Forthcoming Lists Discussion and Random Speculation Vol. 4

[bainbridgezu]

Hopefully, The Tenant and Don't Look Now is also in the works?

Don't Look Now seems like a safe bet (though I'm hoping for The Tenant too): it's a fairly "big" title--though not one that Paramount wouldn't part with--and Criterion has a good relationship with Roeg. The Conformist and Miracle of Morgan's Creek should also be locked-in at this point.

Less certain are Medium Cool (music rights may still be a problem) and Deep End (in light of BFI's region-free release). Nashville, of course, would be a natural choice.

[jwd5275]

and Deep End (in light of BFI's region-free release).

The availability of editions issued in other countries (region-free or not) has never affected what Criterion releases, besides Deep End has been rumored to be in the works for some time now.

[HerrSchreck]

OMG!! That chicken and steak jag was one of the funniest exchanges I've read on this forum in a long time. From the self serious Aha! moment of amateur psychology promulgated by the columnist in the source quote with its hamhanded ( or should I say chicken and steak handed?) metaphor, to the resulting conversational straining to stay on- metaphor while extrapolating in the subsequent discussion.

Oh well. . there's a variety of opinion on a public forum about the label, which most have agreed is experiencing some degree of change as of late. Big whoops.. .

[Numero Trois]

The usual suspects to be sure, but who else is doing a broader range? Is there some company out there I'm not aware of exploring the cinema of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan?

It's a damn short list isn't it? There's also Film Movement and Global Lens.

[knives]

Global Lens is just a sub group of First Run I believe which makes the list all the smaller. It seems like Cinema Guild is trying to branch out a little, but they also seem to stick to the super stars too.

[duck duck]

IN regards to the New Years drawing, has anyone figured out the "Coney Island" sign?

[swo17]

Pál Fejös' Lonesome

[nolanoe]

I think every possible kind of release has been bitched about at one point or another.

Coming Attractions:

2017: "OMG. Don't they ever get tired of Rivette? Okay, they're putting on a play or something. And it takes forever. I get it already!!!"

2019: "Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Ho-so-hum, more like it."

"Hou Hsiao-hsien and James Cameron, same problem." Jacques "Bro" Rivette!!

Which, sadly, reminds me that Rivette is slowly, but gradually, succumbing to Alzheimers. There was a retrospective of his films in a cinema over here in march, and due to me being stupid, I didn't attend. #-o Celine and Julie is coming out soon in the US - possibly in BD - , so it would be good to see Criterion put out Duelle/Noirot and some of his lesser known work.

[ianungstad]

Just some speculation:

With Michel Gondry recording a selected scene commentary for Being John Malkovich, I wouldn't be surprised if Criterion also licensed Dave Chapelle's Block Party from Focus. The dvd didn't have much in terms of extras and I don't think it's a high priority for Focus to upgrade to blu, which makes it seem like a likely acquisition target.

MPI have also "skipped" over Weekend (Andrew Haigh) and The Kill List (Ben Wheatly). I've seen Weekend on Netflix. I thought it was pretty average but it seems to have it's fans. It won a number of awards and would be a better representation of the mumblecore aesthetic than Tiny Furniture. Haven't seen Kill List yet but have heard great things about the film. Criterion has plugged the film a few times on Facebook and Twitter. They also published an essay from Wheatley on the site (an appreciation of The Friends of Eddie Coyle). Seems like it might make a good October release alongside Rosemary's Baby.

[The Narrator Returns]

Just some more speculation, but I feel that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind might have a better chance, because the Universal Blu-Ray, while it looks like a nice quantity, is short on substantial extras, so it might count as part of the bare-bones-first Universal deal. And maybe Criterion will get Spike Jonze to do a commentary for it.

[ianungstad]

The blu ray of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was just released last year with the extras from the 2 disc dvd. Maybe you didn't think the extras were up to snuff but I thought they were decent and there's a fair bit of material on the set. I also think it's too big of a title for Focus to license out.

[Matt]

With Michel Gondry recording a selected scene commentary for Being John Malkovich, I wouldn't be surprised if Criterion also licensed Dave Chapelle's Block Party from Focus. The dvd didn't have much in terms of extras and I don't think it's a high priority for Focus to upgrade to blu, which makes it seem like a likely acquisition target.

I would be surprised. It's an okay concert film, but no more than that. It doesn't really cry out for any historical or scholarly contextualization, and you're certainly not going to get Chappelle to participate in any special features.

[Gregory]

I enjoyed it far more than most concert films I've seen. I've revisited it a few times and would like to see more. The "extended musical performances" on the DVD only add about 6 minutes. I know they can't include the Fugees performance for legal reasons, but there's presumably still a lot more that ended up on the cutting room floor that could be shown. In addition to more complete performances, I'd also like to see more about the Broken Angel house. And I'd love to see the whole thing in HD.

[zedz]

I'm with Matt. It's a decent film (which probably hits greatness for a few minutes with that marching band 'Jesus Walks'), but it seems way, way outside Criterion's established areas of interest, and I don't see what they could add that any other interested company with half a brain wouldn't do as a matter of course.

Criterion's other forays into concert-film territory have been ground-breaking documentaries in their own right. Even in Gondry's wonderfully wayward career, this seems like more of a footnote than half of his music videos.

