Criterion Random Speculation Vol.2

[justeleblanc]

It was just on Fox Movie Channel a week or two ago and the print looked terrible. It made me question whether or not they were going to release it anytime soon.

I wouldn't mind seeing a Fox Altman box though, no matter how crappy some of the other films are, mainly HealtH

[Theodore R. Stockton]

Fox movie channel has been showing "A Wedding" since at least sometime in the middle of the summer. I have never watched it so I don't know how the print is but Fox showing it isn't anything new.

[Buttery Jeb]

Thanks to Ebert's Great Movies review, I'm reminded of another title owned by Fine Line that deserves releasing.

In short, Jean-Claude Lauzon's Léolo.

"Léolo" will be released by Image Entertainment on October 25th, along with Antonia Bird's "Face."

Also, and this is just a rumor, I've heard that Image will put out a DVD of "Spanking the Monkey" either in December or early January. So, likely there'll be no Criterion DVDs for these.

-BJ

[foofighters7]

Image Ehh? Hmmm Interesting Very Interesting.

[King of Kong]

"Léolo" will be released by Image Entertainment on October 25th

Hmm, looks to be another bare-bones release. I wonder how it will stack up with the Canadian DVD in terms of transfer, etc?

[feihong]

I find that nearly all titles in this contemporary group have superior transfers to the R1 releases, and most of them have English subtitles. Some of the movies in the series: Camille Claudel, Belle de Jour, and Romy Schneider's masterpiece "the most important thing is love".

I have nothing against Saura's films in general. But both Blood Wedding ( a passionate play ) and Carmen left me unmoved. They are little less than dance performances, and the inherent interest of those notwithstanding, I found them a little plain.

Why can't we see the films he made in his most inspired and socially relevant period? No Cria!, nothing on The Hunt, nothing! Frustrating!

[Gordon]

I feel that there is a severe lack of German films of the period 1930-1959 on DVD. Criterion have only released fourteen German films on DVD out of over 300 titles. The last release (not counting Burden of Dreams, of course, if you want to get pedantic), the superb, Young Törless (spine 279, March 2005) was the first German release since The Tin Drum (spine 234, May 2004) another Schlöndorff film. Very few German masters are well represented on DVD.

It is truly staggering that there none of Kurt Hoffmann or Helmut Käutner films are on DVD with English subtitles. German Cinema between 1933-1964 seems to be deeply unpopular, yet, I feel that some of the greatest films ever made are to be found in that period of German Cinema:

