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From the My Dinner with Andre IMDB page:

Lloyd Kaufman of Troma, Inc. was production manager and his fledgling company provided support to the making of this film. This was one of his first credits.

I think this would have been an interesting story about the films production. It would have been interesting to see how Lloyd Kaufman and Troma films was involved with getting My Dinner with Andre made. It would have been interesting supplement to have included an interview with Kaufman. (Yes, I'm serious! )

That is assuming this factoid is even true.

Jeff, you ask a fair question. Outwardly both releases look competent. But were any of the features singled out by anyone here as really exciting/interesting/fulfilling? Both films were huge cultural landmarks, but Criterion has drug out the usual hired guns and friendly faces and produced no surprise extras. Those of us who've lived with Marienbad and Andre know there's no shortage of interesting avenues of discussion to be utilized. These two packages look like chores, done to be rid of, and not labors of love.

domino harvey wrote:Both films were huge cultural landmarks, but Criterion has drug out the usual hired guns and friendly faces and produced no surprise extras. Those of us who've lived with Marienbad and Andre know there's no shortage of interesting avenues of discussion to be utilized.

I adore both films. I know that they're truly unique, and I would have loved some unique supplements. That said, I don't have any specific suggestions for Criterion as to what those supplements should be. I haven't seen any of the supplemental content for either release other than Toute la mémoire du monde. I'm holding out hope for the Arena episode and the new Marienbad doc.

domino, you're not hopeful for the Baumbach moderated conversation? What more could they have done; maybe the key players opted for this instead of a commentary . . . As for me, the hi-def transfers of the Bergman and Resnais titles alone make this the best month in two years or more.

Horrible month!

No Japanese films? And I am not talking just about Ozu. Where is the promised Human Condition trilogy?

And no Eclipse again? It seems that it is official policy now. We are going to be seeing one Eclipse release every two months.

Fan-of-Kurosawa wrote:Horrible month!

No Japanese films?

Criterion/Eclipse are releasing 10 Japanese films within the next 62 days. I think it'll be okay if they take one month off.

Fan-of-Kurosawa wrote: Where is the promised Human Condition trilogy?

Exactly. Not to speak of "Senso" and "Cook". At least with the Greenaway being pushed back month for month I have the hope that they will see some sense and not just release "Cook" on its own, but perhaps together with a Greenaway Eclipse set of some of his lesser known features or shorts (but they better not dare to Eclipse "Prospero" )

I dunno about Worst Month Ever, but I do know there's nothing among the films that is a "must-own".. for me anyhow. The Seventh Seal upgrade is not bad, though.

But again, I'm ambivalent about Marienbad, and have never been a big fan of Malle, really (though I haven't seen Andre in at least 15 years). And Bergman's "life in cinema" has been gone over so many times via previous CC extras that the doc literally almost makes me crack up, cheap price or no. The only attractive feature for Bergman superfans would be the prospect of a dedicated release getting into the man's story in heavy biographical depth, way beyond the levels afforded by the extras included in the heaps of other IB releases... but then they wind up presenting the doc into it's atrophied version.

Silliness.

Tom Hagen wrote:Good catch. Maybe there is hope for Monika or The Magician or Faro Document.

You say there's too many Ozu releases yet you want more from Bergman?

look man, how much ozu can we get? , he has two eclipse box sets and a variety of dvd's. give ozu a break, bergman is better and we need more bergman, we need face to face, monika and the magician. that is all the bergman fans ask for. the seventh seal re-issue isn't bad, now if we can get a alphaville re-issue, then that would be good too.

Re: Bergman being better than Ozu - entirely subjective. Something objective: Criterion has released 18 Bergman films multiple times and a total of 15 Ozu films once. Tokyo Story's transfer is in much worse shape than The Seventh Seal. Personally, I would rather see neither re-released. There's plenty of adequate non-R1 releases for the Bergman films Criterion hasn't released yet.

guess you have a point, but tokyo story is a 2 disc set, criterion never reissues a 2 disc set. alphaville is in terrible shape that needs a re-issue, but we gotta take what we have. criterion is starting to disappoint me. these lackluster titles suck. criterion needs to release the big titles. whatever happend to vivre sa vie?

