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Just a heads up for us Canadians. This is from the sell sheets for June:

ATTN CANADA: LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD AND ESSENTIAL ART HOUSE: VOLUME THREE ARE AVAILABLE IN THE US ONLY.

So anyone wanting Last Year at Marienbad are going to have to import it through a US retailer.

I know this is going to be random but has there been any mention of a possible Kafka release? I read on the IMDb forum that Soderbergh recently mentioned reshaping the film around the time of Ocean's Twelve release and with Paramount now in the fold... I'm hopeful.

ianungstad wrote:Just a heads up for us Canadians. This is from the sell sheets for June:

ATTN CANADA: LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD AND ESSENTIAL ART HOUSE: VOLUME THREE ARE AVAILABLE IN THE US ONLY.

So anyone wanting Last Year at Marienbad are going to have to import it through a US retailer.

Amazon.ca will have them. They always do.

ianungstad wrote:Just a heads up for us Canadians. This is from the sell sheets for June:

ATTN CANADA: LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD AND ESSENTIAL ART HOUSE: VOLUME THREE ARE AVAILABLE IN THE US ONLY.

So anyone wanting Last Year at Marienbad are going to have to import it through a US retailer.

A lot of their press releases state something similar (or a certain title is only available in English speaking Canada) but you can usually get the title(s) online like Amazon.ca or HMV stores will sometimes import them.

Tommaso wrote:Hmm... while the subbed bootleg that is floating around (probably comes from the French disc originally) has its share of damage of all sorts, it's certainly not much worse than "Women of the night". So I can't see any reason for CC not releasing it; and you can bet that they won't unearth any better print anywhere.

Do you have any idea where I might be able to get that subbed bootleg copy of Mizoguchi's "Story of the Last Chrysanthemums" from? I've been trying to track down the Home Vision VHS and have come up empty. You can PM me with info if you'd like. I'm definitely not going to hold out for a Criterion/Eclipse release of this. By the way, has anyone viewed the Mk2 Coffret Mizoguchi release of this title (part of a boxset)? What is the print quality like?

Any help in tracking down this title would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

I'll have a giggle fit if they announce Darjeeling Limited for July.

Discussion of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (yes, Benjamin Button) moved here.

ellipsis7 wrote:

Jean-Luc Garbo wrote:Last night on TCM, the Janus logo appeared before Korda's Lady Hamilton.

So more Korda sometime...

Zoltan Korda's Jungle Book (1942) is available on TCM ondemand and it too starts with the Janus logo.

ianungstad wrote:I'll have a giggle fit if they announce Darjeeling Limited for July.

I would be right there with you. The Darjeeling Limited is in my top 5 movies ever. (A Blu-Ray Criterion TDL release would be even nicer!)

Lightning wrote:It seems they skipped spine number 476.

I've been checking every few hours, hoping for some indication on their site of what it might be.....

I wonder if there are any other deals like the Button one in the works. Studios not wanting to put in a lot of effort for a deluxe edition of a very recent film, so Criterion steps in, etc.

kaujot wrote:I wonder if there are any other deals like the Button one in the works. Studios not wanting to put in a lot of effort for a deluxe edition of a very recent film, so Criterion steps in, etc.

I didn't want to say anything, but yes, Criterion will be handling the upcoming three disc edition of PAUL BLART: MALL COP for Sony.*

*Please don't share this info with other forums yet.

Does that include the digital copy?

Yeah, no digital copy is a deal-breaker.

Now that Criterion are issuing their first Paramount-licensed Blu-ray, I wonder how long it'll be before Days of Heaven crops up?

I always feel like I'm the guy who comes in and complains about everyone's lack of understanding about how the industry works, but... well, I don't care.

The whole idea that everyone makes money on movies, particularly prestige directors, is absurd. The whole system is substantially more complex than that, and film budgeting alone would make most peoples' heads spin. On top of that, there is never any tried and true formula with regard to what marketing elements make money, and so to a certain extent nearly everything is a gamble. Malick is something special, certainly, but just because we're all fans here doesn't mean that anyone is going to throw money at him so that he can do whatever he wants. On top of that, final cut is only afforded to people with contracts, contracts are usually negotiated for a limited number of films, and I know that there are cases where contract negotiations fell apart because final cut wouldn't be granted.

There needs to be a moratorium on generalities being thrown around when the actual details of a certain instance aren't immediately known. It is absolutely pointless to discuss the financial motivations behind any given decision when the details only exist because they've been pulled out of thin air. With regard to the Benjamin Button deal, any number of possibilities exist. One very likely possibility is that Paramount didn't want to be bothered with putting up disc production and marketing costs, and offered to just take a cut of the proceeds, and that that's all this really boils down to. That said... the deal could literally be ANYTHING.

EDIT: This makes substantially less sense now that the branched conversation making reference to Terrence Malick has been moved, but the statements still stand. Don't go talkin' bout shit ya don't know nuthin' about.

arsonfilms wrote: Don't go talkin' bout shit ya don't know nuthin' about.

