393 - Pitfall

[criterionmaster]

When a miner leaves his employers and treks out with his young son to become a migrant worker, he finds himself moving from one eerie landscape to another, intermittently followed (and photographed) by an enigmatic man in a clean, white suit, and eventually coming face to face with his inescapable destiny. Hiroshi Teshigahara’s debut feature and first collaboration with novelist Kôbô Abe, Pitfall is many things: a mysterious, unsettling ghost story, a portrait of human alienation, and a compellingly surreal critique of soulless industry, shot in elegant black-and-white.

[wkw]

Great work by Criterion, but this has no bonus features. I'll probably get the MoC version instead.

[eatawiiner]

I would recommend the MoC for the Rayns commentary alone. He is easy to listen to and the commentary fits the film well. If your in R2 land you might as well since you can get FoA from MoC and WitD from BFI. Unfortunately those shorts aren't available anywhere else that I can see.

[criterionmaster]

wkw said:

Great work by Criterion, but this has no bonus features. I'll probably get the MoC version instead.

Well actually, they just stuffed all the features for the films onto a fourth disc in that box set it looks like, because look:

SPECIAL FOUR-DISC SET FEATURES INCLUDE:
- New, restored high-definition digital transfers
- Video essays on all three films by critic and festival programmer James Quandt
- Four short films by Hiroshi Teshigahara: Hokusai (1953), Ikebana (1956), Tokyo 1958 (1958), and Ako/White Morning (1963)
- A new documentary about the working relationship beween Teshigahara and Kobo Abe, including interviews with Japanese-film scholars Donald Richie and Tadao Sato
- PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by James Quandt, Howard Hampton, Audie Bock, and Peter Grilli and Max Tessier’s 1964 interview with Teshigahara

That feature I bolded looks like it is the only feature pertaining to the films themselves, but still, you do get four short films, and an awesome new documentary. I can't complain too much, although I wish we would have gotten a commentary, especially on Woman in the Dunes. Commentary always gives me a good reason to re-watch a film.

And like eatawiiner said, the MoC version does have a commentary.

Restored transfer and audio
Exclusive full-length audio commentary by Tony Rayns
New English subtitle translation
12-page booklet with an essay by David Toop
Original trailer
Gallery containing rare production stills and artwork
RSDL disc (DVD9), R2

Have you seen the film before, wkw? I really recommend just getting the box set this is featured in, since you get a great movie that isn't even available anymore (WitD).


Which art do you like more?

[eatawiiner]

I prefer the MoC artwork better because its on a bigger scale, sort of showing the surroundings of the main location of the film. Plus im getting sick of using B&W covers over at the CC. Every other cover is in b&w, getting old. I guess it fits the box set, but they could have made that much more appealing to the eye also imo.

A commentary on WitD would be great, im not sure if the BFI edish has one, but CC should release that alone at the $40 tag with a commentary. Im sure people waiting for WitD would appreciate not having to buy the entire box, and people who already did can get it for a commentary. Doubt that will happen though.

[wkw]

My library has a MoC dvd of Pitfall, unfortunately that's the only MoC dvd they have.

[criterionmaster]

eatawiiner said:

I prefer the MoC artwork better because its on a bigger scale, sort of showing the surroundings of the main location of the film. Plus im getting sick of using B&W covers over at the CC. Every other cover is in b&w, getting old. I guess it fits the box set, but they could have made that much more appealing to the eye also imo.

A commentary on WitD would be great, im not sure if the BFI edish has one, but CC should release that alone at the $40 tag with a commentary. Im sure people waiting for WitD would appreciate not having to buy the entire box, and people who already did can get it for a commentary. Doubt that will happen though.

Yeah, I was actually pissed off when they changed the color of the Viridiana cover. I love the DVD's to be colorful. It would be amazing if they did a cover in like 60's psychedelic artwork. And, the Criterion DVD has like the eye partially closed, which doesn't look at all as good as the open eye [on the MoC].

And the BFI edition does not have commentary. Yeah, if the DVD's aren't all in their own cases then there will be no way at all to get it without buying the box set.

wkw, you are lucky to even have one MoC, my library doesn't carry any region 2 releases.