Lionsgate

[swo17]

I wonder if they sat on these titles for so long that their license might be up soon, and so it would no longer be worth it to put any effort whatsoever into these releases.

[Gregory]

Le Trou spoiler warning:

Le Trou (1960)
Directed by Jacques Becker (Antoine et Antoinette) and nominated for two BAFTA Film Awards, Le Trou is considered a masterpiece by the leader of the Nouvelle Vague movement, François Truffaut. Set in 1940s Paris, four prison cellmates plan an escape and induct a new inmate to join their plan... which eventually leads to betrayal.

It's silly to refer to one person as "the leader" of the French New Wave—and thanks for giving away the ending of this suspenseful film for those who haven't seen it yet. Keep up the great work, Lionsgate.

[Drucker]

Le Trou spoiler warning:

Le Trou (1960)
Directed by Jacques Becker (Antoine et Antoinette) and nominated for two BAFTA Film Awards, Le Trou is considered a masterpiece by the leader of the Nouvelle Vague movement, François Truffaut. Set in 1940s Paris, four prison cellmates plan an escape and induct a new inmate to join their plan... which eventually leads to betrayal.

It's silly to refer to one person as "the leader" of the French New Wave—and thanks for giving away the ending of this suspenseful film for those who haven't seen it yet. Keep up the great work, Lionsgate.

Don't worry it only

Spoiler

affects the last 3 minutes or so of the movie. You can certainly still enjoy the rest!

[Gregory]

And they're claiming that these are "eight ... French Nouvelle Vague films"? Quai des Orfèvres, from 1947? Clouzot was pretty much excoriated by the New Wave.
Billy Liar for fuck's sake? Isn't it possible for anyone to be laughed out of this business?

[jindianajonz]

Jean-Pierre Melville (Les Enfants Terribles),

Really? Is that what he is most well known for? It's a perfectly fine movie and all, but I'd say it's far from his best and is the least emblematic of his work based on the 5 or so that I've seen.

[Ashirg]

I couldn't find A Woman Is A Woman on Amazon, but others are already available for pre-order at Amazon (if you want to leave nasty reviews - don't see other use for them).

[knives]

Clouzot was pretty much excoriated by the New Wave.

I'm pretty sure no on that with his reputation if anything being aided by them.

[domino harvey]

Clouzot was associated with the tradition of quality but was generally well-liked by Truffaut et al. Here's Cahiers' thumbnail of Clouzot from their State of French Cinema issue:

Henri-Georges Clouzot

At the age of seven, he wrote a play whose protagonist rid himself of his wife by putting nails in her soup. The story of his life reveals him to be stubborn, clear-sighted, concerned to express the “hard face” of existence. This is a “film auteur”. “I do not believe,” he says, “in a director who is not his own writer.“ He loves his metier. “I am most of all physical, but my greatest pleasure in directing a film, is the shooting, the editing.” He depicts situation with no concern for the judgments of society, but he puts himself in danger of taking the bite from his films by targeting too great a number of spectators. “I work for the Gaumont-Palace,” he proclaims. But we know so well that his concerns, his obsessions -- perversion, true cruelty -- are not compatible with the wants of the great public. Thus, how Clouzot is careful of self-censorship. Furthermore, he knows where he is going and why, in his gallery of monsters, he puts great emphasis on the revolting, the sadistic, the subversive, the executioner. By subtraction, he little-by-little reveals, with the sharpness of a photographic negative, the dazzling image of pure innocence and of selfless friendship.

And from Jean Douchet, speaking about the Young Turks

But the film that received the most attention was Le Corbeau by Henri-Georges Clouzot: the film had a profound effect on these adolescents and to them represented the summit of cinematic art."

(All translations by our own jdcopp)

[Gregory]

Rivette said in Cahiers in May 1957 that Clouzot was "corrupted by money" and "afraid to take risks."
Jean-Louis Tallenay said of Les Diaboliques, also in Cahiers, that it was a shame to "waste so much talent on a puzzle."
Truffaut praised his documentary The Mystery of Picasso, with some reservations, and that film was generally well received partly due to its bold technique. But the Cahiers critics were generally critical of his thrillers—too caught up in older conventions, his style exemplified the cinéma du papa.
Clouzot's reputation and career took a hit due to criticisms like these, and it was only later that his work was was rehabilitated.
In any case, I hope we can at least all agree that it's absurd to refer to a 1947 Clouzot film as French New Wave.

[Ashirg]

That press release from Lionsgate is absurd on so many levels...

[captveg]

I wonder if they sat on these titles for so long that their license might be up soon, and so it would no longer be worth it to put any effort whatsoever into these releases.

One can only hope. Just look at what someone else was able to do with the Republic library (Olive) once Paramount got it back from Lionsgate.

[whaleallright]

That press release from Lionsgate is absurd on so many levels...

not least because it classifies two British films as part of the "Nouvelle Vague"

and puts Lino Ventura in a nonexistent 1928 version of Les Miserables, when he would have been nine years old. I assume he played Cosette.

[warren oates]

It doesn't even seem like they're offering Army of Shadows in HD at all, either at Amazon or through iTunes.

[domino harvey]

They probably assumed no one would want to see a bunch of soldiers standing around in the dark in HD

[Perkins Cobb]

Scum.

[bainbridgezu]

I wonder if they sat on these titles for so long that their license might be up soon, and so it would no longer be worth it to put any effort whatsoever into these releases.

Is anyone here familiar with the circumstances of Studio Canal's ownership of these titles? Have they licensed the films from another party, or do they own them in perpetuity?

[Ashirg]

They own them permanently.

[captveg]

Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996) - 11/25/14

Lionsgate with another bold catalog release from the Miramax library....

[domino harvey]

Which was already out on Blu-ray via Echo Bridge

[captveg]

Ah. Forgive me for overlooking that.

[domino harvey]

It does beg the question whether Lionsgate is the label that absorbed the majority of the Echo Bridge Miramax holdings (a nice fit, considering they already negotiated the more prestige-y Miramax titles earlier)

[captveg]

There have been other former Echo Bridge Miramax titles re-issued by Lionsgate, so that certainly seems to be the case. The question remains if they will be releasing any future new-to-Blu Miramax titles as they've seem to have pretty much stopped. The handful of Woody Allen titles they have are calling out for Blu-rays.

[domino harvey]

Lionsgate has been confirmed as the label to license 250 Miramax titles-- a logical fit given their existent Miramax releases and salvation from Echo Bridge at last (though the comments suggest they're just repackaging the Echo Bridge discs, which funnily enough is what the first wave of many Echo Bridge DVDs did with the original Miramax discs)

[FrauBlucher]

The expanded agreement reflects Lionsgate's successful track record in distributing third party product from some of the most prominent libraries in the world, including Miramax, Studiocanal and A&E, as well as its own Lionsgate titles.

This is clearly my favorite part of the press release.

[captveg]

The expanded agreement reflects Lionsgate's successful track record in distributing third party product from some of the most prominent libraries in the world, including Miramax, Studiocanal and A&E, as well as its own Lionsgate titles.

This is clearly my favorite part of the press release.

Yeah, I had to hold back my flippant laughter on that one.