I don't think there are "too many" Ozu releases as some sort of Platonic ideal; I was simply pointing out that the individual asking for more Ozu forthwith should take stock of the last 18 months of Criterion releases.

I am not one to complain when Criterion goes to the well for more releases from canonical directors. My gripe during the heat of Ozu mania was never that we were getting "more Ozu." It was that if Criterion was going to go to the stable of old reliables (as opposed to branching out with other filmmakers), why didn't they at least throw a bone to some of us whose favorite directors hadn't been visited for a while? Prior to the June Bergman stuff, the last release we saw was Sawdust and Tinsel in December 2007. Prior to this month's release of The Last Metro, the last Truffaut we saw was back in early 2006. With those releases, and the Bunuels in February, my gripe has been satiated.

canti10 wrote:give ozu a break, bergman is better and we need more bergman,

Actually, I am one to complain when Criterion resorts back to the critical cannon. I'd much rather see Criterion begin working on Tadashi Imai, Yoji Yamada, and so on then continue releasing Ozu films of which I have more than watchable copies.

canti10 wrote:guess you have a point, but tokyo story is a 2 disc set, criterion never reissues a 2 disc set. alphaville is in terrible shape that needs a re-issue, but we gotta take what we have. criterion is starting to disappoint me. these lackluster titles suck. criterion needs to release the big titles. whatever happend to vivre sa vie?

I thought the Wages of Fear was redone and it was previously 2 discs?

no the original wages of fear was a single disc, then released as a 2disc, but now they are re-releasing it for blu-ray.

canti10 wrote:no the original wages of fear was a single disc, then released as a 2disc, but now they are re-releasing it for blu-ray.

Great film, but no way in hell am I quadruple dipping for Blu-ray. I think HerrSchreck said it best, and I do believe I also got more enjoyment watching this on my first DVD player and a CRT.

HerrSchreck wrote:

I need to add these to the forum...

The middle one is the best.

I personally like the third one best. Also I'm with Tom as far as the big names that already have a release go. Adding to his list, Dodes’ka-den is the first Kurosawa in about a year.

Some directors should have made more movies so Criterion could release them.

what im trying to get to is that there are plenty of great films that haven't been released or should be. there are better films out there, at some point they are going to be released, but Criterion is giving us titles we care less for. Come on, "The Hit", "Wise Blood" "The Friends of Eddie Coyle"...God the list can go on.....

I have to admit that my problem is not that they don't release more Kurosawa or Ozu. I have 26 films by Kurosawa and another 26 by Ozu in adequate editions (and btw I am perfectly happy with the existing release of Tokyo Story). My problem is that they don' t release Imai, pre-50s Mizoguchi, Naruse, Uchida, Kinoshita, early Yamada, early Oshima, more Ichikawa (where is Enjo or Ten Dark Women for God's sake) etc.

Obviously, I am not talking about Criterion' s main line since these directors (apart from Mizoguchi and Oshima) are not very well known. I am talking about Eclipse. Six releases per year when they have to cover so many directors is not good enough. And anybody here who has a basic knowledge of Japanese Cinema knows very well that the above-mentioned directors didn' t make 2 or 3 films. If they don' t start soon to release 5 disc Eclipse sets we will not be able to see these films before the Second Coming. Of course they are not going to release every single film these directors made, but they can at least release a few from each.

Yawn ... another month of 100% reissues/upgrades of earlier DVDs. These are necessary, of course, but I feel gypped when they're not offset by something rare (at least in the Eclipse line).

I'm starting to wonder if Criterion isn't experiencing financial problems, and trying to combat them by focusing on safe choices (and, arguably, skimping on extras).