Cohen Film Collection

[knives]

I see that they have the rights to a BFI restoration of Nurse Edith Cavell. Has there been any word of a release either via streaming or home video?

[Fred Holywell]

That may be the most piss-colored resto I’ve seen yet

Unfortunately, Pandora and The Flying Dutchman may give it a run for its money...


Old Kino

New Cohen

[HinkyDinkyTruesmith]

I've been getting angrier and angrier about the teal/yellow biases that recent transfers have been getting with each passing day. What I would give to watch the video with one of the people working on these, and get some explanation.

[soundchaser]

I thought the Cohen restoration looked fine when I watched it — the first and last sequences are clearly of a different look to the rest of the film, and I assumed they were intentionally stylized.

[HinkyDinkyTruesmith]

It just looks dreadful in screenshot. Perhaps it looks fine––but does it really make sense that these classical filmmakers shot their films with heavy tints? After all, Gordon Willis and Coppola's color timing with The Godfathers was controversial when they were first released. I watched Golden Eighties on the Criterion Channel the other day, and it was made rather ugly with the color timing––there was even a shot that didn't have the teal color timing that looked wonderful. Maddening!

[hearthesilence]

Yeesh, it's like they wanted Ava Gardner to have normal flesh tones in the night scenes (rather than the cold blue look) and applied the same LUT to the entire film.

[swo17]

Times like these make me so glad I never actually watch any of the movies I buy

[FrauBlucher]

KL insider has said that KL will be distributing the Cohen library and upcoming new releases...Here

[whaleallright]

Is Cohen kind of giving up after having invested so much money in theaters, distribution, home video...? Was the downgrading of the Quad the first step?

[skilar]

Was the downgrading of the Quad the first step?

What happened with the Quad? Bad renovation?

[whaleallright]

No, they scaled back their more inventive rep programming (or at least were planning to before the pandemic) seemngly to make room for more typical arthouse fare, around the same time Cohen bought Landmark.

That's after a major renovation and shift in policy that saw them doing some really great programming for a few years. (The renovation itself is kind of ugly to my tastes, but obviously expensive. Some of the individual theaters are so tiny that you can't stand up without moving into the projector beam, but that's just how the space was built.)

[hearthesilence]

No, they scaled back their more inventive rep programming (or at least were planning to before the pandemic) seemngly to make room for more typical arthouse fare, around the same time Cohen bought Landmark.

That's after a major renovation and shift in policy that saw them doing some really great programming for a few years. (The renovation itself is kind of ugly to my tastes, but obviously expensive. Some of the individual theaters are so tiny that you can't stand up without moving into the projector beam, but that's just how the space was built.)

I didn't go enough times to get a clear memory of it, but wasn't the old theater kind of dumpy?

Anyway, there's only so much you can do with inherent flaws in the way the space was built, but aesthetics aside, the Quad at least seemed comfortable and well-maintained prior to the pandemic. The Paul Schrader program tied in with First Reformed was outstanding, partly thanks to Schrader's own tastes, and I was impressed they got Pacino to appear several times at his own retrospective.

Let me add one thing - a while back (this was during the Texasville screening), I had a terrible experience where I saw something (most likely a rat) running several times back and forth across the aisles. There were very few people in the theater, and I got the feeling only one other person saw - he was sitting behind me in the very back row, and I heard him grab his bag off the floor and throw it on the seat next to him. Wound up spending the next 30, maybe 45 minutes with my legs up and feet off the floor. Anyway, I don't think it ever made its way up to the rows we were in, but it's a small theater, so even 1/3 of the way down isn't that far. I told the staff and they said they just had an exterminator come in to do his routine inspections but they were clearly distressed to hear about it. I didn't go back for several months, but eventually I did, and it was a while before I could comfortably keep my eyes glued to the screen instead of checking the floor every five minutes.

[whaleallright]

Rats are part of living in NYC, no? I guess you wouldn't want to get bitten, so having one in a dark theater is a little unnverving, but I'm sort of unfazed even if I see one in a restauarant.

Maybe the Quad should program Muppets Take Manhattan for them.

[hearthesilence]

Rats are part of living in NYC, no? I guess you wouldn't want to get bitten, so having one in a dark theater is a little unnverving, but I'm sort of unfazed even if I see one in a restauarant.

I mean, raccoons, skunks, possums, deers and coyotes were very much a part of living in my hometown, and I generally wasn't fazed by them either, but it's a bit different when you're both inside a room together.

[tenia]

Especially when it's a dark room in which you're supposed to remain quite static.

[HitchcockLang]

I wonder what implications this will have for the remaining Buster Keaton restorations since there was all the awkwardness with the competing restorations, some released by Kino and the others by Cohen.

[dwk]

I assume nothing. All that is happening is Kino is assuming the physical distribution of Cohen's discs (all the work producing extras, encoding, etc, is still done by Cohen) which was previously handled by Sony and Entertainment One.

[HitchcockLang]

So Kino will continue to handle physical distribution for competing editions of Lobster and Cohen restorations of the Keaton films?

[dwk]

I would assume so. Arent the Kino Keaton releases OOP?

[Adam X]

it's a bit different when you're both inside a room together.

Melbourne cinema, The Astor, has long had a resident cat. Makes we wonder if this wasn’t part of the reason in the beginning.

[domino harvey]

Isn't this why everyone loves Bodega Cats even though they're a health issue? Cats > rats

[HitchcockLang]

I would assume so. Arent the Kino Keaton releases OOP?

Not that I'm aware of. The old Kino Keatons are out of print but they only started releasing the Lobster restorations with the Short Films collection in 2016 which appears to be still in print. They also released double features of The General / Three Ages and Steamboat Bill Jr. / College both in 2017 and most recently Our Hospitality a little less than one year ago. These (unlike the older Kino blus of Keaton) are all based on the Lobster restorations which are a bit contentiously running simultaneously with and independently of the Cohen restorations.

[Adam X]

Isn't this why everyone loves Bodega Cats even though they're a health issue? Cats > rats

That's not really a thing in Australia, nor is the name (which I had to look up!). Other than The Astor, I'm pretty sure I've only ever seen cats in second-hand bookstores.

[nitin]

And I can tell you when I first came across that cat at the Astor (decided to curl up on my feet), I did jump!

[FrauBlucher]

I wonder what implications this will have for the remaining Buster Keaton restorations since there was all the awkwardness with the competing restorations, some released by Kino and the others by Cohen.

Here's your answer