Criterion on Social Media

[perkizitore]

He can't be one of the guys in Cinemania because they are TOO busy watching films to have a Facebook account!

[Oggilby]

The flip side is the flooding of requests for films that already have decent-to-great treatment on disc...

Persona
Sunset Blvd.
Oldboy
Requiem for a Dream
Unforgiven
Donnie Darko
The Ghost & Mrs. Muir
My Left Foot
Babel
Mean Streets
McCabe and Ms. Miller
Heat

I think every single one of these has at least a commentary on their current incarnations. If you're going to request something already released, at least let it be a long-OOP title (like My Dinner with Andre) or an incredibly shitty edition (like My Dinner with Andre).

[domino harvey]

Jesus, the Ghost and Mrs Muir is a stacked Fox release and only runs you like $8-9 most places. What is wrong with people

[Oggilby]

Jesus, the Ghost and Mrs Muir is a stacked Fox release and only runs you like $8-9 most places. What is wrong with people

I'm convinced that they don't even check first. Someone even suggested Criterion do a box set of Norman McLaren films. ](*,)

[stereo]

to be fair, while I agree with the sentiments of wanting to see unreleased titles primarily considered for spine numbers, one should at least make one caveat from that list-- McCabe... does have a release, but it looks awful and given it's one of Altman's very best, I would love to see --esp. a Blu-Ray Criterion release of that one.

[Matt]

I keep having to defend Warner Bros.' DVD of McCabe and Mrs. Miller. The DVD is actually very good; it's the film that "looks (and sounds) awful" -- on purpose. I saw the film in a brand-new 35mm print just before the DVD release, and the DVD is a very accurate representation.

[Flike]

If you're going to request something already released, at least let it be a long-OOP title (like My Dinner with Andre) or an incredibly shitty edition (like My Dinner with Andre).

Shrug. I'd like for them to tackle A History of Violence, which even has a (albeit shitty) Blu-ray edition.

[ianungstad]

What annoys me more is that 25% if not more of the posts are asking about the same titles every day. While I can understand people not reading every post or whatever, I'm sure all the people asking about Letter from an Unknown Woman, Monte Hellman westerns, etc. are more than aware that it's asked every second day and know what Criterion's responses are. There is no point in asking about the same title less than 24 HOURS after Criterion already addressed the question.

[Ben Cheshire]

What annoys me more is that 25% if not more of the posts are asking about the same titles every day. While I can understand people not reading every post or whatever, I'm sure all the people asking about Letter from an Unknown Woman, Monte Hellman westerns, etc. are more than aware that it's asked every second day and know what Criterion's responses are. There is no point in asking about the same title less than 24 HOURS after Criterion already addressed the question.

Not sure if this has been asked before, but any plans for people to stop asking about Celine and Julie Go Boating or any other of the dozens of Rivettes Criterion have not released?

[stereo]

I keep having to defend Warner Bros.' DVD of McCabe and Mrs. Miller. The DVD is actually very good; it's the film that "looks (and sounds) awful" -- on purpose. I saw the film in a brand-new 35mm print just before the DVD release, and the DVD is a very accurate representation.

Fair 'nuff. I've read the stories about how it's intended to look and sound awful, so I'll defer to your expertise here. Still, being my favorite Altman, I'd love to see a Blu-Ray. The SD does seem like it has a lot of digital noise and crushed blacks with some splotchy pixellation in some of those darker blacks (but maybe it's just me) that I'm sure a proper Blu could help with.

[Oggilby]

There's only so much you can do with a difficult film like McCabe on DVD. Very rarely is bitrate "supermanaged" to the point of testing the limits - i.e. By Brakhage or Fantoma's Kenneth Anger sets.

I think anything already hit BluRay should be a given as not worth Criterion's time unless it's Gulliver's Travels quality.

[so lightly here]

I keep having to defend Warner Bros.' DVD of McCabe and Mrs. Miller. The DVD is actually very good; it's the film that "looks (and sounds) awful" -- on purpose. I saw the film in a brand-new 35mm print just before the DVD release, and the DVD is a very accurate representation.

