (June 2024)

[Nitroes]

Katalin Varga / Berberian Sound Studio / The Duke of Burgundy / In Fabric / Flux Gourmet

Nice set. I have everything except Katalin Varga on Blu-ray.


https://hmv.com/store/film-tv/blu-ra...zon-collection
https://www.rarewaves.com/products/5...imited-edition
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D1G94KTN/

https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=34400
https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Peter...lu-ray/359913/

[rapta]

Looks lovely but going to be a tough sell at that price for those of us who already own all these films already. Only upgrade would be Katalin Varga, of course, and the bonus disc of shorts would be invaluable too. Not sure I can stomach that price but if it ever falls to half that I might consider it (a similar situation to the Wenders set)!

[Rutger Lundgren]

But don't you just love that packaging? You could display it next to your other shoe boxes.

[justwannaboogie]

If Curzon want to keep aggressively pushing these lavish director sets they need to sort out their disc authoring first.

[javy]

Please give us a stand-alone release of Katalin Varga. I already own all of the other films.

Peter Strickland is one of today's best.

[rapta]

Originally Posted by javy

Please give us a stand-alone release of Katalin Varga. I already own all of the other films.

Peter Strickland is one of today's best.

Better yet, a release of Katalin Varga plus the bonus disc of restored short films...but let's face it, Curzon are never going to do that, and instead are trying to try and coerce us into buying huge expensive sets where most of the discs are just reprinted from previous releases.

A bit of a shame these kinds of titles are being gatekept by companies hellbent on making a quick buck off old licenses, rather than do the sensible thing and actually deliver something the community as a whole actually wants. Many of the same collectors who have bought each successive Strickland film that Curzon have released have been asking for Katalin Varga on Blu-ray for years, and now we finally have it but are being asked to shell out £70 for the privilege.

Originally Posted by justwannaboogie

If Curzon want to keep aggressively pushing these lavish director sets they need to sort out their disc authoring first.

This too. I think the biggest travesties of them acquiring such incredible back catalogues like Tarkovsky and Wenders is the fact they fumble the encode, so we're getting incredible restorations and possible world HD exclusives handled sloppily on the technical side of things. Occasionally they've pulled it off somehow, but it's a mystery why Curzon - and others, especially Criterion - can maintain such a strong reputation despite messing things up at the last hurdle.

Admittedly other companies I love have messed up before (Eureka, Second Sight, Arrow, BFI etc), but not nearly as often as Curzon or Criterion, and at least they tend to know which titles they should pay extra close attention to (i.e. the most anticipated). They also often learn from their previous mistakes, and on a whole those issues don't arise again in later releases. How many times have Curzon fumbled the encodes now, particularly when it comes to box sets?

Originally Posted by javy

Please give us a stand-alone release of Katalin Varga. I already own all of the other films.

Peter Strickland is one of today's best.

I imagine we will at a later date, as they did for Until the End of the World a year after they released the Wenders set. We might have to wait a while longer, but they'd be silly not to release it individually.

[Funktion]

I don't have any boxset from Curzon.

How are the discs usually packed on their boxsets (individual cases, a digipack with proper disc holders, or those dreaded cardboard "books" where the discs slide in and out)?

I already own 4 of the 5 titles on Blu-Ray, but if indeed it will be stacked with short films and special features, I guess I'll need to treat myself to the set as sort of birthday gift for myself.

My wife is sure to love it. She really dislikes his films. Hated In Fabric, and when I started watching Flux Gourmet, she just got up and went to bed.

[Mr. Thomsen]

Great to see Katalin Varga getting an upgrade.

When the DVD was going OOP a few years back, Strickland posted on FB to urge people to get it, as he did not think it would ever get another release. Apparently, there was some kind of rift between him and the producer. Glad that is resolved.

[Kyle15]

These guys' boxset designs are so fart-huffy they make Criterion and even A24 look humble. They're trying way too hard to make a ~serious brand~ for themselves.

[UpsetSmiley]

I like the clever use of burgundy, in fact it makes me want a Costa Coffee.

