Last Saturday morning, I fired up the ol’ internet machine and checked the Fake Criterions email account. There was a message from someone at the Paris boutique Colette, saying that they were having some movie-art-themed exhibition in May and were wondering if I’d like to send any covers along.
I was kind of taken aback and asked for more details, thinking Hey, maybe this could work! None of the covers on here (at least the ones I’ve made and I’m pretty sure a huge percentage of the submissions) were made at a printable resolution, but maybe recreating three or four and printing them out at the size of a DVD cover wouldn’t be so bad. Well, it turns out that they were looking for quite a few more than that and large enough to fill a 4x16 foot space behind the main floor registers.
I wrote back, thanking them for even considering this, but that I would have to, sadly, pass.
The thing is, I’ve never even considered this whole thing translating over into print or the physical world. It’s all been meant to just be silly Photoshopped jokes, existing solely online. I can’t speak for anyone else who has sent covers in, but when I make one- that’s it. Seventy-two dpi and I don’t even save the layered file.
But I’ve been thinking, would something like that work? What if you had some sort of Gallery 1988-type show, where artists create Fake Criterions as physical art, reinterpreting various films and the idea of the cover itself? Is that even worth considering? I’d have no idea how to even go about organizing such a thing, or if folks would be vaguely interested. Also, most importantly, would the real Criterion folks get angry?
What do you think?
Oh- and if you’re in Paris, stop by this Colette joint. They seem like good people.
- RJ White
