by Chris MaGee This is one of those stories that made me do a double take, in more ways than one actually. I have to admit that sometimes insider industry articles don't grab my attention as much as they should, so when I saw this article by Jeremy Kay at Screen Daily about how IFC Films was teaming up with the Criterion Collection to have a number of its films released as part of the Criterion roster I... well, I just came surfing along through the internet. It wasn't until this morning when I caught 24 Frames per Second that a very interesting nugget of news jumped out at me.
As part of this deal such contemporary indie classics as Alfonso Cuarion’s "Y Tu Mama Tambien" and Christopher Nolan’s "Following" would get the deluxe treatment that Criterion normally only affords older classic films. Along with these and other films by Oliver Assayas, Steven Soderbergh, and Jan Troell one name immediately jumped out at me: Hirokazu Kore-eda and his 2008 film "Still Walking".
"Still Walking" as part of the Criterion Collection? I'm still mulling this one over. Kore-eda is definitely one of my favorite Japanese directors, with his films "After Life" "Distance" and "Nobody Knows" looming fairly large in my pantheon of favorites, but while I liked "Still Walking" very much I'm not sure if it can stand toe to toe with some of the other masterpiece productions that the Criterion Collection puts out. It does have parallels with the work of Criterion favorite Yasujiro Ozu, but...
Have your say in the comments: "Still Walking" as part of the Criterion Collection? A worthy addition or not?
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2 comments:
Absolutely worthy. I loved this film...It's all the small details that made it stand out for me and the dynamics within the family. I can't wait to see it again. If it doesn't yet stand up to the masters in the Criterion collection, it certainly can stand with the many and other diverse smaller titles they have (picking at random, say "Last Days Of Disco" - no offence to that film at all by the way).
It will be interesting to see where Criterion goes with this IFC deal - I think "A Christmas Tale" and "Gomorrah" are two early announcements.
If anything of his cannon should be included in the Criterion roster, it should be Nobody knows.
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