[g.schweet]

In an upcoming Fassbinder retrospective, all the films that Wellspring released a long time ago on dvd are said to be Janus Films prints. Is this new or have they had these for a while?

[Giulio]

My point is that Criterion has drifted away from the types of films that made them famous (and made me a fanboy to begin with).

quote and (with sadness) agree: criterion it's following more and more the general hipster trend in cinema à la mode and becoming less a company of interesting old classic and contemporary radical world cinema

[bainbridgezu]

In an upcoming Fassbinder retrospective, all the films that Wellspring released a long time ago on dvd are said to be Janus Films prints. Is this new or have they had these for a while?

Would anyone care to speculate as to which, if any, of these titles will be released on disc in the near future?

Judging by the volume of "I want this" posts on Facebook, Petra von Kant would likely be a big seller (though Chinese Roulette has Anna Karina). So long as Criterion doesn't dump these into Eclipse, I'd say that they can release them however they like.

[Minkin]

In an upcoming Fassbinder retrospective, all the films that Wellspring released a long time ago on dvd are said to be Janus Films prints. Is this new or have they had these for a while?

Jeeze, that's quite the coup. Was there some big deal recently with Wellsprings (see Demy discussion earlier) or a similar rights-expire-films-up-in-the-air situation to some of the MK2 titles?

Can't wait for all of these (hopefully they'll treat them like their Chaplins - slow stream rather than a few Eclipse sets).

[Jeff]

Wow! I'm guessing this is just a situation where the companies that absorbed Wellspring didn't renew this contract. That probably explains why the BRD Trilogy (which was sublicensed from Wellspring) went out of print, and why Criterion said it would be back eventually. They've obviously picked up a massive library from the Fassbinder Foundation. Here are the 16 titles included in that retrospective:

ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL
THE AMERICAN SOLDIER
BEWARE OF A HOLY WHORE
THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT
CHINESE ROULETTE
EFFI BRIEST
FEAR OF FEAR
FOX AND HIS FRIENDS
GODS OF THE PLAGUE
LOLA
LOVE IS COLDER THAN DEATH
THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN
THE MERCHANT OF FOUR SEASONS
MOTHER KUSTERS GOES TO HEAVEN
SATAN'S BREW
VERONIKA VOSS

[Peacock]

Probably no point in asking for Pasolini what with the upcoming MoC's (although isn't Teorema a Wellspring title?).... but what about all those Tsai's?

I suppose Tsai is probably much further down their list of priorities than Fassbinder... Glad they got the rights to these, wonder which they'll choose to release first...

[SpiderBaby]

Wonder what will happen to Lili Marleen now (pushed to the back?). Would of loved to have seen unreleased Fassbinder too (Women in New York, Jail Bait, Nora Helmer, etc).

Either way, nice haul.

[Jeff]

Probably no point in asking for Pasolini what with the upcoming MoC's (although isn't Teorema a Wellspring title?).... but what about all those Tsai's?

I suppose Tsai is probably much further down their list of priorities than Fassbinder... Glad they got the rights to these, wonder which they'll choose to release first...

It's most likely just the Fassbinder catalog that Wellspring's successors let expire, thus making the U.S. rights available to Criterion. There's not necessarily any reason to believe that Criterion got other libraries that were once controlled by Wellspring (though when Wellspring let the Mk2/Truffaut Estate (Les Films du Carrosse) library expire, Criterion picked that up too).

[zedz]

A lot of great films there, but unfortunately all already available. The release I'd really love to see is an Eclipse of TV Films like Bremen Freedom.

The most important limitations are likely to be available materials for HD, since the existing transfers go back about ten years now, and viable extras. The Fassbinder folk (okay, Juliane Lorenz) seem to be working one film at a time with restorations, and fortunately they seem to be more focussed on rediscoveries. I heard that The Stationmaster's Wife (full length) is next up, but that may be incorrect. So, if any of those new titles are forthcoming, I'd lay odds on them being in the form of an Eclipse set ("Six Shades of Hysteria"?).

In terms of a mainline release, my preference would be for Effi Briest. It's a complete masterpiece and, in terms of its production, as magnum an opus as Fassbinder produced, plus it's a really unusual Fassbinder film (and thus harder to box up with other titles) which could easily justify plenty of extras (about the production, about Fontane). Merchant of Four Seasons and Petra von Kant are also possible choices, but there's more overlap there with the sort of context that's already been provided for Ali and the BRD films.

[TMDaines]

I still don't know why you wouldn't go the route of picking up the Arrow and Artifical Eye boxes and then just picking up the odd Fassbinder Blu-rays as they come about. Those boxes are such great value and have loads of extras. Pretty much only the commentaries missing and they have additional stuff. Most of these won't come out for years or they'll be dumped into Eclipse, which again begs the question as to why you wouldn't want the Arrow and AE boxes.

Sadly though all 16 of these titles are the same stuff that's been released virtually everywhere time and time again and not some of the lesser known works, which would ultimately make for far more exciting releases: Acht Stunden..., Nora Helmer, Wildwechsel, Wie ein Vogel... etc. It'd be nice to see the likes of Pioniere in Ingolstadt and Bolwieser come back into print though but even they aren't included.

[SpiderBaby]

Bolwieser

Olive films, the full length cut, coming soon.

As I have wrote above, I agree. I would rather see the T.V. work that hasn't been released yet.