MoC Forthcoming, Wishlist, and Random Speculation

[GringoTex]

Masters of Cinema

We have a packed release schedule lined up for 2007/2008 including the work of the Maysles Bros, Kenji Mizoguchi, Jean-Pierre Melville, Carl Th. Dreyer, Luchino Visconti, Fritz Lang, F. W. Murnau, G. W. Pabst, Masahiro Shinoda, and more...

Out with it, peerpee.

[peerpee]

Contracts are signed, but we're not going to be announcing titles until the DVDs are practically finished. Our new policy for 2007. So expect some announcements in a few months. Thanks!

[Michael Kerpan]

Contracts are signed, but we're not going to be announcing titles until the DVDs are practically finished. Our new policy for 2007. So expect some announcements in a few months. Thanks!

A wise policy -- even if WE would LIKE to know earlier.

;~}

Keeping my fingers crossed for a Naruse 2 (and more) -- and thanks for the kind acknowledgment.

[ByMarkClark.com]

we're not going to be announcing titles until the DVDs are practically finished. Our new policy for 2007.

Egad, MoC has been Mulvaneyed!

[GringoTex]

we're not going to be announcing titles until the DVDs are practically finished. Our new policy for 2007.

Egad, MoC has been Mulvaneyed!

With all the whining and bitching he had to deal with concerning delayed titles, I don't blame him.

[a.khan]

It's a lesson that had to be learned.

But, always nice to have him in our midst as he drops the hints asunder.

[Anonymous]

That's great news! I hope the Visconti is either SENSO or VAGHE STELLE DELL'ORSA... aka SANDRA. IL LAVORO from BOCCACCIO '70 would be a perfect supplement.

[denti alligator]

BFI has Ordet, Day of Wrath, Gertrud and Masterof the House, so it can't be one of those. That leaves Parson's Widow, Praesidenten, Leaves from Satan's Book and Vampyr, right? And although the R1 versions of Widow and Leaves could be progressive and with original intertitles, they're sufficient. The DFI Praesidenten is great, too. So, really it has to be Vampyr!

EDIT: I guess it could be Die Gezeichneten or The Bride of Glomdal, or even Joan ... But the first two are practically unknown and would be hard to sell. The latter, well, if you're gonna compete with CC's F or Fake, why not with their Joan?

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

I guess it could be Die Gezeichneten or The Bride of Glomdal, or even Joan ... But the first two are practically unknown and would be hard to sell. The latter, well, if you're gonna compete with CC's F or Fake, why not with their Joan?

Because it's an Artificial Eye title. At least they released it theatrically and have had it on their dvd schedule in the last year.
Like you I'm plumping for Vampyr.

[Quirky77]

I hope that it is Dreyer's Two People that gets the nod. I think I e-mailed the Danish Film Institute years ago about the possibility of it being released with no reply. I know that Dreyer disowned it, but still... I'd gladly add it to my collection.

Actually, Vampyr would be great too, but does a decent print of this film exist without all the madness with the subtitles? Poor Dreyer deserves better...

[Tommaso]

EDIT: I guess it could be Die Gezeichneten or The Bride of Glomdal, or even Joan ... But the first two are practically unknown and would be hard to sell.

Not if they were released as a Naruse-style Box-Set together with "Vampyr" I think Dreyer has pretty much become a household name after the Criterion and BFI releases, and although I agree there's no real need for another release of "Satan's Book", "Parson's Widow" or "Presidenten", many people would be interested to see more unknown Dreyer I guess.

And yes, Quirky, there IS a more than decent print of "Vampyr", restored by the fabulous Murnau foundation, and it is already out in France, but only in a 6 DVD-Box containing only films we know already. Has anyone seen the French set? I've been repeatedly tempted to buy it for "Vampyr" alone, but couldn't find out whether subs were removable and how the quality is compared to the Criterion/BFI versions.

So, Peerpee, pleasepleaseplease, this is the one film that needs to be released immediately, much more important to have than another "Tabu" or "Woman in the moon". MAKE IT FAST!!!

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

And yes, Quirky, there IS a more than decent print of "Vampyr", restored by the fabulous Murnau foundation, and it is already out in France, but only in a 6 DVD-Box containing only films we know already. Has anyone seen the French set?

Do we know definitively that this is the restored version??? I never got a reply from mk2 and can't find a review anywhere.

[denti alligator]

Do we know definitively that this is the restored version??? I never got a reply from mk2 and can't find a review anywhere.

I think it is the restored version, but if I remember correctly it is heavily cropped.

[ByMarkClark.com]

With all the whining and bitching he had to deal with concerning delayed titles

Which I will never understand. I mean, these sorts of things are inevitable, and have to be factored in whenever you get info from an inside source.

If you're going to get all stressed out over changes and delays, then don't ask for tentative, early info in the first place! Wait for the official release info like all the other shnooks and leave the Peerpees of the world the hell alone. Sheesh!!

