Criterion Newsletter (Part 2)

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#1 Post by **cdnchris** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 9:22 pm

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Previous Newsletter thread

#2 Post by **cdnchris** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 9:23 pm

Last posts from previous thread:

HerrSchreck wrote:
eez28 wrote:This just means more money saved for me. I'm not even sure if I would even rent it from the library. However, I do have to applaud Criterion for bringing forth another film that probably would never have seen the light outside of a studio vault.
What other films are you talking about? There are plenty of "underground" type labels, and rarities-driven labels releasing stuff that literally will sell maybe 200 copies over a period of years, that should be applauded for their guts and avant sensibility (like Koch's Epoch label releasing the early Chinese classics)... but I don't see many titles like that in CC (anyone say the word "Silents"?).

I suspect this to be a halfhearted release that was a contingency to acquire CRUSOE ON MARS from Paramount... ie "you want one we could have made a few good bucks on ourselves, you haveta take one we didn't really know how to handle." The nearly back to back timing of the two hints at--since we know CC & Paramount have dealt w each other virtually never-- their simultaneous acquisition.

eez28 wrote:What I had in mind were:

Under the Volcano
Mala Noche
Cria
Ace in the Hole
Overlord
Monsters and Madmen set
Symbio.....
Clean, Shaven
and a few others I would never picture being released on dvd by a studio

These films I have in my mind as being a little gutsy and could easily be skipped over by many as not being worth a dvd release but Criterion sees them as important enough and instead of letting them sit around they take the time and effort to give them a worthy dvd. With the Naked Prey, while I personally do not have an interest, I can see that many do, it also falls into the above catalogue of being a film skipped upon by the studio but I can honestly say that it does make me smile to see it given a dvd release (and I bet it will probably be a good one).

So while those other "underground" type labels you speak of may do a fine if even excellent job of getting out stuff that would never see the light of day, I feel that they should be justly applauded in their rightful thread, but it just won't be by me because I just don't have the funds to take on collecting stuff from more labels. I didn't mean to put them down or anything, I just never would have seen the need to give them props in the Newsletter thread.

HerrSchreck wrote:It may be a language thing, but I'm not clear on the distinction you're making in the last paragraph. But suffice to say I get your point, and I really try to avoid going around pooping on other folks' enthusiasms. Most of the time, my joy is that it's CC that's putting something out, not the fact that the thing is coming out at all. In this dvd glut, studios are rampaging their refrigerators for every piece of kitch or schlock, or bad performance by a half-name that hasn't been put out to cull them into some kind of "the XXXX signature collection", or by some category (see WB's Cult Camp, etc) just to keep the dvd release ball rolling.

Wilder, Huston, van Sant, sci fi by Richard Gordon, Suarez'-- these are all well known and globally celebrated names & titles. They're either known and well celebrated masterpieces, or titles with a pre-existing large audience that's well-known to be slavering.. The thing that really made me stand up and cheer was the Eclipse Bernard... that's a real deal move, that was done with the knowledge that for approx 95% of the R1 buyers, the buy would be blind and with no foreknowledge of the contents. That's guts.

person wrote:I love The Naked Prey - pure Cinema, kinetic, great music. I have a pan and scan DVD-R and the hunters are almost always cut off, so seeing it in 2.35:1 anamorphic is going to be amazing, I'm sure. Hard to see what kind of extras we'll see, though. January is looking great for me, so far, ie. Heart is a Lonely Hunter - another damn-hard-to-see film.

Luke M · #3 Post by **Luke M** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 5:55 pm

I won the Trivia Contest!! Well, a runner-up actually. I won a T-shirt!! W00t!!

LightBulbFilm · #4 Post by **LightBulbFilm** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 4:25 pm

Well I threw my entry into the contest. The bonus question was a bitch but I think I got it.

LeeB.Sims · #5 Post by **LeeB.Sims** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 5:10 pm

Goddamnit this is embarrassing but can someone link me to the new newsletter? I don't know if their emails can't get through the firewall at my office or what but I've signed up numerous times to no avail. Also, what's the point of having the â€œNewsletterâ€

criterionsnob · #6 Post by **criterionsnob** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 5:17 pm

October newsletter.

#7 Post by **kinjitsu** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 5:52 pm

Lee, the newsletter links are listed in the first post, this topic.

LeeB.Sims · #8 Post by **LeeB.Sims** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 7:41 pm

kinjitsu wrote:Lee, the newsletter links are listed in the first post, this topic.

Brilliant idea! Hadn't noticed that. Never again will I have to ask for a link!

LightBulbFilm · #9 Post by **LightBulbFilm** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 1:53 pm

I'm drawing a blank...

thethirdman · #10 Post by **thethirdman** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 1:58 pm

The Thief of Bagdad (1940)

We already knew that it was in the pipeline.

ianungstad · #11 Post by **ianungstad** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 1:59 pm

Thief of Bagdad from the Korda catalogue.

ellipsis7 · #12 Post by **ellipsis7** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 2:05 pm

dir. Michael Powell et al.... Probably expect some contribution from Coppola and/or Scorsese in the CC package...

The Elegant Dandy Fop · #13 Post by **The Elegant Dandy Fop** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 2:21 pm

No doubt, Thief of Bagdad.

