Page 15 of 21
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 8:14 pm
by swo17
I wonder if they sat on these titles for so long that their license might be up soon, and so it would no longer be worth it to put any effort whatsoever into these releases.
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 8:18 pm
by Gregory
Le Trou spoiler warning:
Le Trou (1960)
Directed by Jacques Becker (Antoine et Antoinette) and nominated for two BAFTA Film Awards, Le Trou is considered a masterpiece by the leader of the Nouvelle Vague movement, François Truffaut. Set in 1940s Paris, four prison cellmates plan an escape and induct a new inmate to join their plan... which eventually leads to betrayal.
It's silly to refer to one person as "the leader" of the French New Wave—and thanks for giving away the ending of this suspenseful film for those who haven't seen it yet. Keep up the great work, Lionsgate.
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 8:20 pm
by Drucker
Gregory wrote:Le Trou spoiler warning:
Le Trou (1960)
Directed by Jacques Becker (Antoine et Antoinette) and nominated for two BAFTA Film Awards, Le Trou is considered a masterpiece by the leader of the Nouvelle Vague movement, François Truffaut. Set in 1940s Paris, four prison cellmates plan an escape and induct a new inmate to join their plan... which eventually leads to betrayal.
It's silly to refer to one person as "the leader" of the French New Wave—and thanks for giving away the ending of this suspenseful film for those who haven't seen it yet. Keep up the great work, Lionsgate.
Don't worry it only
affects the last 3 minutes or so of the movie. You can certainly still enjoy the rest!
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 8:24 pm
by Gregory
And they're claiming that these are "eight ... French Nouvelle Vague films"? Quai des Orfèvres, from 1947? Clouzot was pretty much excoriated by the New Wave.
Billy Liar for fuck's sake? Isn't it possible for anyone to be laughed out of this business?
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 8:32 pm
by jindianajonz
Jean-Pierre Melville (Les Enfants Terribles),
Really? Is that what he is most well known for? It's a perfectly fine movie and all, but I'd say it's far from his best and is the least emblematic of his work based on the 5 or so that I've seen.
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 8:32 pm
by Ashirg
I couldn't find A Woman Is A Woman on Amazon, but others are already available for pre-order at Amazon (if you want to leave nasty reviews - don't see other use for them).
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 9:12 pm
by knives
Gregory wrote:Clouzot was pretty much excoriated by the New Wave.
I'm pretty sure no on that with his reputation if anything being aided by them.
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 9:18 pm
by domino harvey
Clouzot was associated with the tradition of quality but was generally well-liked by Truffaut et al. Here's Cahiers' thumbnail of Clouzot from their State of French Cinema issue:
Henri-Georges Clouzot
At the age of seven, he wrote a play whose protagonist rid himself of his wife by putting nails in her soup. The story of his life reveals him to be stubborn, clear-sighted, concerned to express the “hard face” of existence. This is a “film auteur”. “I do not believe,” he says, “in a director who is not his own writer.“ He loves his metier. “I am most of all physical, but my greatest pleasure in directing a film, is the shooting, the editing.” He depicts situation with no concern for the judgments of society, but he puts himself in danger of taking the bite from his films by targeting too great a number of spectators. “I work for the Gaumont-Palace,” he proclaims. But we know so well that his concerns, his obsessions -- perversion, true cruelty -- are not compatible with the wants of the great public. Thus, how Clouzot is careful of self-censorship. Furthermore, he knows where he is going and why, in his gallery of monsters, he puts great emphasis on the revolting, the sadistic, the subversive, the executioner. By subtraction, he little-by-little reveals, with the sharpness of a photographic negative, the dazzling image of pure innocence and of selfless friendship.
And from Jean Douchet, speaking about the Young Turks
But the film that received the most attention was Le Corbeau by Henri-Georges Clouzot: the film had a profound effect on these adolescents and to them represented the summit of cinematic art."
