Criterion and StudioCanal

[CSM126]

My order of the Flamenco trilogy has an expected delivery date range on it (April 30 - May 14), but I'm still not holding my breath.

[Feiereisel]

So, the order I placed for The Third Man still shows no signs of shipping soon, not even an expected date. Thinking this was a fuck-up, and it's time I cancel my order and get my money back (I used a gift card, which was charged immediately). How about everyone else?

I saw that the expected date had vanished, yeah. My order is linked to a standard credit card, so I'm just going to let it ride until Amazon sends me a proper go/no-go email on the off-(off-off-off-off-off-)chance that it does happen to go through.

[DrunkenFatherFigure]

So, the order I placed for The Third Man still shows no signs of shipping soon, not even an expected date. Thinking this was a fuck-up, and it's time I cancel my order and get my money back (I used a gift card, which was charged immediately). How about everyone else?

This may be getting a little off-topic, but I had a similar experience a little over a year ago when Amazon had an out-of-print CD listed as available from them at an inexplicably low price, but "temporarily out of stock." I ordered it using a gift card, and a month or two later I received an email from Amazon saying that it was taking a long time for them to get new stock of it and asked if I wanted to cancel my order. I said no, and the order just sat there for several more months until some poor marketplace seller decided to undercut Amazon's price, presumably thinking that they were actually selling it at that rate. At that point I cancelled my order (getting my gift card balance back easily). All in all, my order had been "processing" for a good six months, and there was no indication that anything was going to happen with it any time soon. In this case, it was definitely a mistake on Amazon's part of thinking they could somehow get new stock. If these Criterions are a similar mistake, I imagine that these orders will play out the same way.

[pzadvance]

Just got this email:

Due to a lack of availability, we will not be able to obtain the following item(s) from your order:

"The Third Man (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]"

We've canceled the item(s) and apologize for the inconvenience. If you see a charge for the canceled item, we will refund you within 1-2 business days.

Some things are too good to be true...

[solaris72]

Same here, order canceled by Amazon.

[Charles]

Yep.

Gotta wonder how many orders there were.

But also...and mainly... WTF happened in the first place?

[danieltiger]

That's super interesting because I ordered the Carlos Saura set and didn't get a cancellation. Instead I got "We're sorry to inform you that there is a delay in shipping your order. The new delivery date is indicated below. If you still want to receive this item, please let us know. We apologize for the delay."

With a shipping date of: "Not yet available. We'll e-mail you as soon as we have a delivery date."

And an option to continue or cancel. I'll continue and see what happens.

[zebpike]

The bizarreness continues.... I received a similar email, but neither my Third Man blu nor the Carlos Saura set were canceled, instead I was given the choice to continue: "Still want it? We'll keep on trying." Of course I said 'go ahead' - at this point I'm positive it was a mistake on their part, and they're hoping people will just accept their apology and cancel the order, but as long as they're giving me the option to hold out for a mysterious appearance of either...

[danieltiger]

I believe it was a mistake, but the thing is they're still claiming it, at least for the Carlos Saura set. If you search for it, it's still supposedly temporarily out of stock. They really need to update that.

[hearthesilence]

This is old, but here's the HD trailer for the 4k restoration's theatrical re-release. The color timing from the new BD is there as well - I think the unfortunate yellow and teal palette is the work of a revisionist colorist trying to "modernize" the film.

[Drucker]

Interestingly, the trailer that was shown in theaters ahead of the re-release was definitely sourced from an older master. It strongly resembled the Criterion colors and looked very, very weak. I saw it shown a few times at Film Forum before the theatrical run.

[hearthesilence]

Huh, very strange.

FWIW, here's some info from Rialto's press release and to be fair, the grading was approved by one of the DP's (there were three). BUT, again, always tough with a film that's decades old (some DP's aren't going to remember what they did on a film thirty years ago, especially when they've done so many others in the interim - see Do the Right Thing), there may be the intention to change the original look (see director William Friedkin and the old French Connection BD), and even if they did try to preserve the original, one never knows if they looked at the original IP and judged a new print based off of that.

Ran has been restored in 4K by the French laboratory Éclair, under Studiocanal’s supervision. Based on an original negative, the majority of the restoration work was done manually image by image. Color grading was approved by Masaharu Ueda, one of Ran’s three cinematographers and a close associate of Kurosawa’s. The 4K restoration premiered at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and was also screened at the 2015 New York Film Festival.

[FrauBlucher]

Dust it off, the Lionsgate/StudioCanal deal is alive and well...The Man Who Fell To Earth.

[mfunk9786]

It's almost as if they want to "cash in" on something, but I can't quite put my finger on it.........................

[domino harvey]

Excuse you but Buck Henry Fever has been alive and well for decades now

[cdnchris]

When I was younger if I saw Buck Henry in something I would actually put in the effort to watch it. I'm pretty sure that's why I first saw The Man Who Fell to Earth actually (and I was perplexed by it to say the least).

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

For anyone waivering on whether Criterion will revisit Le Corbeau, Studio Canal have surprisingly added english subs to their recent restoration blu

[dwk]

Juliette Hochart from StudioCanal was at Criterion's office and posted this on instagram

juliette_hochart: The best of #studiocanalcatalogue at the cinephilie temple #criterion

margauxinlondon: Mulholland Drive! Of course

juliette_hochart: ... and Blood Simple. And many more soon!

[Brian C]

There’s been a ton of wishful thinking about the SC titles coming back, but that’s the first genuine sign I’ve seen that it might actually happen.

[yoloswegmaster]

I wonder what some films could be licensed. Is there a list of StudioCanal titles that could be possibilities?

[jedgeco]

I just bought the Bunuel and Melville boxes, so a Criterion/SC reunion wouldn't surprise me...

[fdm]

They're been all over filmstruck. Would be nice to see some of those make it to disc, or at least get English-friendly(er) releases. (And I'm pretty sure I barely touched the surface of what all is/was available there.)

[FrauBlucher]

This is indeed exciting. Unfortunately, as with an already full slate of titles from various studios and directors the SC rollout may be slow and painful. Anyway, if true, I could see Ran being numero uno.

[domino harvey]

They're been all over filmstruck. Would be nice to see some of those make it to disc, or at least get English-friendly(er) releases. (And I'm pretty sure I barely touched the surface of what all is/was available there.)

StudioCanal's been releasing a ton of stuff in English-friendly Blu-ray releases in the UK

[Ribs]

I guess it *is* possible it's just for FilmStruck stuff, which would seem about right considering how many false flags we've seemingly gotten about the StudioCanal titles coming back into play. Curious what the approach would be: would be kind of fun to have The Third Man and feel a bit like a justice corrected to be one of the first UHD titles (I don't think this will happen, though considering it's likely for any NEW agreements being reached/signed titles won't appear for over a year it seems somewhat feasible)...