Criterion and StudioCanal

[Cinephrenic]

But you write symphonies, no?

[Richard]

A big benefit of StudioCanal for me personally: they release their discs in Europe. It is very frustrating to see Criterion release great BD-titles and not being able to order them (or at least play them) because of region encoding. I can understand the irritation about Criterion now having to retire some titles, but at the same time I can't help but to feel a certain amount of "schadenfreude".

And some titles from the StudioCanal collection have been great: Belle de Jour, Contempt and L'annee derniere a Marienbad are of the level that I would expect from Criterion itself. I wouldn't buy everything from StudioCanal, but most of their collection-titles seem to be very much worthwhile.

[swo17]

A bunch of the soon-to-be OOP Criterions have been reduced on Amazon...to 25% off. Not even close to competing with the prices on Criterion's own site. I wonder why they even bothered.

[perkizitore]

After Ran and Contempt some suspicions started appearing and then with Third man being OOP they became solid. It's a matter of time until the rest of the Studio Canal titles go OOP as well, MAYBE with some exceptions. I wouldn't be too worried since the majority of these titles exist in R2 and the ones with Studio Canal produced extras are likely to have a re-release, but i hope that Lionsgate re-releases the most obscure titles even in barebones discs with the same or even better standards than Criterion and Optimum pricing.

[Gregory]

My fear is that this new arrangement might slow down the flow of releases of Studio Canal titles, especially those that haven't been released on DVD before.
In particular, I'm afraid Lionsgate will fail to release many things from the Studio Canal Collection -- or is it clear that they're contractually obligated to do so? Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like Lionsgate now has the rights in North America to an immense array of catalogs, and they can only release so much. Criterion really knew how to generally focus on the titles that matter, and get an impressively large quantity of it released after launching the EAH and Eclipse lines.

[HistoryProf]

that doesn't do those of us in the U.S. much good though does it?

In time it will. As rights free up in the U.S., Lionsgate should be releasing most of the StudioCanal Collection as direct ports of the versions in other regions. There are some titles like The Elephant Man, The Deer Hunter, Mulholland Drive, and The Go-Between that are tied up with U.S. studios, but I expect that we will see well-appointed Blu-rays of most of the others. The specs for the first round of U.S. releases are here, and you can see that they have the same Criterionesque content as their French, English, and German counterparts. I'm looking forward to a Blu-ray of Peeping Tom, which I think they'll get to later this year. Many of the discs from other regions are Region A compliant anyway.

Well I guess I'm not holding my breath...I have all the hope in the world the SC collection becomes something great, but it took them over a year to get Ran and Contempt out, and initial reports are disastrous. Now they are going to take these 20+ films and we are going to be waiting a LONG time to see these again on the market. I would imagine it will be 2011 before any see the light of day, and then probably a select handful - i'd guess Grand Illusion is most likely to be atop their list...but who knows. But do you really think they are going to do a pimped out blu ray of Diary of a Country Priest? I would put that in the "outlook not good" category.

[HistoryProf]

FWIW: i ordered Peirrot Le Fou blu from B&N within a couple hours of the announcement and got an email just now saying the order has been delayed, but they hope to fill it in 5 days.

[tojoed]

i'd guess Grand Illusion is most likely to be atop their list...but who knows. But do you really think they are going to do a pimped out blu ray of Diary of a Country Priest? I would put that in the "outlook not good" category.

Well, Studio Canal have always released "Grand Illusion" and "Diary" in Europe, and you are more likely to see a Blu-Ray of "Diary" from them than you ever were from Criterion.
And there is nothing "disastrous" about the Blu of "Contempt", I don't know why you say that.

[zachhh]

not to diverge, but the Contempt blu-ray is anything but disastrous it's stunning.

[zachhh]

FWIW: i ordered Peirrot Le Fou blu from B&N within a couple hours of the announcement and got an email just now saying the order has been delayed, but they hope to fill it in 5 days.

i hope you used the 10% coupon floating around!

the 20% one is D3H8J8J, but you have to be a new customer, so you could always just make another account

[Jeff]

do you really think they are going to do a pimped out blu ray of Diary of a Country Priest? I would put that in the "outlook not good" category.

They are releasing a pimped out Blu-ray of Losey's The Go-Between in the UK in a couple of weeks. That's something I sure never thought I'd see, so they seem pretty adventurous in that regard. MTV needs a "pimp my auteur" show that I can write in to with requests.

[Cinephrenic]

Nice, Criterion Collection is weak on British new wave.

[dx23]

I searched through the thread and didn't find this: Why is the Essential Art house edition of Variety Lights but no mention of the regular Criterion one? Is that one staying in print?