Fair 'nuff. I've read the stories about how it's intended to look and sound awful, so I'll defer to your expertise here. Still, being my favorite Altman, I'd love to see a Blu-Ray. The SD does seem like it has a lot of digital noise and crushed blacks with some splotchy pixellation in some of those darker blacks (but maybe it's just me) that I'm sure a proper Blu could help with.

Think a Blu-Ray of "Mc&Mrs. M" is much needed. The SDVD is an old WB flipper case, so although it conveys the mood of the film, newer transfer equipment would indeed make a much better transfer. That said, I can't see WB making a BR for it, perhaps studios will bluray "Sunset Blvd" and "Mean Streets". And whoever owns "The Long Goodbye" - give it to CC for a BR, the SDVD is a mushy mess.

[tojoed]

[ And whoever owns "The Long Goodbye" - give it to CC for a BR, the SDVD is a mushy mess.

It's owned by MGM. And the DVD is not a "mushy mess", it looks pretty much like the way I saw it in 35mm in the 70s. In fact, it's one of MGM's better discs.

[Ben Cheshire]

[ And whoever owns "The Long Goodbye" - give it to CC for a BR, the SDVD is a mushy mess.

It's owned by MGM. And the DVD is not a "mushy mess", it looks pretty much like the way I saw it in 35mm in the 70s. In fact, it's one of MGM's better discs.

You're talking to swimminghorses, he designed the cover.

[tojoed]

He can't have done because the cover is quite good.

It seems to me that people are calling for BRs of "McCabe" and "Long Goodbye" who have no idea what Altman and Zsigmond were doing with the negatives on these films.
If they take the trouble of watching the (yes) extras on the MGM disc they'll have a better understanding.

[Davidspector]

I saw McCabe and Mrs Miller on its original release and have the R1 DVD and yes this is what the film looks like (and sounds like - there are numerous stories - confirmed - about how the WB sound people HATED the rushes and thought something had gone seriously wrong). The film would benefit greatly from a good Blu-ray transfer not because the DVD was a hash but because, as Tojoed notes, what Zsigmond and Altman were doing. I am not a huge Altman fan but McCabe is something very special and the visual complexity and - yes - delicacy of McCabe was made for Blu-ray. The color schemes and "fogginess" of the images convey a sense of life lived in rugged cold like no other film I know. Here's hoping some day we do get that Blu-ray.

[so lightly here]

[ And whoever owns "The Long Goodbye" - give it to CC for a BR, the SDVD is a mushy mess.

It's owned by MGM. And the DVD is not a "mushy mess", it looks pretty much like the way I saw it in 35mm in the 70s. In fact, it's one of MGM's better discs.

You're talking to swimminghorses, he designed the cover.

He can't have done because the cover is quite good.
It seems to me that people are calling for BRs of "McCabe" and "Long Goodbye" who have no idea what Altman and Zsigmond were doing with the negatives on these films.
If they take the trouble of watching the (yes) extras on the MGM disc they'll have a better understanding.

I saw both upon release and each time they played at rep houses in the subsequent years. "M&MM" is not as grainy as the WB SDVD transfer would have one believe and "The Long Goodbye" is sharper than the DVD. It was shot in LA where there is more light than "M&MM"'s rainy, snowy, cloudy Canada. I heard Mr. Vilmos Zsigmond speak in the early '80's were he showed clips of the Altman films and "Deliverance" among others and explained his work. He was one of the best and original DP's around in the '70's.

I more than understand his philosophy towards available light and he fearlessness of graininess (a fear that runs rampant for some folks around here), his use of filters and flashing the filmstock. That said, both movies could use upgrades and definitely BR editions. My bet is that you will never see them unless CC gets ahold of them. I do enjoy the rapt attention CC Facebook's page is getting here, all the hanging and parsing of every word and then dissing the site itself. Kind of schizoid!

p.s. the cover for the "LG" is atrocious to boot!

