criterionforum.org

I'm with JRo on Bergman in general, but I've only seen about half on DVD and a few on 35mm, so this will be welcome and still reasonably priced as an opportunity to fill in the gaps. Particularly annoyed that I'll have to buy the AE set for only one film, though.

swo17 wrote: Fri Jul 13, 2018 9:22 pm There's no reason for Bergman Island to be tied to The Seventh Seal specifically, so they could just be moving things around.

Criterion wrote:Arranged as a film festival with opening and closing nights bookending double features and centerpieces

So like maybe The Seventh Seal shares a disc with another film, and the general Bergman extras get grouped together on a few bonus discs. Remember there are only 30 discs here for 39 films (or 41 if you separately count the two with multiple versions).

EDIT: Or maybe not, since the image of the set included in the press release shows separate discs for Winter Light, The Silence, The Virgin Spring, and The Seventh Seal. :-k

I would assume the already released Blu Ray's will stay the same and just be printed with new labels. If I had to bet How they fit 39 films on 30 discs I'd guess that the eclipse titles will be pretty low bitrate, and same for the MGM. The seventh seal I'm betting may be getting a 4k bluray release and that the disc included would be the regular bluray from that release

Seventh Seal is a new resto. I imagine they will all be new discs just to accommodate new menus that are consistent with one another.

It would seem to me needlessly expensive to make new duplication masters for discs they’ve already released when their Blu-ray menus are very consistent in design in the first place. But I’m sure I’m wrong. I think they did that for the Essential Arthouse box set and individual releases (which didn’t have any extras).

So why do we think this and the included new-to-Criterion titles don't have spine numbers? Is this more like the AK100 boxset? It'll go out of print eventually.

Werewolf by Night wrote: Mon Jul 16, 2018 11:10 pm It would seem to me needlessly expensive to make new duplication masters for discs they’ve already released when their Blu-ray menus are very consistent in design in the first place. But I’m sure I’m wrong. I think they did that for the Essential Arthouse box set and individual releases (which didn’t have any extras).

I'm guessing that many will be identical discs with new silk screening, but there is a chance that the carriage returns in the press release (at bluray.com) indicate how both the "film festival" ordering is arranged, and possibly how the double feature discs are set up.

in other words, while Summer with Monika may be the same disc, Summer Interlude may be a new double feature disc with To Joy, as in the link.

And if they put the faith trilogy all on one disc, (as they put three zatoichi films on one disc in that set), well boy, that creates an impetus for people to buy the standalone blu-grade of the trilogy hmm?

Based on the press release that means 27 discs of films (presuming two discs each for the variants of F&A and SFAM), and three discs of extras.

on the other hand, the pages of the disc holder book in the image in the aforementioned press release display four films on four discs: Winter Light, The Silence, Virgin Spring and The Seventh Seal, which does not correspond to the film festival ordering represented in the text of the press release. So who knows if it's just a mock up, or if it's actually how it will be organized.

It does actually correspond to the end of Centerpiece 1 and the start of Centerpiece 2

swo17 wrote:It does actually correspond to the end of Centerpiece 1 and the start of Centerpiece 2

Hah too much vertical scrolling on my part I didn’t notice that!

I think it'll be broken down like this:
OPENING NIGHT:
Disc 1: Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)
Disc 2: Crisis (1946) / A Ship to India (1947)
Disc 3: Wild Strawberries (1957)
Disc 4: To Joy (1950)
Disc 5: Summer Interlude (1951)
Disc 6: Summer with Monika (1953)
Disc 7: Dreams (1955) / A Lesson in Love (1954)

CENTERPIECE ONE:
Discs 8 & 9: Scenes from a Marriage- Television version (1973) | U.S. theatrical version (1974)
Disc 10: Saraband (2003)
Disc 11: From the Life of the Marionettes (1980) / Hour of the Wolf (1968)
Disc 12: Shame (1968) / The Passion of Anna (1969)
Disc 13: Fårö Document (1970) / Fårö Document 1979 (1979)
Disc 14: Through a Glass Darkly (1961)
Disc 15: Winter Light (1963)
Disc 16: The Silence (1963)
Disc 17: The Virgin Spring (1960)

