Criterion Random Speculation Vol.2

Message

pzman84 · #601 Post by **pzman84** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 12:34 am

ben d banana wrote:Rome... was in far from immaculate condition.

I suprised no one brought this up earlier. I just remebered it myself. Rossellini shot Open City with different film stocks and in horrible lighting. It is suppost to look bad. When it premered at Cannes in 1946, people complained it looked like it was in bad condition. So, when talking about the quality of the film, just keep that in mind.

Brian Oblivious · Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:57 am

In the Dec. 28, 2005 issue of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Jenni Olson (the director of the Joy of Life and author of the Queer Movie Poster Book) says that God's Country

is set for a 2006 release from Criterion.

scroll to the bottom

Cinephrenic · #603 Post by **Cinephrenic** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 6:03 pm

I'm betting the Moreau interview is for Les Amants.

Or perhaps Elevator to the Gallows, Le Feu Follet, or I'm hoping he is muting La Notte. Malle is too obvious or any news.

ellipsis7 · #604 Post by **ellipsis7** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 10:01 pm

LA NOTTE is surely on its way, so this makes sense...

Perhaps also i/v's for Orson Welles' CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT & THE IMMORTAL STORY - poss CC release?...

Mental Mike · #605 Post by **Mental Mike** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 11:22 pm

Unfortunately, I am not looking forward to the release of La Notte...L'eclisse and L'Aventurra are superior and they are already in the collection.

cysiam · #606 Post by **cysiam** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 1:37 am

I wrote Mulvaney a few months ago inquiring about the possibility of a La Notte release, and he replied with the "We have no such plans at this time." answer.

LightBulbFilm · #607 Post by **LightBulbFilm** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 2:54 am

What about Welle's The Magnificent Ambersons?

pzman84 · #608 Post by **pzman84** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 4:06 am

LightBulbFilm wrote:What about Welle's The Magnificent Ambersons?

Warner's doesn't licence out.

LightBulbFilm · #609 Post by **LightBulbFilm** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 8:30 pm

pzman84 wrote:
LightBulbFilm wrote:What about Welle's The Magnificent Ambersons?
Warner's doesn't licence out.

Oh, I didn't know it was Warner. SHIT, WARNER NEEDS TO GET ON THE BALL THEN!

kinjitsu · #610 Post by **kinjitsu** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 9:19 pm

LightBulbFilm wrote:
pzman84 wrote:
LightBulbFilm wrote:What about Welle's The Magnificent Ambersons?
Warner's doesn't licence out.
Oh, I didn't know it was Warner. SHIT, WARNER NEEDS TO GET ON THE BALL THEN!

I own the Kinowelt, which is dark, but watchable, and I fortunately made a tape of the Criterion laserdisc before my player bit the dust, however my patience is wearing thin. Let's face it, The Magnificent Ambersons deserves a set comparable to Warners' Citizen Kane, and hopefully retaining Robert Carringer's commentary.

From IMDb

Distributors

* Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2000) (Germany) (DVD)
* RKO Radio Pictures Inc.
* Radio Filmes (Portugal)
* The Criterion Collection (USA) (laserdisc)
* Turner Classic Movies (TCM) (USA) (VHS)

Dr. Mabuse · #611 Post by **Dr. Mabuse** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 11:15 am

What's the status of Dreyers Vampyr? There were some speculations that it was coming soon back in 04 according to DVDBeaver
http://207.136.67.23/film/dvdcompare/vampyr-maybe.htm

HerrSchreck · #612 Post by **HerrSchreck** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 1:19 pm

Dr. Mabuse wrote:What's the status of Dreyers Vampyr? There were some speculations that it was coming soon back in 04 according to DVDBeaver
http://207.136.67.23/film/dvdcompare/vampyr-maybe.htm

That page has been there on the beaver for quite some time. Probable rights war between Kino and Criterion, who have been making little inroads here & there in snagging titles from the Murnau foundation/Koerber restorations coming out of Cineteca Bologna/L'Imagine Ritrovata (Testament of Dr Mabuse, M restored), which is usually Kino's territory. The film has been fully restored by Koerber but the print has yet to have rights assigned for home video. I'm wondering if Transit Films has it... Since Koerber worked on the restoration (and used the German soundtrack-synched print) it's probably going to fall into their ballpark, as a German Dreyer, like MIKAEL. That would make it Kino territory... but Janus has invested a lot of money in Dreyer and even stuck little inserts into their JOAN OF ARC discs saying "COMING SOON... VAMPYR!"

This is taking years to resolve, and it's a complete fucking disgrace to the business.

NABOB OF NOWHERE · Sun Jan 01, 2006 2:03 pm

More on this complex farrago of differing versions is touched upon in David Rudkin's new monograph on Vampyr from the BFI. Rudkin is a much underappreciated playwright and screenplay writer and if anyone has a copy of his TV film Artemis 81, first shown by a nascent Channel 4, I will beat a path to your door.

