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Director Terry Zwigoff is not what anyone would call a prolific filmmaker, having started his career with 1985.s Howard Armstrong documentary Louie Bluie, only to follow it nine years later with 1994.s stellar biographical documentary Crumb. Since then? Just three narrative features - Bad Santa, Ghost World, and Art School Confidential - all of which retain differing amounts of cult value. And now here we are in July 2013, reporting the second potential Terry Zwigoff project to pop up just this summer. What, is he going all Terrence Malick now? Because we.d be perfectly fine with that. Not only is Zwigoff going back to the dark comedy genre he performs so wellin, he.s bringing in Nicolas Cage as his leading man, according to The Wrap. The film is titled Lost Melody, and will be produced by Edward R. Pressman and his Pressman Films imprint. In the film Cage will...

Pre-internet records are sketchy, but I was told that the nearest this film came to the Raleigh area was when it played briefly in Charlotte, N.C. in 1986. If anybody knows different - please drop me a line. "Louie Bluie" (Dir. Terry Zwigoff, 1985) "She sauntered over to me and she says 'You're Armstrong. I know you're Armstrong. But you're not Louie Armstrong, that Louie. You're just plain ol' Louie Bluie, that's what you are.' And so I used the name to record under later." - Howard Armstrong Last month the Criterion added to their...

Chicago – Terry Zwigoff’s “Crumb” is one of the best documentaries ever made. It’s that cut-and-dry. I can still remember first seeing Terry Zwigoff’s brilliant dissection of art, sexuality, and eccentricity and when the Criterion Blu-ray release made its way to my desk I was stunned to realize that the film was already fifteen years old. It’s still amazing.

Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0

Zwigoff clearly started out with the intention of documenting the unusual life of a unique artist but, like a lot of great documentarians, he not only captured lightning in a bottle with “Crumb” but turned his subject’s singular story into a relatably universal one. Criterion has released Zwigoff’s breakthrough film on Blu-ray while also simultaneously releasing his earlier doc “Louie Bluie” on standard DVD.

Crumb was released on Blu-ray and DVD on August 10th, 2010

Photo credit: Courtesy of the Criterion Collection

The breakthrough “Crumb...

Terry Zwigoff’s 1986 documentary Louie Bluie offers a portrait of a restless, tirelessly agreeable, creative spirit who quickly learned he had to be adaptable if he wanted remain an artist and also eat dinner every night. Born in Tennessee in 1909, Howard Armstrong played with string bands and medicine shows and learned to play whatever music audiences wanted to hear on virtually every instrument with strings. In one anecdote, Armstrong—nicknamed “Louie Bluie” by an early admirer—talks about getting by in Chicago by speaking “Tennessee Italian” and playing songs he learned from immigrants back home. Seldom seen without ...

This week the first two films of cult director Terry Zwigoff get the Criterion treatment. Zwigoff's debut film, the documentary Louie Bluie (1985) tells the story of Howard Armstrong, a fiddle and mandolin virtuoso who ages ago recorded one of Zwigoff's favorite records, "State Street Rag." The documentary finds him still spry in his mid-70s, and he lived another 18 years after the film was released. The movie contains some terrific quasi-blues music, though Zwigoff insists that "it's only 10 percent of what he can really do."

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Well here we are, another mid-month Criterion Collection New Release announcement extravaganza. A few titles that we suspected, due to rumors and various clues, and new addition to Maurice Pilat’s section of the Criterion Collection.

First off, we’re getting a re-release of a Criterion classic, Marcel Camus’ Black Orpheus. This is Criterion #48, so they are keeping in line with their re-releasing older titles, with new features, transfers, and absolutely gorgeous cover art. This Black Orpheus painting is one that I would certainly buy a print of, to hang on my wall. Black Orpheus will be released on August 17th on DVD and Blu-ray

A few weeks back, we told you about how the New York Times, in their Summer DVD column, let loose the idea that Criterion was working on a collection of Josef Von Sternberg titles, and we now have a complete list of the films, along with supplemental materials and artwork.