Questions for Criterion: 2007 Edition

[cdnchris]

I was able to set up another chance to do a Q&A with the folks at Criterion. Like before everyone will be able to submit questions, then the list will be compiled and e-mailed. As to who will be answering these questions will come down to who is best suited to answer them.

You have two options:
1. Post your question in this thread for everyone to see, and possibly meet ridicule.
2. You can send them to the e-mail address shown below.

Make the questions good ones, not ones like "When are you releasing The Game/Bottle Rocket?" or "Are you going to get the rights to Epic Movie?" or the kinda things that would be sent to the Mulvaney e-mail. You ask good ones and you might get a response from Peter Becker. The questions will be sorted through and compiled and sent off. I can't guarantee all questions will be answered.

I will take questions until Monday, May 28th (Memorial Day) and then lock this thread and the e-mail address.

Once I receive answers I will start a new topic and post them in a Q&A format. I will include the (screen) name of the person asking the question, so if you want to ask anonymously you can send the question to the e-mail address below. If you send the question to the e-mail below but don't want to be anonymous, please state your screen name or name in the e-mail along with the question.

Have fun!

E-mail address to send questions:


Submit Questions before Monday May 28th, 6:00pm PT

[What A Disgrace]

I am going to risk ridicule. Are we only limited to a single question? If so, I'd like to avoid specificities, in favor of a more vague generalization.

With the coming of the new Eclipse line, and numerous film restorations all around the world, does Criterion have any plans to increase its output of silent films? The Eclipse line seems perfect for such an endeavor, and since an Eclipse box needn't be limited to a single director (though a common theme apart from "silent film" is obviously required), Criterion may have multiple opportunities to release such films.

(To the boardies: I'm thinking of Swedish silents in particular, as in love with the recent Stiller releases as most are, and not limited to features, or a Criterion special edition of Peixoto's Limite).

[cdnchris]

Well, you could ask more than one but chances are only one of them will be sent. I don't want to bombard them with a huge e-mail. Basically I will be looking through all the questions and sending the ones that are the best ones.

[Ashirg]

Are there links to the previous Q&A with them that was done a couple years ago? It would be interesting to see what was asked previously.

[cdnchris]

I unfortunately couldn't find them. Have they possibly been lost? Or am I just a complete ass at using the search functionality on this site?

[LightBulbFilm]

There are many American directors Criterion has never touched as far as the DVD years have gone (or at all for that matter), a few that come to mind are Tim Burton and Steven Spielberg and there are plenty more obviously. Is there a reason other than not being able to get ahold of a copyright that Criterion has not explored adding films from these and other directors into their catalogue?

[Matt]

Are there links to the previous Q&A with them that was done a couple years ago? It would be interesting to see what was asked previously.

Amazingly, I still had the original e-mails. I don't have the list of questions from the final, unanswered 2004 interview though.

[Greathinker]

First and foremost, and probably needless to say, where is the re-release of Andrei Rublev. Though I wonder if they're keeping it under wraps as long as they can so more people will buy the first disc.

[Cinephrenic]

We seriously need to get an update on the Russians and their Soviet avante-garde masterpieces that is eight year overdue.

[mmacklem]

Question: With the new Eclipse line providing the option of releasing a number of previously unavailable titles simultaneously, a number of the recent releases have taken the form of single releases by directors who might not have numerous other titles available to Criterion for release. How is the decision made to release multiple related titles via an Eclipse box vs. separate Criterion releases? For example, the two Ermanno Olmi titles (Il Posto and I Fidanzati) or Milos Forman titles (Loves of a Blonde and The Firemen's Ball) were separate Criterion releases; would they have been paired as an Eclipse boxset if they were released today?

[Cinesimilitude]

1. Do you put any thought into a release's spine number, such as which title got to be #100, 200, 300, and now which one gets to be 400?

(will add more questions later)

[sevenarts]

Besides the New Wave box set we've all heard about, what are some of the Eclipse plans for non-director-specific groupings?

[arsonfilms]

Besides the New Wave box set we've all heard about, what are some of the Eclipse plans for non-director-specific groupings?

Filmmaker Magazine also mentioned a Samurai set.

[Gigi M.]

Now that FOX is distributing MGM catalog in the US, can Criterion license titles from them as well? And if so, can we expect titles previously release by Criterion on laserdisc like, 12 Angry Men, Annie Hall, Burn!, Carnal Knowledge, Darling, etc...

Can we also expect titles from Image: Vampire, Rocco and his brothers, Germany year 0, etc?

[redbill]

When Criterion fanboys post on message boards about how lame they think new covers are, do you take the input seriously, or do you all sit around the office making jokes about how they probably live in their mother's basement?

[Spunky714]

One of the unique aspects of Criterion, I feel, is the ability to interact with the staff. Responses to questions seem honest and rather heartfelt, instead of a standard cut-and-paste reply you may receive from larger corporate DVD producers. You also frequently ask for questions to be included in upcoming releases, and everyone enjoys deciphering the clues in the Newsletter.

"On Five," the blog that was started last year, seems to be a part of this trend, and it was great to have more insight into the company. However, posts have slowed to a trickle. I'm assuming that everyone is so busy creating outstanding DVDs for us to enjoy that no one has time for entries, but are there any plans to have more, frequently-updated posts?

Thanks
Patrick

[Darth Lavender]

I've noticed an increasing trend towards Criterion releasing titles already available in high-quality releases from other regions (eg. Pitfall, Face of Another, Vengeance Is Mine, Ivan's Childhood, etc.) (Perhaps this overlap is inevitable simply because there are more frequent high-quality releases of classics now with MoC, etc. than there were five years ago.)
My question, though, is how strongly does the presence of a Region 2 (or 4, or 5, etc.) release figure into Criterion's decision to produce a DVD?Is it completely unimportant (given the strong US-based rental-market, etc.) Does Criterion only 'double up' on Special Editions when you feel there's opportunity for improvement? (as in the case of Ivan's Childhood which, I understand, will be the first DVD release to use the original Mono soundtrack, or Vengeance Is Mine which uses a significantly different (more accurate?) transfer to the Region 2 release).

