criterionforum.org

Sabotage, I hope.

Bela Tarr and especially the Bluray of Daisies makes sense. if Criterion can break the BBS box, I can see them upgrading an Eclipse title, especially one that everyone has seen loves.

the Lana thing is weird and out there but this is the company that released Tiny Furniture.

jmj713 wrote:This must've come up before, but how likely is a Criterion collection of the Hitchcock silents?

It depends on the rights status in the US. In the UK, half of them are owned by StudioCanal, with all that that implies.

If it's true that Facets isn't renewing rights, I hope it means that Syberberg's Hitler is up for grabs. While their DVD of Hitler has Syberberg's imprimatur, it would be nice to get a full Blu-Ray restoration.

Criterion posted pictures of film producer Laura Coxson and Olivier Assayas today, leading me to believe that eventual releases of Clouds of Sils Maria and Albert Maysles' Iris may be on the horizon. Of course, this is all just random speculation.

It's never too early for predictions:
The Apu Trilogy
"My Beautiful Laundrette"
"Here's Your Life"
"The New World"
"The Killers" Blu-Ray upgrade
"The Devil and Daniel Webster" Blu-Ray uprgrade

The Tales of Hoffman
A Matter of Life and Death
The Apu Trilogy
The War Trilogy
Blue is the Warmest Color
My Beautiful Laundrette

I noticed in the recent edition of Film Comment that In Cold Blood (1964) is being restored by Sony. I would imagine this would be a candidate for a Criterion release sometime in the future.

david hare wrote:AMOLAD is unrestored since the 2004 Grover Crisp version for DVD (which was used for the French BD.) It's no longer really good enough, given the Film Foundation and Canal restorations of the Shoes and Blimp and the Institut Lumiere 2K for Narcissus. Thelma has mentioned en passant they hope to get money to do AMOLAD again. Given the Crisp resto was photochemical all the elements should be in great shape for a new 4K scan and remastering to a higher standard. It will be next up I would suggest, after a couple of B&W and Bluebeard's Castle (currently being finished.)

Sabotage is more or less impossible for Crit as it's an ITV/Network/Canal property. Also the HD master may not be up to their standards. Network is doing it in May of course. The Network Region B Young and Innocent is mostly good but there are serious problems with frame jitter and tearing/warping at the opening and at the 50 minute mark (the Children's party of all things.) It needs some expensive physical restoration as do a number of the older Canal Hitchcock masters from the 90s.

Hm. I was under the impression it had been restored already but I think I was just misinterpreting the print being used.

I do wonder about I Know Where I'm Going and A Canterbury Tale - as B+W and not really heavy on the stupendously fantastical production design elements as the technicolor ones, would the existing HD masters (on Amazon and iTunes) suffice for a "just filling the slot" release? It'll have been two years since Blimp came out in June so I'll take practically anything.

david hare wrote:AMOLAD is unrestored since the 2004 Grover Crisp version for DVD (which was used for the French BD.) It's no longer really good enough, given the Film Foundation and Canal restorations of the Shoes and Blimp and the Institut Lumiere 2K for Narcissus. Thelma has mentioned en passant they hope to get money to do AMOLAD again. Given the Crisp resto was photochemical all the elements should be in great shape for a new 4K scan and remastering to a higher standard. It will be next up I would suggest, after a couple of B&W and Bluebeard's Castle (currently being finished.)

Sabotage is more or less impossible for Crit as it's an ITV/Network/Canal property. Also the HD master may not be up to their standards. Network is doing it in May of course. The Network Region B Young and Innocent is mostly good but there are serious problems with frame jitter and tearing/warping at the opening and at the 50 minute mark (the Children's party of all things.) It needs some expensive physical restoration as do a number of the older Canal Hitchcock masters from the 90s.

Sabotage is among the British Hitchcock films that Criterion has released on iTunes, so the rights aren't necessarily the issue. Having watched the "HD" version released on iTunes, I would, however, agree that a new transfer would be necessary to warrant a stand-alone physical release from Criterion. It was about a year ago that I watched it, however, so I can't speak too specifically about that digital version.

The Virgin Spring, Summertime, the lady eve, Dodeskaden blurays.

Here's your life
Emigrants
The new land
Where the wild things are
Intimate lighting

There's HD versions of IKWIG, Canterbury, and 49th Parallel on Criterion's Amazon and iTunes. I've only seen Canterbury through this means and I don't recall if there was a specific restoration identified, but if I recall it was uploaded sometime in the first half of last year so it may well be from a recent restoration.

I don't think any of those are likely to be big sellers, lavish restoration or not, so I expect them to be put out with what's on Amazon and iTunes already rather than spending the money to finance a new version.

