Criterion Random Speculation Vol.4

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Perkins Cobb · #776 Post by **Perkins Cobb** » Thu May 29, 2008 9:03 pm

L'Amour fou is similar to Out 1 and The Mother and the Whore in its accessibility

.... well that'll really talk 'em into putting it out!

King Prendergast · Thu May 29, 2008 11:20 pm

I apologize if this has been discussed before, but is there any chance of Criterion doing some King Hu in the future, specifically A Touch of Zen? Dragon Dynasty's beautiful new disc of Come Drink with Me has got me on a big Hu kick.

HerrSchreck · #778 Post by **HerrSchreck** » Thu May 29, 2008 11:21 pm

I usedta be really good with the Hu kick, then I pulled a muscle. Now I just do the old baseball-bat on head from behind thing.

jbeall · #779 Post by **jbeall** » Thu May 29, 2008 11:59 pm

King Prendergast wrote:I apologize if this has been discussed before, but is there any chance of Criterion doing some King Hu in the future, specifically A Touch of Zen? Dragon Dynasty's beautiful new disc of Come Drink with Me has got me on a big Hu kick.

I share your admiration of the Come Drink with Me disc. Perhaps Dragon Dynasty will get Touch of Zen (and do a better job on the subs)? I don't see Criterion getting it, as they tend to go for more arthouse fare.

King Prendergast · Fri May 30, 2008 1:43 am

I share your admiration of the Come Drink with Me disc. Perhaps Dragon Dynasty will get Touch of Zen (and do a better job on the subs)? I don't see Criterion getting it, as they tend to go for more arthouse fare.

On the contrary, Touch of Zen is about as highbrow as wuxia gets, see Stephen Teo's recent monogram on the film for a thorough explication of the thematic richness and narrative complexity of this seminal film in the Chinese cinema (Bordwell raves about it quite often as well). It's historical significance and influence alone would warrant its inclusion in the Collection, and it is certainly "arthouse" enough to make the cut -it did win an award at Cannes afterall.

jbeall · #781 Post by **jbeall** » Fri May 30, 2008 3:52 am

My bad! Come Drink with Me was my first King Hu film, so I stupidly assumed his others were in the same genre.

Cold Bishop · #782 Post by **Cold Bishop** » Fri May 30, 2008 5:19 am

It's wuxia, not samurai, so it could be as art house as a Tarkovsky, and Criterion still wouldn't touch it..

StevenJ0001 · #783 Post by **StevenJ0001** » Fri May 30, 2008 3:28 pm

I wish Criterion (or anybody!) could get their hands on a good print of Hu's Dragon Gate Inn and release a nice DVD. As much as I'm fond of Come Drink With Me, I think Dragon Gate Inn is quite a lot better. I thought Tsai's film may rekindle interest and prompt a good release of Hu's, but it never happened.

Because Hu left Shaw and made it in Taiwan it seems to be in distribution limbo (?) I believe there's a decent German DVD, which I've been meaning to track down for some time, but I'm not expecting miracles from the transfer. Anybody have it and can report?

And yes, it's quite amazing there isn't a really good Touch of Zen release out there (not that I've found, anyway).

whaleallright · #784 Post by **whaleallright** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 2:03 pm

What are the odds that Criterion will release Todd Haynes's SAFE? The existing American DVD has been out of print for some time. It's a Sony Pictures Classics title. It seems like the sort of thing Criterion would be interested in, and it seems unlikely that the copyright holder would simply let the title languish.

jbeall · #785 Post by **jbeall** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 3:44 pm

jonah.77 wrote:What are the odds that Criterion will release Todd Haynes's SAFE? The existing American DVD has been out of print for some time. It's a Sony Pictures Classics title. It seems like the sort of thing Criterion would be interested in, and it seems unlikely that the copyright holder would simply let the title languish.

We can safely speculate on that when Criterion's newsletter has Haynes' 'ten favorite criterions'. At least, that's how it seems to be playing out lately.

Adam · #786 Post by **Adam** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 4:05 pm

I know someone who is working on some King Hu DVDs, not for Criterion. I believe the Weinstein Company. I should ask him about their ETA.

JHunter · #787 Post by **JHunter** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 7:51 pm

Adam wrote:I know someone who is working on some King Hu DVDs, not for Criterion. I believe the Weinstein Company. I should ask him about their ETA.

Dragon Dynasty, perhaps? I know that Bey Logan has mention King Hu's films a few times in his commentaries.

#789 Post by **Jeff** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 1:19 am

harv wrote:I know Criterion said more Mamet is on the way. Can someone narrow down the possibilities for me in list form? I was thinking just Homicide, which would be wonderful. But is there anything else that Criterion could potentially release?

Homicide is by far the most likely candidate, being one of Mamet's more acclaimed films, being unavailable on DVD, and having been financed and distributed by random independent companies.

