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I suppose Solondz's disowned debut, "Fear, Anxiety and Depression" (still not released in any format), is out of the question. :-k

MoonlitKnight wrote:I suppose Solondz's disowned debut, "Fear, Anxiety and Depression" (still not released in any format), is out of the question. :-k

There was a VHS!


I remember renting it at the time Happiness came out. My nearly 20-year-old memory of watching is that it was really bad. The only way I could see Criterion releasing it is as a supplement to Welcome to the Doll House.

med wrote:I remember renting it at the time Happiness came out. My nearly 20-year-old memory of watching is that it was really bad. The only way I could see Criterion releasing it is as a supplement to Welcome to the Doll House.

I remember it being your run-of-the-mill cheesy '80s comedy. I agree it would likely only be as a supplement to "Welcome to the Dollhouse," just as equally obscure debuts "Permanent Vacation" and "It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books" were for "Stranger Than Paradise" and "Slacker," respectively.

In keeping with the recent theme of this thread, “Movies enjoyed by surly teens in the late 90s”, I would just like to note the Warner Archive disc of Gummo recently went OOP. Doesn’t even have a page on
WBShop anymore.

Paul Thomas Anderson's responses in his recent IAMA thread when asked...

...About a Hard Eight Blu-ray debut.

...On any plans for an upcoming Criterion release (any film, not just Hard Eight).

I'm going with the the girl, flag on Cresent moon (because there is an eclipse happening) being for the Ingrid Bergman in Sweden eclipse set until proven otherwise. And with The Virgin Suicides, The Awful Truth and The Color of Pomegranates coming from New Years Wacky Drawing and Dead Man clue coming from the monthly newsletter. I'm still not convinced the skeleton is for Dead Man. That's a lot of clues to fall by the wayside right away.

Let see what Minkin has to say.

I originally read the Bergman set as "Ingmar Bergman's Swedish Years" and was genuinely confused for a few seconds at how the rest of his films wouldn't fall within those years.

cdnchris wrote:I originally read the Bergman set as "Ingmar Bergman's Swedish Years" and was genuinely confused for a few seconds at how the rest of his films wouldn't fall within those years.

Same.

Another month, another Speculation round-up!

The Awful Truth - New Years Clue (dog with hat)

Dead Man - October Newsletter Clue + directly confirmed via email asking for Q&A questions (some might claim this is the skeleton in the New Years Clue - but I'm inclined to think otherwise, but we'll see what happens in 2018)

The Virgin Suicides - New Years Clue (olive oil bottles) + was confirmed by Coppola

The Color of Pomegranates - New Years Clue (pomegranates) + on Filmstruck + confirmed making rounds as a Janus title + another World Cinema Project title

Ingrid Bergman's Swedish Years Eclipse Set - All six of the films are on Filmstruck
========================================================
No upgrades. As usual after a New Years Clue - Criterion starts plowing through them rather quickly. So almost everything was known to be coming - thanks to that clue. Its probably safe to say that all WCP films are Criterion-bound eventually

FrauBlucher wrote:I'm going with the the girl, flag on Cresent moon (because there is an eclipse happening) being for the Ingrid Bergman in Sweden eclipse set until proven otherwise. And with The Virgin Suicides, The Awful Truth and The Color of Pomegranates coming from New Years Wacky Drawing and Dead Man clue coming from the monthly newsletter. I'm still not convinced the skeleton is for Dead Man. That's a lot of clues to fall by the wayside right away.

Let see what Minkin has to say.

I suppose I'm the god of interpreting the New Years Clue! Bow before my mighty lists! Or skip the rest if you're going to be snarky about over-analyzing clues.

There's two contentious items to be reckoned with: the skeleton + the woman in the moon.

As for Dead Man - its extremely easy to just point at the skeleton, and say "well, how could it be anything else?" To which I've argued before - that Dead Man was already directly confirmed by Criterion multiple times, thus another hint in the New Years Clue would be as pointless as having most of the clue taken by Filmstruck things - but I'd argue that, due to the juxtaposition of Skippy - even overlapping with the skeleton, that the two are likely related. Thankfully, we have two potential films - that are both extremely likely additions in the near future, and would work with the clue: Bringing Up Baby or The Thin Man. Now, this is of course debatable and I'm sure there's plenty who think that its Dead Man and couldn't possibly be anything else. To which, as the god of the lists - I'll offer this compromise: Criterion has the rest of 2018 to announce either Bringing Up Baby / Thin Man - if neither is announced in 2018, then I'll remove them and declare Dead Man the winner.

As for the woman in the moon. It seems like it would be obvious now to state that this Eclipse set = that clue. But I'd argue that it isn't. The problem is - how would anyone ever guess this Eclipse set from that clue? There's no way anyone would've guessed thats Ingrid Bergman (and nobody ever postured that either). As to whether its an Eclipse or a Moon - I could see either being argued (Eclipse - since its daytime / light out, moon - because of someone sitting on it). I think the best guess was still the Dame-Moon, as its a pun, everything fits together, and it portends something we can actually guess: that a whole slew or a boxset of Ingmar Bergman films is on the way. Again, I can respect people who think it could go either way. Thus, I'll do the same thing: if a big box of Bergman doesn't come out in 2018, the Eclipse set wins.