I'm hoping the Visconti is Senso.

Me, too. Fingers crossed.

[HerrSchreck]

VAMPYR would be wonderful and would fill a badly needed hole in the world, at least the english speaking one. I would say that the IMage LEAVES is no, in my view sufficent. All one need do is view MY METIER and observe the camera neg-type astonishing quality of what is held by the DFI on this film, with original intertitles I'm sure (though I did appreciate the fact that the English intertitles on the Image release were due to the fact that it was a vintage print for the english speaking world, from the era of release). I recall seeing somewhere that the DFI had a release of LEAVES planned, so I'm not sure an MoC of LEAVES is necc.

We need more hole-plugging, non-duplicating-of-premium-releases discs from MoC. Like SAVAGE INNOCENTS, the Teshigihara, SHARK ISLAND, etc. NARUSE of course. Rather than another PHANTOM or NOSFERATU, more silent Lang, I'd love to see them break new ground in the realm of silents. Weine, Pick, Lamprecht, or--if we're going to do Lang or Murnau-- why not the corrected DER MUDE TOD, or DE GANG IN NACHT or SCHLOSS VOGELOD etc? Beat Kino or Dave Shepard to the punch at last on someof these sublime films--some the rgeatest the world has ever seen-- yet to be released. DuPont's VARIETE is probably restored by now (being worked on last year at summer) as well as von Gerlach! Gremillion's MALDONE. Swallow some valium for nerves and knock back with scotch and soda and blaze the trail!

[peerpee]

HerrSchreck, I admire your sentiments and eagerness to forge new ground. We will continue to strive for this, but please remember that we are a British company, the market we licence our releases for is the UK and the 60m+ people who live here.

When faced with putting out a new high-definition transfer of NOSFERATU, with the original score (rerecorded) for the first time, it's very hard to dismiss it for something else on your shopping list. Likewise, PHANTOM, which has never been released in the UK before.

We're trying to please globally minded mavens like yourself, at the same time as patching UK holes, and trying to definitively deal with large films that may have a few inferior editions out there.

There's so much we'd like to do... so many films we'd like to give the care and appropriate respect they deserve -- but we'd need a millionaire or two to fund any expansion, more producers, more restoration funding. Current sales can't fund such plans, I'm afraid.

[Tommaso]

HerrSchreck, I admire your sentiments and eagerness to forge new ground. We will continue to strive for this, but please remember that we are a British company, the market we licence our releases for is the UK and the 60m+ people who live here..

Certainly true, but I always have to smile when I read the credits after the film on an MoC DVD. "For sale in the UK and Ireland only". Inevitably, your releases are so good that they are bought (and sold) not just in the whole of the EU (which is completely legal), but basically by film fans all over the world. And I guess if you couldn't count on people like Schreck who buy releases like the Naruse box although they live in the US, sales would decrease dramatically. Same goes for Criterion the other way round. Thus I would strongly agree in asking not to produce duplicates, or only if they are much superior to existing versions (like "Kwaidan", and I expect this from the new "Nosferatu" as well as from the new "Phantom", if in the latter's case only because of the German titles).

I'm pretty sure we will see "Varieté" from Edition filmmuseum soon, regarding their list of announcements in some of their dvds (though nothing's on their site yet), but it's totally unbelievable that nobody cares to release "Der müde Tod". If you can't sell Lang, which other silent film director? And that film is so incredibly inventive, phantasmagoric and stunning, much better than "Spies" and "Woman in the Moon". The others on Schreck's list are much desired, too, but in this case I can understand that one might regard them as only of a specialist interest from a sale's point-of-view.

[Arn777]

This may be for another thread, but since the discussion has been going towards the issue of duplication and potential target customers (sorry I'm a marketing consultant), I wonder what is your rationale in putting out F for Fake and the Maysles Brothers in editions that seems (so far, on paper, slightly) inferior to the Criterion ones. Fans of Welles and the Maysles will have bought the Criterions (if fan of the Maysles don't have the possibility to play R1 dvds, they still could have bought the French dvds from Arte). I am a huge fan of MoC and have bought most of your dvds, and I guess a few people in the UK may be in the same boat and I'm curious to know what what your rationale for these. I understand you have to strive to get a balance between films you'd love to release as part of MoC and films you hope will sell enough to keep staying in business and afford more rights, etc. But I'm all up for a super dvd of Nosferatu or Vampyr a la Faust and a glorious Mizo box and more Naruse.

[peerpee]

Rationale? --- Millions of people in the UK don't import R1 discs. R1 discs can't be sold in shops up and down the land. You are one of the tech-savvy globally aware elite! --- Furthermore, FFF is *Welles*. We may not have another chance to obtain a Welles film for the MoC Series - and when you're somewhat hamstrung simply by the name of your DVD label (The Masters of Cinema Series) sometimes you have to grab opportunities when it comes to certain directors. If we hadn't grabbed it when we did, bfi, AE, Optimum, Tartan, Second Run, or someone else would almost certainly have -- in a flash.

