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The Eisenstein films are in need as well. The obvious Antonioni films.....

I want so badly for those Eisenstein films to be revisited; I've been wondering if there is a problem with the elements, or Criterion doesn't have the rights to release them on a new format? Have they ever said anything about the possibility of them being upgraded?

My list (aside from Eisenstein and the hopefully-locked BRD Trilogy):
Carnival of Souls
Kwaidan (It's been years since we've heard anything about this one)
Sisters (Certainly gets enough mention through Criterion's various web presences for them not to be interested in revisiting it)
L’Eclisse and L’Avventura (Unless there's a hold-up with elements, I'm baffled as to why these two haven't been released yet)
Mamma Roma
Eyes without a Face
Gate of Flesh (Something of a long-shot, but there was a new print being shown theatrically last year (someone here wrote about seeing it), and it is Nikkatsu's 100-year anniversary)
The Bad Sleep Well (Probably the least likely of my requests, but with upgrades of Stray Dog and Drunken Angel on the way, maybe the movers and shakers at Criterion favor Kurosawa's noir films as much as I do)
Viridiana (After losing half of their Bunuel titles to Studio Canal, Criterion is hopefully keen to make the most of what's left)
Jigoku (Surely has some cult cachet; maybe an October title?)
Pandora’s Box (Said to be coming at some point, but I couldn't leave it off the list: probably my favorite film in the collection)

bainbridgezu wrote:L’Eclisse and L’Avventura (Unless there's a hold-up with elements, I'm baffled as to why these two haven't been released yet)

A supposed hold-up a couple of years ago w/ elements for La Notte - my fantasy is that they're holding off until they can release all three at once on blu.

bainbridgezu wrote:Kwaidan (It's been years since we've heard anything about this one)

This is an important one because, according to MoC, Toho does not have or want an HD master of the film and Criterion may be the only chance of getting a Kwaidan Blu-ray.

bainbridgezu wrote:The Bad Sleep Well (Probably the least likely of my requests, but with upgrades of Stray Dog and Drunken Angel on the way, maybe the movers and shakers at Criterion favor Kurosawa's noir films as much as I do)

The newsletter clue of the drunk dog that everyone thought was Stray Dog & Drunken Angel was actually for Anatomy of a Murder, so none of these in particular are known to be in the works. Personally, I'm with you: give me The Bad Sleep Well first of those three choices.

I don't see a blu-ray upgrade of Drunken Angel ever happening, due to the film's poor condition.

captveg wrote:The newsletter clue of the drunk dog that everyone thought was Stray Dog & Drunken Angel was actually for Anatomy of a Murder, so none of these in particular are known to be in the works. Personally, I'm with you: give me The Bad Sleep Well first of those three choices.

Thanks for clearing this up (I haven't seen the Preminger film). With all the run-around when that clue was first sent out, I'm surprised this didn't get more attention (a quick search turns up only one mention on this site). That damned double-K ("wackky drunk dog") was a genuinely cruel typo.

God, I love The Bad Sleep Well: the first twenty minutes are among the most perfect achievement in all of cinema. The ending is brilliant as well, extending the nihilism prevelant in the genre to its most extreme conclusion, through both formal and narrative means; it outdoes even Kubrick's (also very wonderful) The Killing in this respect.

triodelover wrote:Nights of Cabiria

I thought CC lost the rights to this film?

My request is 'Autumn Sonata'.

It seems strange that none of the Sirks have been upgraded yet.

aox wrote:

triodelover wrote:Nights of Cabiria

I thought CC lost the rights to this film?

It is out of print, and is one of the more expensive OOP titles

I really want a re-do of The Last Emperor Blu, with a 2nd disc for the supplements and the correct aspect ratio.

But in upgrades that might really happen, I want either Life of Brian or Do the Right Thing, considering the existing Blus are less than ideal.

aox wrote:

triodelover wrote:Nights of Cabiria

I thought CC lost the rights to this film?

Oops for the second time in two days. OK, amend that list to everything I have on my shelf in SD from Criterion that they still have the rights to.

triodelover wrote:

aox wrote:

triodelover wrote:Nights of Cabiria

I thought CC lost the rights to this film?

Oops for the second time in two days. OK, amend that list to everything I have on my shelf in SD from Criterion that they still have the rights to.

It's kind of interesting that you can rent Nights of Cabiria through Amazon for $2.99 via streaming or download to own for $9.99. Kind of makes buying the disc moot at this point.

Anthony wrote:It's kind of interesting that you can rent Nights of Cabiria through Amazon for $2.99 via streaming or download to own for $9.99. Kind of makes buying the disc moot at this point.

A SD version, yes, unless one had already had it on one's shelf for years. A Blu-ray changes the calculus.

Anthony wrote:It's kind of interesting that you can rent Nights of Cabiria through Amazon for $2.99 via streaming or download to own for $9.99. Kind of makes buying the disc moot at this point.

Have you actually streamed on Amazon? It's like dial-up compared to Netflix (and I'm somewhat critical of their streaming, too).

I've seen stuff streamed to an ipad that looked ok to me. But I think I agree with you... streaming to a HDTV looks bad (especially 50" or larger).

Watching videos with Amazon's HD streams looks fine (not amazing, but fine). Using their non-HD streams gives you about what you'd expect, but no worse than what you find elsewhere. They use a pretty basic flash stream; so far as I can surmise it's not an issue of how it's being delivered (basing this upon how they stream to a computer--I stream to my computer which has an hdmi-output that put into my receiver), just lousy transfers.

As digital distribution becomes more and more the standard method of video viewing, I have growing concerns about how little oversight is frequently given to these digital transfers. Services prioritize the number of videos they're getting, not how good they are, so we're being repeatedly given terrible transfers. I'm sure we've all started to stream a movie from Netflix (or hulu, amazon, whoever) and quit a few minutes in because the transfer is unwatchable.

The handful of titles I've streamed via my Roku looked just as good as anything on Netflix or Hulu, but they were in HD and newer releases (read: recent transfers), so that might have played a part.

dwk wrote:Criterion wants to know what DVDs you want them to upgrade to Blu-ray

Someone on Facebook with a lot of time on his hands has tallied the results.

Glad to see The Vanishing up there. It is just begging for a re-release with some actual bonus features and a new transfer. I've seen it turn up on a couple of HD movie channels over the last couple of years looking fantastic, I don't know what is taking Criterion so long.

Love how the Beastie Boys Video Anthology and Hoop Dreams got 14 votes each. I love 'em, people, but they were SHOT on SD.

And Golden Age of Television with 7 votes. Sheesh...

It seems to me that Criterion already has far more solid data on what the largest numbers would want to see upgraded based on sales figures to date of the DVDs, how prior blu upgrades have performed, and which titles would show the most dramatic improvement technically. This, like a lot of the Facebook stuff, just seems like a way of encouraging people to feel like they have a "relationship with the brand," which is fine if it helps Criterion press onward.

captveg wrote:Love how the Beastie Boys Video Anthology and Hoop Dreams got 14 votes each. I love 'em, people, but they were SHOT on SD.

And Golden Age of Television with 7 votes. Sheesh...

I'm sure at least some (if not all) of those votes were sarcastic. The Criterion Facebook page is unreadable for all the snark.

I'm frankly shocked there were no votes for Good Burger.