Forthcoming Lists Discussion and Random Speculation Vol. 6

[Minkin]

Milestone Film announced they will handle North American release of Rocco and His Brothers

So much for my great all-encompassing Image library theory (and I guess that Facebook photo was for The Killers). Well, who knows what all went where - as things seem to be divided between Flicker Alley, Milestone, and Criterion - so its like the battle of who will release the former Image catalog slowest.

BTW, here are all of the unannounced World Cinema Project films (since the old Worldcinemafoundation website seems dead, and the new one at Film Foundation doesn't list everything):

Two Girls on the Street (1939), André de Toth
Revenge (1989), Yermek Shinarbayev
The Night of Counting the Years (1969), Shadi Abdel Salam
Nidhanaya (1970), Lester James Peries
Mysterious Object at Noon (2000), Apichatpong Weersethakul
Manila in the Claws of Light (1975), Lino Brocka
Limite (1931), Mário Peixoto
The Law of the Border (1966), Ömer Lütfi Akad
Kalpana (1948), Uday Shankar
Insiang (1976), Lino Brocka
Forest of the Hanged (1964), Liviu Ciulei
The Eloquent Peasant (1969), Shadi Abdel Salam
Downpour (1971), Bahram Bayzai
Color of Pomegranates (1969), Sergei Parajanov
But Film is My Mistress (2010), Stig Björkman
A Brighter Summer Day (1991), Edward Yang
Borom Sarret (1963), Ousmane Sembène
Black Girl (1966), Ousmane Sembène
After the Curfew (1954), Usmar Ismail

[MongooseCmr]

Battles Without Honor & Humanity

Is that the whole series or just the one?

[Ashirg]

Only first film is being shown at Cannes.

[kazaam]

Forest of the Hanged (1964), Liviu Ciulei

Any news about this one? I know it kind of disappeared from the World Cinema Foundation at some point, but not long ago there was a screening of it in London with a Q&A (and I freakin missed it) and apparently in the description of the film, it said "In 2010, the World Cinema Foundation released a restored version of this movie on 35 mm, as part of their restoration projects."

[Minkin]

Forest of the Hanged (1964), Liviu Ciulei

Any news about this one? I know it kind of disappeared from the World Cinema Foundation at some point

Only the above, But Film is My Mistress (Criterion has this on Hulu), and the two announced today are missing from the new World Cinema Project site. I assume it is an oversight, but it is rather strange to be the only film missing from their list (the Bergman doc was always in a separate section on the old site). I'd still assume it was coming at some point / owned by WCP (it is still listed on the old site). Perhaps someone could message them on Facebook/twitter to find out more.

The Film Foundation's donation page indicates what films they are working on next (doesn't specify FF or WCP). I assume that ALYAM, ALYAM (1978), Ahmed El Maanouni - will likely be a future WCP title.

I am very excited that Black Girl was announced - and that's a great pick for WCP (although I think I remember something about them eventually doing all of Sembène's films). I am glad that WCP buys the rights to the films they restore, thus all of the above should eventually make their way to Criterion + MoC. My S/O keeps wanting to do a themed meal night before watching one of the films in the first WCP volume - thus make / dine at a country specific meal prior to the viewing. I hope whatever has delayed the WCP home video releases has been solved - and more sets will be announced in the near future.

BTW -I did make a mistake in my initial post (about a hiatus) - as Color of Pomegranates was last year's WCP restoration (as part of 2014's Cannes Classic).

[RSTooley]

First and foremost, I would be stoked if Apichatpong Weersethakul's Mysterious Object at Noon was gifted a Criterion release.

Second: I apologize for the naive questions, but is there any chance The Lady from Shanghai could get a Criterion release? It looks as though the film is included on the Cannes Classics lineup this year, along with Citizen Kane and The Third Man.

I'm well aware that Mill Creek Entertainment currently holds the distribution rights. That being said, the new 4k restoration was overseen by Colorworks (at Sony Pictures), an organization that has previously worked with Criterion on The Leopard and Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion.

Any chance StudioCanal would do the right thing and allow Criterion to distribute the new 4k restoration of The Third Man on Blu-ray?

To read more on the "Centennial Orson Welles," check out the complete lineup at the Cannes website.

[Drucker]

Lady From Shanghai has been released by TCM, and then also released by Mill Creek, probably as a covering their asses measure after 2 botched releases. Read more here. There is no chance Criterion will release it. There is also no chance Criterion will release The Third Man. Not only do they not own the rights, it's one of the few titles that Studio Canal actually took the time to release on their own on blu-ray.

[dwk]

Other Home Vision Entertainment possibilities -
Battles Without Honor & Humanity

Marc Walkow has been working on some Kinji Fukasaku project and today he tweeted that some more international news about the Battles Without Honor & Humanity series is coming. So, something is brewing with the Battles Without Honor & Humanity series, but since Criterion has never released a Toei film, I doubt if they have them. (I had thought that Arrow had them, but they told me that they have no Kinji Fukasaku on the schedule.)

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Let's be real: it's going to be an Arrow release.