[CSM126]

It's not in print. They took it OOP a long time ago and have only been selling the EAH for a while now.

[Jun-Dai]

I'm glad Criterion at least got to work on these titles. As others have pointed out, they do have plenty of work elsewhere; it's not as though StudioCanal has a monopoly on classic films. I'm sure Criterion is sad to lose these titles, and I'm a little sad for them as well. But as long as Criterion is swamped with good stuff to put out, it is something of a win-win that others are able to pay some attention to these titles so that Criterion can pick up other, more neglected films.

Sad particularly that Grand Illusion is on that list, after all that Criterion went through to put it out.


I wonder if Toho is watching the StudioCanal line. Surely they must be pretty high on the list of top companies that Criterion licenses from? Having just plunked a ton of money into restoring all the Kurosawas and then releasing them on Blu-ray in Japan…

[AtlantaFella]

The CC version of Variety Lights is already OOP... the EAH is a lateral release however, sans a few paragraphs on an insert by Andrew Sarris. I recommend this film to anyone who is a fan of Fellini or Masina... it doesn't pack the dramatic punch of Nights of Cabiria or La Strada, but it is an enjoyable 97 minutes and a nice introduction to Fellini's affinity for all things human.

[Tribe]

I wonder if Toho is watching the StudioCanal line. Surely they must be pretty high on the list of top companies that Criterion licenses from? Having just plunked a ton of money into restoring all the Kurosawas and then releasing them on Blu-ray in Japan…

Jun, I had the same thought about Toho when this StudioCanal thing happened. Remember when the original Godzilla was re-released several years ago? Rialto was distributing that directly and a lot of folks thought it very well might be a Criterion release...so I'm sure Toho is taking stock of this situation.

On the other hand, would Godzilla have sold better as a Criterion release than it has as a Toho DVD release? Who knows, but certainly fodder for not entirely unreasonable speculation.

[HistoryProf]

not to diverge, but the Contempt blu-ray is anything but disastrous it's stunning.

I was speaking of Ran - which is disastrous - and included Contempt only in the "Took a year to get these 2 out" point.

Like I said, i'll be thrilled to be wrong, but i'm not holding my breath. Given the initial delays and mixed results I just don't have tremendous faith that even half of these will see the light of day again in the next 2-3 years, and if they do, there's a decent chance they will be inferior releases. I'd rather a company that I know bats about .950 rather than one who thus far is at about .500 here in the states have these great films - and I'm very concerned about the other Canal titles like Army of Shadows and Le Cercle Rouge leaving CC too.

I guess it's not a huge deal at this point though, since I have everything I want from the list but Diary of a Country Priest as of now...picked up Fallen Idol, Tales of Hoffman, Grand Illusion, and Le Jour Se Leve at B&N today. Incidentally, they still have those $5 off any DVD $20 or more coupons for members that I was able to use for 3 of the 4 (EHS titles don't qualify)...just did separate transactions w/ no issues and they were about $20 and $28 respectively. There's also a $5 off $50 that is stackable. So some good deals and instant gratification if you have a B&N nearby

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/email/nav ... &PID=32567" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Cash Flagg]

The four recent exclusive EAH releases should be top priority for everyone

And at $10.98 each, they're 41 cents cheaper than they would be during the 25% off sale anyway. I added a Janus mug to get free shipping.

[PillowRock]

Now that many of the titles are being shown on the Criterion site as "backordered" with estimated shipping dates of March 1 ......

Do we think that they *will* ship backorders? Or are those likely sold out? (Aside from what is already in the outside retail chain.)

[captveg]

Now that many of the titles are being shown on the Criterion site as "backordered" with estimated shipping dates of March 1 ......

Do we think that they *will* ship backorders? Or are those likely sold out? (Aside from what is already in the outside retail chain.)

Criterion has already stated they will fulfill all orders made through the end of March.

[PillowRock]

Cool. Thanks. I hadn't seen that statement. Probably my own oversight.

[redbill]

I received my shipment from criterion today, ordered the day after the anouncement.

[agnamaracs]

You know what I'm going to miss most about the Criterion Canals? The old, horribly loud Canal logo with drums and chanting and random numbers popping up everywhere. One of my two favorite logos ever to appear on a Criterion disc.

(The other one is the Anglo logo from Peeping Tom, which Canal had better preserve for their Blu-ray release...)

[HarryLong]

What was it with British studios & their fondness for buffed bodybuilders in their logos? There's the Anglo "Atlas" and Rank's builtie striking the gong. The old Hammer films from the 1930s used the same guy striking an anvil ...