On a related note, can we look forward to any improvements in Criterion's upcoming Pitfall and Face Of Another? (Superior elements, etc.?)

Question: With the new Eclipse line providing the option of releasing a number of previously unavailable titles simultaneously, a number of the recent releases have taken the form of single releases by directors who might not have numerous other titles available to Criterion for release. How is the decision made to release multiple related titles via an Eclipse box vs. separate Criterion releases? For example, the two Ermanno Olmi titles (Il Posto and I Fidanzati) or Milos Forman titles (Loves of a Blonde and The Firemen's Ball) were separate Criterion releases; would they have been paired as an Eclipse boxset if they were released today?

If I might hazard an answer to that question; I thought the whole point of the 'Eclipse' line was to release lesser classics which might not warrant a full bells & whistles Criterion release (that's why, for instance, it's the largely forgotten 'Early Bergman' that got released on Eclipse and not, say, the more high-profile Faith Trilogy.

[tryavna]

With the coming of the new Eclipse line, and numerous film restorations all around the world, does Criterion have any plans to increase its output of silent films? The Eclipse line seems perfect for such an endeavor, and since an Eclipse box needn't be limited to a single director (though a common theme apart from "silent film" is obviously required), Criterion may have multiple opportunities to release such films.

This is an excellent question and similar to the first one that popped into my own mind. Personally, I think that it's best to keep it somewhat general instead of overly specific (i.e., the Swedish silents). Keeping it more general might give them enough wiggle-room to address other silents Criterion might be pursuing.

At any rate, I think it's extremely important to let Criterion know that there's still a great deal of interest in further silent titles.

[GringoTex]

Rossellini: He's probably the most poorly-respresented-on-DVD of all the traditional "great" directors. The Criterion Flowers of St. Francis DVD was a godsend- does Criterion have plans for more of his stuff?

[LightBulbFilm]

What ever happened with She's Gotta Have It? As we all know now, there is no planned release because the rights couldn't be acquired. But I remember hearing Spike Lee's agent had mentioned it being re-released by Criterion. What elapsed that kept it from being put in the collection?

[sherlockjr]

Any possibility of the Apu trilogy?

[Saarijas]

Is there any future plans to release anything from the modern film Mecca of Iran?

As mentioned above, I am also interested in Spike Lee picking up a few more movies in the collection.

[Cinephrenic]

How about other Italian classics, such as Shoeshine, Bitter Rice, Red Desert, Bellissima, Senso, Lucky Luciano, etc...

[Glass]

What is the status of the Wellspring deal of 2004; will there be any more deals with Wellspring to release titles like the now OOP Fassbinders (Eclipse?), or at one point in the future the films of Tsai Ming-Liang (for the sake of some better transfers) - what possible titles can we expect?

[Scharphedin2]

I've noticed an increasing trend towards Criterion releasing titles already available in high-quality releases from other regions (eg. Pitfall, Face of Another, Vengeance Is Mine, Ivan's Childhood, etc.) (Perhaps this overlap is inevitable simply because there are more frequent high-quality releases of classics now with MoC, etc. than there were five years ago.)
My question, though, is how strongly does the presence of a Region 2 (or 4, or 5, etc.) release figure into Criterion's decision to produce a DVD?Is it completely unimportant (given the strong US-based rental-market, etc.) Does Criterion only 'double up' on Special Editions when you feel there's opportunity for improvement? (as in the case of Ivan's Childhood which, I understand, will be the first DVD release to use the original Mono soundtrack, or Vengeance Is Mine which uses a significantly different (more accurate?) transfer to the Region 2 release).

On a related note, can we look forward to any improvements in Criterion's upcoming Pitfall and Face Of Another? (Superior elements, etc.?)

Question: With the new Eclipse line providing the option of releasing a number of previously unavailable titles simultaneously, a number of the recent releases have taken the form of single releases by directors who might not have numerous other titles available to Criterion for release. How is the decision made to release multiple related titles via an Eclipse box vs. separate Criterion releases? For example, the two Ermanno Olmi titles (Il Posto and I Fidanzati) or Milos Forman titles (Loves of a Blonde and The Firemen's Ball) were separate Criterion releases; would they have been paired as an Eclipse boxset if they were released today?

If I might hazard an answer to that question; I thought the whole point of the 'Eclipse' line was to release lesser classics which might not warrant a full bells & whistles Criterion release (that's why, for instance, it's the largely forgotten 'Early Bergman' that got released on Eclipse and not, say, the more high-profile Faith Trilogy.

Sort of related to this, I have often wondered if there was a way that Criterion could initiate closer partnerships with some of their peers outside the US in order to release superior editions of some of the kinds of films that are obviously hard sells in any market (re: the ongoing discussion on some of MoC titles selling poorly). Would it be conceivable that Criterion work together with labels like MoC (and maybe Minerva or mk2, etc.) both on securing rights, restorations and extras in order to offer one definitive release of certain films in all markets at once?

I am sure that it is a small group of customers, who purchase internationally, and are frustrated by multiple different quality releases of the same films in different regions, but I am also sure that this small group of people are on the block more or less every time a quality silent film or Asian classic is released, and who also end up buying the second and even third edition of the film in order to have access to differing extras on different companies' editions of the same films.

The international film fans would win, but so would the labels that care about these films, as they would be able to split costs on license and development of materials.

Not sure that this can be shaped into a question, but it is something I often wonder about.