Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

[ianungstad]

There's rumors that Lynch has a new film that will premiere at Cannes in a couple of weeks. Considering that he's trying to consolidate his films at Criterion it will be interesting to see who distributes the new film. (if it exists) It's quite possible that it winds up with Criterion's new distribution arm for contemporary films Sideshow.

[swo17]

Kino Lorber Insider said on the other forum either earlier today or yesterday that they did not have Wild at Heart since Lynch "wants all his films with Janus/Criterion".

This sentence is so satisfying on multiple levels

[Elizabeth Corday]

How about La Ceremonie? Or A Taxing Woman? I always thought they would be great picks but I fear they'll never get in.

[therewillbeblus]

Criterion would 100% release La Ceremonie if they had the opportunity

[domino harvey]

Aaaaaactually, back in the day they passed on it like the other two HVe Chabrol titles

[therewillbeblus]

Well that’s it, Criterion is dead to me

[Matt]

I'm pretty sure I've seen the exact question about where to find Criterion sales stats asked on this Forum more than once, though I don't recall any solid answers. Are our personal assumptions about which titles do well for them and which are busts correct? Inquiring minds want to know.

They’re a privately owned company. They don’t publicly release sales figures, and I’m sure most of their own employees don’t even have access to them. People who work in the industry (of whom there are many here) may have some informed estimates, but we’re all just guessing.

[black&huge]

Aaaaaactually, back in the day they passed on it like the other two HVe Chabrol titles

I also seem to remember they initially passed on Certified Copy citing it as "minor Kiarostami" only to shortly thereafter announce it after all. I have no idea if it was actually the fans complaining that finally got it released or if someone associated with the film convinced them. Perhaps Kiarostami himself?

[andyli]

Those were the good old Facebook days when they still had an (inter)active role on social media.

[ryannichols7]

more recently, Alex Cox was quoted a few years back saying they weren't interested in releasing Walker on bluray. lo and behold, it's getting released this month

[criterionsnob]

Claire Denis seems to be posting shots from Chocolat on her Instagram. Perhaps she’s in the grading suite for the Blu-ray at last.

[justeleblanc]

Kino Lorber Insider said on the other forum either earlier today or yesterday that they did not have Wild at Heart since Lynch "wants all his films with Janus/Criterion".

Not to throw cold water on this dream, but didn't Lynch let Arrow release the new 4K restoration of DUNE? Or was that--like the Kino LOST HIGHWAY--something that happened behind Lynch's back, or without Lynch's authorization?

[black&huge]

Lynch doesn't care about or like Dune and probably considers it not in his official oeuvre however he still cares about which version is presented so.... who the hell knows.

[swo17]

The Arrow release is already more or less definitive (other than the couple of ways that the German Koch release betters it)

[Finch]

Lynch more likely than not doesn't care about having Dune in the collection. Its' absence is telling and the European releases make it that much harder for Criterion to give the fans an incentive to buy theirs unless of course Lynch decided to prepare a new cut of the film. I don't think anyone here would fancy the odds of that happening. FWWM would get a Director's Cut ahead of Dune, and Sabrina Sutherland, at one point post-Return, did say on one of her news feeds that David was considering expanding FWWM, but it also seems to me that Lynch feels the theatrical cut should be the final word on a film, and a longer version of FWWM might imply, however unintentionally, that he has not been happy with the theatrical or considers it unfinished business. Nor should he: given the contractual time constraints they were under, Mary Sweeney has done a terrific job cutting the film.

I wonder which of his films would be most likely to get upgraded to 4k if they only had to figure in commercial viability (Wild at Heart and Straight Story have had no 4k restorations (yet)). Straight Story and Inland Empire would surely be non-starters, and Criterion only released Elephant Man on Blu-Ray (although that may have been a stipulation on Studio Canal's part or Criterion didn't think EM would shift enough copies to make the UHD commercially viable). So that leaves LH, BV, FWWM and Eraserhead. We'll find out soon enough what their likely thinking is when the Lost Highway specs are announced. Lost Highway has going for it that before the Kino BD it was unavailable in a halfway acceptable presentation in the US for a long time, and a UHD would be the first chance to see the film on a home video transfer that comes close to accurately reproducing the challenging first half of the film (assuming Pixellogic don't break their streak of solid UHD encodes all of a sudden). They might hold off on FWWM to see if there is a fourth season. If they do Lost Highway, then outside of commercial prospects, they have no excuse not to upgrade Eraserhead too which is even more of a cult film, and also more highly regarded critically. Ditto BV.

[Kracker]

Well, if everyone remembers its been clarified that Lynch disowned Dune, hence why its with Arrow. So when Lynch says he "wants all his films with Janus/Criterion", he doesn't mean Dune since he doesn't consider Dune one of his films.

[swo17]

the European releases make it that much harder for Criterion to give the fans an incentive to buy theirs

Arrow's release is US/UK

[dwk]

...and Criterion only released Elephant Man on Blu-Ray (although that may have been a stipulation on Studio Canal's part or Criterion didn't think EM would shift enough copies to make the UHD commercially viable).

Elephant Man is Paramount in the US and they haven't licensed UHD rights out to any boutique.

[vsski]

Licensing rights not withstanding, isn’t there also a commercial consideration to be made here, which I see no real mention of? Or is the assumption that any Lynch UHD will be selling like hotcakes (even outside of some fans on this forum) despite excellent or at least good Blu Rays that are already on the market. I would assume that anyone who loves Lynch in the US has already bought the existing Region A Blu Rays at least.

[guyetgenevieve]

With Good Friday falling on the 15th this year, do we think they’ll announce July titles that day or a different day?

[black&huge]

they'll do an april fool's style good friday announcements and announce 6 new format releases for Last Tempation of Christ: superbit dvd, 8k UUHD, VR, NFT, Quibi streaming exclusive and cheese cloth over the camera lens.

[PfR73]

So waiting for announcements will be
[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Harmonov]

Aaaaaactually, back in the day they passed on it like the other two HVe Chabrol titles

I also seem to remember they initially passed on Certified Copy citing it as "minor Kiarostami" only to shortly thereafter announce it after all. I have no idea if it was actually the fans complaining that finally got it released or if someone associated with the film convinced them. Perhaps Kiarostami himself?

I was the person that posted the "minor Kiarostami" bit after a Q&A with Jonathan Sehring from IFC. That was a fun couple of days on this forum. In my question to JS, he also let slip that they were releasing Tiny Furniture, which has been a source of much consternation ever since.

[Peter McM]

they'll do an april fool's style good friday announcements and announce 6 new format releases for Last Tempation of Christ: superbit dvd, 8k UUHD, VR, NFT, Quibi streaming exclusive and cheese cloth over the camera lens.

They need to get back to the Three Reasons montage. Remember the one for Kindergarden Cop? I wanna see ones for Xanadu, Showgirls, and The Pirate Movie.

[MV88]

They need to get back to the Three Reasons montage. Remember the one for Kindergarden Cop? I wanna see ones for Xanadu, Showgirls, and The Pirate Movie.

The thing is I’m pretty sure Showgirls has enough of a following at this point that I don’t even think it would qualify as an April Fool’s joke for Criterion to “announce” it. Arrow’s a more likely label to do it, but that’s a boutique 4K release that would sell very well, I bet.