'Forthcoming' Lists Discussion and Random Speculation Vol.2

[justeleblanc]

Swanberg's Young American Bodies... lots of pubes, but it's no Oshima.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Did this guy get his start by directing episodes of Undressed?

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Swanberg's Young American Bodies... lots of pubes, but it's no Oshima.

Jeez Louise! I saw a couple of these and can say that they're all pretty awful. I was hoping I wouldn't see Swanberg's bare ass, but hey, you can't win them all!

Also, whoever is operating the camera has no clue what they're doing.

So if you're looking for a good fuck, write, star and direct a short film then find a willing actress and tell her it's for art!

[justeleblanc]

Swanberg's Young American Bodies... lots of pubes, but it's no Oshima.

Jeez Louise! I saw a couple of these and can say that they're all pretty awful. I was hoping I wouldn't see Swanberg's bare ass, but hey, you can't win them all!

Also, whoever is operating the camera has no clue what they're doing.

So if you're looking for a good fuck, write, star and direct a short film then find a willing actress and tell her it's for art!

Yeah, it's navel gazing at its utmost worst.

I will say his films are slightly better. People say LOL is his best, but I bet that has to do with Andrew Grant and Aaron Hillis producing the DVD of it, and I guess that's a false indicator of a good movie. Kissing on the Mouth is probably his worst.

I think it's a good idea to have a running list somewhere on this forum as to which films have gone out of print on R1, but I don't think they should be crowded into this thread. To say there is a cause an effect between whether or not they'd be released onto DVD is a bit of a stretch. Thoughts?

[JabbaTheSlut]

http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2009/07/ ... hing_1.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I was told last night by an excellent source that Michael Ritchie's Downhill Racer ('71), a first-rate, hand-held drama about a reckless, emotionally cut-off downhill skiier (Robert Redford) vying for Olympic glory, is being prepared as a Criterion Collection DVD. The highly regarded film has never been on DVD. No word about whether a Blu-ray version will pop through or whether Criterion will simply give it an Eddie Coyle or Hit-styled lowball release. I'm presuming the latter.

[kaujot]

This was confirmed a while back.

[adeeze]

This Joe Swanberg's dick is in every other episode. I guess this isn't enough to hold my interest.

[justeleblanc]

Maybe this has been asked, but do we know who owns the North American rights to Visconti's La Terre Trema?

[Jeff]

Maybe this has been asked, but do we know who owns the North American rights to Visconti's La Terre Trema?

International Media Films. They previously licensed it to Image, along with De Sica' Shoeshine (and maybe others), but those discs are out of print. They are responsible for licensing La dolce vita to Koch Lorber. They keep a PDF on their site showing which films they own in which territories, but I don't know how definitive it is. For example, they claim to hold the U.S. rights to Divorce Italian Style and I vitteloni, but Criterion doesn't credit them as a licensor.

[Awesome Welles]

Apologies if that has been mentioned but I have only just started reading through The Auteurs, on which-

I do believe some Ray, S. and Rivette are coming in the future…

That was posted eight months ago and I don't know whether this can be taken very seriously but worth thought it worth reporting!

[Murdoch]

I do believe some Ray, S. and Rivette are coming in the future…

I think it would be best if members here didn't browse the linked thread for risk of their heads exploding. #-o

[Awesome Welles]

I read as far as Kasman's comment whereupon I had had quite enough.

[Tommaso]

I love it how those guys seem to completely ignore the rights situations for the films they want to see in the collection. Otherwise not always bad choices if you read on in that thread a little. But I somehow fear that they all voted for "Monsoon Wedding" some time or other and that's why we got it now...

[ptatler]

I read as far as Kasman's comment whereupon I had had quite enough.

Yeah. About 99% of the suggestions already have loaded high-quality releases. Love the dude who said SNAKES ON A PLANE should be released since it's a study in viral marketing.

[Jeff]

so is Howards End going to be on SD as #488 or not? I know Criterion has stated otherwise, but might this be the first blu exclusive? Oh yay.....

There really isn't much "exclusive" about it, since the Merchant Ivory branded version is a Criterion product with most of the same specs. The only exclusive supplements are an appreciation of Merchant by Ivory and an essay by Kenny Turan.

Yes, the Blu-ray has a spine number and new cover art, but those things don't amount to much. I can imagine that Criterion may eventually make an o-sleeve to slide over the Merchant Ivory box in order to display the new art and spine number.

[Cinephrenic]

Probably just exclusive. Eventually one day all Criterion DVDs will be discontinued and left with the blu-ray, but we years away from that just yet.

[ianungstad]

Criterion cries poverty to the filmmakers and people controlling bonus feature elements they desire. More accurately they cry "charity" when they come knocking. Once they called up an an archive I worked at looking for the American opening to The Third Man. They wanted us to pay to ship the reel to them and they weren't even willing to give us a copy of the DVD afterward. When my boss gave them the least amount of resistance at forking up all the cash and getting nothing back, Criterion went with a damaged 16mm print instead of our pristine 35mm. So they have compromised.

A classmate who had a deal for his film with them was told he could provide all the bonus features he wanted, as long as he paid for them. They're a better alternative to major studios which rarely request input from filmmakers on their DVD releases. They aren't forking out the dough to make bonus features as found on the Alien and Bond boxsets.

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/t ... ng-poverty" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Does Criterion really make directors pay for the production of supplements for their own discs? That sounds pretty pathetic to me.

[kaujot]

I find it very hard to believe.

[CSM126]

If that were the case I'd imagine we'd see a lot of barebones CC discs. I mean, how many directors would spend their own money and basically pay for the privilege of having the wacky c on their film? Aside from the Wes Andersons and Michael Bays of the world, who basically begged for the Criterion treatment, it seems unlikely.

[Cinephrenic]

Don't they pay directors/scholars for commentaries?

[cdnchris]

While I wouldn't be surprised if they did try to get stuff for free it would be a rather shitty business model to make filmmakers pay to release their films as I seriously doubt they'd have the editions they release (or much of anything to release for that matter.) Though there are titles where I see that being the case (some of the Disney titles, Benjamin Button...)

[Antoine Doinel]

I find it very hard to believe.

[jbeall]

I know for a fact that scholars who do interviews and/or commentaries are (sometimes, at least) paid with CC dvds.

[ianungstad]

If that were the case I'd imagine we'd see a lot of barebones CC discs. I mean, how many directors would spend their own money and basically pay for the privilege of having the wacky c on their film? Aside from the Wes Andersons and Michael Bays of the world, who basically begged for the Criterion treatment, it seems unlikely.

It's a hard question to answer without knowing more about the particular situation the poster was talking about. His "friend" could have been requesting the production of supplements that went beyond the budget Criterion had drafted for the disc. The whole post sounds pretty odd to me...but it wouldn't surprise me if there wasn't some truth to it but filtered through someone who is obviously somewhat embittered against Criterion. While I've never heard anything bad about Criterion through people I know in the industry, I've heard of similar questionable ethics at other labels. Who knows how widespread of a practice such demands are?