My Fantasy Criterion Collection: Volumes 1-3

Recently one of my favorite spots, the essential Twin Peaks Archive, posted an imaginary Criterion Collection Cover (seen above) for Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. It came from this thread over at The Auteur's Forum and I thought it was an absolutely terrific idea and it has inspired me to create some of my own. Here are my first three imaginary discs with my ideal specs listed as well. Excuse how primitive they look as I am still learning how to create them. Hopefully, my abilities will improve and future covers will be more creative and look more professional.
I know these are just pipe dreams but just thinking about these discs puts a huge smile on my face:

Fantasy Criterion #1: Arthur Penn's Night Moves (1975)



Ideal Specs for a Three-Disc Set:
Widescreen Transfer Supervised by Arthur Penn
Feature Length Commentary from Arthur Penn and screenwriter Alan Sharp
Feature Length Commentary from Gene Hackman, Melanie Griffith and James Woods
Original 1975 Promotional Featurette
The Lost Score: A Tribute to Late Composer Michael Small
Neo Noir: A Featurette on Noir in the Seventies
The Damaged Detective: A Conversation with Gene Hackman
Career Starter: Conversations with James Woods and Melanie Griffith
Feature Length Documentary on the Making of Night Moves
Outtakes and Deleted Scenes
Photo Gallery
Bonus Book Featuring Original Screenplay, Novelization and Production Materials

Fantasy Criterion #2: Roman Polanski's Frantic (1988)



Ideal Specs for a Three-Disc Set:
Widescreen Transfer Supervised by Roman Polanski
Feature Length Commentary from Roman Polanski and Screenwriter Gérard Brach
Feature Length Commentary from Harrison Ford and Emmanuelle Seigner
The Maestro: A Conversation with Composer Ennio Morricone
Quite a Find: A Conversation with Emmanuelle Seigner
Creating a Look: A Conversation with Cinematographer Witold Sobocinski
Original 1988 Featurette
A Lesser Work?: A Look Back at Frantic
Outtakes and Deleted Scenes
Remastered CD Soundtrack
Photo Gallery

Fantasy Criterion #3: Richard Loncraine's Full Circle (1977)



Ideal Specs for a Three-Disc Set:
Widescreen Transfer Supervised by Richard Loncraine
Feature Length Commentary from Richard Loncraine
Feature Length Commentary from Mia Farrow
Creating Julia: A Conversation with Novelist Peter Straub
The Haunting: A Conversation with Composer Colin Towns
Recreating The Score: Colin Towns Performing the Score Live
Finding Olivia: A Conversation with Samantha Gates
Lets Scare the Audience to Death: A Featurette on Seventies Horror
Everything's Right Now: A Feature Length Documentary on Full Circle
Deleted Scenes and Outtakes
Remastered Soundtrack CD
Photo Gallery
Bonus Book Featuring Screenplay and Original Peter Straub Novel

My Look at Loncraine's Full Circle at The Amplifier

My revamped and extended look at Richard Loncraine's 1977 film Full Circle (The Haunting of Julia) can now be read at the Amplifier for those interested.

