Quarantined Monthly Guessing Thread

[therewillbeblus]

Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs (maybe about time to be looking for this?)

The Wes Andersons have seen increasingly extended delays over time, often attributed to his busy schedule, and he just made two films back to back so I'm not expecting Isle of Dogs anytime soon

[ryannichols7]

Anderson used to have fairly quick turnarounds with these but he's taken a lot longer the last couple. I wonder now too about whether he's going to go back and upgrade the older titles to UHDs, something I'm sure will happen at some point. so that'll keep the rollout longer I'm sure, unless he's one of those weird directors that doesn't grasp HDR (like PTA and supposedly the Coens)

[Therewolf]

Winchester ‘73
Ikarie XB-1
Tepepa
The Harder They Fall (‘56)
Body Double (UHD)
The Fury (UHD)
Trouble in Paradise (upgrade)

[rrenault]

I’m gonna exclude Cure from my guesses simply because I’ve guessed it so many times in the past that of course it’s going to be announced the one time I don’t guess it (and yes, I know they typically release a horror film in October, so it makes all the sense in the world that it will finally be announced this time, I just don’t want to jinx it).

Having said that:

Videodrome (4K upgrade)
Ugetsu (4K upgrade)
Dog Day Afternoon
The Wind Will Carry Us
Early Pasolini box set (all or most of his films pre-Teorema)

Speaking of Ugetsu, I'm still curious to see how Criterion handles pre-1970 "foreign" cinema on UHD. Will they deep dive into the format beyond the initial crop of "legacy Janus" titles, which consists of the most popular Bergman, Fellini, and Kurosawa films, along with perhaps The 400 Blows, Breathless, and Bicycle Thieves? Even L'Avventura is a substantial tier below these in terms of popularity.

[Pavel]

I'll go along with Night of the Living Dead 4K
Also:
Cure
Medicine for Melancholy
Lone Star
Mudbound
Tales of the Four Seasons set

[justeleblanc]

Trouble in Paradise 4K
Night of the Living Dead 4K
Contempt 4K
Shoplifters
The World
Year of 13 Moons

[Clarence]

• Cure UHD
• Night of the Living Dead UHD
• Hour of the Wolf
• The Housemaid
• Chocolat

[Roscoe]

Looks like the announcement will be on Monday, July 18.

[ryannichols7]

Trouble in Paradise 4K
Night of the Living Dead 4K
Contempt 4K
Shoplifters
The World
Year of 13 Moons

this would be close to a dream slate, but..

studiocanal I don't believe has restored Contempt yet, magnolia has still never licensed out to a boutique label but shoplifters would be a good place to start, and Jia Zhangke is still kinda trapped in China at the moment so I doubt any of his movies will get releases soon. but all three I think about a lot!

Trouble in Paradise would be an awesome 4K, wonder how the restoration looks

[FrauBlucher]

Looks like the announcement will be on Monday, July 18.

With Lost Highway all but confirmed it looks like a good start to the October slate

[therewillbeblus]

Looks like the announcement will be on Monday, July 18.

The entire team is obviously on Phish tour and understandably wants to get to the lot scene early tonight

[domino harvey]

No, it’s Pitchfork this weekend, I guarantee you half the staff at minimum is out

[ryannichols7]

you guys think the staff is really hitting up Great Woods (that traffic!) or Union Park? what's going on in NYC this weekend?

to stay on topic, I do wish the hint had been anything other than Lost Highway, which is currently playing at two of my local theatres courtesy of Janus, we all knew it was coming - though interesting that it likely is before Inland Empire (I doubt both will be the same month, but who knows)

[FrauBlucher]

It does surprise me how quick the turnaround from the Kino release.

[therewillbeblus]

you guys think the staff is really hitting up Great Woods (that traffic!) or Union Park? what's going on in NYC this weekend?

Don't underestimate the phanbase - people I haven't heard from in years are reaching out who traveled from across the country for tour (hardly an anomaly), but yeah, domino's probably right

[FrauBlucher]

Trouble in Paradise 4K
Night of the Living Dead 4K
Contempt 4K
Shoplifters
The World
Year of 13 Moons

this would be close to a dream slate, but..

studiocanal I don't believe has restored Contempt yet, magnolia has still never licensed out to a boutique label but shoplifters would be a good place to start, and Jia Zhangke is still kinda trapped in China at the moment so I doubt any of his movies will get releases soon. but all three I think about a lot!

