'Forthcoming' Lists Discussion and Random Speculation Vol.2

[Perkins Cobb]

And the Z DVD sucked.

Well, sure, and I expect the others will be legitimate upgrades also.
I'd have no complaint if the CC reserved 1 monthly slot out of 4, or 2 out of 5, for reissues. But lately they've started to bear an ominous resemblance to the studios that re-release the same safe catalog titles over and over again and no longer give us anything "new."

[kaujot]

Studios that do that usually own the titles already, slap a new cover on, and perhaps take away a feature or two (or add some fluff--Digital Copy!) whilst still calling it new. I hardly think it's fair to compare them.

[Perkins Cobb]

Studios that do that usually own the titles already, slap a new cover on, and perhaps take away a feature or two (or add some fluff--Digital Copy!) whilst still calling it new. I hardly think it's fair to compare them.

No, you're right, it's certainly not to the same degree. But it's still sad to see Criterion taking some giant steps in the same safe, greatest-hits direction. Maybe the market demands it ... but that doesn't put any fresh Ichikawa or Rivette on my shelf, y'know?

[Fiery Angel]

And they're expensive OOP dvds at that. Especially Wings; the prices it is fetching on Amazon are absurd.

You're telling me: I can buy the Wings Blu and still have money left over for the Makavejev Eclipse set with the $$ I made from selling it months ago!

[Jeff]

Anyone see that Barnes & Noble's entire selection of Criterion DVDs are 50% off including Blu-Ray?

Hot shit, time to stock up.

I'm leaving this post, because there were obviously several people who didn't know about the sale, but I've moved the rest of the discussion to "The Bona Fide Bargains Thread." There's been discussion about the sale there for a couple of weeks. Please post any comments about the Barnes and Noble sale in that thread.

[Daze]

Nice to see they can still surprise us. Was the possibility of a Makavajev Eclipse box ever hinted at or speculated about?

I saw Innocence Unprotected in college long, long ago, and remember it as being a blast.

[Zazou dans le Metro]

Nice to see they can still surprise us. Was the possibility of a Makavajev Eclipse box ever hinted at or speculated about?

Yes. I got an answer two days ago.. "No plans at this time"

[Perkins Cobb]

Nice to see they can still surprise us. Was the possibility of a Makavajev Eclipse box ever hinted at or speculated about?

Yes. I got an answer two days ago. "No plans at this time"

Aha! I thought so.

[Bloody Benten]

What a wacky release schedule. They're definitely still throwing out surprises since in my opinion all the movies we thought we were going to get by the end of this year will probably be pushed into '10. That and they also have two more re-releases (if they follow their tradition of 4 a year) to announce, one I think will undoubtedly be Walkabout since it's been out in the open for so long and confirmed to come out at the beginning of this year.

[Derek Estes]

I'm still waiting for the Fuller re-releases Anamorphic!

[Perkins Cobb]

Have they re-released anything in SD only since they started with BluRay? There's not much logic to that ... if a film merits an upgrade, might as well do it on Blu. I would think the traditional pattern of Criterion reissues is obsolete now.

[MoonlitKnight]

Well, I hope they've gotten all these reissues (albeit OOP titles from other companies) out of their system for a while now so they can get back to more first-time-on-DVD titles.

[Dadapass]

I wonder if more segments from 11’09"01—September 11 will make it into the collection

[FerdinandGriffon]

I wonder if more segments from 11’09"01—September 11 will make it into the collection

Not that I want to encourage Criterion's practice of cutting up these films (I think it's an uncharacteristically thoughtless move on their part), but the Imamura Segment could presumably appear on a future release of Profound Desire of the Gods or something similar. With Monsoon, Button, Cronos all in the collection, I could easily imagine an Inarritu film joining their ranks soon enough too. Just as long as no one decides to squander a spine number on Lelouch, I won't complain. Much.

Edit: Has anyone ever asked Mulvaney about the possibility of one of these compilation films entering the collection intact? It's really a pity that they insist on splitting them up, as often the better segments are those by lesser known directors. I would think that some of the better 60's compilations would be great fits for the collection, seeing as so many wacky C endorsed directors were involved in them. Just one example of the many taht come to mind is Les sept peches capitaux, with work by Godard, Chabrol, Vadim, and several others. One of the most entertaining parts is an apocalyptic farce penned by Ionesco, but it's exactly the sort of thing which would get left behind by Criterion's current practice, seeing as it was directed by a complete no-name, Sylvian Dhomme.

[colinr0380]

Sadly it is characteristic of Criterion - there was the La Riccota segment directed by Pasolini from the RoGoPaG film, among others. And one of the forum's big upsets was of the practice of cutting up the Cineastes de notre temps episodes up into chunks for various Criterion discs.

While on the one hand I think it will be nice to hear Nair introduce the films (though the 11'09"01 film had an extra on the Artificial Eye disc with Director Statements and responses to standardised questions on the making of each of their segments) and to see the other shorts that I've not had the chance to view so far, I am in principle opposed to cutting up anthology films into extra feature friendly chunks.

Not only for the damage it does to the anthology film itself, but because cutting up an anthology film divorces a segment from its original context of where it fit inside the larger work - was it a balance to more unorthodox works (as the Nair film certainly was, as one of the most traditionally structured narrative pieces in the film)? Does a film seen outside of its originally intended context change the impact of it - positively or negatively - and is our response to just seeing one isolated segment the 'correct' one therefore?