Westfront 1918 (1930, Georg Wilhelm Pabst)
- Comrades of 1918
Der Mann, der seinen Mörder sucht (1931, Robert Siodmak)
- Looking for His Murderer
Kameradschaft (1931, Georg Wilhelm Pabst)
- Comradeship
Der Tunnel (1933, Curtis Bernhardt)
- The Tunnel
Liebelei (1933, Max Ophüls)
- Flirtation
Morgenrot (1933, Vernon Sewell, Gustav Ucicky)
- Dawn
Maskerade (1934, Willi Forst)
Mazurka (1935, Willi Forst)
Amphitryon (1935, Reinhold Schünzel)
- Amphitryon, Happiness from the Clouds
Der Berg ruft! (1938, Luis Trenker)
- The Mountain Calls
Romanze in Moll (1943, Helmut Käutner)
- Romance in a Minor Key
Opfergang (1944, Veit Harlan)
- The Great Sacrifice
Große Freiheit Nr. 7 (1944, Helmut Käutner)
- Great Freedom No. 7
Unter den Brücken (1945, Helmut Käutner)
- Under the Bridges
Nachtwache (1949, Harald Braun)
- Keepers of the Night
Epilog (1950, Helmut Käutner)
Der Untertan (1951, Wolfgang Staudte)
- The Underdog
Der Verlorene (1951, Peter Lorre)
- The Lost One
Fanfaren der Liebe (1951, Kurt Hoffmann)
- Fanfares of Love
Rosen blühen auf dem Heidegrab (1952, Hans H. König)
- Roses Bloom on the Grave in the Meadow
Bildnis einer Unbekannten (1954, Helmut Käutner)
- Portrait of an Unknown Woman
Ich denke oft an Piroschka (1955, Kurt Hoffmann)
- I Often Think of Piroschka
Der 20. Juli (1955, Falk Harnack)
- The Plot to Assassinate Hitler
- The Day the Rains Came
Ciske de Rat (1955, Wolfgang Staudte)
Himmel ohne Sterne (1955, Helmut Käutner)
- Sky Without Stars
Letzte Akt, Der (1955, Georg Wilhelm Pabst)
- Hitler: The Last Ten Days
Der Fuchs von Paris (1956, Paul May)
- The Fox of Paris
Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam (1957, Robert Siodmak)
- Nights, When the Devil Came
Es geschah am hellichten Tag (1958, Ladislao Vajda)
- It Happened in Broad Daylight
- Remade in Hollywood as The Pledge; frustratingly, the otherwise
excellent German DVD does not have English subtitles
Hunde, wollt ihr ewig leben (1958, Frank Wisbar)
- Stalingrad: Dogs, Do You Want to Live Forever?
- There is a DVD with subs available at Amazon.com with a $45 list price,
but is cheaper from their marketplace vendors. The subs
are burned-in and the image quality is adequete, obviously
from release print. An amazing film; it deserves better.
Rosen für den Staatsanwalt (1959, Wolfgang Staudte)
- Roses for the Prosecutor
Nacht fiel über Gotenhafen (1959, Frank Wisbar)
- Darkness Fell On Gotenhafen
Sterne (1959, Konrad Wolf)
- Stars

There are more, of course and I am preparing a comprehensive list of German films not on DVD with English subtitles from 1930-1994 and I'll post it soon.

[godardslave]

gordon, as usual your post is totally comprehensive, good work.

but to counter-balance your post, i feel i must point out that many claim Criterion is european biased anyway, and 14 dvds from Germany really isnt bad, compared to the following:

Consider the following:

there are ZERO african films on criterion DVD.
there are ZERO indian films on criterion DVD.
there are ZERO Chinese films on criterion DVD.
outsides of Japan, i dont believe there are even any other Asian films on criterion DVD.

I really find it quite poor on criterions behalf, its one of the few criticisms i have of their acquisitions policy.

any additions at all from these areas would bring much more balance to the collection, in my opinion.

[Cinephrenic]

Hmm...I'd rather see more Bergman, Eisenstein, Ozu, Mizoguchi, Bunuel before they hit the African safari and Chinese oppression. Now how ignorant was that! Just kiddin' ofcourse.

[oldsheperd]

Asian Films: Hard Boiled, The Killer, In the Mood For Love

[Michael Kerpan]

> outside of Japan, i dont believe there are even any other Asian
> films on criterion DVD

In the Mood for Love?

[benm]

taste of cherry is an asian film

i'm hoping for some more canadian representation, maybe childstar...

but yeah, central and south america are also severely underrepresented

[pauling]

Still waiting for the first Spanish language Criterion, too.

[justeleblanc]

Maybe some Mexican Bunuels.

[tryavna]

Didn't Criterion release Riefenstahl's Olympia on laserdisc, or am I misremembering? This was on TCM years ago, and I tried to tape it. But I messed up somehow and only got about an hour's worth. Nevertheless, I was completely blown away by Riefenstahl's mastery of her medium. I'd love to see this on DVD soon!


Of course, as a big fan of German cinema (Expressionist, New, or whatever), I agree with Gordon that we can always do with more, especially Pabst, who seems relatively neglected. Fortunately, we do have those nice Herzog boxsets from Anchor Bay.

[oldsheperd]

Misremember? Misunderestimate? DisAssemble, that means not tell the truth.

[Doctor Sunshine]

i'm hoping for some more canadian representation, maybe childstar...

