|
Haha, yes, can't wait for Exterminating Angel. FitFortDanga posted:(I wish I knew why I'm not getting the newsletters though). Sometimes mine come in a day late.
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2008 21:15
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 02:56 |
|
|
FitFortDanga posted:Sweet (I wish I knew why I'm not getting the newsletters though). It's been known to be in the works for ages, but it's about drat time we got official (or semi-official, I guess) confirmation. I just hope they release it on Blu-Ray. I get them, but hotmail likes to mark them as dangerous content, so it could be that you have a spam filter blocking them. Also, yay for The Exterminating Angel, it's my favorite Buñuel.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2008 22:11
|
|
|
Has Criterion talked about expanding their Central and Eastern European offerings? It's kind of disappointing what they've got to offer right now.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2008 22:28
|
|
|
STEVIE B 4EVA posted:
YEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2008 23:05
|
|
|
There's a brief note about the pacing of Criterion Blu-Ray releases, at the bottom of an interesting Gizmodo article about how Criterion preps films for HD: "They plan to release two films a month in Blu-ray next year, with HD releases ramping up as sales shift from DVD to Blu-ray."
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2008 05:13
|
|
|
If anyone's on the fence about the Shepitko Eclipse set, get it. I watched The Ascent last night, and it's awesome.
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2008 18:11
|
|
|
Word from Mulvaney is that there's a "Japanese Eclipse set next year which could be considered part of the horror/cult genre". If this somehow includes A Page of Madness, I'll be very very happy.
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2008 17:13
|
|
|
Search is disabled, but I thought I'd chime in and say that the Criterion Edition of Videodrome is what turned me into a Cronenberg fanatic. Also, it made me want to move to Canada, and closed a lot of "WTF?" gaps for me as far as understanding Rene Balcer, the creative force behind Law & Order: Criminal Intent, as a French-Canadian Baby Boomer visual journalist (no actual stuff about Balcer -- It's just that Cronenberg and Balcer walked a lot of the same career trail at mostly the same time).
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2008 09:55
|
|
|
ReturnOfTheMac posted:Also, it made me want to move to Canada That's like saying Dead Ringers made you want to be a doctor.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2008 17:30
|
|
|
I'm just wondering what it was about early-80's downtown Toronto in Videodrome that was so attractive to someone that would make them want to move to Canada, even if you ignore all the hallucinations and human cancer blobs.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2008 17:33
|
|
|
Cacator posted:I'm just wondering what it was about early-80's downtown Toronto in Videodrome that was so attractive to someone that would make them want to move to Canada, even if you ignore all the hallucinations and human cancer blobs. Debbie Harry? Sleazy softcore porn channels?
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2008 23:43
|
|
|
LaptopGun posted:Debbie Harry? Sleazy softcore porn channels? Debbie Harry makes me scared of Canada because of her possession of my TV and causing it to bubble out, telling me to touch her.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2008 00:58
|
|
|
Debbie Harry isn't Canadian, but the soft-core porn is still there, just not as much as you'd probably want (limited to Showcase in my experience).
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2008 01:21
|
|
|
I goofed with Debbie Harry whether she was born in Canada or not. I know she's mostly famous for her career in America (a lot of which was before Videodrome, of course). As for the porn, good for Canada.  As long as it doesn't bubble out of your TV and send you into a downward spiral of murder, mayhem, madness, and masochism.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2008 16:13
|
|
|
I just came here to say holy shiiiiiit Bottle Rocket on Criterion!@#$ I think that may need to be my first Blu-Ray ever. (Now to buy a PS3 so I can actually play Blu-Ray discs...) Is there any word on when older Criterion releases will be released on Blu-Ray?
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2008 03:31
|
|
|
Some of them are already older movies. I don't think they'll begin transporting the entire line over for quite some time, just picking and choosing for now.
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2008 03:49
|
|
|
I think it'll alternate between sure-fire sellers and interesting picks. For example, there's little risk in The Third Man or The Last Emperor. On the other hand, Bottle Rocket and The Man Who Fell to Earth are surprising picks. Much like how WB is going to release Being There among big titles like The Wizard of Oz next year. We're probably going to see Black Narcissus and The Seventh Seal fairly quick considering they're out in the UK. They're not going to have much trouble with their Kurosawa titles. Then there are the movies that cry out for BluRay treatment like the Tati films, the Brakhage anthology, The Passion of Joan of Arc (if just for the score in uncompressed 5.1), and Eyes without a Face. I do believe there's a big market for colleges since many shell out for premium video tech and many libraries stock up on Criterion.