Since the Bottle Rocket news means that Criterion has something cooked up with Sony, I suppose that The Spanish Prisoner, Things Change, and The Winslow Boy are also theoretically possible, but Tamara has already nixed Prisoner, and the others don't seem nearly as likely.

#790 Post by **domino harvey** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 2:10 am

the Winslow Boy is in-print, anamorphic, and contains a commentary track-- wouldn't bet on that horse. If I were a betting man it wouldn't even be worth placing money on Homicide, that's how likely it is to be the next Mamet title on Criterion if there is a next Mamet title. Even odds, take that to the bank.

#791 Post by **Jeff** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 3:16 am

domino harvey wrote:the Winslow Boy is in-print, anamorphic, and contains a commentary track-- wouldn't bet on that horse.

"Oh, you're a bad pony. And I'm not gonna bet on you."

domino harvey wrote:If I were a betting man it wouldn't even be worth placing money on Homicide, that's how likely it is to be the next Mamet title on Criterion if there is a next Mamet title. Even odds, take that to the bank.

Tamara confirmed that there is one, and yeah, I really can't see any realistic way that it's anything but Homicide. This exact same conversation took place in this thread nine months ago.

#792 Post by **Jeff** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 1:53 pm

This was recently posted at HTF:

Anthony Thorne wrote:I tried to add to an earlier thread on this movie but had some trouble. Anyway, the long-delayed DVD releases of Fred Schepisi's CHANT OF JIMMY BLACKSMITH and DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND are now much closer, following the resolution of certain issues. (I mentioned in an earlier thread on this movie that Schepisi and others had been 'lazy' in working on getting the DVD out, which was bogus - other, more serious issues had delayed work on the DVD). Schepisi recorded excellent new commentary tracks for these movies in Melbourne just last week, interviews have been done with him and other members of the cast and crew for BLACKSMITH, and the S.E DVD's of these movies (coming out in both Australia and as a Region 1 DVD in the US) now aren't too far away.

We know that Umbrella Entertainment are working on the R4 disc, and I'm betting that Criterion has snagged the rights to the R1. A set of paired releases with sequential spines would be very fitting with Criterion's modus operandi.

Cinephrenic · #793 Post by **Cinephrenic** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 3:21 pm

Wow, thanks for posting that.

I'm not familiar with these two. Reading a little about these makes me want to see them on DVD. I'm interested in seeing more obscure gems from Australian cinema.

tavernier · #794 Post by **tavernier** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 3:46 pm

Fantastic news!

Jimmie Blacksmith was #12 on my 1970s list, and The Devil's Playground just missed my Top 50.

lacritfan · #795 Post by **lacritfan** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 7:43 pm

Jeff wrote:
harv wrote:I know Criterion said more Mamet is on the way. Can someone narrow down the possibilities for me in list form? I was thinking just Homicide, which would be wonderful. But is there anything else that Criterion could potentially release?
Homicide is by far the most likely candidate, being one of Mamet's more acclaimed films, being unavailable on DVD, and having been financed and distributed by random independent companies.

This would be awesome. The good ol' days when William H Macy was a badass with a shotgun instead of Mr. Wimpy.

"I'm gonna tell you what the old whore said...When you start cumming with the customers, it's time to quit."

tojoed · #796 Post by **tojoed** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 7:59 pm

There is currently a region 1 Devil's Playground from Westlake Entertainment. Is it out of print?

Person · #797 Post by **Person** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 8:08 pm

WOW! Great news about the Schepisi films. I'm sure I heard that one of the 'cult' boutiques had the US rights to Blacksmith - Fantoma, Synapse? I could be wrong, of course. A Criterion edition would be great, of course, but after all this time, I'll just be glad to see a good 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer, regardless of who releases it.

TheGodfather · #798 Post by **TheGodfather** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 8:11 pm

I sent an e-mail this afternoon asking if they had plans on releasing more of Godard`s work. This was the answer:

Hi Timo,

Yes there is more Godard on the way before too long. Please keep checking our website and e-newsletter for updates!

Sincerely,

Tamara

Nice! Do I remember correctly and is a release of Vivre Sa Vie in the works? or should we expect something else?

#799 Post by **domino harvey** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 8:17 pm

Expect 2 or 3 Things first

James · #800 Post by **James** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 8:23 pm

domino harvey wrote:Expect 2 or 3 Things first

Yeah, I imagine this happening sooner or later (I still need to see the film myself). Anyways, there's a thread on imdb.com that says DVD Aficionado lists the film for a future Criterion release. I'm not sure what that site is, but I don't know why they'd be making it up just to make it up. imdb gets tricky though sometimes, so perhaps I should do some research.

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Criterion Random Speculation Vol.4