Anyone else get sad when they waste a clue on something we all knew?

Brianruns10 · #14 Post by **Brianruns10** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 2:44 pm

On the contrary, I like it when they do that. Since we already knew about "Thief of Baghdad," they must've known that we knew, so it stands to reason that they wouldn't be dropping a hint like that now unless that meant that it was coming out soon, January perhaps? I like that feeling. It always stinks when they reveal a film through the hint, and then we have to wait months and months before it comes out.
BR

Saarijas · #15 Post by **Saarijas** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 4:03 pm

I think everyone is too quick to jump on the Thief of Bagdad to quickly. It could be Kazaam...

keeproductions · #16 Post by **keeproductions** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 4:49 pm

Saarijas wrote:I think everyone is too quick to jump on the Thief of Bagdad to quickly. I could be Kazaam...

Yes, you COULD be. So hard to tell a person's true identity on message boards.

starmanof51 · #17 Post by **starmanof51** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 5:05 pm

I adore Thief of Bagdad and this is a good thing and all, but it's not going to be such a slamdunk improving on the cheap MGM release many of us already have. Extras, sure, but the Technicolor on that disc pops pretty good already. I know I won't be able to resist getting this, but that MGM disc has been more than serviceable up to now.

Hopefully this opens the floodgates on their Korda acquisitions.

John Hodson · #18 Post by **John Hodson** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 6:20 pm

starmanof51 wrote:I adore Thief of Bagdad and this is a good thing and all, but it's not going to be such a slamdunk improving on the cheap MGM release many of us already have. Extras, sure, but the Technicolor on that disc pops pretty good already. I know I won't be able to resist getting this, but that MGM disc has been more than serviceable up to now.

But it wasn't quite perfect; there are a couple of scenes which could do with a digital makeover - I'm expecting something near perfection. Or thereabouts. The extras will be icing on a very enticing cake.

starmanof51 wrote:Hopefully this opens the floodgates on their Korda acquisitions.

Indeed.

Dylan · #19 Post by **Dylan** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 6:57 pm

It's been years since I've seen this film, but I remember Miklos Rozsa's terrific score and some lovely matte paintings. Would make a good double bill with The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad.

Cinephrenic · #20 Post by **Cinephrenic** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 7:20 pm

How come nobody has put out the 1961 version of the film?

HerrSchreck · #21 Post by **HerrSchreck** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 7:51 pm

I think THIEF is a wondrous film, but the MGM disc is a wonderful transfer exhibiting all the glorious artifice of earlier 3-strip Technicolor. That added to the fact that the film exists entirely on it's gorgeous escapist surface, very much like Walsh's earlier silent masterpiece of the same title (Menzies crowning achievement of design imo), and a deep "study and analysis" of the film w commentary or extras will read sorta silly, unless it simply consists of tales of its construction w anecdotes from those who were there.

The best double bill would be w this and the silent version, ut perhaps more appropriate, since TOB introduced Sabu, would be this w ARABIAN NIGHTS... both are lush technicolor pieces of escapism for war-blasted anglo-american audiences jittery over the future of the world as well as the health of loved ones in uniform overseas.

But really, I can't imagine paying high prices for a title like this. Universals ARABIAN NIGHTS is probably the finest Technicolor transfer out there, perfectly blending the tools of digitization (contrast boosting, edge enhancement, grain smoothing, color manipulation) with a sublime vintage technicolor element preserving and bringing out all of the original vintage characteristics of the medium. And the disc costs ten bucks, like the MGM THIEF.

I could see Lee Kline messing around with or naturalizing the palette in telecine, and turning the MGM into a huge underground collectors item, if it goes out of print as a trumped release.

The film really does create some wonderful moments of Sternbergian "illusion", where the artifice of the cinema is employed apiring to a high-art otherworldliness.

#22 Post by **Jeff** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 8:05 pm

HerrSchreck wrote:I could see Lee Kline messing around with or naturalizing the palette in telecine, and turning the MGM into a huge underground collectors item, if it goes out of print as a trumped release.

The MGM disc has been OOP since the end of 2006 when their rights expired.

John Bored · #23 Post by **John Bored** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 8:26 pm

By itself it's a pointless release; plus it will be picture boxed. Can't make judgments yet but this may turn out to be like Ace in the Hole, a situation where I just want the film, but not for a criterion price.

HerrSchreck · #24 Post by **HerrSchreck** » Thu Nov 15, 2007 8:37 pm

Hat-doff to Jeff on the heads up on the MGM. The fact that its already oop changes things a bit.. I thought this would be operating side by side w the mgm, like KIND HEARTS, like BREATHLESS or DAYS OF HEAVEN etc.

John you should by all means go out and grab ACE. Have you seen the film before? It is absolutely the very core and essence of what CC should be releasing. One of the most vicious films to come out of Hollywood, not to mention films coming out of Hollywood ABOUT Hollywood and America and capitalism in general. It's a fierce fuckin thumb in the eye of every complacent jingo you ever met. That little guy had a mighty huge set of cojones with this one... I love when it flopped after 2 attempts to market it he said "vuck dem all, iss de best pitchure I ever did."

stroszeck · #25 Post by **stroszeck** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 10:30 am

Who knows, maybe its Pasolini's version????