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2008 04:33
|
|
|
Newsletter hints at Wages of Fear on Blu-Ray. Which we already knew about, so blah. Should be new announcements later today. Please, please, please, El Norte.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2008 18:33
|
|
|
Is there any speculation on Criterion getting more Welles? Milestone's The Trial recently went OOP and it's StudioCanal. Looks like all the public domain versions are off the market, too. I was going to import the R2 French DVD, but I'm turned off by the video replacement French titles, including putting credits over the ending shot!
Og Oggilby fucked around with this message at 19:02 on Oct 15, 2008 |
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2008 18:59
|
|
|
Og Oggilby posted:
Oh man, I never considered what Tati would be like in Blu-Ray. They might be the films that benefit the most from an HD transfer... great, now you got me excited about something that won't be out for another three years, thanks Og.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2008 19:10
|
|
|
FitFortDanga posted:Should be new announcements later today. They might announce 1991: the Year Punk Broke since its director is the one giving his top 10 in the newsletter. Then again, if I remember correctly what's holding them up is negotiations with the Kurt Cobain estate over some Nirvana footage, so even though I'm pretty sure they have the rights, that Criterion may never come out.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2008 20:18
|
|
|
First title up is Roberto Rossellini's The Taking of Power by Louis XIV.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2008 22:33
|
|
|
Criminal Minded posted:First title up is Roberto Rossellini's The Taking of Power by Louis XIV. Meh, I'm utterly indifferent about Rossellini. He's got my vote for most overrated Italian.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2008 22:39
|
|
|
#456 - The Taking of Power by Louis XIV #457 - Magnificent Obsession #458 - El Norte (also Blu) Yay to Sirk, and hallelujah to El Norte! Will post specs when they come up.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2008 23:04
|
|
|
El Norte will be a must buy, and I'm interested in the other two as well. Pretty drat good month.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2008 23:07
|
|
|
 - New, restored digital transfer - Taking Power, a multimedia essay by Tag Gallagher, author of The Adventures of Roberto Rossellini - The Last Utopia, a documentary about Rossellini’s late career - Video interview with artistic advisor Jean Dominique de la Rochefoucauld and script supervisor Michelle Podroznik - Video interview with Renzo Rossellini - New and improved English subtitle translation - PLUS: A new essay by critic Colin McCabe  - SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES: - New, restored high-definition digital transfer - Audio commentary featuring film scholar Thomas Doherty - Magnificent Obsession (1935, 102 minutes): a new digital transfer of John M. Stahl’s complete earlier version of the film - Douglas Sirk: From UFA to Hollywood (1991): a rare 80-minute documentary by German filmmaker Eckhart Schmidt in which Sirk reflects upon his career - Video interviews with filmmakers Allison Anders and Kathryn Bigelow, paying tribute to Sirk - Theatrical trailer - PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film critic Geoffrey O’Brien  - DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES: - New, restored high-definition digital transfer supervised and approved by director Gregory Nava - New audio commentary featuring Nava - In the Service of the Shadows: The Making of “El Norte”: a new video program featuring interviews with Nava, producer and cowriter Anna Thomas, actors Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez and David Villalpando, and set designer David Wasco - Wall of Silence, a new short documentary by Nava and Barbara Martinez Jitner, concerning the building of the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border - The Journal of Diego Rodriguez Silva, the 1972 award-winning student film by Nava - Gallery of Chipas location-scouting photographs - Theatrical trailer - New and improved English subtitle translation - PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by novelist Héctor Tobar and Roger Ebert’s 1983 review of the film FitFortDanga fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Oct 17, 2008 |
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2008 23:09
|
|
|
I don't think The Taking of Power by Louis XIV will make any difference to that opinion. It's a pretty conventional period piece. There's some interesting subtext but on the whole it's a pretty boring film. I don't get why Criterion would bother releasing it before the 3 WWII films that made him famous.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2008 23:10
|
|
|
ECLIPSE SERIES 14: ROSSELLINI'S HISTORY FILMS RENAISSANCE AND ENLIGHTENMENT - The Age of the Medici - Blaise Pascal - Cartesius zzzzzzz I'm a little disappointed that the El Norte is just a copy of the VHS case, but at least the extras are nice.
|
|
#
?
Oct 15, 2008 23:11
|
|
|
The El Norte cover is beautiful, though. Not to nitpick, but Magnificent Obsession was released in 1.85:1 matted widescreen back in 1954. Universal stopped using 4x3 by the end of 1953. If it's 4x3, there's going to be a lot of empty headroom everywhere.
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 16, 2008 00:04
|
|
|
Can someone answer a question for me? I just got from Netflix a Criterion movie called Walker with Ed Harris, about the 19th-century American who became ruler of Nicaragua. However, the reviews on the film on Netflix give it a 2.5-star rating out of five and some people seem to have really hated it. I'm going to watch this movie tonight, but if it's such a poo poo film, why is it in the Criterion Collection? Sure, the collection has the odd questionable entry (cough, Armageddon, cough), but this one has far lower ratings than most films in the CC. What gives? stray fucked around with this message at 00:58 on Oct 17, 2008 |
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2008 00:53
|
|
|
stray posted:Can someone answer a question for me? It probably has something to do with being directed by Alex Cox, they also released Sid and Nancy.
