Criterion and StudioCanal

[Noiradelic]

Something's wrong with Studio Canal's US distribution, after the initial 4 blu rays in 2010 & 1 in 2012, there's been nothing, not a peep.

They released That Obscure Object of Desire in January 2013.

[rrenault]

I wouldn't be surprised if StudioCanal discovered what Paramount did when Lionsgate licensed the Republic library - Lionsgate has a bizarre habit of licensing libraries and doing the bare minimum with them. SC could certainly feel that the lack of product and promotion by LG has hurt their brand, and realizes that Criterion - despite not having a SC Collection label - would be far better suited to represent them in the US.

Maybe Criterion will now release Terminator 2 to recover the costs from the "bronzing".

[Perkins Cobb]

I miss the snatching it all away, and while we're at it could we also work cumstain into the thread title?

[Adam X]

It does seem like a lost opportunity.

[Ribs]

Hm - there's a sale in the Criterion store for the Essential Art House box set, which I thought had went out of print given The Third Man's inclusion...

[Self]

Hm - there's a sale in the Criterion store for the Essential Art House box set, which I thought had went out of print given The Third Man's inclusion...

As well as Grand Illusion

[danieltiger]

Hm - there's a sale in the Criterion store for the Essential Art House box set, which I thought had went out of print given The Third Man's inclusion...

As well as Grand Illusion

And, not to be pedantic, The Fallen Idol, Forbidden Games, Le jour se Léve, Kind Hearts and Coronets, etc...

[Werewolf by Night]

Hm - there's a sale in the Criterion store for the Essential Art House box set, which I thought had went out of print given The Third Man's inclusion...

Out of print is not the same thing as out of stock. Apparently they still have these sets left over from the original print run several years ago and are not restricted from selling their remaining stock.

[DrunkenFatherFigure]

Out of print is not the same thing as out of stock. Apparently they still have these sets left over from the original print run several years ago and are not restricted from selling their remaining stock.

And I'm guessing they'll have to get even less restrictive if they want to finish up their stock. I mean, seriously, DVDs? With no special features? In this wondrous day and age?

[rrenault]

Well they made a point of advertising their Essential Art House set as being "back in stock" on facebook earlier today, so...

[Ribs]

Yes, if my memory serves, it was labelled as "Buy at Amazon", not out of print. But the fact that it seems to have come back in stock at Criterion does certainly suggest something fishy is going on with StudioCanal's rights.

[Yaanu]

Yes, if my memory serves, it was labelled as "Buy at Amazon", not out of print. But the fact that it seems to have come back in stock at Criterion does certainly suggest something fishy is going on with StudioCanal's rights.

I've always figured that the rights issues was why Criterion wasn't doing anything with EAH outside of what had already been published. Hopefully it makes a comeback.

[Ribs]

Not only is Third Man listed as available as temporarily out of stock as MSRP on Amazon, but also Army of Shadows (and Leon Morin, Priest) - these went up the same night as the June Criterion releases on Amazon. Could an announcement of stuff coming back be coming?

[DeprongMori]

There seem to be no listings at all on Amazon for Criterion's "The Third Man" on Blu-Ray. No back-orders, no third-parties, no "currently not available". I'd be interetsed to find out whether anyone was actually able to snag one for $39.95.

On the other hand, they do have in-stock new copies of "Army of Shadows" for $39.95 on Amazon Prime.

[Ribs]

No, it's still there, and no, Army of Shadows isn't in stock (though there is prime shipping, yes). The fact these and the Eclipse all appeared at once really does seem incredibly suspicious to me but there's so little precedent for anything coming back into print without a upgrade that it's hard to tell if there's actually anything to expect.

[lefeufollet]

There seem to be no listings at all on Amazon for Criterion's "The Third Man" on Blu-Ray. No back-orders, no third-parties, no "currently not available". I'd be interetsed to find out whether anyone was actually able to snag one for $39.95.

On the other hand, they do have in-stock new copies of "Army of Shadows" for $39.95 on Amazon Prime.

That's down to Amazon's weird listings: you have to click into the alternate options under Blu-ray, then click into "The Criterion Collection".

Alternately, you can simply search the phrase "The Third Man (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]".