To be fair, most of our stuff really isn't very good.

[pzman84]

Canada and Germany and Edward Yang would be nice but ya know what would be even nicer:

Some Italian Neo-Realism to begin with. Get some "Bicycle Theives," "Shoe-Shine," "Open City" and "La terra trema" to begin with. Note: Feburary 2006 will be the 60th anniversary of "Open City" debuting in the US.

Also, there is a serious lack of "Breathless" in the collection. Why this revolutionary film (witch was on Laserdisc) is not Criterion boggles my mind. Note: December 2005 is Godard's 75th birthday.

Maybe, since Criterion loves landmarks, they can release the films at the proper times.

[Gordon]

but to counter-balance your post, i feel i must point out that many claim Criterion is european biased anyway, and 14 dvds from Germany really isnt bad, compared to the following:

Consider the following:

there are ZERO african films on criterion DVD.
there are ZERO indian films on criterion DVD.
there are ZERO Chinese films on criterion DVD.
outsides of Japan, i dont believe there are even any other Asian films on criterion DVD.

I really find it quite poor on criterions behalf, its one of the few criticisms i have of their acquisitions policy.

any additions at all from these areas would bring much more balance to the collection, in my opinion.

I heartily agree. I'd love to see any company, especially Criterion, release any of the follwing:

The Stick (1987, Darrell Roodt)
Mapantsula (1988, Oliver Schmitz)
Paljas (1998, Katinka Heyns)
Beat the Drum (2003, David Hickson)
The Swenkas (2004, Jeppe Rønde)

Egypt has been the strongest film-producing African country over the last 50 years:

Siraa Fil-Wadi (Struggle in the Valley) (1954, Youssef Chahine)
Sayedat el kasr (Lady of the Castle) (1959, Kamal El Sheikh)
Bab el hadid (Cairo: Central Station) (1958, Youssef Chahine)
Fi baitina rajul (There Is a Man in Our House) (1961, Henry Barakat)
El Naser Salah el Dinel (Saladin and the Great Crusades) (1963, Youssef Chahine)
al-Ard (The Earth) (1969, Youssef Chahine)
Bab el shams (The Gate of Sun) (2004, Yousry Nasrallah) - Amazing 3-hour epic about the founding of Israel and the ensuing conflict with the Palestinians. There's a French DVD, but it doesn't have English subs.


But you have to bear in mind that these films are practically unknown outside their own countries. Criterion cannot afford to take risks by releasing these films in the manner that they release their DVDs currently. Getting the rights and acquiring prime, pre-print 35mm film elements would be difficult and costly and they then have the problem of translating, transfering/restoring and, of course, putting the films in context, using scholars, filmmakers, cultural historians, etc. This is easy, practical and economically viable with European, Japanese and English language films, etc.

It is indeed baffling that there are no Spanish films in the CC. I'd love to see any of the following:

Plácido (1961, Luis García Berlanga)

La Sed (1961, Lucas Demare)

El Verdugo (1963, Luis García Berlanga)
- Not On Your Life

La Caza (1966, Carlos Saura)
- The Hunt

El Espíritu de la colmena (1973, Víctor Erice) - Available in the UK
- The Spirit of the Beehive

Furtivos (1975, José Luis Borau)

¿Quién puede matar a un niño? (1976, Chicho Ibáñez-Serrador)
- Would You Kill a Child?

El Desencanto (The Disenchantment) (1976, Jaime Chávarri)

Los Días del pasado (The Days of the Past) (1978, Mario Camus)

El Sur (1983, Víctor Erice)
- The South

Los Santos inocentes (1984, Mario Camus)
- The Holy Innocents


With the amount of Spanish-speaking peoples in America, you'd think that the landmark Spanish films would be on DVD, but that is not the case. The Miracle of Marcelino, fortunately, is on DVD in good quality from VCI (shame about the yellow subs, though). Beautiful film. But we badly need some Spanish films in the CC. And more Czech films. And Finland's, Tuntematon sotilas (The Unknown Soldier) (1955, Edvin Laine) which is my favourite war film. I imported the Finnish DVD, which is the uncut 181-minute version and has a good transfer and English subs. Go HERE, if you want to order it.

