Finch wrote:Personally, I feel that if "merely" tweaking titles existing elsewhere in English-friendly editions enables MoC to budget for some genuinely rare titles or world premieres (which they have said are forthcoming in June or thereabouts), more power to them.
Just as Criterion releasing Ben Button can allow them to get money to do wonderful stuff on other titles, and I totally get that.
Finch wrote:PS.: They have done ports before plenty of times on DVD. How is them porting over the Chabrols opportunistic and the Pialat DVDs weren't?
I found the Pialat DVDs very opportunistic, but I really started to follow MoC some time after, so that didn't bothered me that much at the time.
But with the Pialat BDs to be released by Gaumont, I wouldn't be surprised by most of them getting released by MoC.
On the other end, it's good to know there is what looks to be a good workflow between MoC and Gaumont.
Finch wrote:When you figure in the Japanese titles and the Clouzot, I find it baffling that MoC are being called opportunistic over 2 out of 7 titles.
I found them opportunistic on one BD out of 50 (Le silence de la mer), but the MoC release ported the MoC exclusive Ginette Vincendeau presentation, and was with a much healthier encoding than the Gaumont.
So 2 out of 7 clearly explodes the score.
But of course, the announcement of the Japanese titles and the Clouzot are very exciting, as is the upgrade of La notte when Criterion were "having troubles with some materials".
MichaelB wrote:A project I worked on a few years ago relied on licensing fees from French and American distributors in order to make the package viable at all. And yes, the resulting packages were very similar, and doubtless annoyed people who "follow labels". But I'm afraid that's just tough - it was either that situation or nothing at all from anyone.
On the other end, then, why movies like Kwaidan or 24 eyes, which have been restored and are available in HD, are not released yet in either French, UK or American market ?
It took 2 years for Narayama to be announced in the USA, so I'm wondering (quite honestly, because here, I just don't know what is the norm) : if these new HD masters needs all this money to be viable, how come it's taking so long to be released somewhere ?