[jmbe]

Originally Posted by Kyle15

These guys' boxset designs are so fart-huffy they make Criterion and even A24 look humble. They're trying way too hard to make a ~serious brand~ for themselves.

My only complaint is the CURZON on the spine being bigger than the director name. Other than that I really like them, even if they are definitely on the fart-huffy side. My non-physical media collecting brother has commented more than once how much he likes the texture

I definitely think A24's oversized "won't-fit-on-your-shelf-so-must-be-displayed" LOOK AT ME releases are worse...

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by Funktion

I don't have any boxset from Curzon.

How are the discs usually packed on their boxsets (individual cases, a digipack with proper disc holders, or those dreaded cardboard "books" where the discs slide in and out)?

...

My wife is sure to love it. She really dislikes his films. Hated In Fabric, and when I started watching Flux Gourmet, she just got up and went to bed.

When they were Artificial Eye, they had practical, almost utilitarian designs for boxsets - for instance, the Truffaut collection I got was a set of slimcases in a slipbox.

Haha, I sympathize with your spouse. I didn't quite hate In Fabric, but it left me cold, appearing more like a David Lynch directed special of "Are you being served?" I do love BSS and DoB.

[Usure]

rdered

[Kyle15]

Originally Posted by jmbe

I definitely think A24's oversized "won't-fit-on-your-shelf-so-must-be-displayed" LOOK AT ME releases are worse...

The difference between the two is Curzon packaging literally being the equivalent of a box with A24 plastered all over it and a film title. They stripped the identity of the movies away to posit their company name. You can't get any more LOOK AT ME than that. A24 doesn't strip away the identity of the movie. Curzon says LOOK AT ME and A24 says LOOK AT THIS. Apples and oranges!

[jmbe]

Originally Posted by Kyle15

Curzon says LOOK AT ME and A24 says LOOK AT THIS. Apples and oranges!

Touché! As I said, my main gripe is the prominence of the CURZON logo at the expense of the director's name so you make a good point.

But let's not pretend A24 isn't one of the most self-aware, self-promoting companies on earth. Curzon might be stripping away the identity of the movies to posit their company name on physical media packaging, but outside of physical media, A24 manages to strip the identity of the filmmakers themselves to posit their company name.

When people unironically talk about "the new A24 film", "my favourite A24 film", "A24 nEvEr MiSs!" etc, you know you are witnessing one of the most effective marketing strategies of all time. It's pretty wild. Even films they only distributed and had zero input into the creation of (which is the vast majority of them) get the treatment. No other film company has managed to pull that off. Nobody talks about their "favourite Miramax film" or their "favourite XYZ film" etc. Not really. You don't get to that position without some serious LOOK AT ME tactics.

Anyway, putting my gripes with the cult of A24 aside and returning to the subject at hand... at the end of the day, the fact I can put these Curzon sets on my shelf and don't have to front them or put them on a display stand or perilously balance them on top of a shelf swings it for me. The A24 stuff is designed to be displayed. The Curzon stuff isn't.

I totally respect your opinion though. I can't pretend these Curzon sets aren't oozing with pretentiousness. But one man's pretentiousness is another's classiness.

Different strokes!

[Rutger Lundgren]

Originally Posted by jmbe

But let's not pretend A24 isn't one of the most self-aware, self-promoting companies on earth. Curzon might be stripping away the identity of the movies to posit their company name on physical media packaging, but outside of physical media, A24 manages to strip the identity of the filmmakers themselves to posit their company name.

When people unironically talk about "the new A24 film", "my favourite A24 film", "A24 nEvEr MiSs!" etc, you know you are witnessing one of the most effective marketing strategies of all time. It's pretty wild. Even films they only distributed and had zero input into the creation of (which is the vast majority of them) get the treatment. No other film company has managed to pull that off. Nobody talks about their "favourite Miramax film" or their "favourite XYZ film" etc. Not really. You don't get to that position without some serious LOOK AT ME tactics.

I'm sorry, but those are such bizarre statements to make. That all sounds an awful lot like Criterion to me (or Blumhouse, Hammer, and actually countless others), and the second paragraph easily applies to pretty much every label with somewhat dedicated following.