(All translations by our own jdcopp)
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 9:34 pm
by Gregory
Rivette said in Cahiers in May 1957 that Clouzot was "corrupted by money" and "afraid to take risks."
Jean-Louis Tallenay said of Les Diaboliques, also in Cahiers, that it was a shame to "waste so much talent on a puzzle."
Truffaut praised his documentary The Mystery of Picasso, with some reservations, and that film was generally well received partly due to its bold technique. But the Cahiers critics were generally critical of his thrillers—too caught up in older conventions, his style exemplified the cinéma du papa.
Clouzot's reputation and career took a hit due to criticisms like these, and it was only later that his work was was rehabilitated.
In any case, I hope we can at least all agree that it's absurd to refer to a 1947 Clouzot film as French New Wave.
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 11:11 pm
by Ashirg
That press release from Lionsgate is absurd on so many levels...
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2014 4:01 pm
by captveg
swo17 wrote:I wonder if they sat on these titles for so long that their license might be up soon, and so it would no longer be worth it to put any effort whatsoever into these releases.
One can only hope. Just look at what someone else was able to do with the Republic library (Olive) once Paramount got it back from Lionsgate.
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2014 6:27 pm
by whaleallright
That press release from Lionsgate is absurd on so many levels...
not least because it classifies two British films as part of the "Nouvelle Vague"
and puts Lino Ventura in a nonexistent 1928 version of
Les Miserables, when he would have been nine years old. I assume he played Cosette.
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2014 6:41 pm
by warren oates
It doesn't even seem like they're offering Army of Shadows in HD at all, either at Amazon or through iTunes.
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2014 9:15 pm
by domino harvey
They probably assumed no one would want to see a bunch of soldiers standing around in the dark in HD
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 7:51 pm
by Perkins Cobb
Scum.
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2014 5:08 am
by bainbridgezu
swo17 wrote:I wonder if they sat on these titles for so long that their license might be up soon, and so it would no longer be worth it to put any effort whatsoever into these releases.
Is anyone here familiar with the circumstances of Studio Canal's ownership of these titles? Have they licensed the films from another party, or do they own them in perpetuity?
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2014 6:11 am
by Ashirg
They own them permanently.
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 8:25 pm
by captveg
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 8:40 pm
by domino harvey
Which was already out on Blu-ray via Echo Bridge
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 8:51 pm
by captveg
Ah. Forgive me for overlooking that.
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 8:55 pm
by domino harvey
It does beg the question whether Lionsgate is the label that absorbed the majority of the Echo Bridge Miramax holdings (a nice fit, considering they already negotiated the more prestige-y Miramax titles earlier)
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 8:57 pm
by captveg
There have been other former Echo Bridge Miramax titles re-issued by Lionsgate, so that certainly seems to be the case. The question remains if they will be releasing any future new-to-Blu Miramax titles as they've seem to have pretty much stopped. The handful of Woody Allen titles they have are calling out for Blu-rays.
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 5:09 pm
by domino harvey
Lionsgate has been confirmed as the label to license 250 Miramax titles-- a logical fit given their existent Miramax releases and salvation from Echo Bridge at last (though the comments suggest they're just repackaging the Echo Bridge discs, which funnily enough is what the first wave of many Echo Bridge DVDs did with the original Miramax discs)
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 6:23 pm
by FrauBlucher
The expanded agreement reflects Lionsgate's successful track record in distributing third party product from some of the most prominent libraries in the world, including Miramax, Studiocanal and A&E, as well as its own Lionsgate titles.
This is clearly my favorite part of the press release.
Re: Lionsgate
Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 7:44 pm
by captveg
FrauBlucher wrote:The expanded agreement reflects Lionsgate's successful track record in distributing third party product from some of the most prominent libraries in the world, including Miramax, Studiocanal and A&E, as well as its own Lionsgate titles.
This is clearly my favorite part of the press release.
Yeah, I had to hold back my flippant laughter on that one.