July
3
Mishima Joins Ranks of All-Time Best DVD Covers
[Posted by Peter Debruge]
Paul Schrader’s Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters is the latest contemporary classic to get the Criterion treatment, and you can read my take on the film here, but I feel the gorgeous DVD box art deserves a review of its own. So here goes...
Designed by Neil Kellerhouse, the package is every bit as non-commercial as the film it contains, an artistic reflection of Yukio Mishima’s multi-faceted persona, diffracted and mirrored in the movie’s own faux-Asian style.
On the surface, you get an eye-catching gold box emblazoned with bright pink, orange and blue iconography. Extract the inner case and the negative image emerges: cherry blossoms against a stark black background. Open it further, and one of Mishima’s many enigmatic portraits (as recreated for the film) appears multiplied by four. Now, lift the final flaps, and the Golden Pavillion (one of the film’s key symbols for beauty) splits open to reveal two discs imprinted with the image of Saint Sebastian (the same painting Mishima credited with awakening his sexuality).
In short, this whole thing is a work of art. Which leads me to muse whether it is, as I’m tempted to conclude, the best DVD package design of all time. Personally, I tend to throw out all my DVD boxes and store the discs in binders (when you own more than 1,500 discs, space starts to be an issue), but there are some cases I simply can’t part with. Do you have favorites? After the jump, I nominate my top 10 picks.
1. Boogie Nights
Back in the early days of DVD, New Line discovered a smart way to motivate consumers to upgrade to a fancy two-disc edition with this playful, retro-styled cover. I’d kill for a poster with that art.
2. Alien Quadrilogy
Of all the high-concept DVD cases in existence (coffins, license plates, books of the dead), the Alien set takes the cake. Open the beastie’s head and extract your discs or store 'em in their slime-green sleeves. It even comes with a mini-monster to adorn your cubicle at work.
3. Blade Runner
What better way to house all 17 different versions of the never-quite-definitive cult fave than by sticking ’em in a plastic briefcase full of toys? Plus, that origami unicorn is some sort of clue.
4. The Adventures of Antoine Doinel
For their box set of Francois Truffaut pics starring his 400 Blows character, Criterion designed a cardboard suitcase, into which stack five discs packaged to look like folded shirts and sweaters.
5. Phantasm
The first movie ain’t half bad. The other three? Well, this high-concept case almost makes you want to find out by encasing them in the movie’s menacing silver sphere. And so a low-budget prop becomes a work of art.
6. The Simpsons - Season Six
With season six, Fox switched to releasing the Simpsons series in yellow plastic cases molded in the shape of the characters’ heads. They junk up your shelves, but look terrific on the rack at Best Buy.
7. Fight Club
In keeping with the movie’s subversive tone, Fox packaged Fight Club in what looked like a brown-paper wrapper. The unspoken message: Open at your own risk. The menu, of course, is a bar of pink soap.
8. Ichi the Killer
It’s a tough race, but this grotesque bloodbath by Takaski Miike is arguably my least favorite movie of all time. But packaging it in a plastic blood pack is just genius. I’m tempted to buy it and throw out the DVD.
9. The Shawshank Redemption
Everyone knows the rain-soaked one-sheet for this IMDb favorite, but when it came to releasing the special edition, Warner commissioned Indiana Jones poster artist Drew Struzan to do a fresh take.
10. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Oops, turns out my original #10 choice (Gun Shy) is actually the same art as the movie poster, so I'm cheating and subbing in the reversible cover for this hilarious doc instead. Open the case, flip the insert and you get this great painting by Scott Campbell.
OK, I know I must be forgetting some other great examples. Set me straight in the comments.
UPDATE: This wouldn't be Hollywood without more thanks. Kellerhouse writes, "there is no way this package would look the way it does without Sarah Habibi, Criterion's Creative Director and Willie Breese, Art Assistant. Also, Producer Kim Hendrickson and the Executive Producer Peter Becker, both of whom are always very involved in the design process and finalizing finished product."
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Dazed & Confused and Two-Lane Blacktop, Criterion editions.
Posted by: A. Campbell | July 04, 2008 at 03:39 AM
Hi Peter,
Thanks for that review. I just ordered Mishima and am really looking forward to the new design.
BTW, I would also include the Complete Planet of the Apes DVD on your Best Of list. Hard to beat a big, furry head of Caesar, the Chimp for a unique package!
Posted by: Gone Ape | July 04, 2008 at 11:30 PM
Peter,
Took the jump here from Matt Dentler's blog. As a designer, it's hard to toss DVD packaging, but I do it too. I'd also agree with A. Campbell on the "Dazed & Confused" Criterion set. Phenomenal work there. I would also add the "Apocalypse Now" (original & redux) 2-disc set designed like a military docket and the cover art for "Pulp Fiction" is classic.
Posted by: J. Puckett | July 08, 2008 at 10:13 PM