When you’ve been doggedly championing a film for the better part of 18 months, as I have with Claire Denis’s “White Material,” you do start to feel weirdly parental. So I was oddly touched by the raft of emails and tweets I got from assorted readers to inform me that the film has been revealed as one of Criterion’s April titles — it was as if I was being congratulated for someone else’s triumph.
I’ve said before that I don’t really do the Criterion thing: US import charges making the discs even more of an indulgence for me, after all. If I make an exception for anything, however, it’ll be for the film that further viewings have established (after an already ecstatic first encounter) as my favorite of the last half-decade or so.
Each revisit opens up both new avenues of political enquiry and an alternative set of possible answers, while the filmmaking also stuns on rotating, mood-dependent levels. One day, it’s Denis’s still-life camera that seems to lead the rich, fever-dream sound design; another, quite the reverse.
Still, my enthusiasm for “White Material” in 2009 was so steeped in a keen personal response to its conflicted, spidery examination of African identity and self-definition that I found it hard to gauge what others might get out of it — so the film’s warm critical reception in the States, including numerous year-end list appearances and the odd minor awards mention, has been a joy to observe. We all want to share the things we love.
So the news that Criterion is wasting no time in admitting the film to its lofty ranks — in a class of new entries that also includes the likes of “Kes,” “Au Revoir, Les Enfants” and “Sweet Smell of Success” — couldn’t please me more. (Perhaps I shouldn’t have inundated friends and family with copies of the vanilla UK DVD for Christmas.) Coincidentally, it’ll land just weeks after my 2009 runner-up to “Material,” Andrea Arnold’s “Fish Tank,” enters the club. If you haven’t seen either film yet, make this your opportunity.
[Photo: The Criterion Collection]
Comments
9 responses to “‘White Material’ gets the Criterion treatment”
Wow, Criterion sure do know how to make bad ass movie covers!
Even though I did not enjoy the film as much as I had hoped (especially after months and months of praise from you on this page and on twitter) – I still believe this film is a must-see and is formally one of Claire Denis’s greatest achievements. It left me a little cold (which is not usually something that bothers me, it just did here) but many of the people I saw the film with were very impressed. It is a shame this film is not in any kind of awards conversation, but that is how it goes…
Criterion DVDs are almost worth their cost just based on the covers alone.
I think this film is very bad, or al least I didn’t get it…
How is “Au Revoir les Enfants” a new entry? I own the Criterion of it…
I used to love Criterion but ever since I got my Blu-ray player I fucking hate them for still region-coding their Blu-rays when even most of the Hollywood studios have stopped doing it.
Speaking English: I guess it’s new on Blu-ray? Just going by what the website tells me — as I said, I don’t keep up with these things.
I’m actually not a fan of the cover for this one, but having already imported the UK blu-ray of this… I’ll be double-dipping anyway. Because it’s the best film of either year in which you want to place it (09 or 10).
I’m honestly offended that dreck of this caliber is beeing deemed “Criterion-worthy”. When I was a meager teenager trying to make sense of a growing interest in a film by immersing myself in the Collection’s plethora of masterpieces such as “Branded to Kill” and “Le Cercle Rouge” (also due to receive a long-overdue blu ray release that no one seems to have noticed or displayed any interest in), I came to regard Criterion’s curatorial instincts with nothing but a sense of wonder for the magic I was certain to find inside those snazzy packages. Now, years later, I regret to say I no longer feel the same way. The upcoming release of “White Material” strikes me as a massive disappointment, indicative of the company’s perplexing attempts to court a more “mainstream” audience. Quality has been sacrificed for timeliness. This happened briefly in the 90s when, in a desperate attempt to earn a little extra dough, Criterion released its own editions of Michael Bay’s “The Rock” and “Armageddon”. I speak for not only myself, but numerous well-meaning cineastes when I say that we hoped such a disgrace would never occur again. The dark ages are upon us once more, with “White Material” leading the charge of tasteless commercialism.
Dying to see this film – don’t know when it will (if ever) make it down to Australia but your consistent praise for the film all year long doesn’t help my anticipation!