One thing to remember is that the only constraint put on the directors for the September 11 film was the time limit - each of their films had to be 11 minutes, 9 seconds and 1 frame long. While a rather silly producer conceit, it's an important thing to keep in mind when judging each of the segments in that film for how well their films cope with that restriction - whether they feel padded out even at that length, or too short to adequately and appropriately convey their message. A couple (Samira Makhmalbaf, Danis Tanovic, Idrissa Ouedraogo and Ken Loach) work perfectly within their time limit; a couple (the Imamura, Gita and Nair) feel padded out; and the remaining can feel problematic in the opposite way, feeling rather pat and smug because of the way they 'set the world to rights' within such a concise time - it gives them time to set up an irony, or a thesis but no time to probably expand on it, leading to abrupt overly-emphatic 'messages' which might be what can infuriate certain audience members about the film (especially when also the film uses a particular director to 'represent' their whole country, which can make the final result ironically seem less inclusive of opinion rather than more).

I think what I'm trying to get at is that the anthology film itself requires more thought and analysis than it is sometimes given credit for - how does everything fit together and do the elements 'work' together to make a satisfying whole experience? Otherwise it would just be like praising Michael Bay for the wonderful explosions he makes whilst ignoring the wooden characterisation and head slapping dialogue in his films.

[FerdinandGriffon]

Not only for the damage it does to the anthology film itself, but because cutting up an anthology film divorces a segment from its original context of where it fit inside the larger work

Exactly. In Les sept peches capitaux, Godard's segment, La paresse, essentially describes sloth as the result of overindulgence in the rest of the deadly sins. Outside of the context of the compilation and without the contrast between La paresse and its more orthodox, literal brother shorts, this statement wouldn't make nearly as much of an impact. It's a disservice to the parts and the whole to cut them up.

[kekid]

Have they re-released anything in SD only since they started with BluRay? There's not much logic to that ... if a film merits an upgrade, might as well do it on Blu. I would think the traditional pattern of Criterion reissues is obsolete now.

I agree with this thought, but would extend it. If Criterion decides to re-release any film, whether originally released by them or by someone else, they should offer a Blu Ray option. According to this idea, the SD-only release of Z makes no sense.

[Tribe]

Have they re-released anything in SD only since they started with BluRay? There's not much logic to that ... if a film merits an upgrade, might as well do it on Blu. I would think the traditional pattern of Criterion reissues is obsolete now.

I agree with this thought, but would extend it. If Criterion decides to re-release any film, whether originally released by them or by someone else, they should offer a Blu Ray option. According to this idea, the SD-only release of Z makes no sense.

According to your idea, sure you're correct...the SD-only release doesn't make sense.

But, in the real world, I'm not certain that Blu has taken over the world yet.

[kekid]

Have they re-released anything in SD only since they started with BluRay? There's not much logic to that ... if a film merits an upgrade, might as well do it on Blu. I would think the traditional pattern of Criterion reissues is obsolete now.

I agree with this thought, but would extend it. If Criterion decides to re-release any film, whether originally released by them or by someone else, they should offer a Blu Ray option. According to this idea, the SD-only release of Z makes no sense.

According to your idea, sure you're correct...the SD-only release doesn't make sense.

But, in the real world, I'm not certain that Blu has taken over the world yet.

Agreed. I am not suggesting that Criterion issue a Blu Ray only version. However, if they are taking the trouble to re-release an item, we may assume that they have put in effort to significantly improve the image quality, and that they also believe the item to be worthy of re-visiting. Based on these assumptions I believe a Blu Ray version should accompany the SD version. If they do not issue both at the same time, there are two possibilities: they do it later, which forces us to buy the item twice; or they never release it in the Blu Ray format, thereby depriving everyone of the best presentation of the item. Neither option seems good to me. Of course these are my views, and what Criterion actually do is their business. I post these thoughts with a hope that someone at Criterion reads these posts, and hence they may influence their future decisions.

[Cinephrenic]

We should at least get The Life of Oharu or a Naruse before the year is out? Unlikely that is...

[psufootball07]

Just wanted to know through the images provided in those monthly emails what is believed to be released in November/December?

I remember there was something to do with Rosselini films, Paisan? Then we had Che and Revanche is also rumored. That almost completes those final two months alone.

[ianungstad]

Revanche's theatrical run continues to mid October according to the Janus site. It'll be a 2010 release for sure.

Does anyone know how the company profiles on IMDB get updated? I assume Criterion themselves would have to update their IMDB listing, if that's the case, Shanghai Express has been listed as a 2009 release under Criterion Collection for quite a few months.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Does anyone know how the company profiles on IMDB get updated? I assume Criterion themselves would have to update their IMDB listing, if that's the case, Shanghai Express has been listed as a 2009 release under Criterion Collection for quite a few months.

Any registered user can submit distribution information. The IMDb mods are the only thing stopping 10,000 DVD Talk users from adding Good Burger to Criterion's company profile.

[jordof131]

I just noticed that the Joe Swanberg film Kissing on the Mouth is now out of print and copies are going for over $50 on amazon, and Swanberg just did a top 10 list. Coincidence or something more?

[Cold Bishop]

*shiver goes down spine*