Overlooked Classics: Full Circle (The Haunting Of Julia) 1977

Richard Loncraine's FULL CIRCLE (THE HAUNTING OF JULIA) is one of the most perfectly realized and executed genre films I have ever seen. From its striking and tragic opening scene to its jaw dropping final moment, FULL CIRCLE never once slips in its relatively brief 98 minute running time. It is a real masterpiece of style and class, and one of the great lost films of the seventies.
At the heart of FULL CIRCLE is a relatively simple and tragic story centering on a child's death and a mother's breakdown. Shelia Benson pointed out in her great original review that the film can be read as a study of a young woman slowly but surely losing her mind, or it can be taken as a superior ghost story. Either way, the film remains a very haunting exercise in loss, revenge and fear.
It is this sense of loss that occupies every frame of FULL CIRCLE that separates it from most films that fall into the thriller or horror genre. Mia Farrow's work as the lonely and isolated Julia is frankly astounding and Loncraine's long takes of her alone in her house or out walking are incredibly intimate. It is due to Loncraine's sensitive direction of Farrow that makes the film so incredibly resonate, and it works not only as a ghost story but as one of the great character studies in all of seventies genre cinema.
The film is remarkably singular on many levels. It is, on the one hand, a rather old fashioned and slow moving work that builds carefully and methodically. On the the other hand it is very much a film that only the late seventies could have produced, made by a group of young relatively inexperienced people who were obviously filled with invention and creativity.
While the film marks career bests for Loncraine, Farrow and composer Colin Towns, that shouldn't overshadow that much of its power is due to the cinematography by Peter Hannan, the editing of Ron Wiseman and the striking production design of Brian Morris.
Hannan had worked with Loncraine on his first film, 1975's FLAME and his work on FULL CIRCLE is really noteworthy. Even on the washed out VHS copy, you can see how beautifully photographed this film is. Hannan's striking, dreamlike work would serve him well on future projects with Loncraine as well as the legendary Nicolas Roeg. Editor Ron Wiseman, whose cutting gives FULL CIRCLE's more intense scenes a real sense of dread and power, had previously worked on the strange 1973 Canadian production THE PYX and his work here is really splendid. The seance sequence is handled extremely well in particular and much of its greatness stems from Wiseman's editorial skills.

Perhaps the most striking behind the scenes effort was given by production designer Brian Morris. Julia's house is especially memorable with its high ceilings, spiralling staircases and Gothic feel. Just look at the details Morris contributes to the work the next time you watch it, specifically how children's toys seem to be everywhere in the film. Morris would use this striking eye in later work with Loncraine and on memorably designed productions ranging from PINK FLOYD THE WALL to ANGEL HEART.
I have already written on Colin Towns incredible score and I will only reiterate that this is one of the great marriages between image and music and the soundtrack album is in bad need of reissuing, with the missing cues added on as a bonus.

Joining the magical Farrow is a very distinguished cast featuring some of the best British actors of the period. These include a young Tom Conti, a creepy Keir Dullea and a great Jill Bennett.
Young Samantha Gates, in her film debut, plays the ghostly Olivia incredibly well and it is unfortunate that she only appeared in a handful of films afterwards. Popular British actress Sophie Ward makes one of her first on screen appearances as Julia's daughter Kate, who tragically chokes to death in the films opening.
FULL CIRCLE seemed to be cursed distribution wise from the get go and it remains relatively little seen, despite being a favorite to many horror fans. Used copies of the full frame VHS version can be found on online, and I suspect that I am not the only one slightly in love with the flawed, fading print that is used on it with its soundtrack that sounds like a very scratchy record. I have often wondered what my experience would be seeing a proper widescreen dvd of it...a French DVD is available and while it does finally featuring widescreen print of the film it is unfortunately so dark that it is an eyesore to watch. FULL CIRCLE remains, much like the ghost Olivia, very much lost in time right now.

This wraps up my look at one of my favorite films...I hope that those reading the posts have enjoyed them and will take them all together as my review of the film, and not just the above rather short ended posting. It is a really splendid work that has haunted my dreams for more than two decades now. With LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH and LEMORA now on DVD, FULL CIRCLE remains to me the great lost English language genre films from the seventies...seek it out and submit to its power.

FULL CIRCLE Fan Channel on YouTube

Longtime readers here will know that one of the films that I am most passionate about is Richard Loncraine's stunning 1977 masterpiece Full Circle (The Haunting of Julia).  While this mesmerizing work is still unavailable on DVD or Blu-ray fans are becoming more and more vocal about their love for it and some exciting things are happening.  There is a very active Facebook page dedicated to the film where you can keep up with news about it and see lots of vintage material.  There is also an upcoming article about the making of the film by Simon Fitzjohn in the upcoming issue of The Dark Side.  Last, but certainly not least, Mr. Fitzjohn has started a Full Circle Fan Channel on YouTube which I invite everyone to subscribe to and follow.  Two videos have been posted so far with more to come Fingers crossed that this all leads to one of the great films of the seventies finally getting the special edition home video release it has so long deserved!