Criterion and StudioCanal

[aox]

Of course, "terrible" just seemed hyperbolic to me. Like I said, I wish we had two like this to choose from for every film.

Of course. Perhaps it was hyperbole. However, the tinted scene is just completely unacceptable. But, what is it....5-10 seconds? Still.

[TheGodfather]

I disagree. The skin tones look completely pale to me as does the tone. The colors jump out at me with the Criterion edition of the film. But I guess to each her/his own.

Agreed. The Criterion looks much better to me...

[willoneill]

It's worth saying that when I saw a 35mm print last summer at the Gene Siskel Film Center, the shot in that cap did NOT have the green tinting.

I saw a 35mm print of this here in Ottawa about 2 1/2 years ago and it DID have the green tint.

[ShellOilJunior]

I disagree. The skin tones look completely pale to me as does the tone. The colors jump out at me with the Criterion edition of the film. But I guess to each her/his own.

Agreed. The Criterion looks much better to me...

Agreed as well. Some of those comparisons later on in the Beaver article are night and day.

Truly a putrid transfer from Studio Superfluous.

[fdm]

Agreed as well. Some of those comparisons later on in the Beaver article are night and day.

Night and day, or should Criterion's have been day for night?

(Just asking, my one view of the Criterion blu-ray is barely sufficient to ask the question, much less know the answer.)

[TheGodfather]

Orphic Trilogy seems to be OOP now everywhere. My movietyme order was cancelled as well...
anyone got an idea on where it is in stock?

-edit- just found out that at yesasia.com it`s still in stock. It might be a bit more expensive than on other sites but hey, at least I got it (I hope...)

[knives]

Criterion's website is also going to be cool on all of your OOP needs until the 1st.

[Arrow]

Criterion's website is also going to be cool on all of your OOP needs until the 1st.

I don't believe they ship overseas though for our friend from the Netherlands.

[TheGodfather]

Criterion's website is also going to be cool on all of your OOP needs until the 1st.

I don't believe they ship overseas though for our friend from the Netherlands.

yep. a sad thing as their prices are great.

[TMDaines]

It's kind of sad they can't be bothered shipping internationally and opening up the sale to their overseas customers in 2010.

[Tom Hagen]

Yeah, it's pretty unreasonable that they're not more aggressively selling their products in countries that the said products are often locked out of due to licensing issues. It’s almost as unreasonable as their continuing refusal to avoid overlapping their releases with Eureka's.

[TMDaines]

What's with the sarcasm? There's nothing stopping them just charging an international shipping fee to their overseas customers who also enjoy buying their releases. The point of sale is in the US so there is no problem with right issues. All the other labels I can buy from directly offer their products both nationally and internationally.

How is that in any way, shape or form "aggressive"?

[peerpee]

The point of sale is irrelevant, it would contravene any licencee's contract to directly sell to an address outside of their licenced territory.

[TMDaines]

The point of sale is irrelevant, it would contravene any licencee's contract to directly sell to an address outside of their licenced territory.

How do both labels such as Eureka, Raro, Editon Filmmuseum... and online retailers such as Amazon, Deep Discount... all get away with it then? Eureka, Raro and Edition Filemuseum certainly don't hold worldwide rights to all their titles but they'll happily ship them anywhere if you buy directly from them.

I was under the impression that if the sale technically takes place in the region where the rights are held for it's all legal. The sale takes place in the US but is simply shipped to Europe once sold. It's why I can buy American disks on Amazon US but not Amazon UK, and why - on Amazon UK - only marketplace sellers based in the US can list new American disks. Marketplace sellers in the UK can only list as "Used" to avoid infringing on rights-holders.

http://www.fact-uk.org.uk/site/about/faq.htm#15

This is the law in Britain on buying/selling imported DVDs. The law in other countries I'm sure is similar as it is the most common sense approach.

[Jeff]

The point of sale is irrelevant, it would contravene any licencee's contract to directly sell to an address outside of their licenced territory.

