Criterion and StudioCanal

[Jeff]

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?

I think it's just a data entry error. Black Orpheus and Louie Bluie are both Janus properties.

[cdnchris]

It's a data error. They're Janus. I'll fix those once I can get to it.

[dad1153]

I was at a store this afternoon with three sealed OOP Studio Canal Criterions in my hand: "Port of Shadows," "Le Corbeau" and "The Small Black Room." After trying to talk myself out of all three for an hour I bought "The Small Black Room" (the back of the box description makes it sound like a companion piece to "Ten Seconds To Hell" and the great-great granddaddy of "The Hurt Locker"! ). Did I make a poopie or did I choose wisely? Should I go back and grab the other two even if I have to... ahem... 'borrow' money that I don't have to get them (or return "Small Black Room" and make an exchange)? Help! O:)

[Matt]

You can't make a bad choice between those three.

[knives]

All three are some of the best films in the collection, so see your local loan shark.

[domino harvey]

Corbeau can be gained the easiest from (an arguably better) R2 DVD, so I'd pick that one last

[aox]

Wow. Just looking at this

Does this mean that the BD's of M, 400 Blows, Wages of Fear, Sanjuro, Yojimbo, and the Seventh Seal could potentially be yanked? and the Seven Samurai could never happen?

[domino harvey]

Does this mean that the BD's of M, 400 Blows, Wages of Fear, Sanjuro, Yojimbo, and the Seventh Seal could potentially be yanked? and the Seven Samurai could never happen?

Q: What do all these titles have in common?
A: They were all rereleased, thus their original releases are OOP

[perkizitore]

One of your best posts ever, Domino!

[dad1153]

^^^ Scared the hell out of me for just a second aox. :-$

[Tom Hagen]

Though mention of The Seventh Seal does remind me: whatever became of that wild situation where the movie theater in Colorado claimed that they owned the Svensk Filmindustri catalogue through court order?

[Jeff]

Though mention of The Seventh Seal does remind me: whatever became of that wild situation where the movie theater in Colorado claimed that they owned the Svensk Filmindustri catalogue through court order?

A Colorado court ruled in favor of the Isis Theater, and they now claim the rights to the library, though Svensk doesn't acknowledge the ruling. Criterion/Janus have been paying the Isis theater royalties for the Bergman films since 2005, though they still credit Svensk as the copyright holder and presumably work with them for materials. There is a thread about it here.

[lady wakasa]

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.

Thanks for the heads up - I stopped in, checked it out, and picked up Ran and Make Way for Tomorrow. Ran isn't my favorite Kurosawa, but I'm always a sucker for extras.

Just sorry there were no Variety Lights, because I'm planning that as a gift. (Amazon looks to have a few more, but it would've been more convenient to pick them up while I was in the store.)

[dad1153]

I was at J&R Sunday late afternoon (4PM-ish) and they had two copies of "Variety Lights" in the 'Foreign' section on the back of the store (in the middle of the giant 'TV section'). Maybe you just looked in the Criterion sections in the front and the middle of the store, but there were definitely copies of "Variety Lights" in the back. Go back and get 'em Monday because it's the last day of the Criterion sale.

BTW, out-of-nowhere J&R dug about ten brand-new DVD copies of "The Third Man" (the 2007 2-disc re-issue) and put them up for sale. It's not as cool as the Blu-ray but hey, it's the "Third Man" man!

[bugsy_pal]

I recently picked up the Essential Art House version of 'Variety Lights'. From the bit of research I did, I formed the view that I wasn't missing anything by not getting the original version with spine number, as it never had any extras. Is that in fact correct?

[cdnchris]

The Criterion version has no supplements other than an insert, which I believe the EAH version also comes with. So you're not missing anything.

[bugsy_pal]

The Criterion version has no supplements other than an insert, which I believe the EAH version also comes with. So you're not missing anything.

Thank you...

So what the heck is Studio Canal or Lions gate or whoever going to do with all of these films now that they've snatched the rights away? Are we just going to get teh odd DVD with inferior transfers, or nothing? In the current economic climate i can't see anyone other than Criterion putting out some of these films...

[zedz]

Are we just going to get teh odd DVD with inferior transfers, or nothing?

I'm guessing both. It just seems like some pointless corporate pissing contest to me, without much thought as to what's best for the films (and thus their rightsholders) in the long run. But what's new?

[dad1153]

Deep Discount's 25% sale is on (use ''25MORE" code at checkout). There are a few OOP StudioCanal titles still in stock: Carlos Saura's Flamenco Trilogy (Eclipse) under $30, Tati's Trafic, Peeping Tom, Port of Shadows, Pierrot le fou (DVD) and Pierrot le fou (Blu-ray) (all under $25, including "Pierrot" Blu).

"Alphaville," "Grand Illusion," "Le Jour Se Leve," "Mayerling" and other OOP StudioCanal DVD's are also available but don't qualify for the 25% off (they're all slightly below $18).

[dad1153]

The Small Back Room added to Deep Discount's 25% Off sale.

[andyli]

The Small Black Room added to Deep Discount's 25% Off sale.

Should be The Small Back Room.

[aox]

But now I kind of wonder what goes on in the Black room.

[Jeff]

But now I kind of wonder what goes on in the Black room.

Only Boris Karloff knows for sure.

[dad1153]

The Small Black Room added to Deep Discount's 25% Off sale.

Should be The Small Back Room.

](*,) Fixed.

[nostalghic]

anyone know anywhere I can get a regular DVD edition of the third man for less than $60? can't believe I missed it.