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Well, your first two comments were about how the set looked and whether it meant a Kiarostami set was on the way. I'll be sure to comment about the Varda set when the Kiarostami set is announced in the Kiarostami thread. And I'll also bring up placement of a Taste of Cherry in the set and the photos used of Kiarostami.

Fortisquince wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 6:28 pm Well, your first two comments were about how the set looked and whether it meant a Kiarostami set was on the way. I'll be sure to comment about the Varda set when the Kiarostami set is announced in the Kiarostami thread. And I'll also bring up placement of a Taste of Cherry in the set and the photos used of Kiarostami.

I don't particularly like Agnes Varda as a director, so why would I praise her? We've known this box set was likely and I and many others agree it's a smart business decision since she's very much on people's minds these days. I also said in this very thread that the set looks like it will please her fans, which I'm sure it will. My comment about Kiarostami was relevant to Cohen's titles being licensed here. If that's relevant to a Kiarostami set, then good, mention it then. Now chill.

Fortisquince wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 6:02 pm Is anyone going to mention that Criterion is releasing an extensive, blu-ray, box set by the greatest woman filmmaker of all time? No? Okay, I'll move along.

There's an Ann Hui box set in the works?

domino harvey wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 4:50 pm Also, this lends credence to Criterion working out a deal with Cohen for a complete Kiarostami box!

I guess this means Fellini's City of Women will be in the Fellini 100 box.

I’m a huge Varda fan, so this sounds like a dream come true in concept, but the execution suggests major compression issues. My favorite feature here is probably Lions, Love, and Lies, and it will likely suffer extreme enough compression that it might look worse than the DVD. I don’t see why everything should be crammed into one disc for the “In California” material while there are discs here with relatively little content. Criterion has released some very badly compressed discs in the past, but “In California” could end up being their worst.

I wonder if it is as complete as they say. The "Tout(e) Varda" Box set didn't really had tout Varda, some shorts were missing. I caught Les enfants du musée at the Cinémathèque Québécoise in my quest to see everything she made. Also, some of her art installations have or are videos. I'm glad the television version of Quelques veuves de Noirmoutier is there, but I hope we also get things like the looping video she made for her cat's tomb !

La petite histoire de Gwen la bretonne a (somewhat ordinary) 2008 short that almost nobody had heard of before, appeared on the internet a few weeks ago and already have 770 views on Letterboxd (it wasn't even on the website before april), more than some of her feature films. It shows how much people are interested in her right now, but it also made me think about how often Varda must have used her video camera to record all the people she meet and how much of it is available. Varda's late work is often quite simply casual, homemade video.
A lot of these shorts are more "bonus features" than *shorts*, but it's a thing I love about her. She directed her own DVD bonus with so much enthusiasm. The french Daguérrotypes DVD have much bonus footage shot in 2005, some are edited shorts with interviews and narration, some are just random shots of a festival going on in her street. Somehow, I love it all.

RitrovataBlue wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 7:09 pm I’m a huge Varda fan, so this sounds like a dream come true in concept, but the execution suggests major compression issues. My favorite feature here is probably Lions, Love, and Lies, and it will likely suffer extreme enough compression that it might look worse than the DVD. I don’t see why everything should be crammed into one disc for the “In California” material while there are discs here with relatively little content. Criterion has released some very badly compressed discs in the past, but “In California” could end up being their worst.

We're already complaining about compression when the boxset was just announced 2 hours ago. Is this a new record?

How dare you, we need dedicated discs for these Academy ratio 16 mm docs

domino harvey wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 7:18 pm How dare you, we need dedicated discs for these Academy ratio 16 mm docs

DISCS?? How backward-thinking, they should be shipping future-proof hard drives with the raw, uncompressed files.

No disrespect to RitrovataBlue, but I'm far more surprised by someone claiming Lions Love is their favorite Varda feature than someone complaining that six hours of content—even if it is 16mm Academy—crammed on one disc might be a struggle to encode well.

Does 1 disc =1 minute for each title sound impossible? I just want maximum efficiency.

I regret posting the runtimes.

yoloswegmaster wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 7:34 pm Does 1 disc =1 minute for each title sound impossible? I just want maximum efficiency.

Haha! In all seriousness, I get the concerns, really. Especially since Criterion does not always bring its A Game to this arena. But I also think some of these infinitesimal differences in appearance between various editions and encodings people eke our from probing various screen cap comparisons &c are not really discernible in normal viewing. Saying these will look better than they ever have before seems like a safe bet, so maybe getting worried can wait til there’s actual evidence otherwise?

Also, while I am cool on Varda on the whole, I’ll prob end up picking up the set to get the odds and ends in one place
and I do quite like Cleo— will all those new Artificial Eye extras get ported over, I wonder? Were they already ported over from another release?

senseabove wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 7:29 pm No disrespect to RitrovataBlue, but I'm far more surprised by someone claiming Lions Love is their favorite Varda feature than someone complaining that six hours of content—even if it is 16mm Academy—crammed on one disc might be a struggle to encode well.

It's five hours and it'll be fine.

I have almost all of this, but I'll be happy to double dip for the sake of the last two features (which I held off picking up once this set was rumoured), various format upgrades, a subtitled Nausicaa, and whatever new extras Criterion can manufacture or uncover, particularly if they feature Varda herself.

So I guess this means the Fellini box will be in December...

domino harvey wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 7:58 pm Also, while I am cool on Varda on the whole, I’ll prob end up picking up the set to get the odds and ends in one place
and I do quite like Cleo— will all those new Artificial Eye extras get ported over, I wonder? Were they already ported over from another release?

I thought most of the extras on the Artificial Eye Blus came from the French Tout(e) Varda box, but I haven't looked too closely.

Roscoe wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 8:01 pm So I guess this means the Fellini box will be in December...

They seem to be announcing boxes in alternating months for the remainder of the year, so either October or December with WKW in the other spot would be my guess

I would not be shocked if the WKW box gets pushed to next year, so they can do a theatrical tour of the restorations.

For those legitimately fearing about crap compression on those more loaded discs, remember that Pixelogic struggles almost only with 4k material (I think most of these will be 2k) but that they also can struggle with high enough bitrates anyway.
But anything 4k will show LEGO clumpiness no matter what.

The full press release seems to confirm the breakdown of the 15 discs.

Disc 13 is the best one

(Cinema Guild's Cinevardaphoto program plus the JR collab)

I'm intrigued by "Rare footage from unfinished features and commercials". I only know of one unfinished feature by her?

Beautiful set. Wow

domino harvey wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 5:54 pm I think everyone should definitely panic

Does most/all color HD restorations of her films have the piss color grading? Looking at reviews from different companies (Criterion Vagabond & One Sings, Cinelicious Jane B. Par Agnès V. /Kung Fu Master set) It seems to be liberally applied. Part of me is considering keeping the Tout(e) Varda box if this is the case.