Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

[hearthesilence]

FWIW, re: Sandler upthread, on last year's Film Comment roundtable discussion for the NYFF - with Clinton Krute, Molly Haskell, J. Hoberman and Beatrice Loayza - the consensus was that Sandler was much more interesting than George Clooney, though given what they discussed, that argument was based on more ambitious fare by Baumbach, the Safdie brothers, Paul Thomas Anderson, etc. and tbf, if you exclude all the broad shit that made Sandler famous, he has a pretty damn impressive filmography.

[hearthesilence]

Re: David Lynch, I get people's frustration, but I also get that Criterion has to do what they can to stay profitable (especially when they've had tough stretches in what's widely understood as a volatile and uncertain business). I'm not sure if a David Lynch box set is actually considered an easy moneymaker - I would assume so, but I also have no idea how many copies they sell of any title so it's not exactly an educated guess. But if it is indeed an easy moneymaker, that's much more preferable than, say, adding more Michael Bay films to the collection.

I should add, this is why I generally skip their enormous, comprehensive box sets. Aside from The Straight Story, the most enticing thing that I don't have may be Lynch's short films, but that's it.

[ftsoh]

Damn! How dare Criterion release something I am not interested in! /s

[Hogfather]

How do we know this isn't just going to be a re-issue of DYNAMIC:01? We already know that Janus has the rights to it.

[James Stock]

I'm wondering if the set would come with Dune or not.

[Mr.DarjeelingLimited]

A Reddit user reached out to Criterion and got a response of confirmation that standalone titles will follow the Kubrick set.

[James Stock]

A Reddit user reached out to Criterion and got a response of confirmation that standalone titles will follow the Kubrick set.

The email only said some would get standalones.

[Matt]

Since the box includes films from multiple studios, I'm sure it's like an Essential Fellini situation where La Dolce Vita was not made available separately, even though they released it before. I'm sure Universal is not going to let them release Spartacus on its own despite their previous DVD release. I'd expect maybe just Lolita and possibly an upgrade of Dr. Strangelove.

[MichaelB]

Damn! How dare Criterion release something I am not interested in! /s

I’ve never understood why people don’t just tune these things out; there’s always plenty of other stuff coming out.

I doubt many people here are aficionados of the BFI’s British Transport Films compilations, but there are good reasons why they now run to something like sixteen two-disc volumes! Basically, there are at least as many (if not considerably more) trainspotters than hardcore cinephiles out there, and the BTF films (one of the best investments the BFI ever made) have effectively underwritten loads of stuff that gets celebrated here.

See also the British sitcom The Brittas Empire and the early days of MoC. And indeed the current set-up, where MoC’s activities are substantially underwritten by martial arts films. Although that’s just reminded me of the delicious irony of someone here ranting and raving at some length about how it was a waste of time for Eureka to put out F for Fake because Criterion had already, only for it to become one of MoC’s bestsellers.

[jedgeco]

I'd have to rewatch Part 8 on the 4K disc but on my first viewing I was hard pressed to notice much of an improvement. The Pilot on the other hand looked quite nice in SDR.

It was shot 3.2K and up-res'd to 4K; not sure if Lynch did an HDR pass.

[dwk]

A poster over at the Blu-ray.com forum said that Bill Hunt posted a Patreon video the other day announcing all of Criterion's October slate plus one that wasn't announced: Parasite UHD upgrade. I'm assuming this was delayed and will be a November or December release.

[FrauBlucher]

With a mid April release (TROUBLE IN PARADISE) being last time a 20s, 30s, or 40s old Hollywood film, we will be going thru Oct without one. That seems like a record

Edit: I know the Samuel Fuller Eclipse has I SHOT JESSE JAMES. I was talking a mainline release

[jegharfangetmigenmyg]

Just saw that an apparently new 4K restoration of my favorite Antonioni Zabriskie Point is streaming on HBO Max. Seeing that Criterion already has most of his filmography in the collection, could they possibly be planning a UHD box set? Antonioni is one of the better selling pantheon directors, right? And if Criterion could get Sony to license The Passenger and get their hands on Il grido and Story of a Love Affair, we're almost there...

[acidgoat]

Zabriskie Point will be streaming on The Criterion Channel starting in August. Perhaps it will be from the same 4K restoration that’s on HBO Max.

[dwk]

Just saw that an apparently new 4K restoration of my favorite Antonioni Zabriskie Point is streaming on HBO Max. Seeing that Criterion already has most of his filmography in the collection, could they possibly be planning a UHD box set? Antonioni is one of the better selling pantheon directors, right? And if Criterion could get Sony to license The Passenger and get their hands on Il grido and Story of a Love Affair, we're almost there...

