Criterion and IFC

[Tribe]

I was just reading about the Red Riding Trilogy in the most recent Film Comment, and it sounds absolutely fascianting. It also appears that IFC has the film distributions rights for the Trilogy. Any reasonable possibility Criterion might have the DVD rights for these?

[kneelzod]

I wonder how Criterion/IFC are really chosing which to Criterion-ize and which not to. As with MPI, I know they did a great job on "Baraka", although it took a few tries at it. How are their other discs?

It's not so much a question of whether IFC wants to license a particular film to MPI or Criterion, it's whether Criterion wants said film. If they pass, then the option is given to MPI.

[ianungstad]

I was looking on IMDB and IFC is listed as the distributor for Werner Herzog's My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?

Not sure when this happened but it must have been recently. I remember the film has had a difficult time getting a distribution deal. Usually IFC releases a press release (for example today they released a press release announcing they aquired Gasper Noe's Enter the Void)

I have seen a few times when they've updated their IMDB page with new titles but didn't announce them till a week or so later. (Vincere and Father of My Children for example)

Their 2010 Slate looks to be quite interesting with Vincere, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, Enter the Void, Carlos the Jackal, Hadewijch. Will be interesting to see what makes the Criterion cut, if any.

[James]

This hurts. I've been waiting for Enter the Void for so long and now IFC is going to put it on their shitty Time Warner-only channel. Nobody will see it. Criterion, I'm counting on you.

[NilbogSavant]

Anyone have any guesses on how IFC will release Hong Sang-Soo's Night and Day. I've been trying to resist watching it on VoD in hopes of a real release. It's strange that they've been sitting on it so long.

[ianungstad]

Today IFC announced it acquired Todd Solondz's Life During Wartime. Excellent news! I am a big fan of both Happiness and Welcome to the Dollhouse. Storytelling and Palindromes were both misfires for Solondz. (Some of which is his fault, some of which was a result of studio interference) With Happiness and Welcome to the Dollhouse, I found that Solondz really connected with my twisted sense of humor in a way only a few directors like Waters and Meyer have previously done. Life During Wartime has been getting excellent reviews. I've heard many critics say it's Solondz's best film to date, which has me excited to see it. A Crierion of a good Solondz film would be great!

[CSM126]

Considering that Solondz abhors special features, you shouldn't hold your breath.

[ianungstad]

That's unfortunate. Where has Solondz stated that he doesn't want supplemental material on his discs? Did he explain why? I never understood why some directors think that way. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me, especially with a company like Criterion that always seems to let directors become involved in shaping the disc. (If they want to) Hope Criterion at least asks!

[MoonlitKnight]

I don't really care about lack of extras (and it wouldn't be the first Criterion title to have such a distinction), as long as someone releases it on DVD -- considering some indies released over the last couple years are having trouble getting even that accomplished (e.g. "My Winnipeg," "Good," "Genova," etc.) . I'd also be up for a release of Solondz's feature debut "Fear, Anxiety and Depression"... though seeing as he basically disowns that film just as Kubrick did with "Fear and Desire," I won't be getting my hopes up.

[kneelzod]

This hurts. I've been waiting for Enter the Void for so long and now IFC is going to put it on their shitty Time Warner-only channel. Nobody will see it. Criterion, I'm counting on you.

ENTER THE VOID will be an IFC In Theaters release so it will play beyond "their shitty Time-Warner-only channel." All IFC films are available simultaneously on VOD on just about every cable carrier--Time-Warner, Comcast, Cox, Charter, Cablevision, etc.

[kneelzod]

Anyone have any guesses on how IFC will release Hong Sang-Soo's Night and Day. I've been trying to resist watching it on VoD in hopes of a real release. It's strange that they've been sitting on it so long.

NIGHT AND DAY is a Festival Direct release. You can see it on VOD or at selected screenings--it's already played in NYC (Anthology), Chicago (Facets), Houston (MFA), and LA (LACMA) off the top of my head.

