Criterion Random Speculation Vol.2

[kappoka]

I agree with what you say and art always has followers and detractors but I don't think he is 'complete' at all. Never has complete popped up when I have pondered Greenaway. Innovative and daring I completely agree with you but it rarely works. I love challenging films (El Topo, Salo, ...Pomegranates...Delicatessen, Brazil even)
The closest I have come to appreciating his work is Pillow Book but the rest of his stuff, as I see it, alienates the viewer and provides intellectual Bantha Poo-doo for his few followers. It all means nothing cinematically.

I am not completely averse to a Greenaway box set for his fans--but I would like to think that there are more important gaps in the CC that need to be filled before we get to him. I am with you on Armageddon and can understand your indifference to Schlondorff but Renoir? Tell me you don't like The River!

[jorencain]

I checked out the trailer for "Elevator To The Gallows" and now I'm very excited to see it. I don't think I've seen any Malle yet, but the trailer makes it look SO good, and I'm looking forward to seeing it out in DC in September.

[Tribe]

Tell me you don't like The River!

I don't like The River. In fact, aside from Rules of the Game and a few films that precede it, Renoir doesn't do a thing for me. I do recognize that he is considered an important director and hey, what the hell...

As for Greenaway, not everyone likes his work...and admittedly, after Baby of Macon the quality of his films has declined dramatically (with the exception of Pillow Book). If you don't get it, then that's cool...but that being said his work is far from "mean[ing]nothing cinematically," and likely no amount of discussion is likely to sway those who will have nothing to do with his work.

Tribe

[mmiesner]

The closest I have come to appreciating his work is Pillow Book but the rest of his stuff, as I see it, alienates the viewer and provides intellectual Bantha Poo-doo for his few followers. It all means nothing cinematically.

this is precisely why i think he is such a great film maker. the man does not worry about the intellect of his audience, he makes films that make sense to him and are making an artistic statement. i don't claim to understand every nuance of his work, or to catch every reference to the variety of art he draws from, but i can't get over how absolutely deep and structured his films are. i seriously think you can take any still from a Greenaway film and have it be a beautiful single image chock full of meaning and interpretation. and my comment about him being the most 'complete' film maker was meant to mean he is one of very few people who uses every aspect of the film making process to make his statement. his cinematography, his layering of images, his choice of words and script structuring, his musical choices, his art design... it's all done towards the end product, nothing is left untouched.

as far as Tribe's comment about his decline in film making prowess since Baby of Macon the next film he did was The Pillow Book *the one you commented as an exception*. so that leaves us with 8 1/2 Women and the three Tulse Luper films - have you seen all three Tulse Luper films? not saying i don't believe you have, but they are tough to see. so maybe should you just say that 8 1/2 Women was a step down *which i would definitely agree with, as much as i liked it, it holds no candle to Macon or Pillow Book*?

[scotty]

Elevator: Miles Davis solos to Jeanne Moreau's walk. Worth the entire film just for that scene. One of the great jazz soundtracks.

[GringoTex]

i think that Greenaway is possibly the most complete film maker alive. he is *in my opinion* the most daring and innovative film maker working today, and one of few people who are truly attempting to realize the potential of film to it's full extent.

I find Greenaway incredibly boring. And I think he practices a very primitive form of cinema. His imagery is stilted and obvious, and he telegraphs his symbolism from a mile away. He constructs one set piece after another with no sense of rhythm. Nothing is alive or has movement on the screen. It's like paint-by-numbers.

[neuro]

i don't understand why some people are so averse to having certain people or films included in the collection...can someone explain to me why they feel this way about some people, not just Greenaway?

Solipsism?

Or, more likely, what a friend of mine refers to as "my own private band" syndrome...

[zedz]

Elevator: Miles Davis solos to Jeanne Moreau's walk. Worth the entire film just for that scene. One of the great jazz soundtracks.

One of the great soundtracks period. Gallows is a nifty enough thriller, but it's Miles that elevates it to great cinema. I would definitely expect a feature on the soundtrack on any future special edition of the film.

[mmiesner]

i cried a little bit when i read the above post.

i didn't know that there was only one 'right' way to make films. maybe that's why i don't have a studio job and Brett Ratner does - because like Kubrick, Tarkovsky, Bresson and Antonioni, he knows this mythical 'right' way and i'm too busy attempting to be creative. except weren't Kubrick, Tarkovsky, Bresson and Antonioni being creative...? i suppose not, they were just being 'right'.

nothing personal, but that has got to be one of the most ignorant posts i've ever read.

[Andre Jurieu]

i cried a little bit when i read the above post.

i didn't know that there was only one 'right' way to make films. maybe that's why i don't have a studio job and Brett Ratner does - because like Kubrick, Tarkovsky, Bresson and Antonioni, he knows this mythical 'right' way and i'm too busy attempting to be creative. except weren't Kubrick, Tarkovsky, Bresson and Antonioni being creative...? i suppose not, they were just being 'right'.

My advice - Don't feed the animals.

nothing personal, but that has got to be one of the most ignorant posts i've ever read.

Welcome to goofy's world.

[kieslowski_67]

Any update on what's going on with this baby? Fassbinder's son has been paid. It seems that Fassbinder foundation is gonna finish all restoration by 2006. Rumor has it that Criterion is among one of several suitors that are interested in releasing this movie on DVD, and DVD Beaver announced the news on their website a while ago. Any more update is appreciated.