Janus does have Il grido

[Lowry_Sam]

And an Antonioni box close to completion? BAMPFA just screened all his 4K restorations featuring Monica Vitti.

[Brianruns10]

With a mid April release (TROUBLE IN PARADISE) being last time a 20s, 30s, or 40s old Hollywood film, we will be going thru Oct without one. That seems like a record

Edit: I know the Samuel Fuller Eclipse has I SHOT JESSE JAMES. I was talking a mainline release

I really, really hope they might release the new restoration of the silent Technicolor film The Black Pirate. The used the original camera neg, and the color is phenomenal from what I hear. Plus there are reams of material relating to this film that were preserved - alternate black-and-white versions, tons of outtakes and raw dailies, test footage....

[beamish14]

I remember seeing a restored 35mm print of Chung Kuo, China at least 10 years ago. Being an RAI production, I would think it might be possible to license? Excellent film.

[Lowry_Sam]

I really, really hope they might release the new restoration of the silent Technicolor film The Black Pirate.

I just saw a 35mm print of MOMA's technicolor restoration this past weekend and while it did look good & it was ineresting to see the first color film (heavy in the orange-brown, greens & blues are faint), I think I would have preferred black and white as the color obscures some of the detail in the image. I found the film itself (plot) to be a bit too generic & simple for my tastes but the action sequences are very impressive. Douglas Fairbanks does his most impressive stunt work here & it can't help but leave the viewer impressed. While not as impressive in color or in stunts (except for the chariot race), I would much prefer to see Criterion release Ben Hur (1925) in both its two-strip color and b&w restorations. The film has a much more rich & complex storyline and makes it a more interesting watch overall despite its length.

[rrenault]

And an Antonioni box close to completion? BAMPFA just screened all his 4K restorations featuring Monica Vitti.

I don't think L'Eclisse and The Passenger have 4K masters yet of any kind.

That said, I'm not sure I need an Antonioni boxset. I'm happy to just have his filmography rolled out piecemeal on UHD.

[jegharfangetmigenmyg]

And an Antonioni box close to completion? BAMPFA just screened all his 4K restorations featuring Monica Vitti.

I don't think L'Eclisse and The Passenger have 4K masters yet of any kind.

That said, I'm not sure I need an Antonioni boxset. I'm happy to just have his filmography rolled out piecemeal on UHD.

I could live with that as well, but it strikes me as a bit odd that that piecemeal isn't happening, outside of MOC's release of La notte. Especially, if I'm correct in that Antonioni is one of the better sellers of the pantheon. Based on the number of titles that Criterion has released by him, he surely would be, no?

[malachi_lui]

Given the sorts of haul posts we see all the time on the subreddit, I don’t think a lot of the classic, ‘slower’ European arthouse canon guys (Antonioni, Bresson, Dreyer, etc) are particularly huge sellers for Criterion these days. Antonioni was probably a decent seller in the DVD and early Blu-ray days, and not as much now.

I’d love a complete (or near-complete) Antonioni 4K box however, much more interesting for me than that Lynch 4K box that everyone seems to want. I have all the 60s Antonioni on Criterion Blu-ray already, the MoC La notte seems nice but the Criterion Blu is already great and I don’t need to upgrade it urgently. That said, L’avventura could really use a 4K with a better encode, and L’eclisse and Red Desert would greatly benefit from newer transfers (especially the latter, since the Criterion Blu got the colours wrong. I saw a Janus 35mm print a couple years ago and the colours were a lot closer to the old BFI disc).

[rrenault]

I was going to say that among the classic world cinema heavyweights Kurosawa, Bergman, and Tarkovsky are all much bigger sellers than Antonioni for starters.

A Lynch boxset feels entirely unnecessary to me given how well-served his filmography already is among the piecemeal editions.

[jegharfangetmigenmyg]

You're right, and if counting Hollywood in, you can add Kubrick and to a lesser extent Hitchcock to that list. Maybe I just have to accept that times are changing, and that some of these great directors will be almost forgotten, many of them because their films don't fit into contemporary agendas or political climate which I think is a shame. That's not what cinema is to me. It's also a bit of paradox since we've never had better direct access to all of cinema history than now. But maybe that's indeed the issue: There's too much to choose from for new cinephiles, so only the Top 5 or 10 directors that you mentioned most of end up rising above the mold? Couldn't dream up a more yawntastic box set than a Kurosawa one.

[James Stock]

I just hope Wild at Heart isn't locked in the Lynch set since I have no interest in buying a boxset (I already own too many of his movies to really want a set).