Forthcoming Lists Discussion and Random Speculation Vol.3

[SpiderBaby]

What I still don't get is if Criterion still has the rights to re-release the BRD trilogy, why did it go "out of print" in the first place, instead of "out of stock"? They lose the rights to one of the extra features or something? I just don't see how they still have the rights to the entire thing if they are not trying to sell it, unless they ran out of stock and decided to just keep it out of stock until they upgrade it. Just weird based on past "out of print" vs "out of stock" items.

[ianungstad]

It's certainly due to low stock and not wanting to order another printing before the eventual upgrade. No additional printings = out of print. Amazon isn't going to order thousands of copies of the upgrade if they still have a couple hundred copies of the old version laying around the warehouse.

[SpiderBaby]

That is understandable. I just hope it points to a sooner-rather-than-later upgrade.

[knives]

It might also mean new transfers as if I remember correctly these were pre-300.

[zedz]

This would be the first.

Monterey Pop was the first.

[knives]

I wouldn't consider that a boxset.

[swo17]

Well, Criterion does.

[zedz]

Just leaked!!! This is the 2012 release schedule

Koker Trilogy
Oshima's Youth Trilogy
Wender's Road Trilogy
Apu Trilogy
Pasolini's Trilogy of Life
Frampton
Bergman-Rossellini Set

Of these possibilities, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Oshimas went Eclipse (and I'm assuming you're not including Night and Fog in Japan in this dubious 'trilogy', since it has little in common with the preceding films stylistically or thematically) and a couple get bumped to 2013 or beyond. Bergman-Rossellini would be a colossal restoration / rights / version rationalization chore and will be a long way off, I expect.

That would still be a heavy year for box sets, but considering how light 2011 was, it's conceivable. After all, we got six new box sets last year.

[zedz]

I wouldn't consider that a boxset.

Three previously released films with their own spine numbers collected together in a box with its own spine number, what's not a box set about that?

[knives]

I thought it was only two movies? It's basically the same sort of rationalization for not considering that Ozu dual release a boxset (and actually as you can get the full contents separate it's probably closer to Yojimbo/ Sanjuro or .the Fullers).

[swo17]

The Ozu is a boxset. (Criterion also calls it this on its website.) And Monterey Pop is technically three films with a whole swarm of additional performances as extras. A set of films and other stuff packed into a box. I don't know how much more boxsetty you can get.

[Murdoch]

We have truly reached the apex of dvd/blu-ray nerdom.

[Tom Hagen]

To take it one step more, I'm still mildly annoyed that the BBS set itself didn't get a spine number.

[knives]

The Ozu is a boxset. (Criterion also calls it this on its website.) And Monterey Pop is technically three films with a whole swarm of additional performances as extras. A set of films and other stuff packed into a box. I don't know how much more boxsetty you can get.

Maybe on planet earth, but not planet utensil. =;

[Hail_Cesar]

The Bergman/Rossellini and Koker Trilogy would be the best releases of the year for me...

[Peacock]

The Bergman/Rossellini and Koker Trilogy would be the best releases of the year for me...

I didn't realise I had two accounts on here?

Also zedz, I've yet to see the so-called "Youth Trilogy", but have seen an interview on youtube with Richie where he links the films to Night and Fog in Japan, saying that that film sort of deals with similar characters now faced with the problems of (young) adulthood in Japan in that period... I kinda hope they do include it in a set, otherwise it might be a while till we get a decent subbed release of the film.... It would look beautiful in HD..

Also, Criterion did say on their facebook around the time of their release of the War Trilogy that they would tackle the Rossellini/Bergman films soon/next (can't remember the exact words), and seeing as they already had the rights to most (or all?) of the films thanks to Janus I don't think 2012 is so unreasonable.. provided they can find decent prints of Joan of Arc and Fear I guess...

[zedz]

You can probably argue connections between any two or more Oshima films of the sixties, but for me The Sun's Burial really slams the door shut on the youth / Sun Tribe studio genre films he was initially charged with (it's even there in the film's title), and his next film was a completely personal, idiosyncratic and subversive anti-studio film made practically in secret. They could package his first four films as 'Oshima at Shochiku' or something, but at some point I think that this trilogy fetishism (see also Wenders' alleged 'Road Movie Trilogy' - which half-dozen road movies are you going to exclude from that set?) actually gets in the way of proper understanding of a director's career.

The other big niggle for me about lumping Night and Fog in Japan in with the others is that it's a film which invites (demands?) a lot of historical context, and it would be terrible if it was turned out bare-bones (which would be the case if my Eclipse suspicion is confirmed). It's a watershed film (possibly the watershed film) in Oshima's career; it's deeply mired in the very specific politics of the period, about which most of the audience will be ignorant; and it's a technical marvel, with plenty to discuss at a formal level. Three meaty extras right there.

[bainbridgezu]

Like Inagaki's Samurai Trilogy, both Sisters and L'Eclisse have been pulled from Criterion's Hulu Plus channel. Sisters is gone entirely, while L'Eclisse maintains a page containing the "Elements of Landscape" featurette, but not the film itself. Hopefully this means both titles are in-line for an upgrade, as Sisters was an underwhelming early effort (aside from a new transfer, some additional supplements would be nice), while L'Eclisse utilized a beautiful print marred by distracting flicker.

UPDATE: Sisters in back online, and looks to be the same old transfer, but L'Eclisse is still gone.

[Drucker]

NY Film Forum schedule is out:
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http://www.filmforum.org/pdf/ff2_cal93_FINAL_p1.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Laura is listed as a "Criterion Release" and Life and Death of Colonel Blimb has a 35MM restoration, so that could mean a blu ray this year...

Don't know if these have already been hinted at...but just in case.

[ianungstad]

Criterion Pictures is an unrelated company that provides repertory prints. People make this mistake ALL the time.

[zedz]

Maybe more exciting is the new 35mm print of Four Nights of a Dreamer. Not that it's Bresson's greatest film, but it's one of his more elusive ones.

[John Edmond]

Great news, bar his earliest work (aka Public Affair & Angel of the Streets) this is the one Bresson I have yet to see thanks to its elusiveness*.


*It is out there, just not in a condition in which one can actually see Four Nights of a Dreamer. You can still take captures of Rosenbaum as an extra though.

[Perkins Cobb]

Maybe more exciting is the new 35mm print of Four Nights of a Dreamer. Not that it's Bresson's greatest film, but it's one of his more elusive ones.

But Une femme douce, the rarest of them all, is missing. Sorry, Bruce, no sale.

[John Edmond]

Une femme douce's problem is legal and not prints right? The rip of Une femme douce is actually one of the best VHS rips I've seen. This is of course completely relative (I'd rate it somewhere in the slightly-better-than-a-Facets-official-release range), and everything I said in the post before still stands.

[zedz]

This is where my "one of" came in. There is a watchable subtitled print of Une femme douce kicking around, but I think that's one where you need to go through Mylene, which can be [euphemism]a challenge[/euphemism].