I think Michael B or someone mentioned awhile ago that the BFI was going to do its own restoration on Canterbury, but whatever is out there isn't "Film Foundation" quality. I expect Criterion doesn't want to release any P&P when there's a chance a better restoration could surface shortly (ala The Leopard). I don't think Film Foundation has a clear schedule of what's coming next, so who knows how long till they get around to the B/W ones, or what color ones they'll do next.

It absolutely seems Criterion likes to wait for major restorations when they are a possibility. It means there'll be a theatrical tour, and in most cases a restoration with greater resources than Criterion can produce in-house. Seems the Ozu films will hopefully continue to be 4k restorations, which makes a lot more sense (financially and in general) than just HD transfers of the BFI's releases.

david hare wrote:Sabotage is more or less impossible for Crit as it's an ITV/Network/Canal property.

Criterion have the rights to Sabotage. It is, indeed, an ITV property but not Studio Canal.

mogwai wrote:Anne Thompson article with Peter Becker on the Apu trilogy restoration. This is going to be such an amazingly important release. I can't wait to see them.

Wondering if the trilogy will be announced tomorrow. Would make sense to time it with the B&N sale, and it's clearly finished, as the Film Forum will be playing it throughout next month.

mogwai wrote:Anne Thompson article with Peter Becker on the Apu trilogy restoration.

That article seems to also randomly tease at Criterion doing Chimes at Midnight. Perhaps that explains the Beatrice Welles comments about a major label restoring/releasing it soon.

I hope the Apu trilogy is announced tomorrow as well, as it will make convenient timing with the BN sale. I think Criterion has been leaning more towards announcing things for home video to coincide with a Janus theatrical tour - since they both serve to advertise each other - and undoubtedly people seeing it in theater will want to know where the blu set is. This seems to be a far better strategy than their previous: Janus tour, then a disc several years later, after everyones either forgotten about it or are pissed that they're having to wait so damn long (see: Rashomon + Soft Skin).

There is no way all of this stuff would come in one month, but...

Predictions:
Easy Rider (stand alone reissue)
Here’s Your Life
Le Samurai (upgrade)
Mulholland Drive
My Beautiful Laundrette
Two Days, One Night
Vampyr (upgrade)

I'm especially interested in this part of the article:

.A key move for Criterion was opportunistically picking up Image Entertainment's vast video library (from AudioBrandon, Films Inc. and others) after no one wanted to pay the print storage bills anymore.

What films are contained in this library? Does this mean that besides acquiring these physical elements, that they have all the rights to the individual films?

jwd5275 wrote:I'm especially interested in this part of the article:

.A key move for Criterion was opportunistically picking up Image Entertainment's vast video library (from AudioBrandon, Films Inc. and others) after no one wanted to pay the print storage bills anymore.

What films are contained in this library? Does this mean that besides acquiring these physical elements, that they have all the rights to the individual films?

Could we be seeing a The Essential Ernest collection announced tomorrow?

I don't really think it means anything, as a Google reveals one of the titles is Purple Noon which has been out for some time.

From a cursory glance, both AudioBrandon and Films Inc had really interesting catalogs. That is why I am interested in knowing more.

I will guess Mario Monicelli's The Passionate Thief as the out of left field release.

I would assume at the least that they have the rights to Of Mice and Men (Lewis Milestone); which is from the same library as some of the Visconti/Fellini titles in print. The Image releases are all long out of print; the Criterion editions are still readily available. (Plus they just teased Rocco and His Brothers)

ianungstad wrote:I would assume at the least that they have the rights to Of Mice and Men (Lewis Milestone); which is from the same library as some of the Visconti/Fellini titles in print. The Image releases are all long out of print; the Criterion editions are still readily available. (Plus they just teased Rocco and His Brothers)

Did you find a list of Film Inc + Audio-Brandon films? I could only find small IMDB pages (which includes Adventures of Prince Achmed, Red Psalm, and The Cow - all of which would be great Criterion titles).

There's also this blog - which includes Siberian Lady Macbeth, El (1953), The Nun (Rivette) among others.

Would be interesting to know what else was in Image's library - as I assumed most of it went to either Milestone or Flicker Alley, but I suppose there's quite a bit of other stuff Image released that's now somewhat in limbo -that might make sense (like Tabu is apparently no longer with Milestone, I wonder if that was part of Criterion's purchase). I'll stop myself from dreaming before I start thinking of things like an Eames or McLaren sets, as who knows what all the purchase entails (and if it even included any homevideo rights - although the tease of Rocco is a great indicator towards that end, hopefully they'll start adding stuff to Hulu soon, so we can find out). Anyone also have a good list of Image Entertainment DVD's? As if I need to get my hopes up any higher

Predix (throwing it all against the wall to see what sticks):

Apu Trilogy
ROCCO & HIS BROTHERS
ALICE IN THE CITIES
HERE IS YOUR LIFE
Czech Eclipse Part 2
FORBIDDEN GAMES upgrade
RATCATCHER upgrade
SALESMAN upgrade