Forthcoming Lists Discussion and Random Speculation Vol.3

[cdnchris]

Recall that Darius Khondji recently visited the Criterion closet, and there was some speculation about what transfer he might be supervising. I now wonder if it might be Evita. It's clearly a personal favorite of either Becker or Turrell since they released it on laserdisc. That possibility doesn't do much for me, but I'd certainly welcome it as a harbinger of a Disney decision to license more Hollywood and Touchstone properties directly to Criterion.

Evita always puzzled me more than the inclusion of Armageddon in the collection, though theoretically it could prove to be a case where the supplements are worth it and far more interesting than the film.

I can only imagine the cries from people here but if Criterion could get at more of the Touchstone/Hollywood library while Disney doesn't seem to care I actually wouldn't mind a decent Blu-ray of Dead Presidents carrying over all of their supplements from the laserdisc. And if they could expand out to other titles they haven't previously released on any format I could get behind decent editions for The Insider, and hell, even Quiz Show (the latter one being one I really do enjoy but am sick of my non-anamorphic DVD.)

[knives]

If they could get Dead Presidents and maybe Menace ll Society back that would be great as fun intelligent pop.

[SamLowry]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the newsletter hint yet. Matador will be the first Almodovar in December?

[knives]

Yes we have.

[antnield]

Interview with Monte Hellman:

You were very involved in the Criterion edition of your film, "Two-Lane Blacktop." In fact, you conducted and produced the interviews with Kris Kristofferson and James Taylor for the "Two-Lane Blacktop" disc.

I did about four pieces for the DVD and that was a lot of fun. In fact, I'm going to be doing similar things for Criterion releases of my two Jack Nicholson westerns, "The Shooting" and "Ride in the Whirlwind."

That's a scoop! Criterion hasn't even announced these discs.

They're a ways off. We haven't even closed the deal yet but we've talked about it and basically agreed. They're not going to be doing it until sometime in 2012.

[Cash Flagg]

Finally! Hellman mentioned that Criterion would be releasing Shooting and Whirlwind three years ago. At least the delay ensures these will get the HD treatment.

[onedimension]

A Slate article mentions Poto and Cabengo 13 paragraphs in as a possible release for 2012..

[Calvin]

From the Facebook and Twitter thread but I think it belongs here

CRITERION FINDS US VERSION OF GODZILLA! 35mm Fine-Grain of GKOTM Discovered

Great news if it turns out to be true, it would be a great extra on Godzilla.

[zedz]

A Slate article mentions Poto and Cabengo 13 paragraphs in as a possible release for 2012..

Are you sure that wasn't a misprint for 2002?

[MoonlitKnight]

If they could get Dead Presidents and maybe Menace ll Society back that would be great as fun intelligent pop.

They still need to release Linklater's "SubUrbia" first. :-"

[ShellOilJunior]

Following (1998)
Le Havre (2011)

Coming in December?

Personally, I can wait on Nolan. Has anyone seen Le Havre?

[swo17]

No, which is why there's no way it's being released this December. (It hasn't even begun its theatrical tour.)

[ShellOilJunior]

Perhaps not as early as December but both on the way.

[knives]

Pierre Etaix eclipse sometime next year. Don't know who this is.

[Peacock]

A great comedy director/actor inspired partly by Tati, Chaplin with lashings of Bunuellian surrealism. Terrible description, but I don't know how to describe him. His films were in legal limbo until a year ago, never released I believe, or shelved shortly after they came out. I can guarantee this will prove to be a popular blind buy here...

[Saturnome]

Oh yes! Funny how the idea actually crossed my mind not long ago. I haven't seen the films, but the recent release of his films was something of a celebration in France, and I've been very intrigued to see them.

A blind buy for me indeed.

[Anhedionisiac]

Great news! Étaix's indeed extremely charming and I'm sure an Eclipse boxset'll prove to be popular.
I fell in love with several of his short films last winter, though I still haven't tried the feature-length films since I haven't been able to find them with subtitles (neither the short films, actually, but since those are mostly silents and, well, short, no probsies watching them). If they really do release an Eclipse of those, the subtitles make them a guaranteed buy for me.

[markant]

Does anyone know what the delay has been with Mann's "Thief" is there any update as to when we may see it?

[ianungstad]

Michael has been busy with his HBO series "Luck" which is set to debut in January. He also helped his daughter create a new edit of Texas Killing Fields (set to debut at Venice in a few days) after some lackluster test screenings back in the Spring. His schedule should be clear now though..so hopefully Criterion will be able to put Thief into production in the near future.

[dwk]

A bigger question is what is holding up Heaven's Gate? I thought they finished that work on that title last year.

[matrixschmatrix]

As I recall, it looked like it was on the docket for 2012 when they released that blurry picture everyone was trying to read.

[dwk]

You are right. I had completely forgot about that picture.

[max_cherry]

Pierre Etaix eclipse sometime next year.

Yes, yes, yes! Been waiting for this since Etaix retrospective on last year' "Molodist" Kiev Film Festival and recent news about restored Etaix french box-set without english subs. I hope it will not be anothes Guitry' case when Criterion gave us only half of french box-set of Guitry movies.

[htshell]

The Pierre Etaix news is amazing! So glad to hear it.

[Jonathan S]

A great comedy director/actor inspired partly by Tati, Chaplin with lashings of Bunuellian surrealism. Terrible description, but I don't know how to describe him. His films were in legal limbo until a year ago, never released I believe, or shelved shortly after they came out.

All or nearly all Etaix's major films, features and shorts, were televised in the UK in the mid-1980s (15-25 years after they were released). According to a 2009 Guardian article they "disappeared" only in 1996.

I think the above is a fair description of his work - Max Linder comes to mind too. I find his feature films distinctly inferior to Tati's (perhaps it was my misfortune to discover Etaix shortly after Tati). There are brilliant individual gags, sometimes whole scenes, but for me most of the features feel thin, with too little sense of structure or thematic unity, more whimsical than truly surrealist (even with Carrière's writing) - or satirical like Tati. One of them is in fact divided into shorts, which in an earlier era would have been a more appropriate format for him. Yoyo - a circus tale - is his most ambitious film, though his first starring feature Le soupirant is probably his funniest (besides the two shorts). Much of the time I find his cinematic persona bland and rather unsympathetic, compared to any of the great comedians above, but perhaps that's just me.

Etaix's films are certainly worthy of rediscovery and it's particularly nice that it's happening within his lifetime. I just worry that some of the reports (such as Leonard Maltin quoted as saying at Telluride it was like discovering Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd) are so hyperbolic that many will be disappointed outside the heady atmosphere of a film festival.