Hal Hartley’s Trust, Not Revized But Imagined On DVD As Part Of The Criterion Collection
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
Due to rights issues, Hal Hartley‘s genius 1991 film, Trust, has sadly never been officially available in the US. This is the film that was my awakening to American indie cinema, which stars the late Adrienne Shelly. Here’s how I imagined it might look like if Criterion got to release it on DVD. One can dream.
The design is adapted, obviously, from the one-sheet–itself, a bit rebellious and unorthodox, as it is designed in horizontal format. The image is iconic, amongst indie film fans. Yes, I know the title is illegible and would thus disqualify it from even getting to a Hollywood distributor in the first place. What, no critic’s quote and star names on the cover? Gotta love Criterion, the only company who could get away with such a marketing faux pas.
Here are two takes on the unpopular design direction the Cocteau Twins took on their eighth album, Four-Calendar Café. The original was a sharp departure from the elegant and mysterious designs that adorned their previous releases.
I’m a big Pixies fan, but not a big fan of the solo work by their lead singer, Black Francis. When the Pixies broke up, I bought Frank Black’s (as he was now known) first two albums, which I just couldn’t get into. His third album, The Cult Of Ray (referring to author Ray Bradbury, hence his image in the Revized version), had the most boring cover (incidentally, the first that wasn’t designed by Vaughan Oliver). This sealed the deal for me: I would never buy another Frank Black album again.
Most people know the song “I Melt With You,” but not the band behind the hit, Modern English. Their first five albums were all designed by Vaughan Oliver. Their sixth album’s design makes them look like a completely different band (and they probably were by this point, to be honest).
