Well, the possibilities are immense - the man scored no less than 78 films in his lifetime, or something like that. And the range and quality of them is mind-boggling to say the least! Take a look:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006316/

Actually, I believe it was significantly more than 78. Imdb, being based only on user submission, isn't very comprehensive with regard to foreign (to the U.S.) films.

One film that would make an outstanding MoC release is Imamura's Black Rain, and Takemitsu composed the score for that one.

It's got to be a likelihood, given MoC's introduction of Imamura into their canon, and the almost complete unavailability of all but his most recent work on DVD. Black Rain seems, in fact, especially likely, given its high reputation and the fact that the out of print R1 DVD is highly sought-after...

I'd rather have Insect Woman or Intentions of Murder.

> I'd rather have Insect Woman or Intentions of Murder

Make it a box set -- with these two PLUS "Pigs and Battleships".

;~}

MEK

The Insect Woman is actually the Imamura I'd most like to see on DVD. A box set would be great...but I seem to recall perpee saying there were no MoC boxsets currently planned...

It's too hard to choose between those Imamura titles, but Insect woman is the one I would choose over Black Rain, Narayama and Pigs...Insect woman has masterfully suggestive mise-en-scene, imagistic associations that bind the characters into a cyclical narrative tracing the history of Japan as well as a fresh and innovative blend of editing, documentary footage, freeze frame punctuation, elision and metaphor. It's like a symphony, in a way. Playing with rythm and images.

I have a totally unrelated question, but I may as well ask it in this thread: is MoC planning to devide its collection in 'lower and higher-tier' discs, Criterion-esque?
Oh, and is there a difference between the Dutch Eureka 2-disc Metropolis version and the MoC-version, imagewise? The extra's are the same, but the booklet is missing. Maybe some touching up or something? Not that I'm unhappy with it, but I'm just wondering.

I don't know what the "Dutch Eureka version" is. Eureka only make discs in England, for the UK and Irish market. If the old Eureka version is on sale in Holland, then this is considerably different to the MoC version (see DVDBeaver).

-

We have no plans for different pricing structure tiers.

Just a note. The EU is since 1993 one single market containing amongst others the Brits, the Irish and the Dutch.

Thanks, but that bears no relevance to the issue at hand. Eureka licenses films for the UK and Ireland. Eureka discs are not authorised to be sold in other territories, but, like every other DVD company, we have no control over distributors who buy Eureka product and then sell it elsewhere.

(You knew it wouldn't be long...)

I thought this would be a nice little idea to get some things out of our system (that is, making impossible wishes public...) but also a place where we could give MoC some tips as to what extras we would like to see on future releases (for instance, I once mentioned a Toru Takemitsu docu by Zwerin as a possible extra and they seem to have appreciated that).

Anyway, here are my first recommendations:

- Zigeunerweisen, by Seijun Suzuki (who is ripe for an english subtitled edition and falls into the non-silent/japanese category of late )

- any Satyajit Ray or Mrinal Sen that you can lay your hands on!

EUROPA 51/Rossellini - hardly to be seen anywhere...

1. The Insect Woman [Nippon Konchuki] (Shohei Imamura, 1963)

2. Mother [Okasan] (Mikio Naruse, 1951)

3. A Cat, Two Women, and One Man [Neko to shozo to futari no onna] (Shirô Toyoda, 1956)

4. Mothra [Mosura] (Ishirô Honda, 1956)

5. The Human Condition Trilogy [Ningen no joken I-III] (Masaki Kobayashi, 1959-61)

You asked for it.

Any of Luis García Berlanga's great films (Bienvenido Mr. Marshall, El Verdugo, Plácido) would be great. Commentary or interview with the director would also be fine.

J'Accuse (Abel Gance...both 1919 and 1938 versions preferred)

He Who Must Die (Jules Dassin, with a Dassin interview)

Little Norse Prince (Isao Takahata...with The Story of Yanagawa's Canals as a supplement?)

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Rex Ingram)

Ordet (Gustaf Molander's version, starring Victor Sjöström. Some sort of comparison to the Dreyer version would be splendid, as would a commentary by Tybjerg, if its suitable)

Jigokumon

Fröken Julie

Joris Ivens Box Set


Axel.

Six fois deux/Sur et sous la communication (1977/Godard & Mieville)

and nearly anything by Mizoguchi (preferably the ones that aren't as "popular" as, say, Sansho and Ugetsu are)

In an uncharacteristically patriotic frame of mind I am musing about some British titles -

Early Powell/Pressburger : - Contraband / Spy in Black
Humphrey Jennings Collection
GPO/Len Lye animation collection.

God yes.

Glad I'm not the only one on the forum that wants a new release of the Human Condition films. In the recent Lists Project poll, I was baffled to find out that I was the only person out of more than 25 to vote for them. (The first and second were high on my list, and the third is 1960s).

Is there any problem with the current Image Entertainment release?
I was going to rent it.

Here's a review that summarizes some of the problems: http://www.dighkmovies.com/v2/127/127a.html. They're definitely worth renting, though.

Suggestions:

Jean Grémillon: Gueule d'amour/Lady Killer (1937) & Lumière d'été (1943)

Sacha Guitry: Le Roman d'un tricheur/The Story of a Cheat (1936) & Les Perles de la couronne/The Pearls of the Crown (1937)

Kon Ichikawa: Biruma no tategoto/The Burmese Harp (1956), Nobi/Fires on the Plain (1959), & Yukinojo henge/An Actor's Revenge (1963)

Shohei Imamura: Nippon konchuki/The Insect Woman (1963) & Narayama bushiko/Ballad of Narayama (1983)

Ernst Johansen: Du er ikke alene/You Are Not Alone (1978)

Teinosuke Kinugasa: Kurutta Ippeji/A Page of Madness (1926)

Dmitri Kirsanoff: Ménilmontant (1924)

Masaki Kobayashi: Seppuku/Harakiri (1962)

Marcel L'Herbier: L’Argent (1929)

Erik Løchen: Jakten/The Chasers (1959)

Yasuzo Masumura: Tsuma wa kokuhaku suru/A Wife Confesses (1961) & Akai tenshi/Red Angel (1966)

Mikio Naruse: Okasan/Mother (1952) & Ukigumo /Floating Clouds (1955)

Nagisa Oshima: Koshikei/Death by Hanging (1968) & Gishiki/The Ceremony (1971)

Slobodan Sijan: Maratonci trce pocasni krug/The Marathon Family (1982)

Aleksandr Sokurov: Dni zatmeniya/The Days of Eclipse (1988) & Kamen/The Stone (1992)

Seijun Suzuki: Tsigoineruwaizen/Zigeunerweisen (1980)

Dziga Vertov: Shestaya chast mira/The Sixth Part of the World (1926)

Edward Yang: Qingmei Zhuma/Taipei Story (1985), Guling jie shaonian sha ren shijian/A Brighter Summer Day (1991), & Mahjong (1996)

I'm going to jump in on the Zigeunerweisen bandwagon. This film really needs an English version available. It actually hasn't had any real exposure outside of Japan, and if I recall correctly, the only time it's been shown out of the country is during the series of Suzuki retrospectives of the 1990s (which I believe Tony Rayns helped to organize). I have a copy of Branded to Thrill, which was something that was distributed at some of those events, and he had a great deal of input on that, so maybe he could contribute something if it were a possible release.