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ryannichols7 wrote:plus the films they produced and the films they distribute are two different things. Universal owns Mulholland Drive and the Pianist in the US, etc

between the Tatis coming back and the Jean Gabin potential clue....I'm starting to have the ridiculous thought Criterion and Studiocanal are friends again. but no, I'm just getting ahead of myself. this forum would implode.

But before people start speculating that, we know it's not true. Making these emails all the more bizarre.

I wouldn't be surprised if this has to do with the Tati estate more than any legal exceptions.

I agree with perpee on the SC releases, way too inconsistent and while some have had great transfers, I'd prefer CC to release them in the US instead. However, the way I understood the Lionsgate deal, this is clearly not an option at the moment and for the foreseeable future. I think the key to the Tatis really lies in the specific agreements with the Tati estate (and I re-read the press release which clearly makes it sound like SC has WW distribution rights).

captveg wrote:It may be that they only want to release the films in a box and not want them sold individually, hence the Playtime BD going OOP.

That seems like the most likely answer to me. I will happily buy these all yet again. I'm expecting a definitive box from Criterion.

It will indeed be interesting to see if Criterion is cooperating with StudioCanal on these. It seems a little more likely to me that something fell through with SC nailing down the U.S. distribution rights, but I'd love to be proven wrong.

Playing at BAM/Pacific:

Thursday, March 28, 2013
7:00 p.m. Il sorpasso
Dino Risi (Italy, 1962)

Imported 35mm Print!

(a.k.a. The Easy Life). Il sorpasso is a pungent, satiric view of the economic boom of the late fifties and early sixties, and joins La dolce vita in unmasking the spiritual malaise that fuels the jet set. Vittorio Gassman excels in the role of a rogue, the fast-driving, fast-talking playboy Bruno Fortuna, who lures a leery young student, Roberto (Jean-Louis Trintignant), into his sports car for a jaunt along the Riviera designed to show the timid boy how to take big bites out of life. Bruno and Roberto's contrasting ways are dramatized in hilarious and sharply observed episodes. In Bruno’s orbit, Roberto loses his timidity and stiffness, but also his ideals.

• Written by Ettore Scola, Ruggero Maccari. Photographed by Alfio Contini. With Vittorio Gassman, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Catherine Spaak. (105 mins, In Italian with English subtitles, 35mm, From Cinecittà Luce S.p.A., permission Janus Films/Criterion Collection)

MongooseCmr wrote:TCM just played Bitter Rice in what seems to be HD. Keeping with the trend of films to be released by Criterion "premiering" on TCM first, Bitter Rice could be right around the corner

It premiered last year. TCM is just starting to scour all of the material that Hulu is making known as available for broadcast. And that probably was an HD master...but TCMHD definitely wasn't showing it in HD (it's not a genuine HD channel yet, it's all upscaled.)

Also playing at BAM/Pacific:

The Ceremony
Nagisa Oshima (Japan, 1971)
In Memoriam
Nagisa Oshima, March 31, 1932–January 15, 2013

(Gishiki). A chronicle of the Sakurada family beginning in 1946, The Ceremony takes as its subject nothing less than the history of the postwar Japanese state. From the family patriarch, a high-ranking government official before and during the war, to grandson Masuo, the central character of the film and a spiritual alter ego for Oshima, the entire family seems charged by incestuous proclivities and moral ambiguity resulting from the war. All the key action takes place during ceremonies—funerals, weddings, Buddhist services—when the strength of family tradition, and the spiritual authority of the state, are most obvious. Amid strikingly beautiful set pieces, the ceremonies grow more bizarre, and what starts out looking like one of those formal family sagas the Japanese love so well snowballs into the horror and violence of the ripest Jacobean dramas: a vertiginous indictment of the madness of contemporary Japan.

• Written by Tsutomu Tamura, Mamoru Sasaki, Oshima. Photographed by Toichiro Narushima. With Kenzo Kawarazaki, Atsuko Kaku, Kei Sato, Nobuko Otowa. (122 mins, In Japanese with English subtitles, Color, ’Scope, 35mm, From The Japan Foundation, permission Janus/Criterion Collection)

The Art Theater Guild program looks pretty good. Wonder if Criterion has plans for any of the other titles?

Art Theater Guild:

Silence Has No Wings
(Tobenai chinmoku). Kazuo Kuroki (Japan, 1966).

Ecstasy of the Angels
(Tenshi no kōkotsu). Koji Wakamatsu (Japan, 1972).

She and He
(Kanojo to kare). Susumu Hani (Japan, 1963).

Children Who Draw
(E o kaku kodomotachi). Susumu Hani (Japan, 1956).

The Inferno of First Love
(Hatsukoi jigokuhen). Susumu Hani (Japan, 1968).

Pastoral: Hide and Seek
(Den’en ni shisu). Shuji Terayama (Japan, 1974).