[Gregory]

Let`s not forget all the neglected Latin American films out there, some of which I`m confident Criterion could get the rights to, if they cared to do so. And as much as I love Buñuel`s Mexican work, it bothers me how discussion of Latin American cinema among many cinephiles often begin and end with that handful of films.

How about some of these, to name a few?
La Casa del Angel (Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, 1957)
Hombre Mirando al Sudeste / Man Facing Southest (Eliseo Subiela, 1986)
Hora de los Hornos / Hour of the Furnaces (Getino, Solanas, Alvarez, 1968)
Lucia (Humberto Solas, 1968)
Machuca (Andres Wood, 2004)
Maria Candelaria (Emilio Fernandez, 1944)
Memorias del Subdesarrollo / Memories of Underdevelopment (Tomas Gutierrez Alea, 1968)
Muerte de un Burocrata / Death of a Bureaucrat (Tomas Gutierrez Alea, 1966)
Principio y Fin / Beginning and End (Arturo Ripstein, 1993)
Reed: Insurgente Mexico / Reed: Insurgent Mexico (Paul Leduc, 1973)
Tiempo de Revancha / Time for Revenge (Adolfo Aristarain, 1981)

EDIT: Also, I would urge that more films from Iran (how about A Time for Drunken Horses, for instance?) and Taiwan (Edward Yang, Tsai Ming-Liang, Hou Hsiao-Hsien) would be extremely welcome. Jon Mulvaney used to say that Criterion was always branching out to make the collection more and more varied, but they haven`t done much of that in the past 2 or 3 years.

[Gordon]

I did some research on every central and south American country's key films last year and some of the films sound amazing - I wouldn't know where to begin listing them. I haven't seen many films from these countries, though. Eliseo Subiela's films are magnificent. Some of his films are on R1 DVD, but I have heard that all have awful transfers.

Which key central/south American films are on DVD with good transfers and English subtitles? List as much as you like.

Peru has produced some intriguing films over the past 40 years:

La Muralla verde (The Green Wall) (1970, Armando Robles Godoy)
Espejismo (Mirage) (1972, Armando Robles Godoy)
La Boca del lobo (The Lion's Den) (1988, Francisco J. Lombardi)
Bajo la piel (Under the Skin) (1996, Francisco J. Lombardi)

Francisco Lombardi is considered Peru's greatest ever filmmaker. I have never seen a Peruvian film, though! Not through a want of trying. Uruguay has also produced many excellent films in recent years, apparently.

[milkcan]

I know its off the production list, but, please, has anyone heard anything about Pandora's Box? Is it going to be released by someone else?

[FilmFanSea]

I know its off the production list, but, please, has anyone heard anything about Pandora's Box? Is it going to be released by someone else?

No, I expect that Criterion is waiting on a restoration to be completed (or started) for Pandora's Box, but I fully expect them to release it ... eventually.

Changing topics, I am predicting through careful logic (alright, hoping with all my heart) that Tati's Playtime will materialize as either the fourth title in November, or as a Bonus holiday gift in the traditionally fallow month of December.

[pauling]

I've been hoping all year that Christmastime would bring Playtime and I'm still crossing my fingers.

[What A Disgrace]

I've been hoping all year that Christmastime would bring Playtime and I'm still crossing my fingers.

Christmastime will be Playtime! Or let's hope, anyway... Does anyone know the status? What's holding things up? Rights with the Tati estate; which version; elements?

From what I understand, Playtime is being held back mainly due to the 70mm elements, which Criterion has ever handled before.

This is the random speculation thread, so I'll go ahead and mention this. With the English version of Mon Oncle (My Uncle) having been restored...I wonder if Criterion plans to release it somehow.