So, there you have it: not really an answer to anything! But I think leaving things open-ended allows us to be right no matter what! I did the same for last year's clue - and I removed all of the potential films that weren't announced (with the exception of 16 Candles + West Side Story - both of which were very much for those clues / confirmed to some degree, although perhaps West Side Story could probably be dropped as well now). These things can take years (anyone remember how many times Y tu Mama Tambien was hinted?) - so patience and allowing for different possibilities is the best approach.

As to whether its an Eclipse or a Moon - I could see either being argued (Eclipse - since its daytime / light out, moon - because of someone sitting on it). I think the best guess was still the Dame-Moon, as its a pun, everything fits together, and it portends something we can actually guess: that a whole slew or a boxset of Ingmar Bergman films is on the way. Again, I can respect people who think it could go either way. Thus, I'll do the same thing: if a big box of Bergman doesn't come out in 2018, the Eclipse set wins.

At the risk of having a petulant reader heap scorn on me again (mteller's only "contribution" to six pages of the New Year's drawing thread), I think that Moonrise is still a possibility. Just because nobody guessed that a woman holding a Swedish flag could point to Ingrid Bergman doesn't mean the clue wasn't there in plain sight. And although the moon/eclipse explanation is attractive to some, it's a waste of visual real estate: I don't think you need more than a female holding a Swedish flag to arrive at Ingrid Bergman--it's just that people jumped to the conclusion that the whole thing had to be about Ingmar Bergman. As for the "dame-moon" theory referring to the director, as an editor who has worked with designers, I find it highly unlikely that a Criterion honcho would tell his illustrator, "Here's an obscure bilingual Swedish pun that you have to incorporate in the New Year's clue."

How do you think they make these drawings? The artist looks over the list of upcoming releases and with some approval determines the best way to represent a few of them. It’s totally reasonable that, upon doing research on Bergman and finding out he’s called a Demon Swede, they decide that would be the best clue. The goal isn’t to make them particularly legible - the Il Sorpasso clue a classic of that genre. We know a big centennial project for Bergman is in development of similar scale to AK100, so unless it’s abruptly cancelled there’s really no reason to argue it isn’t referring to that.

Is it possible for the woman in the moon to be a double clue for both Bergmans? I don't recall whether there's ever been a double clue before, but the obscurity seems clever enough to be intentional.

Ribs, I totally agree that the Il Sorpasso clue was a far-out delight, and a very clever one. I'm just applying the experience I have had working with designers and seeing something else as plausible. Half the clue here that was supposedly entirely for the Ingmar Bergman box--the woman holding the Swedish flag--is now for something else, and that's the "dame" part of "dame-moon regisseur." I just think that looking at the woman/moon/flag as a single clue is weaker prospect today than it was yesterday. I'm not saying an Ingmar Bergman box isn't coming, just that this clue may not be for it. Half of it already isn't.

Ribs wrote:... upon doing research on Bergman and finding out he’s called a Demon Swede, they decide that would be the best clue.

I remember his signature for the Director Approved stickers before his death including a devil drawing on it.

As also seen in the logo of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation:

The new Film Forum repertory calendar is up. Along with the Bergman Centennial, Janus Films has a new 4K restoration of Mizoguchi's A Story From Chikamatsu/The Crucified Lovers coming soon, along with 4K restorations of Sansho the Bailiff and Belle de Jour.

I'll triple (or maybe quadruple) dip for Chikamatsu Monogatari (if it is noticeably better looking than the MOC Blu).

"The Crucified Lovers" is my favorite Mizoguchi film! I'll love to see a R1 release.

I have the old 8 dvds of MoC (from 2007) so my BluRay upgrades for "Sansho", "Ugetsu" and "Chikamatsu" will be Criterion

Hoping for more 1930s/40s Hollywood, personally. I've loved the Hawks releases. How about SCARFACE? Or BRINGING UP BABY? Some Walsh would also be great. Kinda nuts that THE ROARING TWENTIES isn't on bluray.

Would love to see Wilder’s Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Sunset Boulevard joining the collection.

Now that we all got a scare with the Arrow LE, and then got our copies anyway, Criterion is sure to release The Apartment.

(though, more likely I'd guess Arrow has exclusive rights).

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Looks like A Matter of Life and Death got a new restoration that will be playing soon.

The blu-rays released in the US market both seem to be imports. Any word on who owns the rights to this one? Could be a great pick-up for Criterion.

It'll be coming, probably as a high-profile summer release (all three of the past P&P Blus were).

Sony owns rights to this, so Criterion release is most likely.