[Jameson281]

He can't have done because the cover is quite good.

It seems to me that people are calling for BRs of "McCabe" and "Long Goodbye" who have no idea what Altman and Zsigmond were doing with the negatives on these films.
If they take the trouble of watching the (yes) extras on the MGM disc they'll have a better understanding.

Zsigmond participated in the transfer of LONG GOODBYE that is on the DVD, so it does reflect his intentions.

[tojoed]

Thanks DavidS and Jamesonfor confirming that both the Warner and the MGM are, indeed, very fine DVDs. And I heartily agree that, nevertheless, BRs of both would be very welcome.

[Jun-Dai]

I saw McCabe and Mrs Miller on its original release and have the R1 DVD and yes this is what the film looks like (and sounds like - there are numerous stories - confirmed - about how the WB sound people HATED the rushes and thought something had gone seriously wrong). The film would benefit greatly from a good Blu-ray transfer not because the DVD was a hash but because, as Tojoed notes, what Zsigmond and Altman were doing. I am not a huge Altman fan but McCabe is something very special and the visual complexity and - yes - delicacy of McCabe was made for Blu-ray. The color schemes and "fogginess" of the images convey a sense of life lived in rugged cold like no other film I know. Here's hoping some day we do get that Blu-ray.

I saw this at the Castro a few years back and made the mistake of sitting too close (about row 8?). The film almost made me sick from the color separation, but probably the worst part was all the fake snow. The fake snowfall, aside from being about the fakest I've seen (no snow was falling on anything in the scene itself, and I recall some of the scenes even being sunny, but I may be embellishing in retrospect), made it really hard to pay attention to what was going on at all, since it dominated the image, but was sort of indistinct itself. It was like watching a film through a swaying, out-of-focus bead curtain.

A very interesting film that I'd like to revisit, but either on a smaller screen or from the back of the theater. There are a lot of Altman films I'd love to see on Blu-ray, but unless there was something seriously wrong with just that print (or with my memory of the film), I think the added detail of a Blu-ray disc of McCabe will reveal far more distracting flaws than it will enhance my appreciation of the film.

[Matt]

The fake snow was an ill-advised optical effect. It's always looked that bad, and HD will probably only make it look worse.

[Peacock]

"For what it's worth" Criterion have replied to a comment asking for more Mizoguchi, Naruse, Teshigahara, Shimizu, Ozu, Ichikawa, Imamura, Oshima, Kobayashi;

saying

Naruse, Oshima, Mizoguchi coming up! Place your orders here.


Which I hope means their all coming soonish! They've said before more Mizo will be coming this year, and Oshima has been implied; so this is good news all round that maybe some more Japanese cinema will be coming sooner than we expected

[Ben Cheshire]

"For what it's worth" Criterion have replied to a comment asking for more Mizoguchi, Naruse, Teshigahara, Shimizu, Ozu, Ichikawa, Imamura, Oshima, Kobayashi;

saying

Naruse, Oshima, Mizoguchi coming up! Place your orders here.


Which I hope means their all coming soonish! They've said before more Mizo will be coming this year, and Oshima has been implied; so this is good news all round that maybe some more Japanese cinema will be coming sooner than we expected

Why so fey, I wonder? I guess they just get tired of one-word answers. I mean, that was a pretty long list of directors for one post...

[ouatitw]

The fake snow was an ill-advised optical effect. It's always looked that bad, and HD will probably only make it look worse.

agree, its the weakest part of an otherwise great film.

[jwomaha]

I hate to tell you guys, but the snow was NOT fake. I just finished reading the new book, "Robert Altman: An Oral Biography," and Altman and others are quoted as saying that it actually started snowing the day they were supposed to film that sequence. Interestingly, Beatty didn't want to film because of the weather, but Altman wanted to incorporate the blizzard...and it's a brilliant sequence in a brilliant movie. I would love to see this on blu. ](*,)