[Minkin]

I do wonder what's going on with The Third Man or Studio Canal. It could all just be an elaborate experiment by either Criterion or Studio Canal to show what the market is for Criterion vs Lionsgate.

To highlight that point, the out of stock Third Man bluray is currently within the top 100 best selling movies on Amazon right now! If this does turn out to be a mistake on Amazon's part, they are sure taking their sweet time correcting it (and will have a lot of upset customers if it gets canceled). That said, it also seems odd that other Studio Canal titles are also being shown as potentially coming back soon (and it seems like these are the ones that wouldn't otherwise be upgraded in some way, thus if they were to come back into print, they'd just start selling them again, rather than wait for an upgrade, etc).

Oh well, guess we will wait and see what happens.

[Ribs]

I cancelled my order; if anything comes of this, it'll almost definitely be way cheaper elsewhere but Amazon.

I really have no idea how it'd be announced, though; is there any precedent in the DVD era of a Criterion coming back into print without upgrades being announced? I'm pretty sure it hasn't occurred in the BD era at the least.

[cdnchris]

Port of Shadows, Le corbeau, and a couple of other Studio Canal titles went out of print a while before every title went out of print, but then went back into print a year or so later, only to of course go out of print again a short time later)

The same with their first Hulot films: M. Hulot's Holiday, Mon oncle, and Playtime all went out of print back in 2003/2004. They then released the 2-disc Playtime and brought the other two back in print without an upgrade at the same time.

[Minkin]

To add further fuel to this speculation, krnash has the following to report about Tales of Hoffman:

I attended a screening of this in LA last weekend which was followed by a Skype Q&A with Thelma Schoonmaker. She spoke about working closely with Criterion for this new restoration multiple times. It didn't occur to me until I read your post that this went out of print with the other Studio Canal films way back when.

So according to Thelma, this will indeed be released by Criterion on blu, which is fabulous news on its own, but could be support for even bigger news- the recent Studio Canal rights battle going in Criterion's favor.

Something must clearly be up between Studio Canal and Criterion. (sorry to cross-post this).

To review / freshen people's memories (and start talk of which titles people are most hoping for returning / being upgraded), here are the OOP Studio Canal titles that Criterion released:

Alphaville
Army of Shadows (DVD + Blu)
Billy Liar
Bob le Flambeur
Carlos Saura's Flamenco Trilogy Eclipse
Le cercle rouge (DVD + Blu)
Chungking Express (DVD + Blu)
Contempt
Le corbeau
Coup de torchon
Diary of a Chambermaid
Diary of a Country Priest
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Le doulos
The Fallen Idol
Forbidden Games
Gervaise (Essential Art House)
Grand Illusion
Le jour se lève (Essential Art House)
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Last Holiday (Essential Art House)
Last Year at Marienbad (DVD + Blu)
Leon Morin, Priest (DVD + Blu)
Mafioso
The Man Who Fell to Earth (DVD + Blu)
Mayerling (Essential Art House)
The Milky Way
Murderous Maids (Rialto set)
Nights of Cabiria
The Orphic Trilogy (except Orpheus)
Peeping Tom
The Phantom of Liberty
Pierrot le fou (DVD + Blu)
Port of Shadows
Quai des Orfevres
Ran
The Small Back Room
The Tales of Hoffmann
That Obscure Object of Desire
The Third Man (DVD + Blu)
Touchez pas au grisbi
Le Trou
Variety Lights
The White Sheik
A Woman is a Woman

[Askew]

The Studio Canal film I liked to see upgraded the most is Nights of Cabiria. I don't think Chungking Express going out of print had anything to do with Studio Canal.

[ordinaryperson]

I'd love to see "Forbidden Games", "Grand Illusion", and the Orphic Trilogy (or more specifically "The Blood of a Poet") come back. Hell, I wonder what new films could come out of this.

[What A Disgrace]

A big ol' BBS style Ealing box would be amazing.

But not as amazing as like, two or three boxes.

[MongooseCmr]

I'd die for a new Ran restoration. Was the Studiocanal version the same as the one Criterion planned to release

[Drucker]

Isn't it much more likely that in exchange for assistance in helping to fund this new restoration, Criterion were granted North American BD/DVD rights? Like the Tati films, another one-off?