1249 King Lear

[JSC]

They don't mention Allen in the credits, or Norman Mailer, either.

[beamish14]

This is basically Godard directing The Eric Andre Show and I love it. The Golan/Globus phone calls are amazing

[ryannichols7]

really wish that could be included. I'm very thankful Ringwald is, one thing I wish Criterion tried a little more on is getting actors to recall their work. Delpy is usually always hilarious (love her stories about Kieslowski) so I'm a little disappointed she isn't here

I've mentioned before and elsewhere I'm kinda a Godard agnostic, and there's really no rhyme or reason for which of his movies I like and which ones I don't, so I'll have to give this one a shot. nonetheless, I'm glad Criterion rescued it, and this is the kind of title they should be going after more often (and have over the last year). hopefully that Brody piece is expansive, as I always appreciate scholarly analysis when it comes to Godard, and one is sure Adrian Martin would've liked to talk about this too

[Mr.DarjeelingLimited]

I'm not seeing a credit for Allen on the page. (Unless you mean interesting that he ISN'T credited.)

Oh yes, meant to type isn’t. Wrote that while not looking during a five hour long class on being an essayist.

[Randall Maysin Again]

I'm curious--would someone mind describing Woody's performance in this flick? Take lots of detail, if necessary!!!

[beamish14]

I'm curious--would someone mind describing Woody's performance in this flick? Take lots of detail, if necessary!!!

He sits in an editing bay for several minutes and appears completely bewildered/frightened while answering questions from an off-screen Godard

[Randall Maysin Again]

Is it funny?

[Walter Kurtz]

Who says the Brat Pack can't do Shakespeare? I still think Top Gun would have been enhanced with a Hamlet soliloquy or two.

[pistolwink]

That is one sad melange of poorly juxtaposed typefaces. The title logotype looks better suited to an '80s hair metal band's album cover.
Admittedly, I've not yet seen the film. Could the heavy metal style font be intentional?

I would absolutely buy a T-shirt of this poster.

[hearthesilence]

That is one sad melange of poorly juxtaposed typefaces. The title logotype looks better suited to an '80s hair metal band's album cover.
Admittedly, I've not yet seen the film. Could the heavy metal style font be intentional?

I would absolutely buy a T-shirt of this poster.

Maybe the inspiration behind IFC's merch.

[beamish14]

That is one sad melange of poorly juxtaposed typefaces. The title logotype looks better suited to an '80s hair metal band's album cover.
Admittedly, I've not yet seen the film. Could the heavy metal style font be intentional?

I would absolutely buy a T-shirt of this poster.

Maybe the inspiration behind IFC's merch.

I believe those shirts originated from Cinefile Video in Los Angeles

[Noiretirc]

Sorry if I missed something, but why did this take 8 years? (This thread begins with hopeful 2017 release info.)

[nicolas]

Sorry if I missed something, but why did this take 8 years? (This thread begins with hopeful 2017 release info.)

Regarding the long wait it could’ve been due to Godard himself not wanting to approve anything. None of Criterion’s releases of his films they put out during his lifetime were approved by Godard and neither did he participate in extras etc. I once read an interview when it was said that due to financial issues Godard sold off the rights to many of his classic films to make some income and he wasn’t pleased with that. Maybe he mentally parted with his other "old" films themselves too once a few changed ownership.

I’m more than happy with King Lear and the wait was definitely worth it when looking at the new 2K master, which looks gorgeous and looks more like it has 4K textures. Furthermore, this is hands down one of Criterion’s best encodes for a color film with nothing that stood out negatively during a random check across the film. There’s also no noticeable filtering which would’ve flattened this gorgeous master.

Audio is also terrific with a great dynamic range. For a in-house mastering, this is more than surprising and hopefully indicative that they’ve realized their persistent filtering over the years was terrible.

Sadly not all of Godard’s films look this good on BD, so hopefully everyone enjoys this new release.

[Ribs]

Haha - as far as I can see no one else on here or on Blu-ray’s forums commented on it as I think many may think its a packing error but the little ‘game’ to this release’s packaging once you open it did take me by surprise and make me laugh. Unless it actually is an error and it just happened to be thematically appropriate to me!

[domino harvey]

Can you put what you are referring to in a spoiler box? I just opened mine and don’t see anything too unusual at first glance

[Ribs]

SpoilerShow

Mine was upside down - the disc was on the left and the booklet on the right, though facing rightside up. I thought it was playing with the way the film refuses to meet the conventional structure being imposed upon it. But maybe mine just printed backwards!

[domino harvey]

That would have been awesome if it were intentional, but my copy is normal

[Ribs]

Haha, oh well! Especially considering the booklet insert prominently features “this is the end” at the beginning I thought for sure it was deliberate - well, I highly recommend all can simply flip their release’s packaging insert around to make it a funny little oddity.

[domino harvey]

These interviews are great. Brody opens his segment by declaring that King Lear is the greatest film ever made (and I mean he literally says that verbatim). Peter Sellars’ hair is incredible, my God!

[zedz]

Brody has been saying that for a very long time (and now his bluff has been called!)

I look forward to my encounter with the hair.

[domino harvey]

I thought Sellars’ interview was even better than Brody’s. In many ways he’s just as effusive, but it was fascinating to learn how much Sellars brought to the production— much more than I realized— and he has some great observations on what Godard is doing in the film. One of the better Godard extras I’ve seen, really (and he consistently refers to Godard in the present tense, so this may have been recorded a few years ago). Ringwald’s interview is modestly interesting for the day to day realities of the production, but her hair is unremarkable so like what are we doing here

[crimlaw]

Looks Woody Allen finally entered the Criterion Collection.

[JSC]

Although he is conspicuously not mentioned in the back cover description (neither is Norman Mailer for that matter).
Also, if this release had come out a few years ago Meetin' WA would probably have been an extra.

[ChunkyLover]

Looks Woody Allen finally entered the Criterion Collection.

“Annie Hall” and “Crimes and Misdemeanors” were releases during the Laserdisc era.