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The Pachyderminator wrote: Thu Apr 01, 2021 12:48 am In the Mood for Love has been "on back order" for at least a few weeks (I ordered it on 3/9 and it hasn't been shipped yet). Should we expect it to become available in the original version again?

It's worth emailing Criterion about it- they'll have an answer

Good suggestion. I've emailed Mulvaney about it.

A Criterion rep confirmed that the original edition will continue to be available.

IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE Blu-rays are anticipated to be back in stock the week of April 12th. It will be the same HD digital transfer release as before, and it will not be replaced by the new restoration included in the WORLD OF WONG KAR WAI box set.

I'm curious why they were able to retain the rights to the original transfer of In the Mood for Love yet couldn't bring back the original Chungking Express disc. If WKW is ok with one still being available, then why not the other? Because the changes to CE were more significant, perhaps?

Kar-wai might not have any control over that release. Even if he had control and wanted to repress it with the new restoration, Criterion might have used the (valid) excuse that would be too complicated.

Also, I completely forgot the WKW set came out less than five months ago. Whether that's due to this year or the set, I'm not sure.

Since Criterion is still streaming the contents from the original Chungking Express disc there shouldn't be any issues with re-pressing it except getting WKW's approval.

Who knows, when sales of the box set start to slow, they may bring that release of Chungking Express back into print.

Does the Kino 4k UHD of Silence of the Lambs mean the still widely available Criterion non 4k is going OOP?

I'm not sure which threat is best for this, but I just noticed that Rushmore no long has a DVD purchase option on Criterion's site; just blu-ray. There was nothing to suggest that the DVD version was temporarily out of stock, either. I spot checked a few other discs from my wish list (Ace in the Hole, Make Way for Tomorrow, and Vampyr), and they all still have both formats available for purchase.

I presume this means that once a DVD pressing has sold out, that's it for a release in that format? I hadn't considered that when they announced that new 4K releases would no have a DVD release. Or is this not the case?

The DVDs of the Buena Vista/Disney titles were actually manufactured and distributed by Disney. I assume that they have ceased production on those DVDs.

It looks like The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou are both Blu-ray only as well.

Yeah, likely that Disney's production is not bothering with those DVDs anymore, with Criterion not pushing them to keep them going, either.

Does criterion usually announce if a film is going out of print?
Or do they just quietly go out of print?

They usually announce it, but not always

The last group of titles that went OOP did not get announced. They were the Paramount licensed films

swo17 wrote: Thu Oct 21, 2021 10:13 pm They usually announce it, but not always

Apparently not anymore. From the Kino thread:

While we do not typically disclose titles that are going out of print in advance...
it's always a good idea to purchase it sooner than later, since we do not announce upcoming OOP or packaging changes.

I wonder when this changed. I remember the huge announcement when they lost all the Canal titles.

The largest batch of StudioCanal titles going OOP was the last time I recall them announcing that titles were going OOP before they went OOP. And I think the announcement was because they discounted all the DVDs on their webstore.

Going way back, they also announced the original DVDs of the Selznick Hitchcocks were going OOP about a month beforehand in late 2003, but I seem to recall that being a pretty unusual situation even then.

The studio canal announcement seems to have been a matter of spite.

IIRC, they announced that STRAW DOGS was going out of print at the same time they announced it was going in print.

Yep, they announced it as being available for a limited time and the sticker (which I still have) said "Special Edition Available for a Limited Time." I believe it went out of print a little over a year later.

I don't know if the StudioCanal was spite or just that Criterion, believing that they would be able to renew those titles, had so much stock on some of them that they needed to sell them before they had to destroy them.

dwk has me imagining all the awkward conversations that could have taken place before filming Criterion Closet videos if they had been doing them at the time now!:

"Um, I think I'll go for Armageddon and Border Radio"
"Don't you want Grand Illusion and Bob le Flambeur?"
"Well, uh, I'm not sure. I've never watched any French films before"
"Oh, they're great! No!! Not the Catherine Breillat! That one's, um, more 'specialised'. How about classic French cinema? Have you ever heard of two gentleman who go by the name of Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Melville?" (winks suggestively whilst edging out Alphaville and Le Samourai saucily from their positions on the shelving)
"I'm not into gangsters and whatever Alphaville is about. Sci-fi robots and stuff?"
(sighs heavily) "Well what about some prison films? You cannot appreciate A Man Escaped without Le Trooo-ou! I'll just pop it into your tote bag and we'll pretend you wanted it, OK?"
"Do you have anything, you know... naughty?" (Eyes flicker towards the multiple copies of In The Realm of the Senses with its Adults Only sticker prominently displayed)
(rolls eyes and briefly looks heavenwards) "Look, just shut up and take this box of Diary of a Chambermaid discs already"

And scene!

knives wrote: Fri Oct 22, 2021 2:16 pm The studio canal announcement seems to have been a matter of spite.

That, and they had to announce the BD upgrades of Contempt and Ran were being canceled, IIRC.

If memory serves, Contempt had merely been listed among Criterion's initial Blu-ray slate (much like the first six UHDs before they were formally announced) while Ran had been posted as a forthcoming release with an official release date, cover art, etc.