You want more rationale? It will probably be our bestseller this year if preorders are anything to go by.

--
As for the Maysles films. We wanted to release these two wonderful films in nice editions for the UK. We got the opportunity to interview Al for a whole afternoon -- and we're very, very happy to be releasing them.

We're acquiring titles now for 2008/9 and we will be striving to uncover films that aren't out anywhere else.

[Arn777]

These are good rationale, I'm pleasantly surprised by the level of pre-orders for the Welles.

For your info just read an interview with the boss of Wild Side in France saying that so far they had sold 1,600-1,700 copies so far of their Naruse box-set, which came out last Autumn. So not a big number for a big market such as France (obviously no english subs, means a more limited appeal globally), hopefully you have sold more.

[davebert]

Beyond the R2 rank and file private citizens, there are literally dozens of universities and libraries that don't want to hassle with Region 1 alternatives, just like in the States. That's a good sales base right there.

[HerrSchreck]

As a general reply to Nick I can only say this: very few in the US, UK, or anywhere in the world knew about Dreyer, Tarkovsky, Mizoguchi, Ozu, Bresson, so so many others before '99. A breakout moment has to occur sometime somewhere, and as in so many cases over the past 7-8 years of the dvd medium we of the ahem slightly older generation can marvel at the phenomenon of FW Murnau & Kurosawa & Welles & Bergman being sort of passe in the "obscure" dept... or "old news". 18 yr old middle american kids are talking UGETSU MONOGATARI & LATE SPRING & PICKPOCKET because of the power of a good presentation by a trusted company of a sublime film. Very few companies around the world have acquired the level of trust andconsumer dedication as CC, MoC, and I have to include Kino as well because of their relentless debuting hitherto unheard-of films based only on the power of the films to stun an audience. You guys--MoC-- put out a silent film or film nobody's heard of, folks are going to take a look, dependable reviewers around the world are going to talk, world will spread and folks will buy. How many buyers under 30 had heard of Louie Feulliade prior to his arrival on dvd? Now we have no less than three full serials available on dvd, and hopefully more to come.

I'm not going to 'lecture'-- sincerely hope it doesn't sound like that-- but I just plead with you to dvd-debut some features in your silent catalog, the same way you do in your sound features line. Occasionally, at least.

[Jun-Dai]

I think the opportunity to work with living filmmakers that you admire probably trumps many other considerations, including the availability of the film in other regions. What's more, HerrSchreck, there's also the bottom line to worry about -- if you can produce a good edition of a popular but great film riding on the hard work of a restoration team, it would be ridiculous not to take the opportunity, even if it means postponing an unrestored, overlooked classic. MoC has the same basic considerations as Criterion but with I'd imagine a narrower margin to operate under.

I imagine the considerations include politics (staying on the good side of important/influential people that may have an agenda when working with you, such as Michael Bay or Martin Scorsese), bottom-line (popular films pay for unpopular ones, or to put it another way, Armageddon and the like pays for all of the Paul Robesons, Vagabonds, etc.), opportunity to work with living sources (how old is Kaneto Shindo?), opportunity to ride a wave of resurgence in popularity (e.g., a Rialto release or an anniversary), etc., etc. What is available in other regions is nothing more than a single factor, and it's not in any way obviously more important than some of the other factors, as far as I'm concerned.

[colinr0380]

18 yr old middle american kids are talking UGETSU MONOGATARI & LATE SPRING & PICKPOCKET because of the power of a good presentation by a trusted company of a sublime film.

This sounds a nice turn of events, as long as they aren't saying how slow or boring that Japanese film they watched last night was! Have you had many experiences of people casually talking about a wider range of cinema than the latest multiplex releases? I remember finding it very difficult at school in the early to mid 90s finding people to talk to about a wide range of films. One of my earliest experiences was having a school friend over for the night and watching the Moviedrome double bill on the television of To Sleep With Anger (which my friend, a big fan of Boyz N' The Hood, which I hadn't seen at the time, really loved!) and Contempt (which even Bardot's bare bottom couldn't help him stay awake for!).

[davebert]

Yes, DVDs have certainly changed the game--if not quite as universally as david's quote might make it seem. When I was an 18 year old middle American kid my friends and are were talking Seven Samurai CC, the Tatis, Yojimbo and Black Orpheus, to name a few that made a big impression from their catalog. Now we're still talking about Yojimbo and Seven Samurai (reissues create some sort of time vortex), but I digress. Given the local Blockbuster, the Internet helped me create a 400+ DVD library, as well as all the review copies, but it took that extra effort. Also, my friends and I all went on to various film schools, so this was hardly a universal phenomenon.

I'd say if anything, DVDs have made being a film nerd much easier, but they've also created a legion of specific DVD nerds who care about the supplements on the '06 remake of The Wicker Man but still have zero taste in actual movies. Still, without DVDs I'd probably be in marketing or something.