Criterion and StudioCanal

[Tom Hagen]

Well, at least there will still be plenty of copies of Hopscotch gathering dust on store shelves across this great land long after the title officially goes OOP.

[Saturnome]

The Essential Arthouse are a sign they knew it for a while, so it's pretty safe to assume there's no future releases in danger of being cancelled?
Got myself Le Jour Se Lève, I'm not sure what else I should get...

[Jeff]

I notice that people on Facebook are worried about what Lionsgate will "do to" these titles. The thing is, Lionsgate probably won't be doing anything but distributing. It seems that StudioCanal is now producing titles themselves and then licensing them out as a package in different territories as "The StudioCanal Collection." They want to have their own international Criterion-style brand. In the U.S., the upcoming editions of Ran, Contempt, and The Ladykillers will be the first of these, and I'm sure many of the former Criterion titles will follow suit. I expect a StudioCanal Collection Blu of Pierrot will be released in the U.S. by the end of the year, since the U.K. version is out this month. I know I read somewhere recently that they are working on a Blu of Peeping Tom too. Hopefully the production quality of these titles will improve over the early releases.

[fdm]

The Essential Arthouse are a sign they knew it for a while, so it's pretty safe to assume there's no future releases in danger of being cancelled?
Got myself Le Jour Se Lève, I'm not sure what else I should get...

Kinda wondering if a possible Belle du Jour on Criterion has become less possible because of this.

[Tribe]

I notice that people on Facebook are worried about what Lionsgate will "do to" these titles.

Well, lets not make any rush to judgment...after all, Joshua Goldberg, bless his pointy little head, hasn't weighed in yet.

[LloydK]

.

[domino harvey]

There goes any chance that we'd see Germany Year 90 Nine Zero tacked onto an Alphaville redux

[TMDaines]

I notice that people on Facebook are worried about what Lionsgate will "do to" these titles.

Well, lets not make any rush to judgment...after all, Joshua Goldberg, bless his pointy little head, hasn't weighed in yet.

Well it's not as if any of the people who tend to post on the Criterion Facebook page represent themselves very well:

Mitch Park: This StudioCanal/Lionsgate news is beyond painful.

Clearly he has a hard life, which is going to made even harder knowing that spine #1 is no longer in print.

[tajmahal]

I don't think it's all doom and gloom. While there have been issues with some of the Studio Canal prints, others were fine, and each from the first batch, at least, included some wonderful extras, including booklet. They were not bare-bones releases by any stretch. Hopefully they will drop the book-style packaging, and opt for a blu-ray case. I guess many will probably pre-order less, and wait for the verdict from beaver and blu-ray.com before jumping.

[strangerinparadise]

Yes. As an indicator great swathes of these Canal titles are getting ported release in Oz through Madman and Shock. Canal/Universal is obviously maxmimising its territorial profits from multiple licencing. But it seems to be holding onto the Blu rreleasing rights for itself with the Canal/Optimum/Lionsgate arrangement.

So, in other words, Madman's recent release of Le Corbeau is just a port of Criterion's transfer? Thanks in advance.

[captveg]

I don't think it's all doom and gloom. While there have been issues with some of the Studio Canal prints, others were fine, and each from the first batch, at least, included some wonderful extras, including booklet. They were not bare-bones releases by any stretch. Hopefully they will drop the book-style packaging, and opt for a blu-ray case. I guess many will probably pre-order less, and wait for the verdict from beaver and blu-ray.com before jumping.

It looks like the US releases are in regular blu cases with a cardboard slip cover.

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[Cinephrenic]

Ugh - Army of Shadows going OOP and not getting eventually a Criterion Blu would be awful.

Even if "Army of Shadows" doesn't go OOP, Criterion would be rightfully gun-shy about releasing another StudioCanal Blu-ray only to have the license yanked a few months into its (expectedly long) shelf life after their experience with "The Third Man" and "Pierrot le fou." If there were any plans (even remote) for an "Army of Shadows" BD today's announcement relegates it firmly to the backburner.

