The Holy Grail of DVD Box Sets has Arrived!

No....not the Star Wars box set. While that may be nice for youthful nostalgia (Filmbrain did buy it), George Lucas' seemingly endless fiddling with the original films is more than a little annoying for those of us that need to see Han shoot first. But enough of that. . . This was the week that the long-awaited John Cassavetes Criterion Box Set was released -- and it is even better than Filmbrain could have imagined. For those who know Cassavetes, love Cassavetes, and have been anticipating this release, you need no prodding. For film lovers who don't know the man -- do whatever you must -- sell blood, put stuff on Ebay, eat fast food for a month -- do whatever it takes to land this box set on your DVD shelf. Filmbrain guarantees satisfaction. Five films: Shadows, Faces, A Woman Under the Influence, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (two versions!), and Opening Night. Extras include the 200-minute documentary A Constant Forge, the first ever US release of the 135-minute version of The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, an alternate 17-minute opening to Faces, loads of rare background material, and a wonderful 68 page book of essays by Cassavetes, Martin Scorsese, Kent Jones, Philip Lopate, et al. It's a dream come true, and the quality of the films are a huge improvement over the old Pioneer DVDs. Now, there will be those that decry "what about Husbands?!?" (Filmbrain admits to having been one of those -- and for that matter, what about Love Streams? Hopefully, the success of this box set will lead to a volume 2, which will fill the holes (maybe even including Big Trouble). Filmbrain heard an interesting story yesterday regarding the first pressing -- if you look in the lower left hand corner of the inner spine of the outer box (the slipcover of sorts) you'll see the following text: jimmy crack corn. Apparently this was not meant to be there, tremendously angered somebody at Criterion, and will be removed from future pressings. If anybody has any background/inside information about this, please drop Filmbrain a line -- he'd like to hear the details about this. Here's a wonderful excerpt from the essay . . .And the Pursuit of Happiness, written by Cassavetes in 1961: I think the old filmmakers had one thing the new filmmakers should take into consideration, and that is they liked people. They were interested in the epic quality of man rather than the lessening of his ideals, showing how little morality and how little bit of soul he had. The old filmmakers showed that everybody had a soul, even the most violent, evil people. There were black, okay, but at least it was a definite thing. And I think people who go to the cinema don't want to say, "Yes, we are confused, we are nothing." It destroys all kind of entertainment. If you really observe and put within the framework of the story some more important facet of life, if you say something that is a positive statement rather than a negative one, you have confirmed somebody's belief. If you affirm somebody's emotion or ideas, they don't feel ashamed of feeling this belief. Incredibly inspiring words that perhaps more screenwriters/filmmakers should take to heart. Get this box set at any cost.

Comments

[cinetrix]

I'm willing to bet this guy probably has the answer: http://www.gothamist.com/interview/archives/2004/09/22/sean_howe_editor.php

[Sal C.]

I know that the Love Streams VHS went out of a very long time ago and Husbands has never been available in any home video format. I would love to see them show up in a volume 2 DVD, but I suspect there is some rights issue that has kept them out of print all these years.
And I would nominate Mikey and Nicky for inclusion in a volume 2. I know that Cassavetes didn't direct the film himself, but...

[Filmbrain]

Trixie -- thanks for that link.

Now, if I can only figure out how to contact him. . .

[M. Hulot]

>I know that the Love Streams VHS went out of a very long time ago and Husbands has never been available in any home video format.

Actually, Columbia released "Husbands" on VHS a few years ago (albeit with about 10 minutes missing), but that's out of print now as well.

> I would love to see them show up in a volume 2 DVD, but I suspect there is some rights issue that has kept them out of print all these years.

The five films that were released in this box are all owned by Castle Rock, which is why they tend to be lumped together. The non-release of a "Husbands" DVD is apparently not so much from rights issues as lack of interest from Columbia. "Love Streams" seems to be in limbo as it is part of the Cannon Films collection that ended up with MGM, and now...?

For more info, check out http://people.bu.edu/rcarney/JCinsecure/cassfilmvideo.shtml

> And I would nominate Mikey and Nicky for inclusion in a volume 2. I know that Cassavetes didn't direct the film himself, but...

It used to be out on VHS from Anchor Bay, but someone there told me they couldn't get the DVD rights.

[Pete]

Where did you buy it and for how much? I've seen it priced from $80 to $120 at various locations.

[FIlmbrain]

I found a place here in NYC that had it for $99 minus 10%. (Kim's Video) I probably could have found it cheaper online, but I simply had to have it my hands that moment. . .

[Alex]

Husbands
Minnie and Moskowitz
Love Streams
and...
Gloria? for the next set?

[Tribe]

Mikey & Nicky is coming out in December on DVD from Home Vision Entertainment.

[M. Jobe]

Regarding the Criterion box set of Cassavetes’ films, voted #1 DVD in 2004 by the readers of Masters of Cinema, the writer commented: "...the Criterion Cassavetes set is perhaps the year's most lovingly compiled release. The deserving winner." Do you realize that Ray Carney’s hand played a MAJOR role in this release as the scholarly advisor, yet he was cheated of the credit he so richly deserved? For the story behind the scenes, see Carney’s account at: http://people.bu.edu/rcarney/discoveries/discint.shtml. I encourage you to read Carney's account so that you can appreciate the tremendous effort that he put into the "lovingly compiled" box set. Carney's website also has an amazing amount of details and insight on Cassavetes and his films.

Regards,

M. Jobe