Big question: Will there be a "new" peerpee, like there was a "new" Bikey?

Sorry to see Nick depart, like everyone else.

Worth it to move the Nick discussion to a separate thread...? I might've caught on sooner had that been done.

I see no reason for Nick to stop posting here since he was posting here long before MOC.

And there are other forum members who continue to work for MoC who I'm sure will chime in if they need to address any official business.

This is the first I've heard about Nick leaving. Where's he going?

Shangri-La

He'll put on his slippers and sit by the fire. He's reached his top and he just can't get any higher.

From the Moc Facebook & Twitter thread, posted April 16, here is Nick's announcement:

I was presuming it was Xanadu, though I do not know whether Nick's personal Xanadu would involve resurrecting Gene Kelly and re-opening a rollerskating rink with his MoC monies

Cecil B. DeMille's The Godless Girl would be a fine addition to MoC.

You are aware that this is already available, in a beautiful restoration, with a commentary and, like, twenty hours of (not exactly directly relevant, I'll concede) extras?

Yep I'm aware of it, but living in England and thanks to our wonderful government it'd cost a small fortune to import it, and as I'm only interested in The Godless Girl it's not really worth the price I'd end up paying.

If it was a stand alone release I'd snap it up in an instant, it's a shame it's not, it'd be pretty successful I think.

Yeah I pretty much had to sell a kidney to get those Treasures sets. And walk several miles to the post office so I could pay their 'handling charge'. 'You can't put a handling charge on art,' I told them, obscurely.

It would be nice to see some of that material made more accessible in R2 land. I thought The Godless Girl was pretty laughable apart from the climax, but I realise lots of people love it, and it's certainly better than Cleopatra...

If anyone were to release another edition of The Godless Girl, it would be nice to have it with Carl Davis' orchestral score (as broadcast several times on Film 4), though that would of course add to the cost of licensing. I'm not even sure who owns the film itself, as it seems to be an independent DeMille production, so it wouldn't be licensed from Universal, with whom MoC have a current relationship.

Incidentally, the UK Royal Mail "handling fee" and its associated inconveniences can be avoided now with Amazon's VAT pre-payment scheme (choose Expidited Delivery). Best of all, they refund the VAT if the package isn't caught! This probably wasn't available when the earlier Treasures sets came out, but I used it for the last one, and did in fact receive all the VAT back from Amazon.

Treasures III is worth any price for Lois Weber's bizarre but incredibly moving abortion melodrama Where Are My Children?

Anthony Slide's long out of print - Lois Weber: The Director Who Lost Her Way in History - is a treasure. She was as popular as Demille, and more innovative than Griffith - still, as the book suggests - she's all but forgotten.

I don't have the book but on the evidence of the Universal-produced A Chapter in Her Life (1923), a static, indoor Pollyanna-type story with no dramatic flair, it appears Weber lost her way when she lost her independence. It's one of the most worthless films by a major director I've ever seen. I don't know if her later work managed to improve on it.

Maybe it's been discussed already, but could we also get Kinoshita's The Ballad of Narayama? Apparently the Cannes' screening was a brand new 4K restoration.

Meant to say - thanks for the tip. The last couple of times I've had to pay customs fees online, then they deliver the package, which at least saves me from leaving the house.

I am not sure what is the best place to post this, but given MoC's great work on other Mizoguchis I have placed it here. Why has no-one released "Life of Oharu"? It is part of the great triptich, and MoC have released the other two on Blu Ray. What is the obstacle?

Well we know Criterion has it, being on it's Hulu page.

Artificial Eye released it in 2004 but it's out of print, I'm not sure who owns the rights to it. I'd kill for an MoC Blu ray of it.

Old news, but Q4 announcements are coming at the end of June.

I very much appreciated Peerpee keeping us informed of MoC's plans and answering our questions. Is there a point person from MoC that would play a similar role now that Peerpee has moved on to other things?

Craig Keller keeps up the MoC Twitter page, and posts here as evillights (if not as frequently as Nick).

Are the Pialat's gonna be Blu'd?