I'd prefer Le Samourai on Blu before any other Melville films, so this is good news for people that like bad news.

I couldn't agree more. One of the best crime films of the 60s. I wouldn't be surprised if all three (Cercle Rouge/Samourai,Army of Shadows) Melville lost rights.

[cdnchris]

Le samourai isn't a Studio Canal title as far as I know. It was licenced from the same company they licenced Le deuxieme souffle from. I'm rather shocked Le cercle rouge wasn't one of the titles to go out of print but I still wouldn't be surprised if it went in the next wave.

I had been meaning to pick up Country Priest for a while so took the opportunity this time to pick it up. Other than that, I sadly had the rest of the titles.

[agnamaracs]

Look into LOST HONOR OF KATHARINA BLUM. StudioCanal's Facebook page lists that one as coming.

In other news, StudioCanal has a Facebook page...

[fiddlesticks]

I've seen all the titles. The one going OOP that upsets me the most is Country of a Diary Priest.

I haven't seen that one; is it better than Priest of a Country Dairy?

[Florinaldo]

It's nice of CC to let us know in advance of the upcoming OOP status of these titles. I am sure many people were taken totally by surprise when The Third Man BR became unavailable so suddenly.

I'll probably pick up 2 or 3 of the titles I do not already own. Not from the CC site though , since their shipping fees and new "handling" charges fpr Canadian orders, allegedly added to make transit faster, are rather usurious in nature.

I don't think though it will be enough to persuade me to finally purchase Diary of a Country Priest, the one Bresson film I truly loathe.

[HistoryProf]

money's tight right now, but I had a $25 gc for B&N I was saving from xmas for the next 50% off sale coming in a few months (hopefully)...so went ahead and ordered Pierrot Le Fou on blu - that will obviously be the biggest OOP bonanza on ebay like 3rd man was...meaning it's most likely to get scarce quick and expensive quicker. so for five bucks had to at least grab that. thankfully I already have:

Le corbeau
Coup de torchon
Peeping Tom
Port of Shadows
Quai des Orfèvres
The Small Back Room
Trafic
Le trou

Amazingly, I got Quai and Port of Shadows just a week ago on ebay for about ten bucks each. tremendous luck there. The only titles on my wishlist otherwise are Hoffman, Grand Illusion, Fallen Idol, and Country Priest. Hopefully they are more like Ran in that they are available for awhile in retailers.

[Cinephrenic]

Hopefully, all of those went out-of-print in exchange for Belle de jour.

[HistoryProf]

It's nice of CC to let us know in advance of the upcoming OOP status of these titles. I am sure many people were taken totally by surprise when The Third Man BR became unavailable so suddenly.

I'll probably pick up 2 or 3 of the titles I do not already own. Not from the CC site though , since their shipping fees and new "handling" charges, allegedly added to make transit faster, are rather usurious in nature.

I don't think though it will be enough to persuade me to finally purchase Diary of a Country Priest, the one Bresson film I truly loathe.

what do they charge for shipping and "handling"???

[ShellOilJunior]

I'd wait for Amazon to re-stock on Thursday.

I was fortunate enough to get a copy today.

[Jeff]

what do they charge for shipping and "handling"???

Criterion is offering free standard shipping and handling to U.S. addresses right now. I just ordered four of the OOP titles with no shipping costs. I have Amazon Prime, but the Criterion price is substantially cheaper than the current Amazon prices on those titles.

[Cinephrenic]

what do they charge for shipping and "handling"???

Standard: arm
2nd Day: leg

[kaujot]

When I ordered this morning, just after I found out they were going OOP, I got charged shipping. Though my order hasn't been charged through yet, so I hope they amend that.

[ehimle]

its free shipping for anything over $50.
four titles should have pushed the previous poster over.

[Jeff]

its free shipping for anything over $50.
four titles should have pushed the previous poster over.

Thanks. I didn't realize that's why my shipping was free. My order was $90-something.