Those Criterion Bastards Are Trying to Bankrupt Me

Per the Criterion Collection newsletter I just received, their edition of Mizoguchi's Sansho the Bailiff has a street date of 22 May. They're also releasing Shohei Imamura's Vengeance is Mine, which I've not seen. However, I tremendously admire Black Rain & The Ballad of Narayama, so I'll certainly give it a watch.

And OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY FRIGGIN' GOD. In June they're releasing Chris Marker's La Jetee & Sans Soleil. The former is a series of still photographs now perhaps most famously known as the basis for Terry Gilliam's masterful 12 Monkeys (though it certainly did not lack for recognition prior to Mr. Gilliam's film), while the latter...well, criminy, it's one of my favorite visual experiences of all time, ever. It's seriously awesome. No. For real. I implore you with the sincerity of a thousand baleful glances to watch it. And, in a strange coincidence with my own leanings of late, it deals a fair amount with Japan.

The narrator who reports to us the words & experiences of the letter-writer actually delivers one of my favorite descriptions of Japanese art: "Here to place adjectives would be so rude as leaving price tags on purchases." She is speaking more directly about poetry, but it really applies across the board.

Okay, it applies across the board to the specific Japanese arts to which yours truly is drawn. I don't know anime from animation. And I totally passed on all those creepy-kid horror movies & disgustingly violent pap crap films that the kids like these days. Like Suicide Club, or, from what I hear, Battle Royale. Ugh.

Also - I'd like to think that, were I the sort of person other people had any interest in interviewing, I would respond in the fashion of Mr. Marker, at least as far as Wikipedia has it:

"Chris Marker lives in Paris and does not grant interviews. When asked for a picture of himself, he usually offers a photograph of a cat instead. His cat is named Guillaume."

Which leads to a question - so, when Criterion's website trumpets the "GUILLAUME-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES", are they seriously referring to Mr. Marker's cat...? Because that is awesome.

EDIT: I just sent an email to John Mulvaney at Criterion asking whether the special edition features are indeed endorsed by Guillaume the cat. Should he actually respond to this absurd inquiry, I'll let you know the truth of the matter. And yes, for the record, I am a total, complete, hopeless dork. Who inbetwixt super-existential ponderings on the nature of cat-approved things, has been dying all day to go home & knit. Yeah. What am I going to do when I really am a little old lady?