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I really question the use of Hoop Dreams on Blu-ray but I'm hoping this bodes well for other former New Line titles.

From a purely technical perspective, Hoop Dreams on Blu-ray makes absolutely no sense, correct?

New Line is letting the rights lapse to a lot of their licensed product, which puts Criterion in a position in which they have to license these titles from their original production companies and reissue with the current legal information on the back cover. They did this with Naked already. An Angel at My Table is probably next. Hoop Dreams was added to their Hulu page with a Janus logo, so we knew this was going to have to happen. (Assuming Image's listing is correct)

Tom Hagen wrote:From a purely technical perspective, Hoop Dreams on Blu-ray makes absolutely no sense, correct?

Correct. The improvements wouldn't be particularly noticeable except maybe for those who can hear since the film was shot on Beta for the most part.

Did that (at one time announced to be) Criterion-sponsored sequel to Hoop Dreams actually eventuate? If that was shot HD, then a proper revamp could warrant BluRay.

It technically did appear, but with none of the original crew and it seems to have gotten slaughtered critically.

knives wrote:It technically did appear, but with none of the original crew and it seems to have gotten slaughtered critically.

Well, with a title like Hoop Reality/Realities, I'm not surprised.

Doesn't appear that Criterion took any active involvement in financing it (they're not listed among the production companies), and with word of mouth so bad, it seems unlikely that they'll take any further interest in it. Besides, it's already available on DVD from some outfit called Terra.

There may not be any harm in including it as a Blu-ray reissue bonus feature though, right?

Here is the link that was posted on Facebook, if anyone wants to check it out.

I still think you guys are discounting the benefit of a higher resolution transfer with better restoration done on the source materials. I'm not saying it'll look like HD, but I wouldn't go as far as to say that an upgrade is completely unwarranted.

Everyone assumes that if something was shot in SD and is already out on DVD, then it can't be improved upon, but that's already been proven wrong at least once.

That isn't in HD though so nothing has been proven wrong on that accord. Also something that was shot in PAL will of course look better on a PAL disc.

scoundrel wrote:Did any NYers who went to the NYFF to see "The Bride Wore Black" notice if it was preceded with the oh-so-telling Janus logo?

To be precise, The Bride Wore Black played at Film Forum and not as part of NYFF. As far as NYFF goes, The Gold Rush was presented by The Criterion Collection so there's no question there that a BD is coming, probably the next Chaplin. Also, the Nikkatsu series had lots of already-released Criterion titles, but Gate of Flesh was projected in DCP (or some other HD means, definitely not 35mm as it was advertised), so I think an upgrade would be likely on that title. September 2012 is Nikkatsu's 100th anniversary so I would think that some sort of box set or at least an extensive number of releases would be in order around then. There will be much fanfare for Nikkatsu in 2012 all over the world in terms of retrospectives and what not..

well there's two ways you can go with Hoop Dreams, you can go back to the source tapes (probably no longer any good anyway) and digitize them via digital signals rather than analog signals. This alone will result in a rather large jump in quality, as SDI or HDSDI out of a digibeta or HDCAMSR deck is a far superior signal than Analog component (or analog composite or S Video) out of a typical BETACAMSP deck. This would be the tape equivalent of going back to the o-neg and probably result in a remarkably better image. The chances that the source tapes were not recycled seems minute, though. I've seen a lot of BETACAM tapes digitized via a BETACAM deck (analog) vs digitized via a Digibeta or HDCAM deck (digital) and the difference is rather large.

Or you can figure that is far too much work, both in terms of finding the original tapes and in recreating every cut (as there probably will not be an EDL) which involves some detective work in finding the paperwork used for the transfer to film. I would presume a film negative was made so the picture could be shown in theatres. A modern harvest of the negative of Hoop Dreams would result in a better image even if the source tapes had limitations. But you're not talking about a large difference with this process.

Regarding a potential Hoop Dreams Blu-ray (or perhaps a rebranded re-release), this was Kartemquin's response on Twitter this morning:

"Hmmm. That's news to us..."