Human Bullet
(Nikudan). Kihachi Okamoto (Japan, 1968).

Shura
Toshio Matsumoto (Japan, 1971).

A Man Vanishes
(Ningen jōhatsu). Shohei Imamura (Japan, 1967).

I've seen all if them except for Children Who Draw and they'd all make great additions to The Collection/could use some contextualization.

A 30 film ATG blu-ray box seems like a good idea to me.

A Man Vanishes already has a US release from Icarus Films. It's a part of a box of other Imamura docs.

Out of those, I'd most like to see The Ceremony, Silence Has No Wings, Pastoral, and Shura hit the collection. All of them deserve to be in it though, hopefully the ATGs that Criterion do release aren't just dumped on Eclipse.

FerdinandGriffon wrote:A 30 film ATG blu-ray box seems like a good idea to me.

I can't see it any other way.

It's exciting to see those few Hani films surfacing. Fingers crossed that Criterion (or some other brave label) has got them in their sights.

And that Imamura set is indispensible. A Man Vanishes is a complete masterpiece, and a couple of those documentaries - specifically The Pirates of Bubuan and Outlaw-matsu Comes Home - aren't far off. The five docs give a great outline of Imamura's historical preoccupations during this period, which are generally more sublimated in his features, and can be augmented by Hara's The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On, a subject handed down by Imamura which takes those themes even further. This was issued on R1 DVD a few years ago, but now seems to be OOP. I don't know how difficult it is to track down a copy, but it's worth the hassle.

I was reading the Still Walking booklet this weekend and noted the prominent mention of the Kore-eda docs. Any chance of those getting an eclipse release or are they already available?

I guess this really belongs in a "Not Forthcoming" thread, but since it has been speculated about here:

William Friedkin, on Twitter, wrote:Re: SORCERER. The original negative is in good condition And it's now being budgeted to make a new digital master. I'll keep you updated.

...and later he wrote:Guys I can only tell you that SORCERER will not be Released by Criterion. More info as it develops.

I'm just glad that the ownership has been sorted out and that someone is going to release it.

zedz wrote:It's exciting to see those few Hani films surfacing. Fingers crossed that Criterion (or some other brave label) has got them in their sights.

There was a much larger Susumi Hani retro at Harvard last month, with some mouthwateringly rare titles that I hope will travel, and the ATG program listed above is a cutdown of a large series that just wrapped up at MoMA. Most of the ATG films circulate with fansubs, but I caught some rarities (mostly from the early 80s) that apparently don't, Negishi's Distant Thunder and Ikeda's Mermaid Legend being the highlights.

So I guess i'll get the May guesses started:

Emigrants/New Land Troell box
Bitter Rice
Foreign Correspondent
The Devil's Backbone
Lord of the Flies
Passion of Joan of Arc

La notte is coming:

Mulvaney wrote:Thank you for your email, and I have good news for you. The Criterion LA NOTTE is slated to be out this year, hopefully even within the next six months. We're close! I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns, and thank you for supporting Criterion!

Unfortunately, he did not address whether L'Avventura or L'Eclisse would be upgraded.

I suppose with the MOC that was a given, but good news all the same.

No guesses for me this month. I want to not think about it and just be surprised.

I think I'll cancel my MoC La notte then, because of the odd chance they do a box set upgrade of all three films and I'll be stunned if the disc was to be barebones anyway.

I'm sticking with MoC, and then may double dip with the CC BR, depending on those extras... However there may not be an huge amount out there to add, save the earlier shorts that remain... L'AMOROSA MENZOGNA would make a great extra on LA SIGNORA SENZA CAMELIE but would not really suit LA NOTTE especially... SUPERSTIZIONE is more of a curio, while LA VILLA DEI MOSTRI is a really rather rare short which is seldom seen, and seems to me the best match...

Lord of the Flies
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
Tess
something Antonioni

Guesses for tomorrow:

Medium Cool
The Ghost Goes West
Eraserhead
The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family
La Main du Diable
The Long Voyage Home
Lord of the Flies BD
Berlin Alexanderplatz BD

guesses:
Lord of the Flies upgrade
The Night Porter do-over
Wild Strawberries do-over or upgrade
Medium Cool
Eraserhead
Red River
Y Tu Mama Tambien
Foreign Correspondant

guesses:
Criterions that I'm so over already but a lot of other people aren't
Eclipse set that blows away the above, except it's not on Blu

Predictions:

Something that will never happen, but I'd really like to happen
A correct guess
A rumored title which I guessed for several previous months
A long-delayed title, because surely this is going to be its month
A rumored title which I guessed for several previous months
A pipe dream
An out-of-nowhere upgrade guess

Ace In The Hole upgrade
a Lubitsch title?
47 Ronin
4 Weeks, 3 Months, 2 Days
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