Criterion and StudioCanal

[Brian C]

A bunch more officially OOP now:

Coup de Torchon
Diary of a Country Priest
Port of Shadows
Quai des Orfèvres
Le Trou
The White Sheik

[MTRodaba2468]

Just placed an order for Coup De Torchon. With that, I've now got all the spine numbers that were pulled OOP.

[Brian C]

Now OOP:

Alphaville
The Tales of Hoffman (but EAH still available)
Trafic
The Small Back Room

All still appear to be available via Amazon, so act fast!

[zedz]

Yikes! They're really nipping at our toes!

Run, don't walk, to secure your copy of The Small Back Room, an utter masterpiece that I'm sure will be perennially undervalued in Powell / Pressburger's oeuvre.

[kaujot]

It already is perennially undervalued in their oeuvre.

[domino harvey]

It's so undervalued that no one bought it even with the OOP warning and so it's still in stock everywhere

[knives]

I'll go as far as to say it's their best movie together. (Not to say the popular ones don't deserve their popularity)

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

It's so undervalued that no one bought it even with the OOP warning and so it's still in stock everywhere

B&N better have some for a summer sale then! In between Red Shoes and Hoffmann, I found it to be a strange and compelling film. I was glad that CC gave the film its due.

[HistoryProf]

Another enthusiastic endorsement of Small Back Room if anyone was on the fence. Although it's #3 on my P&P favorites list behind Matter of Life and Death and 49th Parallel, it's a minor masterpiece and an absolute must own as far as i'm concerned. The scene with the bomb on the pebbled beach is among the most tense in film history. great stuff!

[headacheboy]

Count me in as a fan of Small Back Room as well. The fact that they were actually allowed to film scenes in Stonehenge blew me away. I'm in the US and I would have assumed that was quite sacred ground. The fact that P&P were given the go ahead to film there whilst firing large weaponry was astonishing!

[Particle Zoo]

Count me in as a fan of Small Back Room as well. The fact that they were actually allowed to film scenes in Stonehenge blew me away. I'm in the US and I would have assumed that was quite sacred ground. The fact that P&P were given the go ahead to film there whilst firing large weaponry was astonishing!

Until fairly recently Stonehenge was not treated with respect. In Victorian times the local Blacksmith sold small hammers to tourists so that they could chip off and take away their own little souvenir!
Indeed the stones were only fenced off when 'Druids' (Hippies) began performing rituals there in the 1960s.

[kaujot]

They're not even fenced off anymore, really? Just some small ropes that define a path you're supposed to keep to. Or that's how it was when I visited in '05. I suppose a fence could have gone up in the five years since.

[Particle Zoo]

^
Indeed you are correct, it is only a rope. It is several years since my last visit.

[FerdinandGriffon]

Went to the IFC Center in NYC today to see The Good, the Bad, and the Weird (a messy waste of time after the first half hour) and felt my heart skip a beat when I saw a copy of the Third Man blu-ray lurking next to the popcorn. The soda slinger behind the counter told me that IFC had hoarded a whole bunch of the studio canal discs after the OOP announcement. They still have one more copy of The Third Man after I bought mine, as well as Pierrot le fou BDs and a buncha other SC titles. Best of all, only $28 for fellow members, and still cheaper than list price for all the rest of ya. Act fast!

[dad1153]

^^^ You mean $28 plus NYC tax plus the cost of a movie that, by your own admission, was no good? Mmphh, sounds like you still came ahead regardless.

[lady wakasa]

I dunno - I liked The Good, The Bad, The Weird. It's not perfect, but it's a fun popcorn movie. (And a bit crazy.) Plus Song Kang-ho is *always* great to watch. But that's me.

And I broke down and got a Small Back Room based on the kudos here. Rats, that Criterion splurging was supposed to end with March...

[FerdinandGriffon]

Song Kang-Ho has never failed me, it's true. But I can only deal with so much unnecessary teal/orange color timing and sloppy plot construction, and the film runs to over two hours.
I will say that the train robbery sequence was a blast though.

[Brian C]

Strangely, Coup de torchon and Quai des Orfèvres are showing as back in stock on the Criterion site after a couple weeks with OOP status.

[dad1153]

Went to J&R Music World in NYC and they have a Criterion sale going. All titles are approx. 15% off ($37.99 titles for $24.99; $24.99 for $19.99; etc.) and what did I find semi-hidden in the wall of Box Sets in the wall across from the basement entrance? A brand new box of Cocteau's "Orphic Trilogy" for $75 ($59.99 after the discount). Grabbed it (duh!) and I swear I looked long and hard for another but couldn't find one. If you're in Gotham and feel lucky... O:)

[kaujot]

I imagine there are plenty of Orphic Trilogy sets still out there. It's always seemed to me that the one box set you could count on being in a store would be that one.

[bugsy_pal]

A new copy of the Orphic Trilogy set appeared about a week ago on Amazon (not a MarketPlace seller). It said there was only 1 in stock at the time. I guess I was lucky - I bought it and it has been shipped - still awaiting its arrival.

(This was after buying and paying for a new set at a good price on eBay about 2 months ago - it never arrived and I don't believe it was ever shipped. Once I queried the ship date they just gave me a refund - which made me think there was no ship date and they were not able to get the set in.)

Anyway, I would agree that copies of this set will be hanging around for a while and might even reappear on Amazon... (I assume that's still possible given the loss of Criterion's rights to the films). I noticed that other day that Grand Illusion (Spine No. 1) was available again on AMazon.

[Minkin]

For the painfully completionist out there, the non-EAH Variety Lights is back in stock on Amazon.

[dad1153]

If you're in New York City between now and the end of May J&R Music World has a Criterion sale going. Many of these OOP titles are there ("Le Corbeau," "Port of Shadows," etc.) plus lots of "Ran" (and a couple of "Contempt") Criterions for $24.99 a pop.

[Svevan]

To my eyes, Gervaise, Peeping Tom, Quai des Orfevres, the EAH versions of Variety Lights and Tales of Hoffman, and the Carlos Saura box are still available on Crit's website, still priced at the OOP discount level. If you use the new 10% off code (10BACK) and you get free shipping (orders over $50), then that's a pretty good deal vs. Amazon marketplace.

[agnamaracs]

The title pages here at criterionforum.org list BLACK ORPHEUS and LOUIE BLUIE as being licensed from Canal.

At this point, I am completely lost. What exactly is the current Criterion-Canal relationship? Wouldn't ORPHEUS seem like a title Canal would be more likely to keep for themselves?