2014 New Year's Day Drawing

[Two Cent James]

It's probably wishful thinking, but could the sun be a hint for Jiang Wen's In the Heat of the Sun? It was screened at Venice last year. No idea who has the rights.

[onedimension]

Can any of these drawings be twisted into Rivette clues?

[domino harvey]

All evidence in this thread suggests there is nothing they cannot be twisted into

[ptatler]

Can any of these drawings be twisted into Rivette clues?

The day does mark Criterion putting out one more of these wacky drawings.

(Sorry. I will put myself in time out.)

[Harmonov]

I've gone through this thread, and perhaps I missed it, but has anyone thought about what is in the corner of the blanket next to the Tootsie roll wrappers? It appears different than the two wrappers. Perhaps I'm looking for something that isn't there or something that's been addressed already.

[sir_luke]

To me, it looks like part of the pattern of the blanket (a clearer example to the right of the garlic). But it does kinda remind me of hopscotch...

[Harmonov]

To me, it looks like part of the pattern of the blanket (a clearer example to the right of the garlic). But it does kinda remind me of hopscotch...

I would say that grid next to the garlic is completely different. My eyes could be fooling me, though.

[Jeff]

Scarf guy might be Brando in Burn!

[movielocke]

out of curiosity, why does everyone think that red scarf character is a man, my first impression, perhaps due to the hair pulled back in a bunand the curves underneath the scarf, was that it was a woman. It certainly doesn't look like Jimmy Stewart or Brando, imo

Since this clue is not official yet, might the red bits be 'revisions' the author posted for others to check before perusal?

[Jeff]

out of curiosity, why does everyone think that red scarf character is a man, my first impression, perhaps due to the hair pulled back in a bunand the curves underneath the scarf, was that it was a woman. It certainly doesn't look like Jimmy Stewart or Brando, imo

Of course the red scarf made me think of Joan Crawford in Johnny Guitar first, but I would think Polan would give her dark hair, and I can't imagine that Criterion has access to the film. I see what you mean about the bun though, definitely could be a woman.

The drawing is too small to really look "like" anyone. It looks as much like Stewart as anyone to me, and he wears a neckerchief in just about every Mann film. This didn't really look much like Brando either, but it was.


Criterion has got the rights to Burn!, so it seems as likely as anything.

Since this clue is not official yet, might the red bits be 'revisions' the author posted for others to check before perusal?

It's as official as it gets. It's on the front page of Criterion's site.

[adavis53]

re people curious about whether or not the Demy films will be boxed, Criterion does do a lot of those two-director films, similar artwork type thing a lot, a la Summer Interlude/Summer with Monika, Charulata/Big City, I wouldn't be surprised if we had two different months where we got back to back Demy's

[Black Hat]

The five titles that I mentioned are the only ones Janus was credited with during the recent theatrical retrospective. Young Girls is still credited to Miramax.

Are you sure about this? I seem to remember all the restorations coming from the same place and certainly don't remember any Miramax logos when I saw Rochefort. Then again I can't see Cherbourg or Rocherfort being anything other than a stand alone releases which makes me think you might be right about the latter which leaves the rest of the films in all likelihood to be farmed out to Eclipse. Demy's work warrants a box set with all the trimmings so it's disappointing but after this many years I'll take what I can get.

Throw me in with the people who think the person sitting at the picnic is Truffaut's Wild Child.

[ianungstad]

The rights to all those MGM Truffaut titles are held by mk2. If they are letting the Bergman films lapse; I don't see why they would bother renewing the rights to the Truffauts.

[movielocke]

re people curious about whether or not the Demy films will be boxed, Criterion does do a lot of those two-director films, similar artwork type thing a lot, a la Summer Interlude/Summer with Monika, Charulata/Big City, I wouldn't be surprised if we had two different months where we got back to back Demy's

on the other hand, they boxed up Brief Encounter, arguably a bigger film than Umbrellas.

As for Jimmy Stewart, the iconic bit of his costume was his grey, sweat stained hat, worn in all his westerns, iirc.

[Numero Trois]

Terence Young's RED SUN is too depressing a thought to take seriously -

Though not nearly as depressing as the execrable Big Chill. I'm sure the film has its defenders, but if there's any single film as responsible for propagating the baby boomer's reputation for narcissism....

Not to mention its annoyingly predictable soundtrack....

[Props55]

I've never cruised through these threads much before but I'm finding the current speculation fascinating. (Maybe it's a belated response to the conspiracy aspects of all the Kennedy 50th Anniversary Assasination programming!)

Regarding the red scarf I do find it perplexing that so many of you believe that this is somehow irrefutable proof that a Mann/Stewart western is in the offing. As movielocke so cleverly points out it's Stewart's hat that remains constant throughout his western cycle(s).