Besides, A24 must be doing a really poor job of usurping their filmmaker partners' spotlight, when for most of their films I'm not even aware of their involvement until I see the logo at the start. I think you're letting your distaste for the company get the better of you.

[nicwood]

Originally Posted by Kyle15

The difference between the two is Curzon packaging literally being the equivalent of a box with A24 plastered all over it and a film title. They stripped the identity of the movies away to posit their company name. You can't get any more LOOK AT ME than that. A24 doesn't strip away the identity of the movie. Curzon says LOOK AT ME and A24 says LOOK AT THIS. Apples and oranges!

Exactly this. I specifically loathe their disgusting A CURZON FILM banner on all of their individual BDs and 4Ks since their rebrand. And pairing this “look at me” approach as you described with the shoddiest on-disc curation (encoding) magnified the insult towards the film and us buyers so much more. I’m glad that they’ve significantly improved their encoding for their Lars von Trier set, which I’ll acknowledge as a good step into the right direction but they need to keep this up in the future to make up for how terrible they worked up until the infamous Wenders set.

[Kyle15]

Originally Posted by jmbe

Touché! As I said, my main gripe is the prominence of the CURZON logo at the expense of the director's name so you make a good point.

But let's not pretend A24 isn't one of the most self-aware, self-promoting companies on earth. Curzon might be stripping away the identity of the movies to posit their company name on physical media packaging, but outside of physical media, A24 manages to strip the identity of the filmmakers themselves to posit their company name.

When people unironically talk about "the new A24 film", "my favourite A24 film", "A24 nEvEr MiSs!" etc, you know you are witnessing one of the most effective marketing strategies of all time. It's pretty wild. Even films they only distributed and had zero input into the creation of (which is the vast majority of them) get the treatment. No other film company has managed to pull that off. Nobody talks about their "favourite Miramax film" or their "favourite XYZ film" etc. Not really. You don't get to that position without some serious LOOK AT ME tactics.

I largely agree with this, but it's separate from package execution. A24 makes all their marketing about them like they're a brand. (and it makes me wince!) Curzon does it with their packaging. If A24 began doing the same thing that's when they've totally jumped the shark!

[jmbe]

Originally Posted by Rutger Lundgren

I'm sorry, but those are such bizarre statements to make.

Not a problem! You're entitled to critique me

I've wrapped my response to you in a spoiler so as not to completely derail this thread with what turned out to be a wall of text:

[Show spoiler]

Originally Posted by Rutger Lundgren

That all sounds an awful lot like Criterion to me (or Blumhouse, Hammer, and actually countless others)

I can see that, sure. Certain quarters of the Criterion fandom are ripe for ridicule too!

I think what separates A24 from Blumhouse or Hammer is that generally when people talk about "a Blumhouse film" it's not necessarily a positive connotation. I'll be the first to admit they've released some good films but in common parlance, it tends to be a tad derogatory. It's not seen as a badge of honour, though I'm sure they have their adherents.

I can't claim to be too knowledgeable about Hammer, but it was my understanding that they were actually producing all their films and that there was a genuine mission statement of sorts to adhere to a very particular kind of film. The idea being that any "Hammer film" was well and truly part of this distinctive family, with a recurring cast of actors who featured prominently across various films. It was all very much in-house.

This is precisely what A24 haven't done, but what seems to be the impression some people have of them. That A24 is a kind of magical arthouse factory, that churns out films that only they could.

What rubs me up about this is that there is an endless list of genuine auteurs (who were already well established) who just happen to have had one of their films distributed by them (not even produced) and the talk in certain quarters will then be of said film simply being "an A24 film".

The idea that seems to profligate is that A24 has had some sort of creative input or that there is a certain style to the films they have put out, or that the films wouldn't exist without them. Which 1) feels like a real disservice to all the unique and varied voices who just happen to have had their films distributed by them and 2) is patently false. If A24 hadn't coughed up for The Witch after it screened at Sundance for example, someone else would have. Most of these films were going to find distribution either way. I don't think Claire Denis or Noah Baumbach were going to have many issues finding distribution.