Also is there any remote chance that CC might release "double life" in the future? Criterion needs to have at least one Kieslowski movie in their catalog, and either 'double life' or a much better transfer of 'dekalog' should do it.

MK2 secured rights to all Kieslowski movies a while ago with the exception of 'double life'. Anyone knows any detail on whom the rights belong to? thanks.

[justeleblanc]

Miramax owns Veronique. At least they had their hands in American distribution - like the colors trilogy.

[Buttery Jeb]

Miramax was the U.S. distributor but, like most of their earlier releases, they licensed the video rights to another company. In this case, Paramount controlled the video rights to the film, and possibly still do (along with "Delicatessen" and Soderbergh's "Kafka").

In other words, I wouldn't hold your breath on seeing it come out through Criterion. Or at all on a R1 disc, anytime soon.

-BJ

[FilmFanSea]

Re: The Double Life of Véronique

I recently contacted Martin Blythe at Paramount about this film. He said that--as far as he knows--Paramount no longer holds the video rights. Although, apparently, Annette Insdorf has made inquiries at Miramax, and has been told that they don't have the rights, either. I guess the only thing that can be concluded from this is that neither company is working on a DVD release for the near future.

[cbernard]

Greenaway is like Kubrick, Tarkovsky, Bresson and Antonioni -- except everything they do right, he does wrong.

Those are the greats alright.

Throw in Bela Tarr and you have everyone in the history of cinema worth talking about.

Except Jerry Lewis.

And Welles.

And Ford.

And Spielberg, and Sokurov, and Tarantino, and Hong Sang-soo, and Eastwood, and Rohmer, and Godard, and David O. Russell, and Miyazaki, and Linklater, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Akira Kurosawa, and Naruse, and Hawks, Marker, and Lynch, the Farrelly bros., the Dardennes bros., the Coen bros., Feuillade, Lang, Gitai, de Oliveira, Preminger, Desplechin, Haneke, Fosse, Scott, Coppola, Zemeckis, De Palma, Davies, Tim Burton, Maddin, Spike Lee, Ophüls, Anthony Mann, Boetticher, Fuller, Tati, Freleng, Clampett, Tashlin, Borzage, McCarey, Ozu, Mizoguchi, Hitchcock, Cukor, von Sternberg, von Trier, von Stroheim, Vidor, Powell, Pressburger, Clair, Buñuel, Renoir, Dreyer, Guitry, Ulmer, Epstein, Sjöström, Barnet...oh I'm sorry I forgot it's easier to limit one's horizons, my bad.

[Subbuteo]

Pah!
How could you forget Bergman

[cbernard]

Add Bergman. I've forgotten several names, if not more. After all cinema is made of building rather than destroying...

[Taketori Washizu]

Any possible chance of Criterion acquring it since the current distributor doesn't seem to be in any hurry to release a special edition version. I would like to hear commentary by Bertolucci and Storraro, a shame that Brando has since passed on, but he doubtfully would have participated also.

[Lino]

Any possible chance of Criterion acquring it since the current distributor doesn't seem to be in any hurry to release a special edition version.

Hardly. This is a United Artists title, thus owned by MGM, now a part of Sony. They don't usually license their titles although there have been some exceptions in the past. I too would like to see a sort of SE of this title as I feel that the transfer could be largely improved. BTW, does anyone own the italian DVD and can comment on the A/V quality and extras? Oh, and what were the extras on the Criterion Laserdisc apart from the reprint of the most famous of Pauline Kael's film reviews?

[Ishmael]

Oh, and what were the extras on the Criterion Laserdisc apart from the reprint of the most famous of Pauline Kael's film reviews?

Sadly, there weren't any extras at all.

[Brian Oblivious]

I'm not sure how "random" it is, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Criterion or HVE announce a release of Jean Grémillion's Remorques one of these days. The Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley just released its new calendar, which includes a mid-August stint for the series "French Cinema Under the Occupation" selected by Bertrand Tavernier and currently traveling around North America. Anyway, in the notes for Children of Paradise, Le Corbeau and Remorques it says "Permission Janus/Criterion Collection".

http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/pfa_prog ... index.html

[scotty]

Elevator: Miles Davis solos to Jeanne Moreau's walk. Worth the entire film just for that scene. One of the great jazz soundtracks.

One of the great soundtracks period. Gallows is a nifty enough thriller, but it's Miles that elevates it to great cinema. I would definitely expect a feature on the soundtrack on any future special edition of the film.

The story has been often told, but Davis soloed to images projected by Malle--it is a perfect example of Davis's encompassing musicianship and also one of the best examples of him playing within the blues form to brilliant effect. "Generique" is one of his great performances in a recording career overflowing with them. I'll be preordering this one and, indeed, the CC has a great opportunity here to put together a cool extra. I already own it, but perhaps they'll strike a soundtrack deal and include the CD. It makes a superb introduction for anyone deprived enough to have missed Miles Davis's music during their time on earth.

[kieslowski_67]

Re: The Double Life of Véronique

I recently contacted Martin Blythe at Paramount about this film. He said that--as far as he knows--Paramount no longer holds the video rights. Although, apparently, Annette Insdorf has made inquiries at Miramax, and has been told that they don't have the rights, either. I guess the only thing that can be concluded from this is that neither company is working on a DVD release for the near future.

So who has the rights for "Veronique" in the States?

[kieslowski_67]

Criterion has better release some Malle this year, otherwise I will buy the Japanese box sets that include 'lovers', 'gallows', 'murmur of the heart', 'lucien lacombe', among others.

[justeleblanc]

Miramax