Trouble in Paradise would be an awesome 4K, wonder how the restoration looks

So, anyone want to guess how UHD and those rights would affect something like Shoplifter with Magnolia

[justeleblanc]

It does surprise me how quick the turnaround from the Kino release.

If I recall correctly, Universal owned the rights, which were set to expire (and revert back to Lynch) sometime around 2020/2021. And though Universal released it on DVD, they never released it on Blu, as Lynch was waiting for the rights to expire so he could release it *his way* through Criterion, and Universal wasn't interested in releasing a Blu without Lynch's involvement (or they just didn't think it would sell). But KL picked it up in a bulk license from Universal, and decided to run with it anyway, despite not noticing (until it was too late) that Lynch's contract with Universe prevented KL from doing anything fun with it special-features-wise.

And now the rights reverted back to Lynch, who then sent it off to Criterion. And I'm guessing that Lynch's anger at KL for releasing the film without his approval is likely the reason why he wanted Criterion to release it quickly. He wanted to eclipse any more sales of the KL disc as fast as possible. Or at least that's my long-winded theory. I also wouldn't be surprised if both Lost Highway and Inland Empire get released in October at this point. A Lynchtober. Maybe followed by a Houvember and a Kiarostami Christmas. One can dream.

[MV88]

A Lynchtober. Maybe followed by a Houvember and a Kiarostami Christmas. One can dream.

Just curious if the inclusion of Hou here is based on anything you’ve heard or pure wishful thinking. I know the two Lynch films are confirmed to be coming as well as more Kiarostami (which most people seem to think will be a box set of some sort), but I haven’t heard anything about more Hou Hsiao-hsien being in the works. His Taiwan Trilogy is near the top of my personal dream releases for Criterion to do, so any indication that it might actually be forthcoming would be enormously exciting.

I saw that someone up the thread included Millennium Mambo in their guesses, so I’m just wondering if this is based on anything Criterion has hinted at or if it’s just that other people are hoping for more Hou as well.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

There's a recent 4K restoration of Millennium Mambo that's getting a UHD release in France and Palm no longer has the U.S. rights. Someone else could grab it, but I have to imagine Janus/Criterion would be the likeliest bet.

[dwk]

So, anyone want to guess how UHD and those rights would affect something like Shoplifter with Magnolia

Generally, when picking up US rights to a title like that, all home video, digital, streaming & television rights are included. So it is safe to assume that Magnolia has all those rights.

[rrenault]

studiocanal I don't believe has restored Contempt yet

Now there's a film that got the short end of the stick in the 1080p era if there was one. At least Ran eventually got a decent 1080p blu-ray. But yes, I don't think it has a 4K master yet. It's been "rereleased" as a "new restoration" more than once throughout the 2010s in France, but it was always clear as day to me the master was never actually updated.

[ryannichols7]

So, anyone want to guess how UHD and those rights would affect something like Shoplifter with Magnolia

it's a good question, since Magnolia did not actually produce the film and then theoretically only hold theatrical/potential home video rights, but who knows how long that contract is for. Melancholia is probably their biggest holding (and is an 11 year old film with an in-print Bluray), but we haven't seen Criterion work with Von Trier for awhile now. I think the biggest indicator in terms to see what's up with Magnolia is going to be Arrow's upcoming Lukas Moodysson boxset - there's no way We Are the Best! would be excluded from that, and that's a Magnolia holding in the US. if Arrow is able to license from Magnolia and release that box in the US, I think the floodgates could potentially be open, but I remain cautious that'll happen.

Criterion and Kore-eda have a pretty good relationship, he was quite involved with the After Life disc so I could see him wanting to work with him a third (and more!) time. I do tend to think we'll see Nobody Knows get a release first, but Shoplifters should for sure be a priority since it was so unceremoniously dumped on DVD and streaming here.

A Lynchtober. Maybe followed by a Houvember and a Kiarostami Christmas. One can dream.

Just curious if the inclusion of Hou here is based on anything you’ve heard or pure wishful thinking. I know the two Lynch films are confirmed to be coming as well as more Kiarostami (which most people seem to think will be a box set of some sort), but I haven’t heard anything about more Hou Hsiao-hsien being in the works. His Taiwan Trilogy is near the top of my personal dream releases for Criterion to do, so any indication that it might actually be forthcoming would be enormously exciting.

I saw that someone up the thread included Millennium Mambo in their guesses, so I’m just wondering if this is based on anything Criterion has hinted at or if it’s just that other people are hoping for more Hou as well.

