Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

[beamish14]

According to this Reddit post, we can expect Testament to be announced soon

A magnificent film. Second Rebecca De Mornay and Kevin Costner appearances in the collection (who play a married couple in it)

[domino harvey]

Interesting. Not sure I’d have pegged this for Criterion, but could be interesting if they bothered to commission good extras

[Red Screamer]

I bet this is a Michael Koresky pick since, IIRC, it’s one of his favorite films.

[ballmouse]

Nice film. I'm a little sad I was the only one to have voted for it in the 1980s decade list last year.

[Ribs]

I bet this is a Michael Koresky pick since, IIRC, it’s one of his favorite films.

Given he does not work there, that would be strange.

[Red Screamer]

I know he is/was only programming on the Channel, but he's also a frequent freelancer on releases and serves on Criterion's advisory board. Maybe I should have just speculated that he'll be writing the essay for that release.

[DimitriL]

Interesting. Not sure I’d have pegged this for Criterion, but could be interesting if they bothered to commission good extras

I suspected this might be coming when I talked to the guy who programmed the Criterion Channel post-apocalypse spotlight. He seemed as affected by Testament as he was by Threads.

[ryannichols7]

I know he is/was only programming on the Channel, but he's also a frequent freelancer on releases and serves on Criterion's advisory board. Maybe I should have just speculated that he'll be writing the essay for that release.

they do take the word of their frequent contributors sometimes - I remember reading the Yi Yi thread on here and apparently Tony Rayns was steering them to acquire certain other Asian movies. Koresky is definitely enough of a frequent at Criterion to have some impact on their acquisitions

as for this movie, it feels like something Kino would go for, but since I haven't seen it and there's praise above, I'll have to check it out

I would've guessed Ed Wood too, but the choice probably has more to do with Pee-Wee than Burton.

and Warner playing ball much more easily than Disney (who could've imagined us saying this 15 years ago!). I do hope Burton and Criterion establish a good relationship from this release - Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands would both be excellent big hitter 4K titles from Criterion. I would say Mars Attacks too on the Warner side of things, but part of me feels like that's gonna show up from Arrow's Warner deal...but either way I hope one of the two labels release that

[Saturnome]

Thought for a second it was John Akomfrah's Testament (1988) which would make sense as a Criterion release and made me happy (maybe in a boxset, as his films tend to be short).

[dwk]

Someone at the Blu-ray forum said they saw Criterion mentioned on one the restoration notes on the new 4K Mysterious Skin.

[ianthemovie]

Michael Koresky is also a former Criterion employee--if you look at the production credits on the booklets of their releases from around 2013 or so you can see him listed as their "staff writer"--so I imagine he still has some pull there.

[Matt]

He wrote all the essays for the Eclipse DVDs.

[colinr0380]

It looks as if we are going to be getting some more films by William Greaves at some point, as mentioned in the latest IndieCollect newsletter:

First World Festival of Negro Arts by William Greaves (1966), coming soon from Criterion / Janus Films
Wealth of a Nation (1966) by William Greaves, coming soon from Criterion / Janus Films
In the Company of Men (1969) by William Greaves, coming soon from Criterion / Janus Films

They mention that Greaves' Nationtime has already been released by Kino Lorber. I wonder if this will come together with an upgrade of Symbiopsychotaxiplasm?

[Drucker]

It looks as if we are going to be getting some more films by William Greaves at some point, as mentioned in the latest IndieCollect newsletter:

First World Festival of Negro Arts by William Greaves (1966), coming soon from Criterion / Janus Films
Wealth of a Nation (1966) by William Greaves, coming soon from Criterion / Janus Films
In the Company of Men (1969) by William Greaves, coming soon from Criterion / Janus Films

They mention that Greaves' Nationtime has already been released by Kino Lorber. I wonder if this will come together with an upgrade of Symbiopsychotaxiplasm?

Or an ideal Eclipse blu ray?

[Close The Door, Raymond]

According to this Reddit post, we can expect Testament to be announced soon

Imprint released this on blu-ray in 2022.

I think if there is a Criterion release of Testament, it most likely have an interview or commentary with Tim Grierson. He wrote an article for the L.A. Times in 2023 about the film. He interviewed director Lynne Littman (Testament), and also Nicholas Meyer (The Day After) and Mick Jackson (Threads) to discuss their movie's impact. Grierson also did a Q&A with Littman at a screening last year at the Los Feliz Theatre, which screened the film as part of its Bleak Week screenings.

The LA Times article can be read here: link

[FrauBlucher]

No shocker here. The KL Insider pretty much confirmed that Wild at Heart is with Criterion

[FrauBlucher]

From Ned Brainard over at bluray.com...

Bret Wood of Kino Lorber had a few interesting remarks about The Wedding March (perhaps the poster child of the Criterion "sitting on" phenomenon) on the recent Shelf Space podcast. For context, he was asked which lost film would he most like to see, and his answer was The Honeymoon which was the sequel/second part to The Wedding March. In the midst of that discussion, this comment was made:

"He [Erich von Stroheim] made The Wedding March which one day someone's going to put out on video. I'm not going to name names, but it should have happened by now, but it hasn't, but it will. I think someone's working on it finally."

Vague (and understandably so), but this is perhaps the most encouraging comment I've heard on this film for many years.

We get more clues from KL about Criterion than we do from CC themselves

[domino harvey]

Criterion needs more offshoot labels and needs to get more stuff out, or sublicense a lot of their holdings. It’s just ridiculous at this point. The fact that they already skipped a month on the Eclipse series one month in is a joke— we can’t even trust them to release what they’re clearly already working on ffs

[beamish14]

Criterion needs more offshoot labels and needs to get more stuff out, or sublicense a lot of their holdings. It’s just ridiculous at this point. The fact that they already skipped a month on the Eclipse series one month in is a joke— we can’t even trust them to release what they’re clearly already working on ffs

It really is just genuinely selfish to hoard dozens of Fassbinder and Nagisa Oshima titles that are restored and ready to go

[dwk]

This December has more titles than they usually do for that month. I suspect that they will only do 4-6 Eclipse sets every year.

[yoloswegmaster]

I'm confused, when was it confirmed that the Eclipse series was going to be released monthly?

[Lowry_Sam]

I will take every one’s word on the number of releases for this year’s holiday season (Nov. & Dec.) , however in terms of buying, I would say that this is the first Xmas I don’t feel compelled to buy anything from Criterion, which is okay this time as I will be spending enough on other labels. There’s usually at least one big box announcement and we don’t have any. I was hoping for a Criterion Man Ray (along with others, a complete DaDaist or surrealist box, even if just Eclipse, would have been nice), but what we’re getting after waiting so long is disappointing.

[swo17]

I'm confused, when was it confirmed that the Eclipse series was going to be released monthly?

The "Eclipse is back!" announcement named five sets as forthcoming "in the coming months" and also mentioned two other sets "in the pipeline." The wording is vague but more consistent with there being an announcement in most months vs. just 4-6 a year

[ryannichols7]

From Ned Brainard over at bluray.com...

We get more clues from KL about Criterion than we do from CC themselves

thanks for sharing that, great quote from Bret who obviously does some amazing work with KL Classics. I know he would've put out The Wedding March years ago if Kino had the rights. hoping Criterion can join the wave of Von Stroheim since Milestone will release Queen Kelly and we've of course had Foolish Wives from both Kino and Flicker Alley

and of course there's that little obscurity called Greed too..

[dwk]

Pretty sure Criterion is going to release The Crowd