Criterion Newsletter

[ellipsis7]

THE DEAD is out in a new print coinciding with the NFT Retro, a DVD coming in the new year.... There was also a conference at the Huston Film School in Galway (where he lived for many years) marking the centenary of his birth, keynote speaker Joseph McBride...

Anjelica Huston talks about her dad and THE DEAD @ NFT here

[Jeff]

I've been bugging them about adding some Huston for years, and Under the Volcano is a fine choice. And woo-fucking-hoo to the RCoM confirmation.

[kaujot]

THE DEAD is out in a new print coinciding with the NFT Retro, a DVD coming in the new year....

Do you mean an R2 DVD?

[ellipsis7]

OK here it is... NFT on THE DEAD...

The Dead
New print

From The Maltese Falcon onwards, John Huston was an expert adaptor of literary works of all kinds, and it's fitting that his final film should have been this superb account of a novella by James Joyce - an author famously 'difficult' to adapt to the screen, but one of Huston's favourites. Working from a script by his son Tony, he wisely cast his daughter Anjelica as Gretta Conroy, one of the guests gathered for a Christmas dinner in turn-of-the-century Dublin. Like all such celebrations, the party has its ups and downs, joys and sorrows, and a song by one of the assembly prompts Gretta to share with her husband Gabriel (Donal McCann) a memory, hitherto secret, of a passionate encounter years earlier in rural Galway that marked her deeply� A delicately understated but profoundly affecting tale of love, longing, loss and lives passed in private reverie, Huston's final film is firmly grounded both in his intense engagement with his material and in his enduring affection for his adopted country and its people. Wise, witty, lyrical and immaculately judged, the film benefits from a host of wonderful performances, none more rounded and richly resonant than those of Anjelica Huston and Donal McCann as the couple unexpectedly drawn into a confessional discussion that proves revelatory in all kinds of ways. One of the finest films of the 80s, it remains both a magnificent swansong and a supremely exquisite masterpiece in its own right. Geoff Andrew. Courtesy Park Circus Films. Plus Handkerchief Drill (UK 1949 Dir Michael Orrom. 1 min J-Cert U). This delightful short, made for the COI and preserved by the BFI National Archive, deploys the great comic talent of Richard Massingham to remind us that 'coughs and sneezes spread diseases'.

UK 1987 Dir John Huston
With Anjelica Huston, Donal McCann, Rachel Dowling, Cathleen Delaney, Dan O'Herlihy, Donal Donnelly, Helena Carroll. 83 mins. J-Cert U

And Philip French on the THE DEAD giving R2 DVD release of a new SE as February coming...

The Dead

Philip French
The Observer
Sunday December 3, 2006

Directed by John Huston; starring Anjelica Huston, Donal McCann, Cathleen Delany, Marie Kean

John Huston began his directorial career in 1941 with a well-nigh perfect adaptation of a minor classic, Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, and ended in 1987 with a well-nigh perfect adaptation of a major classic, James Joyce's The Dead. The former will appear in a special DVD version in February, a new print of the latter is back in cinemas, and both are being shown in the NFT's Huston series. Entirely filmed in a Californian warehouse, The Dead features the greatest Irish cast ever assembled on screen.

Shit, have I misread this - is it THE MALTESE FALCON that's coming to DVD?... Now not so sure...

[foggy eyes]

I imagine French will be referring to this. Having been unable to make it to the NFT for The Dead, I'd love to see it surface on DVD very soon.

[Narshty]

The Dead is already on DVD in the UK - barebones and budget priced but still decent quality anamorphic.

[foggy eyes]

Indeed it is: I thought the R2 was OOP. #-o

[Cinephrenic]

No newsletter yet, what's up with that???

[domino harvey]

aren't the new titles usually up in the middle of the month also

[arsonfilms]

Usually the 16th, yeah

[miless]

okay, I'm worried now... should we file a missing persons report?

[domino harvey]

they're busy preparing to announce all the titles I specifically want

[a.khan]

Criterion may be timing the newsletter with the announcement of the April titles. This may be standard practice now…actually, that makes sense.

I think the newsletter will come tomorrow, Friday, along with confirmation of new releases.

[cdnchris]

Sans soleil?

[davida2]

12 Monkeys and a Marker reference...hmmm

[thethirdman]

That must be one of the clearest clues they have given. The group of twelve monkeys is a nice tangential touch. I eagerly await Sans soleil. I have never had a chance to see it.

[Jun-Dai]

I was astoundingly disappointed by Sans Soilei, but I hope they're planning to get La Jetée out, preferably on its own disc.

[zedz]

I hope I've read that clue correctly and we're getting both Le Jetee and Sans soleil.

So what other multiple animal clues have they got up their sleeves?

[Cinesimilitude]

just to get it in here...

[backstreetsbackalright]

I know this sort of post is frowned on, but a deluxe R1 Chris Marker DVD? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

[Cinephrenic]

12 Monkeys ......> La Jetee and Sans Soleil.

[daniel p]

12 Monkeys ......> La Jetee and Sans Soleil.

To me, it seems all 3 will be coming out...

[Cinephrenic]

Perhaps a boxset of some sort. Some documentaries and a disc of shorts. I really hope they release many of his works as possible. There isn't shit on Marker in R1.

[arsonfilms]

The third Eclipse set, perhaps?

[Le Samouraï]

12 Monkeys ......> La Jetee and Sans Soleil.

To me, it seems all 3 will be coming out...

I don't think we will se a Criterion release of 12 Monkeys. It will more likely be at two-disc set with Sans Soleil and La Jetee. The clue to La Jetee of course being that 12 monkeys was inspired by that film.