'Forthcoming' Lists Discussion and Random Speculation Vol.1

[LightBulbFilm]

Personally this will be a great month. Two titles I have been waiting for for quite a while in the same month. FANTASTIC!

[canti10]

i really don't understand why Criterion doesn't have plans to release Face to Face soon. It doesn't make sense. Face to Face is one of Bergman's best and people are dying to see it. So as Summer with Monika too..

[souvenir]

i really don't understand why Criterion doesn't have plans to release Face to Face soon. It doesn't make sense. Face to Face is one of Bergman's best and people are dying to see it. So as Summer with Monika too..

It's a Paramount property. Criterion may or may not be able to license it, but it's not like the company isn't interested in Bergman.

[Cinephrenic]

Well that concludes 2008 release schedule. Here are the stats:

Criterion boxsets: 1
Eclipse sets: 7
Eclipse single films: 24
Blu-ray: 5
Janus films releases: 2
Rialto Giftset: 1
Re-issues: 3

Criterion single films (new to DVD): 40 (+24 Eclipse = 64 Total)

Silent era: 0 (+3 Eclipse)
Documentaries: 1
Shorts: no data

France: 13 (+5 Eclipse)
USA: 10 (+4 Eclipse)
UK: 4
Japan: 4 (+12 Eclipse)
Scandinavian cinema: 3 (+3 Eclipse)
Canada: 2
Eastern European cinema: 1 (+2 Eclipse)
Italy: 1
Hong Kong: 1
Spain: 1
Latin American cinema: 0
African/Middle Eastern cinema: 0

New Directors in collection: 17

I don't know about you, but I'm not impressed. Hopefully, 2009 will bring a whole lot more.

[justeleblanc]

i really don't understand why Criterion doesn't have plans to release Face to Face soon. It doesn't make sense. Face to Face is one of Bergman's best and people are dying to see it. So as Summer with Monika too..

It's a Paramount property. Criterion may or may not be able to license it, but it's not like the company isn't interested in Bergman.

The fact that it wasn't released with Legend's big buy makes me wonder if some other studio (either Paramount or Criterion) does have plans for it.

[Feego]

Mulvaney: We do plan to release more Korda films, and I believe "Jungle Book" and "Things to Come" are two of them. Please keep checking back, and thanks for your email!

Jungle Book!? Wow, I never expected that one. More Sabu in the collection can't be a bad thing, and the film is in desperate need of a good release.

[Rupert Pupkin]

only 2 releases for December ? (I'm happy that Europa is released since it is one of my favorite L.V.Trier movie with Dogville- as well as I'm happy with White Dog) but I did expect Walkabout re-release DVD SD and above all Blu-Ray...So no Blue-Ray for December ???

[kaujot]

only 2 releases for December?

2 is the standard number for December.

[AisleSeat]

Well that concludes 2008 release schedule.

I don't know about you, but I'm not impressed. Hopefully, 2009 will bring a whole lot more.

That there were only seven Eclipse releases in 2008 was disappointing. Let's hope this number will be boosted to 9 or 10, if not more, in the forthcoming year.

One reason for the inconsistency of Eclipse releases may be staffing. The number of people working on the Eclipse line may need to be increased if we are to see a monthly Eclipse release. In addition, while Eclipse releases do not feature supplements, the quality of the DVDs produced remains high (Criterion does have its standards), and this amounts to considerable time during the production process, and, of course, more money.

As for the 40 2008 Criterion releases, I am neither overwhelmed nor disappointed. It appears Criterion is having to stretch a bit in the titles being released. Some of the recent releases are more obscure and not easily recognized by non-cinéastes. Not that this is a bad thing. But the bottom may be affected because of slower sales, which, in turn, affects everything that happens with Criterion to some degree, including the purchasing of rights and the financing of commentaries and supplements.

Here's hoping 2009 will be a banner year.

[HypnoHelioStaticStasis]

Cinephrenic,

Doesn't the Early Ozu set count as silent era? Just an observation for your stats.

[Tommaso]

Yes, and "Patriotism" might be counted as a short.

[HerrSchreck]

To continue my joke from last month--

More additions to their release calendar of A Bunch of Color Films.

RE Things To Come-- I'm confused. Wasn't it just rereleased in R1? That was the Harryhausen-supervised set which provided both the colorized and restored b&w versions? I can't imagine the rights have lapsed already, since streeting in late 2006...

Count me as one VERRRRY underwhelmed by this years release calendar, the suckiest year I've seen from them, ever.

At least MoC, and especially Kino, have been having banner fucking years. Not to mention edition filmmuseum, and a few others here & there...

[psufootball07]

My bad....