I'm sure that, as Ian suggested, it's not a new Blu release -- just a DVD reissue under Janus license instead of New Line. Probably won't ever even be announced.

Cold Bishop wrote:You're crazy... Maria Braun is easily the best of the three!

I respectfully differ (and would go as far as call it his worst overall - and one of the worst things I ever had to sit through, but this discussion is better held in the Fassbinder-thread).

Peacock wrote:

nolanoe wrote:include Querelle as the third BD

You'll be pleased to know then that Gaumont are putting out a BD of the film in the first half of 2012! (Hopefully it includes both soundtracks and subs...)

I have this really weird love/hate relationship with this film - it's just so unique and weird, yet it also annoys me with its messy narrative and repetitive elements... still, seeing this as-intended (at least as far as the theatrical version goes) is good news. A friend of mine is also a huge fan of it, so this might contribute greatly to a nice debate about it.
I also love that I dreamt tonight of googling the name of Driest (he's the police officer here, he became famous when he was caught robbing a bank and wrote a book about it in jail) and now I just had to AGAIN. Glad Fassbinder's most 'interesting' ventures (World on a Wire, Despair, this one here) are getting a good treatment, looks good for my other favorites as well then.

Now, to add oil to the Truffaut-fire - a few months ago, a BEAUTIFUL HD-transfer of Adele H was shown on the french channel ARTE. I have since tried to acquire any news on BD updates - none. The DVD looks dreadful in comparison. Either way - there is a new version for that one.

Apologies if this has been mentioned already, but for whatever it is worth (potentially very little) Kwaidan is being listed as an upcoming Criterion release on blu-ray.com

Not sure if this is already known, but Jeffrey Wells (I know, I know...) speaks with Wenders, who confirms a forthcoming boxed set of his films:

I asked Wenders at the Pina after-party when The American Friend ('78), my favorite of all his films, will be out on Bluray. Next year, he said, via the Criterion Collection. It will be part of a series or a box set, apparently. I couldn't hear as well as I wanted to but I think he said the package will include four of his films.

DeusEx wrote:Apologies if this has been mentioned already, but for whatever it is worth (potentially very little) Kwaidan is being listed as an upcoming Criterion release on blu-ray.com

It's highly likely actually. It was one of the first discussions for a upgrade when Criterion haven't even started issuing Blu-rays. It lost its vote to Howard's End. Fucking Howard. 8-[

Unless Criterion restore the cuts, I'll wait for MoC to upgrade to blu (or just hold on to the SD).

JC Fox wrote:Not sure if this is already known, but Jeffrey Wells (I know, I know...) speaks with Wenders, who confirms a forthcoming boxed set of his films:

I asked Wenders at the Pina after-party when The American Friend ('78), my favorite of all his films, will be out on Bluray. Next year, he said, via the Criterion Collection. It will be part of a series or a box set, apparently. I couldn't hear as well as I wanted to but I think he said the package will include four of his films.

We know that the Road Movie Trilogy is on tap for next year (someone said June?). I'd imagine that The American Friend will be released separately at some point in the year, and that those will comprise the four films that Wenders is referring to. I can't imagine them including it in the box, since, while it is contemporaneous to the other films, it doesn't really fit with them thematically and certainly isn't considered part of that trilogy. Perhaps they'll just make it a "Four Films by Wim Wenders" box.

DeusEx wrote:Apologies if this has been mentioned already, but for whatever it is worth (potentially very little) Kwaidan is being listed as an upcoming Criterion release on blu-ray.com

They use placeholders for rumored titles.

does anyone know anything about ownership of A Walk In The Sun? It was on TCM earlier today and I had forgotten what an under-rated WWII film it is. A classic in every sense of the term. Rights on imdb are a parade of crappy companies like Madacy and there have been various shitty releases....it absolutely needs proper restoration.

I'm surprised this hasn't been posted (or I totally missed it, and if that's the case my apologies.) I know there was discussion about possible Warner titles including Badlands. Not sure how much credence can be given to this, but here's a post about Badlands coming from either Warner or Criterion.