In one way or another, Death is around the corner. Maybe if you squint hard enough, he’ll look more like a cardboard cutout than a real thing. Maybe squint hard enough and people will look like cardboard cuts too. That means no real loss in the future, right? Well, perhaps.
Having originally debuted in 1991, Jan Oxenberg’s Thank You and Good Night played at the Toronto International Film Festival. The quasi-documentary also became something of a Sundance favorite—and a precursor for the fest’s more recent hits. Blurring the line between fiction and fantasy, Oxenberg follows a family in the wake of a loss. With it comes a wave of highs and lows, most of which, as shown in the trailer for its rerelease, veers towards absurdist humor and stream of consciousness. Almost three decades after the picture all but fell into obscurity, IndieCollect brings us a 4K restoration in all its pop-up glory.
Thank You And Good Night will stream exclusively on the Criterion Channel beginning September 23, 2020 along with a new introduction by director Jan Oxenberg and two of Oxenberg’s rarely screened shorts, Home Movie (1973) and A Comedy in Six Unnatural Acts (1975).
Watch the trailer below.