[ianungstad]

No official word yet but there are a ton of rumors flying around the web that IFC and Spike Jonze/Absolut Vodka are working on a deal to acquire television and digital rights to I'm Here, the half hour short that debuted at Sundance to rave reviews. Will be interesting to see if IFC acquires the short. The trailer looks really cool, so I have my fingers crossed they can work something out! Looks fun.

[ianungstad]

IFC has picked up Johnnie To's Vengeance and Bahman Ghobadi's Nobody Knows about Persian Cats.

Has anyone seen Vengeance? Is it as good as Mad Detective? Wonder if Criterion will release Mad Detective and port the MoC features over.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

I've seen "Vengeance" and it's a very different type of film than "Mad Detective". It's definitely more action oriented and is light on dialogue. It's extremely great pulpy fun. It's worth it for a shoot-out at a wasteyard which was one of the most fun action scenes I've seen in a while.

[Anhedionisiac]

Yeah, It's definitely neither the consumate art of the Election series nor the deranged brilliance of Mad Detective but it does feature several action setpieces worth seeing for its wonderful filmmaking. I'm particularly fond of one involving the identification of a target by marking his jacket with stickers and the ensuing confusion...
And Dandy's not kidding, there's a subplot featuring memory loss that's definitely pulp-prime.

[captveg]

Forgive me if this was asked already, but any possibility of The Good, The Bad, The Weird being one of the IFC titles?

[ianungstad]

Is it any good?

it doesn't come out in theaters till late spring, so there probably won't be a dvd till the end of the year or early 2011, so who knows. I thought it looked like another low budget genre release, aka Human Centipede. Maybe it's better than that?

[Tribe]

Human Centipede

How is that one, Ian? I've been curious as hell about that.

[ianungstad]

You'll have to see it first and let me know! Frankly, Human Centipede looks horrible and I don't plan on paying money to see it. I'm guessing Criterion is going to pass on releasing it too.

[domino harvey]

Mods, please ban anyone who sees the Human Centipede

[fiddlesticks]

Whether The Good, The Bad, and The Weird is "any good" I suppose is a matter of personal taste, but it is a lot of fun. I can think of at least 100 Korean films I'd rather see brought to the consciousness of Western home video enthusiasts, but I wouldn't squawk too loudly if this got a prestigious release. Here's my comment from my viewing journal, if it's of any help:
"Sergio Leone reinterpreted through a prism of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, starring Prince (Lee Byung-hyun) and those barbarians from the Capital One ads. It's that bizarre."

[Anhedionisiac]

Is it any good?

It's been more than a year since I saw "The Good, the Bad, the Weird" (it's my understanding that the english title has a comma in place of the required "and" before the last word- can anyone confirm or deny this?).
I was actually dreading seeing it since it was part of a film festival and the thought of something with such a huge budget being part of the festival circuit rubbed me the wrong way, not to mention that anything that lives under the shadow of Leone's mannerisms tends to annoy me... but after the first 40 minutes or so I was rolling with the punches, it was much too ridiculous to not be fun.
Truth be told, even if you don't like the director's controlled nonsense, most of the pleasure stems from Kang-ho and Byung-hun's idiosyncratic performances. The soundtrack ain't half-bad either.

[knives]

You're right on the comma. Also as an aside the directors previous movie (a Bittersweet Life), which sadly has no US release is even better, if far more straight nosed than this one.

[fiddlesticks]

Also as an aside the directors previous movie (a Bittersweet Life), which sadly has no US release is even better, if far more straight nosed than this one.

GBW and Bittersweet Life (which, by the way, I hated) have very little in common beyond having the same director; Kim Ji-woon is a very idiosyncratic filmmaker. If any of Kim's previous features bears comparison to GBW, it's probably The Foul King, which I like very much.

By the way, Kang-ho and Byung-hun are given names; the family names are Song and Lee, respectively.