2015 New Year's Day Drawing

[kazaam]

The group with knives facing off against the soldiers distinctly have Xs for mouths. Could that indicate something?

They look to me like they're wearing masks.

[Harmonov]

Any chance the end of the bridge is Until the End of the World?

[DeprongMori]

The only ones I am certain of are:

* Inside Llewyn Davis.
* The Fisher King (but why is there a moon/eye at the end of the line?)
* One Two Three (clock)
* Speedy
* Moonrise Kingdom (house on horizon with moon, Wes Anderson makes it a certainty)
* (added) The Brood (hooded group on bridge)

Reasonable guesses:

* The New World (ship up the river, has been hinted in the past, current edition OOP )
* Two Days, One Night (two suns and a moon, Dardennes brothers)

Wildass guesses:

* Two for the Road (couple in car, MOC just released UK edition)
* Barry Lyndon (marching soldiers, why? - Kubrick, but could be any film)

Questions:

* Why do the knife/sword-wielding men have X's for mouths? Silent samurai of some sort? Mute assassins?
* Why is there a moon/eye at the end of the Fisher King's line?

[ptatler]

* Why is there a moon/eye at the end of the Fisher King's line?

Is there some shitty movie about The Residents?

[SCOTTiE]

One-Eyed Jacks

[Jeff]

Reasonable guesses:

* The New World (ship up the river, has been hinted in the past, current edition OOP )
* Two Days, One Night (two suns and a moon, Dardennes brothers)

I think you can file those two as certainties. They mentioned that they licensed a Malick title from Warner at Wexner and The New World is the only Warner Malick they don't already have. Criterion has a first look deal with Two Days, One Night's distributor, IFC, and there's no reason they would turn it down.

One-Eyed Jacks

From your lips to God's (or at least Peter Becker's) ear.

[Dansu Dansu Dansu]

I know this is impossible (and ridiculous), but that rose looks exactly like the stained-glass rose during the opening of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. As for Citizen Kane, Criterion did just remind their Instagram followers about their Laserdisc release...

[dwk]

My completely wrong guesses:
Eye on the fishing line = 4 Flies on Grey Velvet
Blood on the ground = Lady Snowblood

[DeprongMori]

La Vie en Rose would make it a Marion Cotillard two-fer this year (along with Two Days, One Night)

A truly wild-ass guess alternative would be The White Rose, but I can't think of any compelling reason to add it to the Collection.

[FrauBlucher]

Why would WB give up Citizen Kane. I don't see it.

[Buttery Jeb]

Blood on the ground = Lady Snowblood

Is that supposed to be blood? I thought it was a bonfire.

[jjhunsecker]

I am totally positive that the guy pushing the cart is referencing Fassbinder´s Merchant of the 4 Seasons.
Hans Hirschmüller (main actor) has a similar cart in the film and wears a checkered shirt. There are 4 jars (for seasoning?) on the cart.
We know Criterion own the rights and furthermore it was shown in a new restored print at the Lincoln Center in 2014.

[ordinaryperson]

Ones we don't know/aren't sure about
The people in the car
The group of men with knives
The rose (suggestions: The Purple Rose of Cairo, American Beauty, The Rose)
I would put the woman and the blood, but I have a strong feeling that dwk is right.

[JHunter]

It can't be "The Purple Rose of Cairo." Twilight Time is releasing that.

[Raymond Marble]

I agree with the couple of other members who identified the man pushing the cart as The Merchant of Four Seasons, which is great news, as that's another of my favorite Fassbinders.

And while I think the argument for Two Days, One Night is compelling, the argument for Before Sunrise and Before Sunset is just slightly less strong; I'm going to adopt a "wait and see" stance on that one. Any of those films would be welcome, so I likely won't be disappointed, in any case.

I also buy the Napoleon argument; Criterion's apparently been working on that one for some time.

[sir_luke]

I can't imagine that the rose is The Purple Rose of Cairo, seeing as it's just been announced by TT...

EDIT: Oops, JHunter, I guess we posted at the same time.

[sir_luke]

The clock could mean a Before boxset. 4:10am is Before Sunrise, 4:10pm is Before Sunset, and either one is Before Midnight!

[What A Disgrace]

Am I the only one who saw the ship sailing out of the picture and immediately thought And The Ship Sails On?

[johnnysnatchclub7]

Could the eyeball in fact be a PAPER MOON?

[Askew]

Am I the only one who saw the ship sailing out of the picture and immediately thought And The Ship Sails On?

Nope, that's what I thought too.

[criterionsnob]

King + Eye = The King and I?

[Titus]

Could the moon/eye/whatever indicate Breakfast at Tiffany's ("Moon River")?

[Buttery Jeb]

Mark Rydell
I know phantom pages don't mean much in terms of when stuff might be coming out; but I've been assuming that The Rose would be under consideration at some point, as it's the only film of Mark Rydell's that I can think of that Criterion might be interested in. They would be able to get some decent supplements out of Bette Midler's career, as well as it's ties to the life of Janis Joplin (and Criterion loves their music-related titles).

In a separate point, posters on the Blu-Ray.com's forum pointed out that the window might represent A Room with a View (granted, you have to go through pages of speculation that some of the clues point to Studio Ghibli films to find it). That title is owned by Westchester Films and not Merchant-Ivory; so it wouldn't have been affected by the lawsuit a few years back that pulled Howard's End and their HVE line out of print.

I'm agreeing with the Merchant of Four Seasons, Brood and Cure clues (although I initially thought the latter was Walter Hill's the Warriors for some reason). Less sure about One, Two, Three and One-Eyed Jacks. Completely stumped by the car, soldiers, the gun-toting woman and whatever that is next to her (bonfire, blood, or so forth).

[Feego]

To me, the big splotch on the ground by the woman looks more like a sink hole or something rather than blood.

[Jeff]

The knife gang with the masks/X-mouths appears to include a child (closest to foreground) and a woman wearing a dress next to him.

Mark Rydell
I know phantom pages don't mean much in terms of when stuff might be coming out; but I've been assuming that The Rose would be under consideration at some point, as it's the only film of Mark Rydell's that I can think of that Criterion might be interested in. They would be able to get some decent supplements out of Bette Midler's career, as well as it's ties to the life of Janis Joplin (and Criterion loves their music-related titles).

I'm convinced. Vilmos Zsigmond was recently at Criterion HQ too.

In a separate point, posters on the Blu-Ray.com's forum pointed out that the window might represent A Room with a View (granted, you have to go through pages of speculation that some of the clues point to Studio Ghibli films to find it). That title is owned by Westchester Films and not Merchant-Ivory; so it wouldn't have been affected by the lawsuit a few years back that pulled Howard's End and their HVE line out of print.

That makes sense too, but is there bad blood between Criterion and James Ivory? I don't think they'd do it even if they could without the director's blessing.