And since most of you are allowing your wish fulfillment fantasies to run amok I'll join you and mention that Brando sports a red scarf (a real scarf mind you, not a neckerchief!) in ONE-EYED JACKS!

[Feego]

Having never seen The Young Girls of Rochefort, I wondered if the three people dancing might not be a clue for that film. Do the characters in the drawing in any way resemble the actors?

[kekid]

Over the holidays I saw Hulu at a friend's place. I knew that Hulu includes Criterion movies. What I did not realize was how many films are available under Criterion banner on Hulu that are not available as DVD's on the label. They all show up with the wacky C Criterion logo.
So here is my question. Can we make any conjectures about the future DVD/Blu Ray releases of these films (e.g. various Oshima's)? The possible answers are: (1) definitely, (2) may be, (3) there is no relation between what is shown on Hulu and what will be released by Criterion in future. If the answer is number 3, why are these films being shown with a Criterion logo? Do they restore, or contribute to technical presentation of these films? If they do, what is the benefit to them if they cannot release them? Please share your insight on these questions, and add any related comments on the subject. Thank you!

[swo17]

If it's on Hulu, they have the rights. The more people that watch it there, the more likely it will probably be to get a release on disc.

[captveg]

For your #3, a lot of these films were part of package licensing deals that Criterion probably sees less financial viability in releasing on Blu-ray and/or DVD, especially when it comes to films that would need a heavy investment for proper presentation. Their thinking is most likely "why not just make them available for streaming?" since that audience is less critical of presentation. The Eclipse line was the home video outlet for a lot of these, but my guess is that some reasons for the Eclipse slow down are a) streaming as a viable means to get the films available for viewing by the public with even less cost for presentation, b) the pressures by home video collectors to have everything on Blu-ray, which minimizes the potential sales for the DVD only Eclipse line.

[ShellOilJunior]

And since most of you are allowing your wish fulfillment fantasies to run amok I'll join you and mention that Brando sports a red scarf (a real scarf mind you, not a neckerchief!) in ONE-EYED JACKS!

Is One-Eyed Jacks with Echo Bridge? It looks like the last US home video release was from them. I hope they've lost the rights since then.

[Rustle]

And what's with the bloody screwdriver at the picnic?[/quote]

Can't say the I actually see a 'bloody screwdriver' too clearly, but if so, it could be another teaser for more Lynch. 'Inland Empire' or the 75-minute deleted scene titled 'More Things That Happened', or both, contain lengthy handling and discussion of said soiled tool. I remember the parsing of Screw … Drive … Her simultaneous with re-enacted impaling.

[lacritfan]

That one angel looks scared so I was gonna say Where Angels Fear to Tread. Also if it wasn't already out I would've guessed Realm of the Senses, you know cuz' that bloody thing on the blanket is...

[mpippia]

Maybe the sun indicates an upgrade of David Lean's Summertime as well as Red Sun. The fact that the sun is red though seems to indicate a new title rather than an upgrade. Either way, I'm hoping that the early Lean films will be upgraded sometime soon.

[Jeff]

The five titles that I mentioned are the only ones Janus was credited with during the recent theatrical retrospective. Young Girls is still credited to Miramax.

Are you sure about this? I seem to remember all the restorations coming from the same place and certainly don't remember any Miramax logos when I saw Rochefort.

I'm not nearly as sure about it as I was 24 hours ago. The information on what Janus definitely had came from the PFA's Demy series this summer. If you click on each film's title, they credit the licensor and print supplier. The only ones with Janus credits are the five that I mentioned earlier. I would have sworn that Young Girls was credited to Miramax, but the print came from Institut Français and the screening rights from Cine-Tamaris (aka Agnès Varda). The odds that the PFA is editing their screening schedules from five months ago just to fuck with my head seem pretty slim, so I must be misremembering. So there's no Janus credit for the film, but if Varda has the U.S. rights, of course that bodes well for Criterion.

But...when we discussed this in late July, it was pointed out that the film was still on Miramax's Hulu channel. Miramax apparently no longer has a Hulu channel, so that's a dead end. The theatrical rights to Miramax's library are handled by Park Circus in the U.S. They still list the U.S. domestic rights on their site. When the film played the Portage Theater in Chicago and The American Cinematheque in 2013, Miramax/Park Circus were credited. Park Circus also received thanks for Film Forum's Demy series. It's not specified for which film, but there's really only one possibility.

I'm not entirely sure how Miramax ended up with the rights in the first place. Did they license them from Cine-Tamaris in the 90s, or inherit them from the film's original producers, Parc Films and Madeline Films? Warner was the original U.S. theatrical distributor, but their rights expired decades ago.

I really think Miramax probably still has the rights, and the best we can hope for his that they will license it to Criterion. As domino has pointed out though, the French Blu-ray is region free and looks fantastic.