CENTERPIECE TWO:
Disc 18: The Seventh Seal (1957)
Disc 19: The Devil's Eye (1960) /All These Women (1964)
Disc 20: Sawdust and Tinsel (1953) / The Rite (1969)
Disc 21: The Magician (1958)
Disc 22: The Magic Flute (1975) /After the Rehearsal (1984)
Disc 23: The Touch (1971) / The Serpent's Egg (1977)

CENTERPIECE THREE:
Disc 24: Persona (1966)
Disc 25: Thirst (1949) / Port of Call (1948)
Disc 26: Cries and Whispers (1972)
Disc 27: Waiting Women (1952) / Brink of Life (1958)
Disc 28: Autumn Sonata (1978)

CLOSING NIGHT:
Discs 29-30: Fanny and Alexander- Television version (1983) | Theatrical version (1982)

What about supplements, in particular The Making of Fanny and Alexander? Also, I think To Joy and Summer Interlude will share a disc

I initially thought those two would share a disc, but the packaging picture shows discs 15-18 and they are Winter Light, The Silence, The Virgin Spring, and The Seventh Seal and that only happens if To Joy and Summer Interlude are on separate discs.

How can you tell they're 15-18?

The picture show pages 8 and 9, and two discs a page.

But if every one of those thick white pages had 2 discs, there would be 32 total. It's possible the first page is empty and we're looking at discs 13-16.

Maybe, but if those four are discs 13-16, there would have to be two more double features in the first 12 discs. To Joy/Summer Interlude and I can't figure out any other options for the second.

Scenes from a Marriage (theatrical) + Saraband?

If Scenes/Saraband gets 2 discs, Fanny gets 3 discs, each entry in the trilogy gets its own disc, and every matched pair from the press release gets a shared disc, this comes to 29. It's anybody's guess how they get from that to 30.

Then it’ll probably be Scenes / Saraband split to get to 30. They’d still need to fit Scenes’s special features on its Theatrical disc.

Yeah, I think I'm wrong. This picture from amazon seems to show The Devil's Eye/All These Women, Sawdust and Tinsel/The Rite, The Magician, and The Magic Flute/After the Rehearsal as discs 17-20 and Scenes from a Marriage and Saraband on one disc.

So that would get to 29 if Fanny and Alexander is three discs and I guess the 30th would hold the various making of docs and other extras.

*Edit - Double post, anyway why three disc's for Fanny? Theatrical cut, Television series and? Or does the TV version requires an extra disc?

The Making of Fanny and Alexander is likely the third disc (just like the current Blu-ray,) but it'd be nice if they would spread the TV cut across two Blu-rays this time. Even moving one of the episodes to the disc with the doc would help.

What are the chances of the doc being moved to the extras disc and the TV cut being spread over two discs? Just read the review here on the lower PQ of the TV cut and hoping they work that out

Oh god, I just realized this has After the Rehearsal, which I've wanted to see for years.

Can it be November already

I e-mailed Jon Mulvaney to ask what the situation was re. extra features on individual releases vs. the box set and he wrote this:

Thanks for writing. All previously released titles will retain their supplements.We have added a few more supplements to the titles that are being upgraded from DVD to Bluray: A FILM TRILOGY: THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY, WINTER LIGHT and THE SILENCE, and THE MAGIC FLUTE.

Some of the essays in the Bergman box book have been slightly re-edited. A few titles have newly commissioned essays (THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY, WINTER LIGHT, THE SILENCE), or they have been revised due to their pairing with another title to create a double feature (SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE/SARABAND; SAWDUST AND TINSEL/THE RITE; TO JOY/THIRST; CRISIS/A SHIP TO INDIA), to name a few.

I hope this is helpful!
Jon Mulvaney

Great to hear confirmation about that, thanks for sharing!

I was just notified by Amazon Canada that this set is currently available for preorder for $275 CAD, which translates, roughly, into $210 US, if anyone's interested.