We wouldn't have a forum then.

Tribe wrote:

arsonfilms wrote: Don't go talkin' bout shit ya don't know nuthin' about.

We wouldn't have a forum then.

Touche, my friend. Touche.

arsonfilms wrote:One very likely possibility is that Paramount didn't want to be bothered with putting up disc production and marketing costs, and offered to just take a cut of the proceeds, and that that's all this really boils down to.

But Paramount is already putting up millions (yes, without a doubt, millions) of their own money to market the single disc release themselves. It would essentially cost them nothing additional to market an SE of their own at the same time.

I agree this Criterion deal could be structured any number of ways, but I don't see marketing costs as being the foundation.

jaredsap wrote:

arsonfilms wrote:One very likely possibility is that Paramount didn't want to be bothered with putting up disc production and marketing costs, and offered to just take a cut of the proceeds, and that that's all this really boils down to.

But Paramount is already putting up millions (yes, without a doubt, millions) of their own money to market the single disc release themselves. It would essentially cost them nothing additional to market an SE of their own at the same time.

I agree this Criterion deal could be structured any number of ways, but I don't see marketing costs as being the foundation.

Right. The whole point is that speculation based on even more speculation is completely meaningless. For all I know, Criterion is handling production on all releases, and Paramount is footing the bill. Hell, for all we ACTUALLY know, Paramount lost all rights in a card game. In fact, the card game theory isn't even any less likely than any other idea floated on here, which is saying something.

How many eclipse releases do you all think we'll get this year? We pretty much know that December isn't going to have an eclipse, so that leaves open the possibility that we'll get eight this year. I think seven releases is pretty likely, and six is almost a given, but still, I wouldn't be surprised if we only got five, total, eclipse for the year.

I think we'll get a Godard or Truffaut eclipse (either one will get one, I feel, before we get a New Wave eclipse), and a Naruse eclipse. as much as I'd love another Ozu eclipse, I don't think we'll get another one so soon, and after that I don't have. I think we'll probably only get one of Gremillion, Gorin or Costa, and I wouldn't be surprised if there's something unexpected out there, like a Leo McCarey eclipse licensed from Paramount, for example.

My dream releases for 2009 (of what's realistically possible)

July - Ozu (so long as it includes There was a Father, I'll be happy)
August - Maysles Brothers
September - Naruse
October - Truffaut
November - McCarey (ruggles of red gap is a must. )

arsonfilms wrote:The whole system is substantially more complex than that, and film budgeting alone would make most peoples' heads spin.

Why are you trying to mystify this process? Film budgeting is merely a matter of sums and products, and all you need is somebody to align the details. People who do this are lawyers, and they're a dime a dozen.

GringoTex wrote: People who do this are lawyers, and they're a dime a dozen.

Ouch! Even those of us who have a special practice with only one client?

Tom Hagen wrote:

GringoTex wrote: People who do this are lawyers, and they're a dime a dozen.

Ouch! Even those of us who have a special practice with only one client?

Scusi, consigliere.

Here's a number of films I see listed at dvdaf as Unannounced Criterions. I'd love to see Underworld among others.
Some of these titles might have been mentioned in this thread already. Was wondering what the status was on these, if known. Thanks.


Cocktail Molotov - (Diane Kurys, 1980)
Cousin, Cousine - (Jean Charles Tacchella, 1975)
Downhill Racer - (Michael Ritchie, 1969)
Eisenstein: The Silent Years - The Criterion Collection
- Strike (Стачка) (Stachka) (1925)
- Battleship Potemkin (Bronenosets Potyomkin) (1925)
- October - Ten Days That Shook the World
Hidden Fortress, The - (Akira Kurosawa, 1958)
Insignificance - (Nicolas Roeg, 1985)
Jour se lève, Le - (Daybreak) (Marcel Carné, 1939)
Last Days of Disco, The (Whit Stillman, 1998)
Lili Marleen (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1981)
Lola Montes - (Max Ophüls, 1955)
Magician, The - (Ingmar Bergman, 1958)
Make Way for Tomorrow (Leo McCarey, 1937)
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence - (Nagisa Oshima, 1983)
Olympia - (Leni Riefenstahl, 1938)
- Olympia 1. Teil - Fest der Völker (1938)
- Olympia 2. Teil - Fest der Schönheit
Senso (Luchino Visconti, 1954)
Shanghai Express - (Josef von Sternberg, 1932)
subUrbia (Richard Linklater, 1996)
Two or Three Things I Know About Her... - (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)
(2 ou 3 choses que je sais d'elle)
Underworld (Josef von Sternberg, 1927)
Vivre sa vie - (My Life to Live) (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962)

Lemmy Caution wrote:Here's a number of films I see listed at dvdaf as Unannounced Criterions. Some of these might have been mentioned in this thread already. Was wondering what the status was, if people have specific info. Thanks.

Have you considered looking here?