The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Listed as Wei Hu in IMDB which is probably the correct way to list his name.

IMDb inverts East Asian names so that all entries are consistently family name-last (or at least that's the rule—since it depends so heavily on user submissions, it inevitably doesn't work out that way all the time). He's properly known as Hu Wei. Butter Lamp is pretty interesting and I wonder if Pema Tseden took any inspiration from it for a certain scene in Tharlo (I'm guessing coincidence, but it's a very odd one).

[spectre]

Do we think Mother and Son could be the Aleksandr Sokurov film?

I didn't care for Mother and Son at all, but loved Father and Son. If Criterion releases the whole trilogy as a box, I hope they get a hold of the full 97 min. version of Father and Son, rather than the 82 min. edit that was released in the US.

Funnily enough, my view on it is inverted: I think Mother and Son is one of the greatest films ever made, and Father and Son is good but far from Sokurov's best. But I find it hard to get excited about Criterion releasing either film given that they've both already received perfectly serviceable Artificial Eye releases. How good would it be if Criterion brought out a few more titles that have never received an English-friendly DVD release? Chantal Akerman's entire '80s output is calling...

[dda1996a]

Why not both, on Blu-ray? What's a good starting point for Sokurov? Didn't really care for Russian Ark and Francophonia

[Werewolf by Night]

I'm with furbicide on the quality of MOTHER AND SON, one of my favorite films. And in response to your question, dda1996a, I also think it's the perfect starting point for Sokurov. If not that, then perhaps WHISPERING PAGES. Much simpler films than RUSSIAN ARK or the films in the history/power sequence.

[dda1996a]

I just finished Tarkovsky's Nostalgia so slow cinema doesn't scare me. It's just that I couldn't connect to Ark and Francophonia

[John Shade]

Is Mother and Son on blu ray? Or region A? I'm still a stuck in the region A wilderness so I accept certain things. Criterion has released some films with fairly serviceable transfers before (Llewyn Davis kind of surprised me, though I really like it and the Coens).

Really enjoy Russian Ark. Hoping to see Francofonia soon.

[Lowry_Sam]

As far as I know, the Artificial Eye DVD of Father and Son is not the original 97 min. version of the film, but an edit & neither film has been released on blu-ray in any region. I think the Russico DVD might be the full original, but I never did get a hold of it before it disappeared. I'm not sure how much of an improvement Mother and Son would be in a blu-ray upgrade. If I remember correctly, the film was shot on very early digital camera w/ low quality resolution, part of the reason I didn't enjoy it as much. The cinematography in Father and Son was much better. However, I watched it in the cinema, wheras I saw the earlier film on DVD, so perhaps the quality of Kino's dvd was poor. I'm guessing that the third film in the trilogy was never completed, as I don't recall ever hearing anything about it. Although I found the cinematography of Russian Ark (which I also saw in the theater) to be impressive enough to engage my interest over the course of the film, I nonetheless found it to be an exercise in style over substance & have no desire to revisit it.

[spectre]

Why not both, on Blu-ray? What's a good starting point for Sokurov? Didn't really care for Russian Ark and Francophonia

I'd go with Mother and Son, but some of his early stuff is excellent: Days of the Eclipse is perhaps his most Tarkovsky-like film, Save and Protect is a beautiful, strange, dreamlike adaptation of Madame Bovary, and I'd like to reiterate the recommendation above for Whispering Pages. Otherwise, his more recent film Alexandra is really moving.

I Iove Sokurov but didn't even bother seeing Francofonia – I suspect it would have done little for me too.

[swo17]

My two favorite are probably Whispering Pages and Mother and Son.

[knives]

The Sun is the only one that's 100% worked for me and it is mostly conventional.

[swo17]

Oh, I forgot, I love that one too.

[WmS]

I'm not sure how much of an improvement Mother and Son would be in a blu-ray upgrade. If I remember correctly, the film was shot on very early digital camera w/ low quality resolution, part of the reason I didn't enjoy it as much.

Mother and Son, my favorite Sokurov, was shot on 35mm, but most of the images were shot off antique mirrors to give it that hazy, um, antique look. I read this somewhere recently after revisiting the film, but I don't have a reference at hand, unfortunately. That said, the DVD was poor. A blu-ray would be magnificent.

I think you're mixing up the cinematography on Mother and Son up with those Facets DVD releases of Sokurov's long military documentaries Confession and Spiritual Voices. Both were shot on early-generation DV, the latter with a looooooooong zoomout from a soldier to show the whole mountainous landscape he's sitting in during his tour of duty in the Caucasus. Lovely stuff in what's my other favorite Sokurov, with a languid pace drawn out over four hours.

Another fine Sokurov use of video, and a fine starting point to his work, is the 45-minute Oriental Elegy, released on French- and English-friendly DVD by Medici Arts in 2009. He uses the medium like it's vapor, with his documentary subject rendered as in a dream.

[LightBulbFilm]

Haven't seen anyone point this ghost out yet:

https://www.criterion.com/people/124226-harmony-korine

Hoping for Trash Humpers!

[Ashirg]

Harmony Korine

If this means we are one step closer to Gummo… \:D/

Let it be true! Someone needs to pinch me, as I feel like I'm dreaming. The best news I've heard in a while!

FWIW It seems like a lot of those new phantom pages are related to potential Warner Bros. licenses (Hedwig, Gummo, Freaks, etc.)

[FrauBlucher]

Nadav Kurtz
Michael Winterbottom
Rosie Reed Hillman

[DeprongMori]

Michael Winterbottom is incredibly prolific, with pretty mixed quality. I'm hoping for 24 Hour Party People or The Claim, neither of which have ever received a BluRay release.

[ianungstad]

A box with all the television episodes and the three edited films of "The Trip" seems more likely.

[beamish13]

A box with all the television episodes and the three edited films of "The Trip" seems more likely.

Perhaps, but wouldn't it be very expensive to license the TV edits from the BBC?

I'm thinking Jude (maybe a set with all of his Thomas Hardy adaptations?) or Welcome to Sarajevo

[RyanGallagher]

The Trip to Italy will be joining the FilmStruck Criterion Channel on April 28th (a "limited engagement, ends October 27"). As has been pointed out previously in this thread, this phantom page may just be for the FilmStruck connection.

[Ribs]

IFC owns the TV edits in the US, they stream on the IFC-owned Sundance streaming service. They've just not released them. It's just the Filmstruck thing, though I expect we'll see a set of these about a year from now for Trip to Spain's first home video release.

[jazzo]

Regarding the Winterbottom, is it too much to hope for his and Roddy Doyle's astonishing miniseries, FAMILY? I saw it at TIFF back when it was still the "Festival of Festivals" in a butt-numbing 4 hour marathon, and it was worth every ache. An astonishing piece of work on every level, it details the disintegration of a working class family in Dublin, with each episode told from the point of view of a member of the family, but linearly, not as a re-telling, Rashomon style, of events.

It never received a physical media release of any kind in North America, but it was broadcast on TVO here in Ontario over four Fridays about two decades ago. My mom loved, too.

[goblinfootballs]

Spoiler

L'Argent
Stalker
Lost in America

[swo17]

Well that's a pretty stellar, if not necessarily adventurous, month.

[domino harvey]

That first title has been forthcoming for, like, ever. Hopefully they ported over the Kent Jones commentary

[mfunk9786]

I want to meet the person who looks in this thread but doesn't reveal the contents of the spoiler boxes within