Criterion and StudioCanal

[Brian C]

Possible that I’m forgetting something, but I don’t remember any “false flags” that seemed at all credible. At any rate, it would be weird for SC to post something specifically about Criterion if it was just Filmstruck stuff.

But, we shall see. All I know is, I am preparing to be OUTRAGED if Friday’s announcements don’t include reissues of every single OOP SC title.

[Ribs]

No, they were never credible, but they were false flags and whispers of certain titles coming back (some, like Playtime and Mulholland Drive, did, for a variety of reasons). Curious if this could just be for one title or set of titles rather than a whole new licensing agreement for the library and has been arranged by an estate or filmmaker (the obvious candidate being Tales of Hoffman, though I'm sure there's others).

[FrauBlucher]

I'm not sure why SC would be strictly interested in FilmStruck and not what Criterion can do for them in terms of physical media. Clearly their deal with Lionsgate was poorly orchestrated and fruitless. I think it's a strong possibility that a new deal will be struck, if it hasn't already. The usually tight lipped Criterion has made no bones about wanting to get those titles back.

[fdm]

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

For sure, but there's quite a bit that hasn't been just yet, if what I've seen (or missed seeing) on filmstruck is any indication. Would be nice to see some of that get disc-ed, rather than just the same old stuff getting another reissue.

[Omensetter]

I think it's a strong possibility that a new deal will be struck, if it hasn't already. The usually tight lipped Criterion has made no bones about wanting to get those titles back.

...and then you factor them bringing back in multiple OOP copies over the last year or so. They want their catalogue as in-print as possible, especially since it includes their first spine number, no less than Grand Illusion. I wouldn't be surprised if this becomes a main narrative of their 2019 slate.

Nice find, dwk. Or whoever found it.

[Minkin]

Possible that I’m forgetting something, but I don’t remember any “false flags” that seemed at all credible. At any rate, it would be weird for SC to post something specifically about Criterion if it was just Filmstruck stuff.

It seems that Criterion enjoys teasing us with the possibility of Studio Canal films coming back....

There was that picture of someone working on the Grand Illusion cover - which turned out to be for the Criterion Designs book.
Then there was when some Studio Canal titles were teased / showed up on Filmstruck with Criterion branding / entire Criterion edition.

This appears to be a very big positive step if somebody from Studio Canal met with Criterion. I seriously doubt any party is happy with the current Lionsgate deal - as they haven't come out with any catalog titles since they shamelessly cashed in on Bowie's death.

But I'll believe it when I have the disc in hand. Since she already called Blood Simple + Mulholland Drive "Studio Canal titles" (despite being Janus owned in the US) - perhaps this could just end up being for more of these different territory rights films - but I'd love to be wrong.

There are 38 OOP mainline titles (44 total -includes 1 Eclipse + 4 EAH + 1 Rialto box film) from Criterion due to Studio Canal - which makes up 70% of their OOP mainline.

[FrauBlucher]

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!

Not sure why folks may be skeptical. The "And many more soon!" pretty much tells me what's going to be.

(Muholland Drive and Blood Simple were the posters on the wall)

[JSC]

I sincerely hope that La Strada and Nights of Cabiria will
reenter the collection in the not to distant future.

[jwd5275]

I am very hopeful about this too, however since the post is only referring to titles like Mulholland Drive and Blood Simple which StudioCanal has rights to in France (the likely intended audience of the post) but not the US, the many more StudioCanal titles coming soon may have nothing to do with those 44 oop titles (or anything else StudioCanal has rights to in the US).

[FrauBlucher]

Not sure if Criterion is that well known to her largely French audience. But once she hastags Criterion that instagram post takes on an international/American aspect. Plus, one of her followers mentioned Mulholland Drive first.

I don’t see how they are making a deal for films not yet in the collection but the oop are off limits.

Can anyone in the biz answer this. Can StudioCanal end their deal with Lionsgate (which felt like was renewed not too long ago) prematurely?

[swo17]

10 bucks says all they did was buy a whole lot more posters to put up on the walls

[FrauBlucher]

Ah, dressing up for the guests. Nice approach.

[KJones77]

Apparently Kino Lorber just agreed to license 130 titles from StudioCanal. According to them, two other labels made smaller deals as well.

No indication it's Criterion, but it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility...

[FrauBlucher]

I can also see one of the other labels being the U.S. arm of Arrow/Academy

[domino harvey]

Jesus, maybe one of them will finally release those 60s Deville films and non-French speakers can finally discover this overlooked key Nouvelle Vague filmmaker

[Big Ben]

Maybe they'll put out a new version of The Man Who Fell to Earth? The cash grab that Canal put out after Bowie's death somehow looked worse than the Criterion Blu-Ray despite, if I'm remembering correctly, a 4K scan of the negative.

Jesus, maybe one of them will finally release those 60s Deville films and non-French speakers can finally discover this overlooked key Nouvelle Vague filmmaker

I would like this very much!

[yoloswegmaster]

Hopefully this means that Criterion got the rights back for 'Ran'. It's a shame that StudioCanal haven't released the new 4K transfer of it in Region A since it looks so gorgeous.

[domino harvey]

Bizarre news from Kino Insider:

The North American rights for Une Femme est une femme and Diary of a Chambermaid are not with SC.

[nitin]

Possibly because they have already reverted back to Criterion (KLI mentioned SC deals with two other labels, and that mainstream horror and foreign Arthouse would be coming from them, so presumably Shout and Criterion).

[knives]

That wouldn't make sense as Crit are not the original rights holder.

[jwd5275]

Besides Ran and Tales of Hoffman, which of the oop StudioCanal titles have had recent restorations and would be ripe for reissue?

[DRW.mov]

Any/All of the OOP Buñuel titles that StudioCanal dumped into a boxset together in Europe.

[dwk]

Léon Morin, prêtre
Le Corbeau

[nitin]

The Bunuel titles released in the UK were not restored (except Belle De Jour but like The Man Who Fell to Earth, the newer restoration looks worse than the previous release IMHO). Would be great though if Criterion could restor some of the Bunuels themselves though.

[movielocke]

Besides Ran and Tales of Hoffman, which of the oop StudioCanal titles have had recent restorations and would be ripe for reissue?

Since there has been a lot of new harvests of most of these films, it’s not really the limiting factor, labor is. in other words which producer does these films, they can only do so many and would be juggling studio canal reissues with their existing slate. And producers will of course be assigned their regular directors or titles they did before. if there’s a lot of overlap, say if the same producer does all the Godard and all the Melville then those ones overall will trickle back into print at a slower rate.

So it’d be a bit of research to figure out which producer has which films.

Then we can figure we will get about one of each producer’s SC titles every six months as producers generally have about two-three month gaps between releases and will still be responsible for their regular slate of releases.

But since there are six or seven producers, once they start releasing SC titles we can probably expect an initial wave of four titles (ran, third man, Pierrot, and grand illusion), and then a couple month gap with no releases, then probably a steady drip drip drip of one SC release a month for a while.