[ianungstad]

Things to Come has fallen into the public domain. There are about a dozen different "Things to Come" dvds listed on Amazon. The version your thinking of is a recent edition from Legend films, who seems to deal mostly with public domain films outside of their Paramount deal.

Apparently the video and audio quality are quite poor on that set. The Criterion should look nice and be the only "official" version. It'll probably have a nice set of extras that I don't think any of the public domain versions have.

[Cinephrenic]

Cinephrenic,

Doesn't the Early Ozu set count as silent era? Just an observation for your stats.

Your right. I was focused on the main line. We know there are some in the works, so we have to wait.

[canti10]

Criterion should release Clouzot's "The Truth"...should be interesting...

[tryavna]

The version your thinking of is a recent edition from Legend films, who seems to deal mostly with public domain films outside of their Paramount deal.

Apparently the video and audio quality are quite poor on that set. The Criterion should look nice and be the only "official" version. It'll probably have a nice set of extras that I don't think any of the public domain versions have.

Not to mention that it doesn't contain the extra few minutes of footage that the R2 does. I'm sure that the Criterion will, but I honestly can't imagine how Criterion will improve on the R2 -- except perhaps in cleaning up the audio. That was the only really weak aspect of the R2.

The fact that Criterion owns the rights to the whole Korda library is exciting, since there are quite a few gems there. The Jungle Book is a no-brainer, as would be The Drum (another Sabu flick directed by Zoltan). There are also some interesting films from the early 1950s, like Carol Reed's adaptation of Joseph Conrad's Outcast of the Islands, which I finally caught on TCM last month.

[Tom Hagen]

The ever-unlikely HerrSchreck/domino harvey axis has spoken: 2008 is officially the worst Criterion year in recent memory.

[psufootball07]

There were some really good things from 2008:
The Last Emperor
Pierrot le Fou
Salo
Brand upon the Brain
Chungking Express
Bottle Rocket
Vampyr
Mon Oncle Antoine
High and Low
Mishima
The Fire Within

However some stuff makes you scracth your head:
Fanfan la Tulipe
Antonio Gaudi
and in particular the re-releases of films that really dont need it in Short Cuts and the Cassavetes

[HelenLawson]

I'll add The Naked Prey to that list, which personally was the nicest surprise and most satisfying release in 2008.

[kaujot]

There were some really good things from 2008:
The Last Emperor
Pierrot le Fou
Salo
Brand upon the Brain
Chungking Express
Bottle Rocket
Vampyr
Mon Oncle Antoine
High and Low
Mishima
The Fire Within

However some stuff makes you scracth your head:
Fanfan la Tulipe
Antonio Gaudi
and in particular the re-releases of films that really dont need it in Short Cuts and the Cassavetes

Short Cuts needs a re-release. Otherwise, they wouldn't be selling the film. And the Cassavetes makes sense from a marketing standpoint. A lot of people probably don't buy it because they've never seen any of his films and don't want to shell out $100+ on a blind buy.

I'll add The Naked Prey to that list, which personally was the nicest surprise and most satisfying release in 2008.

I'll second the sentiment of how wonderful The Naked Prey package is.

[movielocke]

the silent ozu set and the mizoguchi set make this one of my favorite years ever, I've been waiting for ages to own I Was Born But and Sisters of Gion, those were my number one and two films for criterion to release.

my biggest disappointment is that we only got seven eclipse sets. it's too bad we're not up to twenty by now rather than the seemingly paltry 13 sets (an embarrassment of riches, really). Hopefully we'll get another Ozu set next march/april though (crossing my fingers that it will include There Was a Father).

[canti10]

personally, they need to cut down on Ozu, release more Bergman, Godard and Clouzot

[What A Disgrace]

personally, they need to cut down on Ozu, release more Bergman, Godard and Clouzot

Because Bergman is incredibly under-represented on DVD.

[Tommaso]

Almost as underrepresented as Godard and Ozu....

Kidding aside: what we need is more Mizoguchi, Shinoda, Ichikawa, Kinugasa, Yamanaka, only to mention a few more Japanese names. Not that I wouldn't jump for a Bergman TV films set or something, but instead of releasing each and every work of a director already well established in the collection, they should for once show a tiny little bit of the guts that MoC, BFI or Kino have.
The announcement that the only Greenaway film they plan to release is "Cook" made me weep (almost literally), as it's one of the very few films of his that doesn't need updating, even considering R1-land only, whereas all the world cries out desperately for "Prospero" and "Macon". I hope they at least put "Death in the Seine" onto it as an extra, which would be thematically fitting and be one of the few reasons I can imagine for upgrading from the excellent Anchor Bay disc.