Essential Fellini - Criterion Box Set Announced
On August 11, Criterion Collection finally announced their upcoming, November 24th release of, Essential Fellini. Details are at the Criterion site HERE. Once there you can also watch a wonderful video trailer that describes the disc along with a creative montage of film images.
As the press release reveals, the box set, which retails for about $250, contains 15 of Fellini's 24 films, 11 of which have NEW 4K restorations. It's all wrapped in deluxe packaging with two "lavishly illustrated books" and a ton of extras INCLUDING...
"...dozens of images spotlighting Don Young's renowned collection of Fellini memorabilia."
I am very pleased that my collection of Fellini ephemera was included in this set. I first worked with Criterion on their 2004 stand-alone release of I Vitelloni and later with, Amarcord, Juliet of the Spirits, La Dolce Vita, Fellini Satyricon and Roma. For this set they had access to my entire archive adding images for all the films in the new box set. It has been difficult to keep this exciting news under my hat the past few months. Examples from the archive are reflected throughout the set, especially in the 2 books.
As an aficionado of film art, one of the coolest thing about this release, for me, is the box set itself. It was designed and lettered by, Raphael Geroni, with new and delightfully bizarre illustrations by, Abigail Giuseppe. (See examples of their work below.)
In announcing the box set on his Instagram post Geroni had this to say:
“The theme of the set is inspired by Fellini’s dualities: the sacred and the profane, the masculine and the feminine, the provincial and the urbane. The design is inspired by the cinematic universe he created: a vision of the world as a three-ring circus in which his innermost infatuations, fears, and fantasies take center stage.”
The obvious downside is that, Criterion was unable to get rights to Fellini's other 9 films. Most of those have been, to some extent, restored and released by others but, unfortunately, minus the Criterion flair masterful attention to detail. One can only imagine. Maybe someday... Merry Christmas ya'll!
