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Criterion must be celebrating Christmas in July by offering up a December slate in midsummer. A truly puzzling month.

A box set upgrade is a large endeavor, but I imagine one new release got bumped at the last minute. On the other hand 43 new releases from December to July is a fairly hefty pace

Not when there's a great release overseas that been available for a few years. What the hell happened that all three new releases barely have and extras?

I hope Stalker was to be paired with a simultaneous, supplement-heavy release of Andrei Rublev but the latter was pushed at the last minute for some reason. That is what I'll imagine happened.

Er, but it is better that Criterion upgrade something rather than nothing. I've not got the BFI release because the Janus tour indicated Criterion would release War in a matter of months instead of years; the idea they could have tethered this into the six-month upgradeless gap with minimal effort is still true, but I don't think it's worth shaming them for finally getting around to it.

(Surely this means Z will be right around the corner, as these two have been my go-to "guess this will be upgraded in the monthly guessing thread" choices?)

This is a totally arbitrary number I for some reason keep track of but after the July releases Criterion will have put out more than 1/4 of the films on the TSPDT 1,000 list on BD.

Sure two dozen Americans have imported the bfi release and two dozen thousand have illegally downloaded it, but that should have no impact on criterion upgrading. I'm thrilled to upgrade it as the window boxing especially dimensioned their impact on modern tvs.

I get why people were hoping for more from a couple of these, but it is one of the rare months in which I'll be buying everything released, so at least the core value of the releases themselves holds up.

Here's the speculation round-up:

L'Argent - Janus tour + Filmstruck

War Trilogy - Janus tour of the new restoration of Rome: Open City was quite a few years ago, this has been awhile in the making.

Stalker - New Year Clue, Janus tour, direct confirmation from MOS, Filmstruck, cover art leak. This is probably the least surprise of any title I've seen.

Lost in America - Would be a surprise until we got that cover art leak
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So, no surprises, and 3/4 were Janus tours. We're again building up the newsletter clues. 275 titles remain to be upgraded to blu (when you count boxsets as a single #).

I remember reading that Tree of Life was supposed to be a July title. I suppose Malick put things on hold.

Not a great month in terms of supplements. But the films are exciting with two 2k restorations and a 4k restoration. That should do these films justice.

First time in a long while where all announced releases are likely purchases for me. (Unless that Rossellini box set doesn't improve on the BFI transfers.)

The BFI transfers are also from 4k restorations. I think it's just the extras that don't overlap between the sets.

Honestly I was pretty excited when I saw that Bresson, Tarkovsky, and a Rossellini box were coming. I understand some of the gripes about lacking commentaries and features, but still upgrade alone which qualifies a great month for me, but I'm stuck in Region A and have never been an internet download movie type...

I remember reading that Tree of Life was supposed to be a July title. I suppose Malick put things on hold.

July was never specifically mentioned by any of the sources. It is supposed to be coming "between mid-summer to autumn 2017" according to Maher.

With Sid & Nancy on its way back and To Sleep With Anger down the line, any other Samuel Goldwyn films seem like likely fits? (TT's Wild at Heart *did* release more than the 3 years their license usually covers ago...)

We can hope for Burn!... (although, now that I look into it, that's MGM)

Well, considering that Criterion has released two Bruce Beresford films, perhaps Black Robe?

Wuthering Heights?

Seems like we always end up finding some new thread to discuss the new announcements in bulk - usually the quarantined, sometimes here, and now the Phantom Page thread. Anyway, here is the speculation round-up:

The Breaking Point - March newsletter clue

Meantime - February newsletter clue + Filmstruck

La Poison - Filmstruck + possibly the new years clue (poison / alcohol bottle)

Hopscotch - Upgrade, not hinted

Sid and Nancy - Upgrade, finally back in print after a long absence, not hinted
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-We're down to 273 upgrades remaining.
-I'm still not sure about Arsenic and Old Lace, I'll just leave it on the page (moving it to "best other guesses") until the end of the year
-Sid and Nancy back in print is great news. This is the last long OOP rescue since Time Bandits. 56 OOP titles remain. Or, uhh, since Straw Dogs... whoops!
-Whittled down the newsletter clues, leaving only the perennial + FWWM.
-Upgrades are very rarely hinted
-I'm actually surprised Meantime was announced. There was some debate over whether it was To Sleep with Anger - which we now have confirmed - and seemed far more likely to be announced than a random Leigh film from the 80s. Speaking of which, what the hell happened to High Hopes? Someone posted a picture of Leigh grading the film a couple years ago, and still no release?

I actually bought Hopscotch, because someone posted that it was one of the Studio Canal titles to likely go OOP (which it never did - and since then Janus now own the rights). Its a fun enough movie that I'm looking forward to the upgrade, but that mistake along with a couple others (Renoir's Stage and Spectacle set - which was also listed as Studio Canal and probably going OOP) was my main impetus for creating the OOP thread.

Othello is coming on September 26. The intern fucked up and it's in the coming soon list if you click the announcement on the front page.

Anyone else think the newsletter itself was lacking this month, too?

Hell, the page is up too. Spine 870.

Why shouldn't it be included in the "coming soon" list? It was announced a while ago and then recently delayed.

I just realized that was possible and was typing it in...

Morbii wrote:Anyone else think the newsletter itself was lacking this month, too?

That's not the newsletter (despite it saying so on the email), they've started sending out emails when they announce new titles. The real Newsletter always has a clue and comes out at the end of the month.

A bit underwhelming this month. But I guess to be expected after the past several months of stellar announcements.

I'm a bit more surprised about how they delayed a bit the announcement and yet ended up with 3 releases having "More !" in the extras.
It's not especially often that Criterion announces titles with an open slate of extras (though I believe it definetly happens more often now than before), but 3 out of 5 announcements (4 if you take out Hopscotch as "just" an upgrade) most certainly is unusual.