[dwk]

Criterion Cast tweeted out a link to this article about the restoration of the Apu Trilogy which had the following quote about more Indian films:

There is a long list of Indian movies, including that of Ray’s, that the Criterion intends to restore. “We will soon work on Ray’s Devi. We are also trying to get some Guru Dutt as well as classic Bollywood titles. But as proven with The Apu Trilogy, these things can take a while to come through,” says Kline.

[Minkin]

Excellent news! Indian cinema outside of Ray certainly deserves some better attention. I assume they mean Guru Dutt's directed films? Of those, which might people recommend most? Pyaasa? It also sounds like Criterion is doing all of the Ray transfers themselves (working with the lab in India), thus explaining the delays.

[chatterjees]

In addition to Pyaasa, Kaagaz Ke Phool is a must if they are considering Dutt as director. Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962) and Mr. and Mrs. 55 are brilliant films where you get to see his greatest acting performances. I am not sure what they meant by classic Bollywood titles? It's like that post on FB from Arrow. It is a vast area. I wish that the article could have mentioned a decade or two. That could have been easier for our guess works. I do have some candidates I would love to see getting Criterion treatment. There were rumors for a long time about Criterion releasing Mughal-e-Azam and Mother India. Pakeezah is one of my all time favorite Indian Classics. Then there is Vijay Anand's 1965 Classic blockbuster, Guide. Finally, I honestly wish that Criterion can save Do Bigha Zameen directed by Bimal Roy in 1953, the first Indian film to win the Prix Internationale at the 1954 Cannes Film Festival. If I remember correctly, Ray was Roy's assistant during that time.

[mteller]

Pakeezah is one of my all time favorite Indian Classics.

Same here, and it's a film with an interesting history

[chatterjees]

Pakeezah is one of my all time favorite Indian Classics.

Same here, and it's a film with an interesting history

Did you mean something related to Indo-Pak relation? That's the only history I was aware of. Is there anything else?

[L.A.]

I was in Delhi last year and bought a copy of Pakeezah DVD there (Shemaroo edition). Watched it quite recently and liked it as well, very exciting. The Shemaroo DVD had the company's logo down right the entire film which was distracting. Also the picture quality wasn't very good, so wouldn't mind Criterion putting this one out restored and loaded with extras.

[mteller]

Pakeezah is one of my all time favorite Indian Classics.

Same here, and it's a film with an interesting history

Did you mean something related to Indo-Pak relation? That's the only history I was aware of. Is there anything else?

Amrohi started filming in 1958 and didn't finish until 1972. It was shot in black and white, then scrapped and shot again in color, then scrapped again and shot in Cinemascope. Amrohi and Meena Kumari were married when it started and divorced by the time it finished. She was ill during the last part of filming and died two months after it was released. Both the composer and cinematographer died in the middle of production.

[The Narrator Returns]

In an AVC piece about the Apu Trilogy restoration, Lee Kline revealed that Criterion is working on The French Lieutenant's Woman and Day for Night.

[Minkin]

Day for Night.

Is this the first post-Badlands WB deal title revealed? Or is this coming from Sony? In either case, great to have both confirmed! (French Lieutenant's Woman has been rumored for ages).

[domino harvey]

Not rumored, it's one of about a half dozen remaining MGM titles on the "secret list" of acquisitions

[jwd5275]

Day for Night.

Is this the first post-Badlands WB deal title revealed? Or is this coming from Sony?

It is most definitely coming from WB.

[Yaanu]

An article about the Tribeca screening of "Speedy" (and the live score by DJ Z-Trip) essentially confirms that "Speedy" is coming soon via Criterion.

I mean, we already knew that, but now it's in an article on the Internet.

[flyonthewall2983]

Came out the same year as Badlands too.

[criterion10]

Incredible news about Day for Night, which might be my favorite Truffaut (although I also love The 400 Blows). Regardless, this is also definitive proof now that Criterion indeed has licensed out however many titles from WB (at the last Wexner talk, Kim stated they were still waiting for approval from them on a list of titles), and they should slowly but surely begin to trickle down.

[Jack Phillips]

In an AVC piece about the Apu Trilogy restoration, Lee Kline revealed that Criterion is working on The French Lieutenant's Woman and Day for Night.

Yeah, this bit in particular had me paying attention:

We’re working on Truffaut’s Day For Night, and [cinematographer] Pierre-William Glenn is still alive. He helped us with the restoration, and when we were doing it, we found a lot of crazy close-ups that looked super grainy and weird. I asked why they were like that, and he told me that when Truffaut was editing the film, there were moments when he wanted close-ups that he hadn’t filmed. So, he optically printed other shots—medium shots, say—and blew them up into close-ups. He flung those in rather than reshooting, and by blowing them up, they became ugly pieces of film that really looked inferior to everything surrounding them. Glenn said he wished they could be fixed, and we told him we could with various grain techniques. I asked him if he thought Truffaut would be okay with our doing that, and he said Truffaut wouldn’t have cared. As a director, he made the choice because he cared more about having a close-up there than he did the quality of the image. It seems safe to assume that he wouldn’t have wanted anyone to think about the filmmaking at that moment, so he wouldn’t have been averse to easing the quality of the image.

[EddieLarkin]

Wasn't a good idea with To Kill a Mockingbird, won't be good idea with this film either.