Steven Soderbergh

[RSTooley]

Happy to hear in the same interview that the box set of all of his films that he owns the rights to will be coming to his website by June.

I'm also thrilled to see this, but part of me wonders what is going on with the rights of Che. If the rights reverted back to Soderbergh, I would have loved to see Che in the box set. Unfortunately, it sounds like the sets are already printed and ready for distribution.

[therewillbeblus]

The Christophers intentionally begins as kind of a curio, only to gradually develop into a very sweet movie. Solomon and Soderbergh tweak a familiar formula (here: eccentric aging artist bonds with struggling youth who has complex relationship to him) into something that feels fresh and novel. Subtle turns occur that don't necessarily go to expectedly dramatic places - there's a spontaneous hug that occurs late in the film, and I love how the hugger's response is sourced in such complex emotion that they don't even know quite why they took that action. In the clichéd version, it wouldn't play as it does, and neither would many scenes - though there are some on-the-nose moments, particularly a few of Corden's jokes (a sly joke of casting itself, since the type of person he plays couldn't be 'performed' by anyone else so believably). McKellen and Coel both deliver outstanding performances worthy of Oscar noms. It's primarily a twofer, but rarely feels theatrical and uses the medium to its advantage. Like all Soderbergh, recommended. Random thought: on WTF with Maron, Soderbergh talked about the difference between a "film" and a "movie," and said that the last "film" he made was Che. I wonder if he would consider this to be his first "film" in a while, or if that's purely because it's not a genre exercise.

[BoltzmannBrain]

Happy to hear in the same interview that the box set of all of his films that he owns the rights to will be coming to his website by June.

I'm also thrilled to see this, but part of me wonders what is going on with the rights of Che. If the rights reverted back to Soderbergh, I would have loved to see Che in the box set. Unfortunately, it sounds like the sets are already printed and ready for distribution.

Is there something wrong with the Criterion release?

It's going to be a UHD box set and Che was shot in HD as far as I recall, so a UHD would be an upscale and there would be no improvement in picture quality, no point in doing it. I believe Che was his first digitally shot movie and he got the brand new cameras just before filming started, it was unclear if they would be delivered in time.

I'm not excited about the box set because I bet that it will cost a fortune and only George Clooney can afford to buy one.

[lazarus]

Is there something wrong with the Criterion release?

It's going to be a UHD box set and Che was shot in HD as far as I recall, so a UHD would be an upscale and there would be no improvement in picture quality, no point in doing it. I believe Che was his first digitally shot movie and he got the brand new cameras just before filming started, it was unclear if they would be delivered in time.

I'm not excited about the box set because I bet that it will cost a fortune and only George Clooney can afford to buy one.

I almost made the same reply before checking the Criterion site and yep, Che is out of print. But that doesn't mean Soderbergh has the rights to it?

I really would just like to purchase the alternate version of Kafka separately instead of getting the whole box.

[Lowry_Sam]

I really would just like to purchase the alternate version of Kafka separately instead of getting the whole box.

Kafka has been my most wanted Sonderbergh release for a long time now. So there are 2 versions? Is this a director's vs studio's cut thing? If there are 2 versions, it would be nice to get an Arrow Limited Edition UHD set as there more likely to give it the full treatment rather than Criterion.

[jazzo]

There are two versions of Kafka coming; the original theatrical and his fully reworked (recut, new effects, I believe shorter) Mr. Knepf. It played at a semi-secret TIFF screening I think three years ago. I could not get tickets, but my friend did, and he loved it.

The set, from what I understand, is supposed to be made up of smaller films in his filmography that he has been able to acquire ownership of.

Kafka
Bubble
Full Frontal
Girlfriend Experience
Schizopolis (I think)
Gray’s Anatomy / Everything is Going Fine (again, I think)

I don’t recall Che ever being included, but I could be wrong or that could have changed since the original announcement, what, a decade ago?

[BoltzmannBrain]

I almost made the same reply before checking the Criterion site and yep, Che is out of print. But that doesn't mean Soderbergh has the rights to it?

I really would just like to purchase the alternate version of Kafka separately instead of getting the whole box.

Kafka has been my most wanted Sonderbergh release for a long time now. So there are 2 versions? Is this a director's vs studio's cut thing? If there are 2 versions, it would be nice to get an Arrow Limited Edition UHD set as there more likely to give it the full treatment rather than Criterion.

I suspect that Soderbergh offered all of these films to Criterion and when Criterion turned them down, he made the decision to self-release a box set. He must have had better things to do than spending a decade producing a home video release if Criterion was willing to take up on the project.

I hope that once the limited UHD set has sold out, he would offer the films to another boutique label such as Arrow, Radiance or Indicator, and one of these labels would release them on Blu-ray and keep the titles in print for good. In fact a few years ago I sent an email to Glenn Kenny and asked if he could talk about this with Soderbergh and Fran Simeoni, since he knows them both, but although Mr. Kenny sent me a nice reply, he didn't promise to do it. Oh well, I still wish that we could get stand-alone Blu-ray releases of Kafka, Schizopolis and Full Frontal, if not all of the films. And if no label wants any of the non-Criterion titles, then SS should at least give the rights of Schizopolis back to CC so they can put it out on Blu.

[dwk]

I doubt that Criterion would have turned these down, especially since they already released three of them.

[Mark L.]

My understanding is he was such an exacting nightmare on the technical aspects of Sex, Lies, and Videotape that Criterion is unofficially out of the Soderbergh business. Admittedly this is all hearsay and conjecture, but can’t come up with another compelling reason for why he’d go through the trouble of doing it all on his own if he didn’t have to.

[BoltzmannBrain]

I doubt that Criterion would have turned these down, especially since they already released three of them.

He's producing and releasing this box set on his own just for fun, though Criterion was willing to put out all of these films in 4K UHD?

[dwk]

He's producing and releasing this box set on his own just for fun, though Criterion was willing to put out all of these films in 4K UHD?

You'd have to ask him, but Criterion likes to keep their releases in print, so I am not going to assume that they rejected these unless I hear otherwise.

[GaryC]

It's going to be a UHD box set and Che was shot in HD as far as I recall, so a UHD would be an upscale and there would be no improvement in picture quality, no point in doing it. I believe Che was his first digitally shot movie and he got the brand new cameras just before filming started, it was unclear if they would be delivered in time.

Che was one of the first films shot on the Red One, which captured at 4K resolution. If the IMDB is to be believed, it was finished via a 4K digital intermediate. It wasn't Soderbergh's first digital film - Full Frontal and Bubble (I've not seen the latter) were digitally captured but as far as I know at no higher a resolution than 1080p.