MoC Forthcoming, Wishlist, and Random Speculation

[James]

I just realized that the Blu-ray could be... Weekend! Think about it: Artifical Eye seems to have lost the rights to it as their DVD is OOP, not to mention Nick said that the Blu-ray would be something by a director already in the collection. Hey, it's possible! Good luck picking out screenshots that would hide Godard's visual distinctiveness.

[antnield]

I thought I had it with my Boris Barnet guesses. Oh well...

Despite a ton of interesting shots in the dark, no-one on Twitter has got it.

Incidentally Nick - once the solution is revealed, any chance of letting on to the more interesting of these shots in the dark? Or perhaps some of them which have prompted you to look into certain titles...

[Peacock]

It would be very exciting, but do you think it's likely? Artificial Eye always seem to keep a hold of their titles, would they really pass Weekend on to MoC rather than renew?

[James]

It would be very exciting, but do you think it's likely? Artificial Eye always seem to keep a hold of their titles, would they really pass Weekend on to MoC rather than renew?

It would be more likely of them to not offer the rights than to rerelease, which means: who knows if they even renewed?. It's been a few years now since the title has been in print, and that goes for region 1 and 2, sadly.

[Cronenfly]

It would be very exciting, but do you think it's likely? Artificial Eye always seem to keep a hold of their titles, would they really pass Weekend on to MoC rather than renew?

It would be more likely of them to not offer the rights than to rerelease, which means: who knows if they even renewed?. It's been a few years now since the title has been in print, and that goes for region 1 and 2, sadly.

Well, Weekend is with Gaumont (source of rights/materials to MoC for the Pialats, L'Argent, and, with the most relevace to Weekend, Une Femme Mariee), so I don't think it's out of the question (and given that it will be Blu only, I could see MoC's acquiring the title having been possible entirely without Artificial Eye's participation/consent). It would very likely add another region-B locked release to MoC's Blu roster, though, seeing as it has been strongly rumoured that Criterion has taken over the North American rights.

[Minkin]

mastersofcinema Sorry - @SoyCuba64 is the winner! ---- it's
Jacques Feyder's LE GRAND JEU (1934)

And I spent a few minutes today looking at Feyder's films thinking that could be a possibility! Oh well, excellent detective work SoyCuba.

[James]

It would very likely add another region-B locked release to MoC's Blu roster, though, seeing as it has been strongly rumoured that Criterion has taken over the North American rights.

This I still don't understand. How come Criterion can release Weekend, but not Celine and Julie Go Boating?

[justeleblanc]

This I still don't understand. How come Criterion can release Weekend, but not Celine and Julie Go Boating?

Both were NYer titles at some point, yes, but NYer did not own the rights to Weekend at the time of their demise. This is how Criterion was able to pick it up. Celine and Julie, however, was in NYer's possession during their demise, which is why it's stuck in legal turmoil.

[Tommaso]

mastersofcinema Sorry - @SoyCuba64 is the winner! ---- it's
Jacques Feyder's LE GRAND JEU (1934)

And I spent a few minutes today looking at Feyder's films thinking that could be a possibility! Oh well, excellent detective work SoyCuba.

And an excellent release! Totally unexpected, too. I'd never thought of Feyder, but as this is such an underrepresented director, a most welcome choice.

[Awesome Welles]

It would be very exciting, but do you think it's likely? Artificial Eye always seem to keep a hold of their titles, would they really pass Weekend on to MoC rather than renew?

It would be amazing and I would have thought it not possible until I noticed yesterday when looking for Bergman discs that Tartan recently issued a new disc of Fanny and Alexander after AE's went OOP.

Re the Winner I was thinking Feyder only because I know Nick is a fan but I don't know anything about Feyder so didn't know where to start! Congrats to SoyCuba, I look forward to seeing the disc when released.

[foggy eyes]

A very pleasant surprise - this should be a major discovery for many of us.

+1 for unveiling all new releases in this manner!

[SoyCuba]

mastersofcinema Sorry - @SoyCuba64 is the winner! ---- it's
Jacques Feyder's LE GRAND JEU (1934)

Woah Well, many thanks to Jonathan S for the helpful hint, IMDb's search engine and of course MoC for the free DVD

[peerpee]

SoyCuba - please email [email protected] with your details and I'll make sure you receive a copy in May when we release it. Well done!

