On Five: Criterion Collection Blog

[Mr Sausage]

from 1st post:

Pretty interesting & informed, if often a little stuffy, group of people post there on a regular basis

A disturbingly accurate summary of our forum!

The only real problem is when people start being asshats and have to be slapped around a bit.

I agree with godardslave - they seem to know our characters quite well!

Probably because that poster Gervais is a member here.

As for the second comment, that pretty well describes the whole internet.

[Morbii]

I found out about these forums from him...

i dont quite understand what you mean. from who?

From Mulvaney. I sent a suggestion for them to open some forums one day (yes, rather than just doing an internet search). He pointed me here.

[Jeff]

Criterion producer Karen Stetler reflects on her encounters with Mr. Altman in the latest blog entry.

[colinr0380]

The part of Issy-les-Moulineaux we were visiting is essentially a newly refurbished commercial district on the Southwestern outskirts of the city — big buildings of glass and chrome and marble with vaulting lobbies and impressive security arrangements. At one stop we received plastic identity cards with bar codes on them just to pass through the turnstiles in the lobby -- we returned them, one hopes for recycling -- on the way out. These companies are modern media powerhouses, and lest one forget it, the architecture is there to remind you.

It sounds like they visited one of those JG Ballard-esque business parks!

I wonder if they'll get into corporate espionage with rival bidders over who gets the rights to release the films a la the Connie Nielsen/Gina Gershon punch-up from Demonlover!

[Jeff]

I enjoyed this episode of Les Voyages de Pierre. I hope that in future episodes we hear about the supervision of film transfers and the creation of supplements for the films that they were there to license.

[dadaistnun]

On Five appears to have an RSS feed now. I was able to subscribe through Bloglines using this address.

[Cinesimilitude]

here you go.

[godardslave]

A possible Cleo de 5 à 7 re-issue seems to be strongly hinted at in the most recent blog entry.
A prime candidate for reissue as the current dvd is non-anamorphic and has no extras.

[Cinephrenic]

Don't forget Le bonheur.

[magicmarker]

Maybe we'll see some Chris Marker as well. Films du Jeudi released Marker's Chats Perches (hence the grinning cat reference?). Any Marker would be welcome, though I'd really like to see something that is otherwise unavailable on DVD in any market (Level Five or Lettre de Siberie).

Perhaps I can be overly hopeful and imagine a boxset of Rive Gauche filmmakers, like Varda, Resnais and Marker, in the future. Or many a couple of releases in the same month.

[godardslave]

Maybe we'll see some Chris Marker as well. Films du Jeudi released Marker's Chats Perches (hence the grinning cat reference?). Any Marker would be welcome, though I'd really like to see something that is otherwise unavailable on DVD in any market (Level Five or Lettre de Siberie).

Perhaps I can be overly hopeful and imagine a boxset of Rive Gauche filmmakers, like Varda, Resnais and Marker, in the future. Or many a couple of releases in the same month.

I like your avatar. where's it from?

[davebert]

A new print of Cleo from 5 to 7 is also currently playing at the IFC Center, so that suggests some restoration work was done, or maybe just that the interest is floating out there... I don't remember it needing restoration per-se when I saw the DVD last year.

[magicmarker]

I like your avatar. where's it from?

Thanks. It is of M.Chat from Marker's Chats Perches. For those who haven't seen it, it's a really great essay film/documentary about political activism in France between 2000 and 2003 and its connection to the graphitti image of M.Chat that began to appear all over Paris around the same time. You can get the Arte Video/Film du Jeudi DVD from amazon.fr (region 2 of course).

[Jeff]

A possible Cleo de 5 à 7 re-issue seems to be strongly hinted at in the most recent blog entry.

I think that it is more likely that they were visiting with Varda to discuss work on future Demy titles (am I imagining that Lola and Bay of Angels were posited as Criterion releases at one time?). Of course, Varda has already created a potential supplement for a future Cléo disc, and Le Bonheur would be more than welcome. Only good things can come of this encounter.

Am I the only one completely taken by Peter Becker's prose style? I could spend a day reading about noodling through Parisian streets to visit the neighborhood filmmaker, nestled in amongst the shops. Becker should write a book about the history of Janus and Criterion, the triumphant rescue of Grand Illusion and Rules of the Game, and his adventures traveling the world with Jon Turell, Lee Kline, and Fumiko Takagi, meeting with great filmmakers and restoring their films.

[Cinesimilitude]

Becker should write a book about the history of Janus and Criterion, the triumphant rescue of Grand Illusion and Rules of the Game, and his adventures traveling the world with Jon Turell, Lee Kline, and Fumiko Takagi, meeting with great filmmakers and restoring their films.

A bit pretentious maybe, but what if they made a documentary about all that stuff and released it under the criterion banner sans spine number? I'd pay a 100$ for something like that without hesitation. Mr. Becker, are you listening?

[Tribe]

A bit pretentious maybe, but what if they made a documentary about all that stuff and released it under the criterion banner sans spine number? I'd pay a 100$ for something like that without hesitation. Mr. Becker, are you listening?

Christ, don't give him ideas about $100 dollar discs....

Tribe

[Narshty]

Am I the only one completely taken by Peter Becker's prose style? I could spend a day reading about noodling through Parisian streets to visit the neighborhood filmmaker, nestled in amongst the shops.

I find it a touch florid, but it's still the cutest blog I've read in a long time and the best PR stunt Criterion have ever pulled.

[jbeall]

Agreed--the blogs from Paris were a bit florid. On the other hand, I'm grading a stack of undergrad term papers right now and wish my students could be half as florid... ugh.

But he's not a writer by profession. He works for a company that makes the best dvds in this country by far. I'll forgive him for not being Don Delillo.

[fred]

I'll forgive him for not being Don Delillo.

And I'll thank him for not being Don Delillo, though I agree about the defects of his prose.

[godardslave]

its a great blog and a good idea, thanks Criterion.

Another post (i can not find it now) raised an interesting point about how much control/editorial power you have over audio commentaries, maybe someone from Criterion could address this question in a future blog entry?
And what is criterion's definition of a good audio commentary?

thanks.

[justeleblanc]

Does the new blog entry mean we'll be seeing De Palma's film soon?

[zedz]

No, but it sounds like a rerelease of The Lady Vanishes is in the pipeline.

By the way, am I missing something, or is there some obvious reason why this extract from the previous blog shouldn't be considered a big hint?

The conversation ranged from DVD supplements and restoration to the difficulty of color-correcting a scene in Peau d'Âne

[toiletduck!]

What, that's not small talk at the zedz dinner table?

-Toilet Dcuk

[zedz]

What, that's not small talk at the zedz dinner table?

If it were, I'd be wearing the dinner.

[pianocrash]

By the way, am I missing something, or is there some obvious reason why this extract from the previous blog shouldn't be considered a big hint?

The conversation ranged from DVD supplements and restoration to the difficulty of color-correcting a scene in Peau d'Âne.

Because it's already available in a nice transfer?