Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

[beamish14]

A High Tide restoration would be a revelation, it needs to happen from them or somebody.

I’d love more Gillian Armstrong. Last Days of Chez-Nous did get a restoration, and it looks very nice on Kanopy

[Ribs]

The English Patient seemingly formally confirmed by Kleber Mendonca Filho of all people! By tweeting images sent to him by Criterion’s art people of their desks with the Secret Agent.

[Mr.DarjeelingLimited]

Quit telling your stupid story about the stupid desert and just die already!

[Blutarsky]

Sack Lunch when?

[hearthesilence]

I appreciate that episode much more now as a reflection of one segment of New York's moviegoing community, but The English Patient is also a strange pick for a movie that's supposedly universally beloved - there were more acclaimed films in 1996, even strictly going by widely-released films reviewed by metropolitan newspapers, and while the response to The English Patient was generally favorable, a lot of reviews were mildly positive and more than a few were pretty dismissive. I thought it was okay, but I have no desire to see it again.

EDIT: Swap it out for that same year's Breaking the Waves and you'd have a much funnier TV show ("Well, to tell you the truth Elaine, I don't know if I can be with someone who doesn't like Breaking the Waves" and "I thought I knew what love was") albeit in a much darker and perhaps stomach-turning way.

[James Stock]

I hope they do The Talented Mr. Ripley as well.

[Matt]

I hated The English Patient as much as Elaine did and am not a fan of Ripley either except as a document of Jude Law at the peak of his beauty.

[Lowry_Sam]

They’ve put out films with actors in blackface and included contextualizing, scholarly interviews. I’m sure they could do the same here. But again, it’s Sony, so unlikely to happen in any case.

So a Busby Berkeley choreography box that includes Wonder Bar is a possibility?

The Collection needs more Judy Davis, though.

I do love her, but in running through her filmography on IMDB, I'm not seeing a whole lot of possibilities:

Impromptu
Allen/Davis box: (Alice), Husbands & Wives, Deconstructing Harry, Celebrity (yuck), (To Rome With Love (double yuck))-not likely
I haven't seen it but A Woman Called Golda is highly rated on IMDB, but also not likely/bad timing.

Naked Lunch & My Beautiful Career upgrades would be nice though.

[Matt]

The Collection needs more Judy Davis, though.

I do love her, but in running through her filmography on IMDB, I'm not seeing a whole lot of possibilities

Barton Fink, of course. But so many good options are, through no fault of her own, now too problematic to release: the Allen films, The Ref, A Passage to India. She's in the forthcoming Marie Antoinette, though. And they would never do a mainstream TV miniseries, but Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows is fantastic. Much better than that Renee Zellweger nonsense movie.

[Lowry_Sam]

Barton Fink, of course.

For some reason, I thought this was in the collection (already), surely any day now.

[MovieBuff647]

Barton Fink, of course.

For some reason, I thought this was in the collection (already), surely any day now.

Disney, sadly.

That said, Universal do have it in the UK and several European countries, and so I was hoping that we could see a 4K from Arrow and/or Turbine, but Uni seem to now be kinda sorta pivoting away from licensing as well.