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2008 01:05
|
|
|
stray posted:Can someone answer a question for me? It's not a great film IMO but it has its charms. It's got a unique bent to it, an unusual historical bio-pic with anachronistic touches. There are MUCH worse movies in the collection, and not just the Michael Bay ones. Anyway, for one thing, quality is a matter of opinion. Some people find greatness in works that others don't. The other thing, and this is the reason you get stuff like Armageddon, is that Criterion's mission statement isn't to release only beloved favorites. "The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films on DVD" (emphasis added). As for why Walker specifically, the entry on their website should be useful: Criterion posted:A hallucinatory biopic that breaks all cinematic conventions, Walker, from British director Alex Cox (Repo Man, Sid & Nancy), tells the story of nineteenth-century American adventurer William Walker (Ed Harris), who abandoned a series of careers in law, politics, journalism, and medicine to become a soldier of fortune, and for several years dictator of Nicaragua. Made with mad abandon and political acuity—and the support of the Sandinista army and government during the Contra war—the film uses this true tale as a satirical attack on American ultrapatriotism and a freewheeling condemnation of "manifest destiny." Featuring a powerful score by Joe Strummer and a performance of intense, repressed rage by Harris, Walker remains one of Cox's most daring works.
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2008 01:09
|
|
|
FitFortDanga posted:It's not a great film IMO but it has its charms. It's got a unique bent to it, an unusual historical bio-pic with anachronistic touches. There are MUCH worse movies in the collection, and not just the Michael Bay ones.
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2008 16:23
|
|
|
stray posted:Thanks for the info on Walker, but really, how is Armageddon important by any metric other than it made a squillion dollars? Is there a single thing in that movie that anyone could describe as "important"? It represents the big-budget summer blockbuster. It may not be important to the average film snob (including myself) but it's a segment of cinema that's part of our cultural makeup. In terms of impact on the business side of Hollywood, and what the average Joe watches, it's one of the most important films in the collection. The other thing is that sales of high-profile titles like Armageddon, The Rock, RoboCop, Beastie Boys Video Collection and Silence of the Lambs help fund more under-the-radar releases like By Brakhage and the Olmi discs.
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2008 16:41
|
|
|
FitFortDanga posted:
Every college kid I know has A Life Aquatic from the criterion collection in their DVD collection. Most of the time, it is the only criterion they own. And this is a more contemporary one because if my memory serves me right, the ones you named are out of print. I know that Robocop is for sure. But the point definitely still stands: criterion sells alot of a popular title and the effect is that they can release more lesser-known or niche titles. e: this brings up a question. Is there a list of Criterion's best sellers/total sales of each title available anywhere?
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2008 16:50
|
|
|
There is a list somewhere, but I don't remember where. I do remember that Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is their bestseller by a fair margin.
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2008 16:57
|
|
|
RaydaArab posted:the ones you named are out of print. I know that Robocop is for sure. RoboCop and SOTL are OOP. The others are still in print. RaydaArab posted:e: this brings up a question. Is there a list of Criterion's best sellers/total sales of each title available anywhere? Not that I know of.
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2008 17:00
|
|
|
I think I read somewhere that Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was one of, if not the top seller for them. It was the first one I bought, for one thing. Then it became an addiction. An expensive, pretentious addiction.
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2008 17:18
|
|
|
RaydaArab posted:Every college kid I know has A Life Aquatic from the criterion collection in their DVD collection. Most of the time, it is the only criterion they own. And this is a more contemporary one because if my memory serves me right, the ones you named are out of print. I know that Robocop is for sure. But the point definitely still stands: criterion sells alot of a popular title and the effect is that they can release more lesser-known or niche titles. I think the only release of the life aquatic was a criterion release. A 1 and 2 disc, if I remember.
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2008 17:39
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 02:56 |
|
FitFortDanga posted:It represents the big-budget summer blockbuster. It may not be important to the average film snob (including myself) but it's a segment of cinema that's part of our cultural makeup. In terms of impact on the business side of Hollywood, and what the average Joe watches, it's one of the most important films in the collection. Actually, I think it's more about the presentation of an overall dumb movie. The entire package is virtually "how to make a dumb blockbuster 101". At the time, Disney was NOT giving that sort of full treatment on films. Criterion's Armageddon is exactly what Disney would put out now, but not in 1999. Anything to help pay the bills. Of course, that doesn't explain releases like Fanfan la Tulipe. /CriterionForum.org
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 17, 2008 18:45
|
|