HerrSchreck · #614 Post by **HerrSchreck** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 6:39 am

NABOB OF NOWHERE wrote:More on this complex farrago of differing versions is touched upon in David Rudkin's new monograph on Vampyr from the BFI. Rudkin is a much underappreciated playwright and screenplay writer and if anyone has a copy of his TV film Artemis 81, first shown by a nascent Channel 4, I will beat a path to your door.

Read Koerber's own enlightening article on his own restoration (along with the incredible editing complications that result from timing the different dubs into the single track and make it work lengthwise w the music & scenes in general) at

http://carldreyer.com/resources/vampyr/ ... vampyr.htm

ogtec · #615 Post by **ogtec** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 12:53 pm

NABOB OF NOWHERE wrote:Rudkin is a much underappreciated playwright and screenplay writer and if anyone has a copy of his TV film Artemis 81, first shown by a nascent Channel 4, I will beat a path to your door.

If you mean the one that was shown on the BBC back in 81 (maybe it got a repeat on Ch4?), then I grabbed a copy from a BT site not too long ago. I've not watched it yet due to it being 3+ hrs (plus a 'difficult' reputation), but the image quality seems OK. It's a 750mb AVI, but I'm sure I can get you a copy somehow.

George

Derek Estes · #616 Post by **Derek Estes** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 1:19 pm

Regarding Chimes at Midnight: I asked JM two weeks ago if this film was a possibility, and his response was that it was not.

Cinephrenic · #617 Post by **Cinephrenic** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 5:25 pm

It was actually Lee Kline a few years ago at the Home Theater forum mentioning that it was being worked on when asked with a bunch of titles including Pandora's Box.

Mysterypez · #618 Post by **Mysterypez** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 4:09 pm

Well this is the perfect year to get Pandora's Box out.... Ms. Brooks is 100 this year. Hmmmmmm

Dr. Mabuse · #619 Post by **Dr. Mabuse** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 5:00 pm

This is what Lee Kleine said about the titles above:
"Eisenstein is moving along, but it's the hands of the Russians right now, and they move VERY slow. Pandora is complicated because it is a huge restoration, with many film elements involved in the hands of many people. The "restoration" that was done in the 90's was done on video, in Pal format, and is not suitable for NTSC conversion. As for VAMPYR, I have no new news, although we would definitely use Martin Koerber's restoration (if we could easily access it!)"
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/ ... fchat.html

Cinephrenic · #620 Post by **Cinephrenic** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 5:33 pm

Why did you cut it?

Question:

[BrianPB] Welcome back, Mr. Kline. I wondered if you could give us a status report on three silent film projects Criterion is rumored to be working on: EISENSTEIN: THE SILENT YEARS, Pabst's PANDORA'S BOX, and and Dreyer's VAMPYR (for the latter, I trust you'll use Martin Koerber's definitive 1998 restoration). From a technical standpoint, these must be among the most difficult releases (due to aged and compromised elements).

Lee Kline Answers:

[leekline123] You said it- these are tough ones, and we are continually working on getting these films out. Eisenstein is moving along, but it's the hands of the Russians right now, and they move VERY slow. Pandora is complicated because it is a huge restoration, with many film elements involved in the hands of many people. The "restoration" that was done in the 90's was done on video, in Pal format, and is not suitable for NTSC conversion. As for VAMPYR, I have no new news, although we would definitely use Martin Koerber's restoration (if we could easily access it!)

FilmFanSea · #621 Post by **FilmFanSea** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 6:19 pm

filmfansea = Brian PB

LightBulbFilm · #622 Post by **LightBulbFilm** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 1:42 pm

I think Criterion should release Welle's cinematic adaptation of Kafka, The Trial, which Welles considered to be his best film. I think it is public domain, and if it's not Image already released it so they should have the rights... Correct?

solaris72 · #623 Post by **solaris72** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 2:54 pm

LightBulbFilm wrote:I think Criterion should release Welle's cinematic adaptation of Kafka, The Trial, which Welles considered to be his best film. I think it is public domain, and if it's not Image already released it so they should have the rights... Correct?

It was Image that distributed it, but Milestone that produced the disc (and thus owned the rights), and Milestone has since broken with Image. However, Milestone's disc is out of print, suggesting that they've lost the rights. Plus the existence of a $7.99 version from Delta certainly supports the public domain theory.

#624 Post by **Jeff** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 5:30 am

LightBulbFilm wrote:I think Criterion should release Welle's cinematic adaptation of Kafka, The Trial, which Welles considered to be his best film. I think it is public domain, and if it's not Image already released it so they should have the rights... Correct?

Criterion only release public domain films when they can secure a contract with the original rights holder or the current owner of the primary film elements. In this case, I'm guessing that's Beatrice Welles.

Don't hold your breath.

The Elegant Dandy Fop · Sat Jan 07, 2006 8:45 pm

I thought Beatrice owned only Othello, and that Oja Kodar owned The Trial. I could be wrong though.

Internal Resources

External Sites

Specialty Labels

Site Menu

Criterion Random Speculation Vol.2