[carax09]

Congrats, SoyCuba!

Hey Nick, any chance of eliciting the support of Dudley Andrews for help with an essay?

from Mists of Regret: Culture and Sensibility in Classic French Film:
"Although L'Atalante addressed a kind of spectator yet to be awakened (performing miserably at the box office even in its compromised version), it gave off an air of being important, so that it was chosen to represent the country at the Venice film festival in 1934. There it joined three other films bearing witness to the germination of a new lyrical sensibility ready to sweep into French Cinema: Lacombe's 'darkly pessimistic' Jeunesse. Ozep's exotic Amok, and Feyder's Le Grand Jeu. In all four films imagery rivaled plot, a shift most notable in Le Grand Jeu because of its immense popular success and because, as a tale of the Foreign Legion, it was supposed to be an action picture. Those few critics who balked at Le Grand Jeu recognized that it did not correspond to the 'well-shaped dramas in the theatrical mode', they were accustomed to. Feyder was reproached for 'working like a novelist, especially in prolonging nondramatic moments.' This descriptive prolongation is exactly what gives the film its imagistic density, steering it toward poetic realism and pointing back to the nation's magnificent poetic tradition, which uses Africa and the Orient as a prime inspiration."

It sounds wonderful.

[Jonathan S]

mastersofcinema Sorry - @SoyCuba64 is the winner! ---- it's
Jacques Feyder's LE GRAND JEU (1934)

Woah Well, many thanks to Jonathan S for the helpful hint, IMDb's search engine and of course MoC for the free DVD

Well done! Glad to have helped as I wouldn't have guessed it myself, never having seen it and being convinced by the more stylised-looking frames that it must be a silent, probably one of the more obscure Ivan Mosjoukine films for Albatros!

[Der Spieler]

I know this is a lot of wishful thinking on my part, but it would be great if MoC released a double-set akin to the Phantom/Finanzes one but containing the Lang diptych Beyond a Reasonable Doubt/While the City Sleeps. I'm pretty sure it would sell really well as these two have never seen the light of day on digital format and are highly sought-after by Lang fans.

It might never happen but I'm throwing the idea out there.

I know Wild Side plans to release those somewhere in 2011 but it seems far away and I know they've been known to frequently cancel titles. In fact, they canceled the re-releases of House by the River and Secret Beyond the Door.

Any chance of this ever happening?

[perkizitore]

Why aren't the March titles not even have cover-art yet, while Criterion has already announced their April titles? I know that you have limited resources and you spill out the beans quicker compared to Criterion, but you usually have started pre-orders at this point.

[doc mccoy]

Why aren't the March titles not even have cover-art yet, while Criterion has already announced their April titles?

I think that MoC has already provided the cover art for their March releases - the two Pialats - A nos amours and Under Satan's Sun; you can see it a few pages back on the cover art thread.

[TMDaines]

Yep. The cover art is up for everything until April bar the art for the individual Lubitsch's. I should point out that there is no mention of the Lubitsch set on the Eureka! nor the MoC site at all - not even in the upcoming section on the Eureka! site.

[James]

Yep. The cover art is up for everything until April bar the art for the individual Lubitsch's. I should point out that there is no mention of the Lubitsch set on the Eureka! nor the MoC site at all - not even in the upcoming section on the Eureka! site.

That, and it's no longer their background on Twitter.

[perkizitore]

I know that the cover art exists, but it's not 'official' yet. AS you have mentioned, it doesn't appear on the MoC website.

[TMDaines]

I know that the cover art exists, but it's not 'official' yet. AS you have mentioned, it doesn't appear on the MoC website.

Only the Lubitsch isn't on the website. Everything else is.

[perkizitore]

No, the Pialat's aren't either. Are the Costa's to be released in March or have they been postponed?

[TMDaines]

](*,) Geez, Keep up: http://eurekavideo.co.uk/moc/catalogue/. They've all been there for at least a couple of months - and the Costa's are just announced but no more.

[perkizitore]