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There's an interesting article in the wall street journal about the possibility of Stanley Kubrick's Fear and Desire being released on dvd.

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/09/ ... ed-on-dvd/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Criterion Cast website suggests it will be Janus/Criterion who'll eventually release the film once the restoration is finished. (What's with all these negatives suddenly turning up in various South American countries?) The rep from the George Eastman House simply says that they'll be working with another company on the restoration and home video release.

Seems a bit of a stretch to say it's Janus without more conclusive evidence...but they are certainly a strong candidate for the "mystery company".

Interesting speculation!

ianungstad wrote:(What's with all these negatives suddenly turning up in various South American countries?)

Puerto Rico is in South America now?

D'oh! The discovery of the negative for Fear and Desire just got me thinking of Metropolis and other recent discoveries.

Matt wrote:

ianungstad wrote:(What's with all these negatives suddenly turning up in various South American countries?)

Puerto Rico is in South America now?

I thought everything south of the Ohio river was South America.

Tribe wrote:

Matt wrote:

ianungstad wrote:(What's with all these negatives suddenly turning up in various South American countries?)

Puerto Rico is in South America now?

I thought everything south of the Ohio river was South America.

El Norte today means going to Canada.

After all, how is it possible that the filmmaker responsible for at least one bona fide classic in each of the last five decades could have made a movie that’s so bad that even its director considers it unwatchable?

Well...

It would be nice to see what some of the compositions look like in the best resolution possible, but it strikes me that any kind of scholarly commentary that might be included in a potential release would have to acknowledge FEAR AND DESIRE's considerable shortcomings. This film that should really be paired with KILLER'S KISS and the shorts and issued by Criterion as a two-disc EARLY KUBRICK set.

here's the link to sam's myth new poster for Kuroneko.
pretty cool looking.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4129/502 ... 1ce0_o.jpg

I like it. Because it doesn't openly antagonize members of this forum.

WORST DRUM SOLO OF ALL T - er, yah

Over at the Home Theater Forum, David Prior confirms The Game and over at .com news that Criterion will be re-releasing Pale Flower.

If Criterion is going to be re-releasing former Home Vision titles, I hope they will re-release the Kinji Fukasaku films (preferably on Blu-Ray)

the HVE Pale Flower DVD looks great and has a really interesting interview with Shinoda. I'm curious what they have in store to add to it (for now I'm just going to 100% irrationally assume it'll be part of a massive Shinoda box that contains all of his early films and then be incredibly disappointed when it isn't.)

Steven H wrote:the HVE Pale Flower DVD looks great and has a really interesting interview with Shinoda. I'm curious what they have in store to add to it (for now I'm just going to 100% irrationally assume it'll be part of a massive Shinoda box that contains all of his early films and then be incredibly disappointed when it isn't.)

Just logged in after getting back from a Kim's Video in in search of Shinoda's to get signed at NYFF later today and am now very relieved I picked up Double Suicide instead of this.

Pale Flower is a great film, but I'll be disappointed if the only new Shinoda is an already available title, especially since there are so many great Shinodas ready and waiting in good transfers. My money's on an Eclipse set.

I would think that all the films Janus is showing at the NYFF will be heading to Criterion/Eclipse in the near future. Happens every other time a major auteur gets a Janus retrospective. (Oshima and Malle being more recent examples).

But does Janus own all of them?

Maybe they will release Shinoda's Silence. Scorsese is making his version based on the novel.

Cinephrenic wrote:Maybe they will release Shinoda's Silence. Scorsese is making his version based on the novel.

That's already readily available from MoC, however. The following films, as far as I can tell, are all out in Japan, in good transfers with English subtitles, but exorbitantly priced. I don't think any of them have been ported to the US or UK yet, and it's quite a selection:
With Beauty and Sorrow, Punishment Island, Buraikan, The Petrified Forest, Under the Blossoming Cherry Tree, The Ballad of Orin, Childhood Days, Sharaku, Moonlight Serenade, Owl's Castle
Even if you keep to the sixties and seventies and add in the already available HVE and MoC titles, that's two bumper Eclipse sets, at least. And while I'm wishlisting, I'd love to see a BluRay upgrade of Double Suicide in the main line with some general Shinoda extras.

Double Suicide Blu is possible... according to the NYFF website, they're screening a new print.

Any standouts among the films only released in Japan zedz?

I've only got four of those, and they're all good, and all very different from one another. Punishment Island is the one that probably slots in best alongside the New Wave films of Oshima and Imamura, delving into a dark personal / national past in an isolated setting.

Buraikan has some of the self-reflexive staging of Double Suicide, but handles it quite differently - much lighter. It's got a wonderful lead performance from Tatsuya Nakadai, so that's a potential hook for Criterion.

The Petrified Forest is a contemporary crime (melo)drama. Probably my least favourite Shinoda of the ones I've seen, but still very good.

The Ballad of Orin is a stark, beautiful period drama, a really great film. Grim and unforgettable.

Shinoda would make a great Eclpse set.

I keep hoping for a DVD release of McArthur's Children -- which apparently came out on home video in the early VHS era -- but which has been completely unavailable for well over a decade (even in Japan, as far as I can tell).

Peacock wrote:But does Janus own all of them?

There was no Janus logo before The Ballad of Orin.

Here's hoping, probably futilely, that if Pale Flower is setting a precedent for upgrading HVE titles then the Kiyoshi Kurosawa titles might get upgraded as well. Cure would be the obvious one for them to do, but Charisma is the most in need of an upgrade (the dvd isn't anamorphic). Those two would make a nice sequential-spine-number pair. I like Seance but it feels somewhat minor next to the other two. Maybe they could pair it up with the Forbes/Attenborough version (also out on HVE).

dadaistnun wrote:Here's hoping, probably futilely, that if Pale Flower is setting a precedent for upgrading HVE titles then the Kiyoshi Kurosawa titles might get upgraded as well. Cure would be the obvious one for them to do, but Charisma is the most in need of an upgrade (the dvd isn't anamorphic). Those two would make a nice sequential-spine-number pair. I like Seance but it feels somewhat minor next to the other two. Maybe they could pair it up with the Forbes/Attenborough version (also out on HVE).

I don't know if its precedent setting, but it does make sense and support reasonable speculation that some of the old HVE titles might make their way into the Criterion main line or into the Eclipse line. By the same token, I think Criterion was also recently hawking Arturo Ripstein's Deep Crimson being available on line at the same time it was making the same claim for Pale Flower, that might be an indication that Deep Crimson might also be re-released eventually.

dadaistnun wrote:Here's hoping, probably futilely, that if Pale Flower is setting a precedent for upgrading HVE titles then the Kiyoshi Kurosawa titles might get upgraded as well. Cure would be the obvious one for them to do, but Charisma is the most in need of an upgrade (the dvd isn't anamorphic). Those two would make a nice sequential-spine-number pair. I like Seance but it feels somewhat minor next to the other two. Maybe they could pair it up with the Forbes/Attenborough version (also out on HVE).

Was hoping for the exact same thing, most especially because Cure and Charisma are probably my favourite of his films. But then any K. Kurosawa in the collection, even something as uneven as Seance, would make me giddy like a little girl.