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Bollywood (Mumbai)? Kollywood (Chennai)? Kaliwood (Kathmandu)? Mani Ratnam's Terrorism Trilogy is long overdue for the Criterion treatment! And Dayaram Dahal's 1999 film Thuldai (you can find clips of it on YouTube) is in dire nead of restoration! When, Criterion, when? Peace.

Michael Kerpan wrote:I thought there was a 1950s version that already used music by Shostakovich. Maybe I recall incorrectly. I must confess I can't really remember the music used in the venerable Potemkin and October prints I saw in 1973 (or thereabouts).

For a long time I assumed the 70s version WAS from the 50s, because of the horrible sound quality on the copies released (pirated?) in the U.S., but then all of the credits seemed to point to this mid-70s date/version. I WOULD be curious to know if there was a previous version with Shostakovich added.

I'm not sure if i already mentioned this, but I'm told that Criterion is working on a DVD of Malle's THE FIRE WITHIN as we speak... I assume this will come out some time in 08.

=D>

I don't recall seeing this information posted by anyone else, but if it has been, now it's posted twice.

In response to my question about whether Criterion will be releasing Welles's Othello, Jonathan Turell sent me this:

Jonathan Turell wrote:Hi Brian -

It's high on our list and we're trying to get it. I imagine we will but nothing is confirmed.

Best wishes for the holidays.

Jonathan

I would kill for a Criterion boxset of Welles' Shakespeare works:

Filming 'Othello' (1978)
The Merchant of Venice (1969) (TV)
Chimes at Midnight (UK)
Macbeth (1948)

Cinephrenic wrote:I would kill for a Criterion boxset of Welles' Shakespeare works.

Yeah, I'd also shit my pants over that. Actually, I asked Turell about that possibility at the same time I asked about Othello. The response I got (above) was vague, but I took it as referring just to Othello. Who knows, though?

It would seem that given the importance of CHIMES and the amount of unreleased footage from MERCHANT, that they wouldn't necessarily release this through Eclipse. However, I would be happy either way as long as I can finally own Chimes and Filming Othello, in my opinion, a much more interesting film than Othello.

That's a potential DVD release of the year type set. But I'm not holding my breath. Sounds too good to be true.

Jour de fete has been announced a few years ago and no sign of it?
Perhaps they should just release the three films they own from Tati under Eclipse.

Three Comedies of Tati:
Parade
Trafic
Jour de fete

Cinephrenic wrote:Jour de fete has been announced a few years ago and no sign of it?
Perhaps they should just release the three films they own from Tati under Eclipse.

Three Comedies of Tati:
Parade
Trafic
Jour de fete

I doubt that Jour de fete would end up on Eclipse, as there's a blindingly obvious and readily available extra for that film in the form of the colour version (or the black and white version, if they go for colour as the 'official' version), plus at least a couple of early shorts, though the natural inclusion L'Ecole des facteurs is already spoken for.

What do you think the odds are we'll see another eclipse set come Friday? Since 2008 is 2 for 2 so far and they've had a year to get going, I imagine they'll hit that 12 per year goal promised earlier.

I just have no idea what it could be. Lots of Japanese directors in the queue, but I'd think they'd like space from the Kurosawa set. Maybe the French New Wave or some other non-director set?

How about some Nigerian videos by Chico Ejiro???? Peace.

Two English Girls playing at Pacific Film Archive with Janus/Criterion credits.

Aren't a lot of the 70s Truffaut films Janus titles? It seems like I remember reading that here somewhere

domino harvey wrote:Aren't a lot of the 70s Truffaut films Janus titles? It seems like I remember reading that here somewhere

Quite a few of them are, yes. Janus has had the rights to Two English Girls for well over a year now, if not longer.

Janus Truffauts:

La Femme d'à côté (The Woman Next Door) (1981)
Vivement dimanche! (Confidentially Yours) (1983)
Le Dernier métro (The Last Metro) (1980)
La Peau douce (The Soft Skin) (1964)
Les Deux anglaises et le continent (Two English Girls) (1971)

justeleblanc wrote:La Femme d'à côté (The Woman Next Door) (1981)
Vivement dimanche! (Confidentially Yours) (1983)
Le Dernier métro (The Last Metro) (1980)

These three look more like typical Eclipse set: "Late Truffaut".

I would buy that in a heartbeat.

I'm too lazy to look it up to be sure, but I had thought that MGM released a number of those at one time or another. Would it make more sense to expect a similar boxset on the main label rather than the bare-bones Eclipse release? I'd suspect these wouldn't need a full restoration, but I'm sure that a detailed look at Truffaut's career later in life would be well worth the effort.

The MGMS are different titles. These are the Fox Lorbers.

MGMs were:

Small Change
Bride Wore Black
Mississippi Mermaid
Adele H
Wild Child
Man Who Loved Women

EDIT: At least in R1.

Just license all the great extras from the MK2 releases.

In that case, they've still been released in region 1, which would defeat the purpose of putting them out via Eclipse. I'm sure they have as much in common with each other as the films in the Malle box, right? Wouldn't that be a more likely release?

arsonfilms wrote:they've still been released in region 1, which would defeat the purpose of putting them out via Eclipse

I'm not sure I understand this one. Are you saying that just because these were released in R1 before, Criterion shouldn't release these?

I'm talking about the Janus Truffauts, which were all released in R2 by MK2 with great extras (some subbed, some not).

Cinephrenic wrote:

arsonfilms wrote:they've still been released in region 1, which would defeat the purpose of putting them out via Eclipse

I'm not sure I understand this one. Are you saying that just because these were released in R1 before, Criterion shouldn't release these?

No, I hope Criterion hurrries up with them. I don't think they should come out via Eclipse though, as their prior availability means that they certainly aren't overlooked. I thought the whole idea of Eclipse was to release movies that wouldn't otherwise see the light of day. Since they've already seen the light of day (and thus have not been "eclipsed"), I think that Criterion should put together high-def transfers and get some special features together.