There's a recent 4K restoration of Millennium Mambo that's getting a UHD release in France and Palm no longer has the U.S. rights. Someone else could grab it, but I have to imagine Janus/Criterion would be the likeliest bet.

precisely this. Hou has another good relationship with Criterion - not only was he involved with Flowers of Shanghai, but he also appeared on the Taipei Story disc too. I'd be really surprised if another label picked it up. the Taiwan Trilogy (which films do this even constitute? since i'm unsure, my comments will reflect A City of Sadness and The Puppetmaster since those are the two I know for sure), as stated on here previously, is going to be in rights hell for awhile like the John Woo films, because it's basically all but confirmed the films were funded with Triad money. in fairness, A Brighter Summer Day likely was too, and that finally saw the light of day, so hold out hope but don't hold your breath. Mambo is my favorite Hou film and it's one I think would be really popular with modern audiences, so I would be surprised if we didn't see it sooner rather than later, I just hope we don't have to wait too long to see A Summer at Grandpa's, A Time to Live, A Time to Die, and Dust in the Wind, which I'm surprised Eureka didn't do in the UK at the least! these got released in France too.

I was the one who guessed Millennium Mambo and I stand by it, I just hope Criterion answers the call and releases it in 4K like Spectrum Films is doing in France, though admittedly they haven't provided any updates on that recently..

studiocanal I don't believe has restored Contempt yet

Now there's a film that got the short end of the stick in the 1080p era if there was one. At least Ran eventually got a decent 1080p blu-ray. But yes, I don't think it has a 4K master yet. It's been "rereleased" as a "new restoration" more than once throughout the 2010s in France, but it was always clear as day to me the master was never actually updated.

no kidding, especially as one of Godard's most popular films too (the high placing on this forum's 1963 list today only proves it - it's my favorite of his films) with some of the most starpower and (inarguably) the best cinematography. I think we'd know if it had an actual new restoration, it would certainly play Cannes and all that. I'm guessing we'll wait till 2023 for it, which in fairness is an anniversary year for the film. I'd say it's a good bet.

the nice thing with Canal is we can kinda get an idea of when titles will come from them, you either have titles with existing 4K restorations (The Tales of Hoffmann and Le Corbeau) that they did in house, that someone else did (Nights of Cabiria, which I do hope they release on 4K), or titles that are forthcoming and thankfully already announced so we have an idea (The Trial is almost certainly going to be a Criterion, and I saw murmurs about a Peeping Tom restoration being announced). compared to the US studios where it's a complete and total grab bag as to what we're going to get.

[rrenault]

One question I have about Canal is what would be the protocol with films they've restored in 4K themselves, such as Breathless and Belle de Jour(4K master but only released on standard blu-ray), but that they don't own the rights to in North America?

[ryannichols7]

One question I have about Canal is what would be the protocol with films they've restored in 4K themselves, such as Breathless and Belle de Jour(4K master but only released on standard blu-ray), but that they don't own the rights to in North America?

hopefully someone answers this with actual facts but my speculation is that we would see a Mulholland Drive scenario where Criterion licenses the movie from Canal instead of the previous rightsholder, or we see them still license say, Belle de Jour (and I'd really love a 4K of this) from MK2, but then license the new restoration from Canal

we may see a similar scenario upcoming where Criterion inevitably licenses Arrow's new restoration of Videodrome but still licenses the rights to the film itself from Universal, who as far as I know still hold the film stateside

[justeleblanc]

A Lynchtober. Maybe followed by a Houvember and a Kiarostami Christmas. One can dream.

Just curious if the inclusion of Hou here is based on anything you’ve heard or pure wishful thinking. I know the two Lynch films are confirmed to be coming as well as more Kiarostami (which most people seem to think will be a box set of some sort), but I haven’t heard anything about more Hou Hsiao-hsien being in the works. His Taiwan Trilogy is near the top of my personal dream releases for Criterion to do, so any indication that it might actually be forthcoming would be enormously exciting.

I saw that someone up the thread included Millennium Mambo in their guesses, so I’m just wondering if this is based on anything Criterion has hinted at or if it’s just that other people are hoping for more Hou as well.

I was mainly thinking Boys from Fengkuei, as that was recently restored by the World Cinema Project, and Millennium Mambo, as that one was also recently given a 4K release. But otherwise it was just wishful thinking that we'd get a box, say, of Hou's childhood trilogy or a box of his early rom coms, all of which have been restored I believe.