Now they have the money, they are producing a lot more, but at the beginning they were simply hoovering up rights to films that had already been made. That's not to say they haven't done wonders elevating some films that might not have had such successful releases as they ended up having, because they demonstrably have.

Originally Posted by Rutger Lundgren

and the second paragraph easily applies to pretty much every label with somewhat dedicated following.

Can't disagree with you there.

Originally Posted by Rutger Lundgren

I'm not even aware of their involvement until I see the logo at the start

The fact that you aren't aware of their involvement doesn't negate the fact there is a legion of people who are.

Originally Posted by Rutger Lundgren

I think you're letting your distaste for the company get the better of you.

It's not the company that I have a distaste for. On the contrary, I am happy they exist! They're exceptional at what they do. (I still find their oversized physical media release ghastly, but everyone has their preferences).

This is purely to do with the "fandom", of which my gripe admittedly stems from having spent a fair bit of time on film-Reddit in years gone by (no more thankfully!), where the circle-jerk around them became a bit nauseating. But as you rightly point out, this can (and does) apply to a million other fandoms. I'm sure were I not terminally online, I would be blissfully unaware of such things and would be perfectly content with concentrating on the positives of A24, of which there are a great many!

Oh, and I'm definitely not discounting myself from being prone to brand devotion of one form or another. I'm aware I'm likely a total hypocrite in that regard!

Originally Posted by Kyle15

I largely agree with this, but it's separate from package execution. A24 makes all their marketing about them like they're a brand. (and it makes me wince!) Curzon does it with their packaging. If A24 began doing the same thing that's when they've totally jumped the shark!

They're both wince-inducing in different ways! When it comes to Curzon, I think they're biggest issue packaging wise is the decision to ditch the blue Artificial Eye bars on the spines. It was distinctive enough for their releases to stand out on a shop shelf, whereas now they just kind of blend in and get lost in the noise (I'm talking they're standard single BD releases).

[Rutger Lundgren]

Originally Posted by jmbe

Not a problem! You're entitled to critique me

I've wrapped my response to you in a spoiler so as not to completely derail this thread with what turned out to be a wall of text

Thank you for a detailed response. I'll spoiler tag my response as well.

[Show spoiler]I think you've made your point well, although the focus of your arguments now seems to have shifted from A24 themselves to their fanbase. Let me be clear, I have no horse in this race. My opinion of A24 is entirely neutral, inasmuch as I don't ever find myself thinking about them at all (except for once when I was considering ordering EEAAO from their store). Like you could probably tell from my remarks, I've not even been exposed to their fandom to any great extent.

What made me respond - and I apologize if I sounded too harsh and confrontational - is the fact that I could easily recognize at least a dozen other companies in your words. Once the core fandom is formed, most companies will lean into it with their branding and marketing, it only makes business sense. Not many of them will be like "Oh no no no, we're not that great, please don't give us your money!" But in most cases it's a double-edged sword that can easily turn against them. I think that Marvel is a good example that doesn't require much explanation. Or a bit closer to home, Imprint, a label that had its five minutes of fame soon after it had launched, until everyone realized that their releases were often not of the best quality. So likewise with A24, if their fandom persists, it's probably a sign that they're doing something good after all, even if it's just selecting which films to sign.

Let's get back to Curzon for a moment. I've always appreciated their releases as Curzon/Artificial Eye, seemingly more than most. Sure, in terms of extras and quality control they were rather spotty, but then they were a great outlet for films that not many other labels would release in the UK (mind you, as I'm not from the UK, my exposure to them was solely through their home video releases). Now MUBI have sort of picked up that mantle (amusingly - or not - with many of the same drawbacks), and Curzon are trying to reposition themselves. To keep it short, let's just say that I'm not the biggest fan of their first results, but hey, if it works for them, great! I do find it ironic that their newfound fondness for luxury branding and self-important grandeur seems to be the very thing that someone like Ruben Östlund would ridicule in their films. But as far as Peter Strickland films go, those releases have always been put together with great attention and as an obvious labour of love (with Strickland's direct involvement, no doubt), so I hope that this set will be equally well thought out.