How does Eureka get around this? I've bought several MoC discs directly from the Eureka website.

[TMDaines]

The point of sale is irrelevant, it would contravene any licencee's contract to directly sell to an address outside of their licenced territory.

How does Eureka get around this? I've bought several MoC discs directly from the Eureka website.

My understanding is that as long as the sale takes place in the UK, i.e. the area where they hold the rights to distribute the title, they can send the title anywhere they wish.

[Jun-Dai]

There's nothing illegal about selling it internationally, so it comes down to agreements. Amazon, et al., don't work with the content-makers, and they don't generally operate with exclusivity agreements with distributors. Distributors can threaten to stop selling product to Amazon wholesale until they stop shipping internationally or selling imports, but it's not really to their advantage.

Since Criterion's MO (beyond Janus Films, anyways), is to ask major rightsholders very politely for the exclusive rights to produce DVDs/BRs for US (North America, perhaps?), I'm guessing they wouldn't want to jeopardize those relationships by shipping product internationally (encouraging competition with local exclusive DVD/BR producers), since that would only ever be a small part of their business. Whether that's actually part of the contract probably depends on the release in question.

Eureka is able to ship internationally, either because the distributors are less strict/touchy about their licensing, or because Eureka has found a way to work it out with them, or because they're less cautious/paranoid.

IANAL, so this is speculation purely for my own entertainment.

[Jun-Dai]

How do both labels such as Eureka, Raro, Editon Filmmuseum... and online retailers such as Amazon, Deep Discount... all get away with it then? Eureka, Raro and Edition Filemuseum certainly don't hold worldwide rights to all their titles but they'll happily ship them anywhere if you buy directly from them.

I was under the impression that if the sale technically takes place in the region where the rights are held for it's all legal. The sale takes place in the US but is simply shipped to Europe once sold. It's why I can buy American disks on Amazon US but not Amazon UK, and why - on Amazon UK - only marketplace sellers based in the US can list new American disks. Marketplace sellers in the UK can only list as "Used" to avoid infringing on rights-holders.

http://www.fact-uk.org.uk/site/about/faq.htm#15

This is the law in Britain on buying/selling imported DVDs. The law in other countries I'm sure is similar as it is the most common sense approach.

I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with legal restrictions and everything to do with relationships and contract negotiations.

[lady wakasa]

I know that Yes Asia sometimes won't ship some product to some countries as well. I always thought it was a combination of local law and licensing agreements.

[fdm]

DVD Empire has the Orphic Trilogy in stock, on sale even, for $55.95.

[swo17]

Regular shoppers at criterion.com may have noticed that Jean Cocteau’s Orphic Trilogy has been reclassified from back order to out of print. It’s true: we’ve officially sold the last of our beautiful white and silver box sets. But we want to reassure anyone who has placed a back order with us that your copies will be coming to you just as soon as they hit our warehouse. Response to the out of print announcement has been overwhelming, and there are quite a few back-ordered titles at the moment, but never fear—we will honor all orders placed through our site.

[Svevan]

Glad I snatched mine early. Highly recommended for those who can get it.

[Izo]

Amazon still has the Orphic Trilogy in stock. It's a bit higher than I'd like to pay, at $62, but I really don't want to miss the boat on this one.

[Jeff]

The Criterion website actually has most of these titles (notable exceptions are Diary of a Country Priest and the Flamenco and Orphic trilogies) in stock and shipping within a day now. The AFS code still works to take 25% off each item in your cart. With the $5.00 discount and 25% discount, final prices are $20.22 for upper tier, $14.22 for lower tier, and $8.22 for EAH.

[HistoryProf]

Man, that AFS coupon made this too hard to pass up...went ahead and ordered Mayerling, Gervaise, and Forbidden Games (CC) for $30 - then added a pre-order for Walkabout to get free shipping. They took the 25% off the preorder too. I now have everything from the OOP list I had even a remote interest in - these last 3 were those I knew i'd later regret not getting...Very cool of them to keep taking orders into March like this!