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I guess that means a Crit release is only a year or so away.

Yes!

knives wrote:I guess that means a Crit release is only a year or so away.

Hopefully we'll get a loaded 2-disc version.

Lowry_Sam wrote:

knives wrote:I guess that means a Crit release is only a year or so away.

Hopefully we'll get a loaded 2-disc version.

I'm guessing La Dolce Vita still holds it's place as a world cinema touchstone, so likely there would be considerable fanfare.

When i saw the news i thought for a second that Paramount will release it on dvd/blu-ray but they rarely release any foreign films at all so i hope Criterion gets it.

atcolomb wrote:When i saw the news i thought for a second that Paramount will release it on dvd/blu-ray but they rarely release any foreign films at all so i hope Criterion gets it.

It is the title I'd most like to see get the full treatment, I suspect I'm not alone given how often it's requested on their Facebook page & I'm sure it's at the top of the list of Criterion's want list, as it's a companion piece to 8 1/2. The only question is whether Paramount will let it go. Ordinarily I wouldn't see them putting much effort into it, but given that they just went through a lengthy legal battle & the restoration is already completed, they could hang on to it since it is one of the most recognized foreign language titles (even if people aren't familiar with the film itself). But if they do, it would probably be a more bare-bones release.

Paramount typically doesn't release silent films either, but they recently did a spectacular job with Wings, another title many expected to be licensed to Criterion. I don't see them letting this one go, given the huge sum they must have spent on this lawsuit.

Paramount has released "The Conformist", "1900" and "Is Paris Burning?" so they might release La Dolce Vita too. Paramount did a excellent job on "Wings"!

Matt wrote:Paramount typically doesn't release silent films either, but they recently did a spectacular job with Wings, another title many expected to be licensed to Criterion. I don't see them letting this one go, given the huge sum they must have spent on this lawsuit.

Yes, and La dolce vita is a "typical" foreign film in the sense that Casablanca is a "typical" old black and white film. It's the sort of big deal even the most careless of studios is unlikely to give away. But good luck to Criterion anyway!

atcolomb wrote:Paramount has released "The Conformist", "1900" and "Is Paris Burning?" so they might release La Dolce Vita too. Paramount did a excellent job on "Wings"!

I haven't followed the other two titles, but the two Bertolucci titles were released at the tail end of Paramount's declining interest in putting out their own back catalog. (Warner now handles all of Paramount's home video distribution, even slapping their own stickers on Paramount's leftover stock.) Paramount's DVD's for both Bertolucci titles were in-print for only a few years, and they became expensive items on the used marketplace before boutique labels overseas like Arrow licensed them for Blu-Ray.

What that in mind, I think there's a good chance they'll just license it to Criterion. They stand to make more money that way, and Criterion would do all the work (time, money, effort) putting together a deluxe set.

zedz wrote:Yes, and La dolce vita is a "typical" foreign film in the sense that Casablanca is a "typical" old black and white film. It's the sort of big deal even the most careless of studios is unlikely to give away. But good luck to Criterion anyway!

Though surely there are different markets for foreign art films vs. English-language Best Picture winners.

Also remember that Paramount gave a big deal like Nashville away.

The studios have different priorities from one another. (Bear in mind, you can't think of them as equivalent when they're all part of giant conglomerates made up of different companies. Sony Pictures with Sony Electronics, a Universal now owned by Comcast, etc., all of that makes a HUGE difference.)

Comparing Paramount to Warner Bros makes absolutely no sense. Warner puts out Casablanca many times over, yes, but as mentioned, they also distribute all of Paramount's home video stock now.

Seeing how 8 1/2 is one of the best selling criterion titles and at those prices, there are a lot of possibilities that criterion can pay enough money to get this, since it is guaranteed to sell almost as good as 8 1/2.

Also just checked Paramount library on blu ray, and the only catalog foreign film i could find was "Once Upon a time in the West".

And that's not even really a foreign film. It was an Italian/American co-production

MongooseCmr wrote:And that's not even really a foreign film. It was an Italian/American co-production

...albeit shot in Italy, almost entirely in Italian - and the English dialogue is completely inconsequential. So I don't think you'd get very far if you tried to market it as an American film!

MichaelB wrote:

MongooseCmr wrote:And that's not even really a foreign film. It was an Italian/American co-production

...albeit shot in Italy, almost entirely in Italian - and the English dialogue is completely inconsequential. So I don't think you'd get very far if you tried to market it as an American film!

I thought he was referring to Once Upon a Time in the West.

Yes, you're absolutely right - apologies.

It's finally here!.....though with the wait I was counting on a 2-discer....

I somehow have never seen this (one of my more visible canonical blindspots), so I am looking forward to rectifying that in s-t-y-l-e this fall!

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Fellini (love Amarcord, Nights of Cabiria, and La Strada), but find many of his works to be overlong and indulgent. While La Dolce Vita unfortunately falls into the latter category, I'm actually quite looking forward to this release, mainly because I'm quite interested in hearing a more scholarly interpretation of the film.

That looks like a nice, concise-yet-wide-ranging set of extras. Glad the legal dispute is well and truly done (between this and the wrangling of the Tatis away from Studio Canal, this month represents a decided victory for rights issues going Criterion's [and, by extension, our] way).

Cronenfly wrote:That looks like a nice, concise-yet-wide-ranging set of extras. Glad the legal dispute is well and truly done (between this and the wrangling of the Tatis away from Studio Canal, this month represents a decided victory for rights issues going Criterion's [and, by extension, our] way).

True, although I'm assuming the Tati films were released only in a set because that's all Studio Canal would allow. They weren't licensed to re-release Playtime as a standalone.

I remember the Koch-Lorber extras being nice....particularly the interviews with Mastroianni & Ekberg (from the 90s?) had some humorous anecdotes, though I don't recall them to be so compelling to be worth revisiting, so I'm not completely surprised they didn't include any of those extras. However,I am surprised they didn't find anything to include from the time of the film's release (making-of doc, tv interviews, premier footage...) except for a lone audio interview.

Finally...I'm thrilled!

domino harvey wrote:I somehow have never seen this (one of my more visible canonical blindspots), so I am looking forward to rectifying that in s-t-y-l-e this fall!

You lucky stiff.

Anytime Fellini steps into the Collection is a welcome treat. But this is like eating the whole god damn cake.