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captveg wrote:I wonder if this opens the door for StudioCanal titles to return to Criterion. IIRC, one of the main reasons all those SC titles went OOP was because Criterion was a US only market, and SC wanted more say in how their brand was presented worldwide. Lionsgate gave them that in the US, but then quickly stopped bothering with releases altogether. With Criterion in both the US and the UK now, it stands to reason that SC could be more willing to work with them again as they could release (or re-release) titles in both territories simultaneously.

Not likely, since StudioCanal releases their own titles in the UK.

tomN245 wrote: It'd be cool if they do! They should atleast be able to get the rights to Chungking Express in the UK since the Artificial Eye copy is OOP.

hmmm, I wonder if WKW's catalog is the one that Kevin said they were interested in but found it was already snapped up?

Pre-orders are now live on Amazon for 17.99 GBP (RRP 27.99 GBP).

8I found out some more details about these releases and thought I would share them here:

1.) The discs and their content will be exactly the same as their North American counterparts.
2.) The spine numbers will be exactly the same as the American ones (so Tootsie will not be #1 )
3.) They will be Region B locked
4.) They unfortunately couldn't get around it so the artwork will feature the BBFC certification. I was sent the final artwork and they all have the glaring ratings on them in the bottom right hand corner. I'll post them when I can.

EDIT: I put them up on Facebook here

If you can get these for a competitive UK price eventually (below a tenner), they could have German-sized logos for all I care. They'll be far cheaper than B&N then, regardless of shipping and customs.

Do they have all those audio and subtitle options listed at Amazon?

I have a feeling that's an error because the Sony rep was insistent that other than the region B locking the releases will be the same content wise. If I can clarify I will.

Amazon also have a placeholder for Only Angels Have Wings. Is this confirmed anywhere yet ?

It's not just a placeholder--it's scheduled for release on the same date as the others, and you can even preorder it.

cdnchris wrote:8I found out some more details about these releases and thought I would share them here:

1.) The discs and their content will be exactly the same as their North American counterparts.
2.) The spine numbers will be exactly the same as the American ones (so Tootsie will not be #1 )
3.) They will be Region B locked
4.) They unfortunately couldn't get around it so the artwork will feature the BBFC certification. I was sent the final artwork and they all have the glaring ratings on them in the bottom right hand corner. I'll post them when I can.

EDIT: I put them up on Facebook here

Thanks for posting this! A few questions though:

- Surely the BBFC certificates must be in colour? I'm fairly sure it's a legal requirement, or else other labels such as Masters of Cinema would have used monochrome certificates on their B&W covers (e.g. The Burmese Harp, Hara-kiri, Tabu). The size of the certificate can be no smaller than 5mm and can be placed wherever desired on the front cover (and one must be on the spine, and a BBFC description box on the reverse) but I'm certain all of these must be in colour.

- I noticed a listing for Ivan's Childhood on Amazon UK and wondered...is this perhaps an error? I say this because Curzon Artificial Eye have been working on restoring and releasing all of Tarkovsky's films in the UK - starting with Ivan's Childhood - and presumably have sole rights for that particular title for the time being (as well as the others). If it is like I say, Criterion/Sony cannot release their own UK edition unless I'm missing something - perhaps the film happens to be public-owned or the rights are able to be split between different catalogues/distributors/rights-holders, though that sounds unlikely as his films have been long unavailable in the UK market and surely somebody would have done this before now?

I'd be hugely grateful if you could forward these two questions to the Sony representative, as they're certainly important areas to look into before customers start placing orders!

I'll check on the logos but I couldn't get a confirmation (either way) on Ivan's Childhood; I only got one for Only Angels Have Wings.

I wonder if In A Lonely Place will be part of their May line-up for the UK? Would save me waiting for the next B&N sale.

The Apu Trilogy and Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. [-o<

I just want them to focus on lesser-known titles like Io la conoscevo bene that are unlikely to be released elsewhere and probably need some assistance in justifying the expenditure in releasing them in the first place. As opposed to Tootsie...

But Tootsie will almost certainly be a much bigger seller, and will therefore subsidise the riskier stuff.

A studio film focus would perhaps also make sense in that instead of the studios having to licence Criterions extras, or create their own (or even worse cut down or drop all the extras altogether) for a UK specific release they could just work out a Criterion-specific deal for both of the territories. Especially if a UK Criterion release is going to be exactly the same as the US one and only feature English language hard of hearing subtitles rather than doing the usual studio release thing of having to include multiple language subtitles for the whole of the Region B territory.

cdnchris wrote:I'll check on the logos but I couldn't get a confirmation (either way) on Ivan's Childhood; I only got one for Only Angels Have Wings.

Cheers. I thought it was weird that Ivan's Childhood had a listing up.

colinr0380 wrote:A studio film focus would perhaps also make sense in that instead of the studios having to licence Criterions extras, or create their own (or even worse cut down or drop all the extras altogether) for a UK specific release they could just work out a Criterion-specific deal for both of the territories. Especially if a UK Criterion release is going to be exactly the same as the US one and only feature English language hard of hearing subtitles rather than doing the usual studio release thing of having to include multiple language subtitles for the whole of the Region B territory.

If they could work this out, that would be great. Sort out a deal with Fox and Disney and you've basically got Wes Anderson covered. Fox had to cut some of the extras for The Darjeeling Limited didn't they? They wouldn't have to do that now.

Of course this might be more complicated than this. It might just be Sony catalogue and whatever independent catalogue(s) they've bought already...to start with. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Will there be a UK-specific Criterion website, or somewhere we can get information on all of these goings-on? Or will it just be a distribution setup only.

A UK only website would be a nightmare and just cause endless confusion, I imagine!

The aspect I find frustrating about this is that it reduces the opportunity for UK labels to improve upon certain deficiencies with Criterion's releases, one of the most irritating being Criterion's frequent lack of support for lossless audio on bonus films/alternate cuts/short films. Arrow improved this on My Darling Clementine (Alternate Cut), Killer's Kiss, the David Cronenberg shorts; MOC did so with M (English Cut); & BFI presented the International soundtrack of Play Time in lossless.

BFI gave us the Danish intertitles on Master Of The House, and included Italian audio on Journey Into Italy, and released superior presentations of the alternate cuts of the Tati films. Second Sight included the "Final Cut" documentary on Heaven's Gate.

As great as Criterion is, they're not always perfect, and you could at least hope that if there was something about a release that disappointed you, a label in the UK might have the opportunity to do it differently. There will now be less of those opportunities (for instance, getting a release of The Beales Of Grey Gardens in 1080p with lossless audio.)

Are they only releasing Blu-rays, not DVDs?

cdnchris wrote:2.) The spine numbers will be exactly the same as the American ones (so Tootsie will not be #1 )
4.) They unfortunately couldn't get around it so the artwork will feature the BBFC certification. I was sent the final artwork and they all have the glaring ratings on them in the bottom right hand corner.

2 - This seems to indicate that they don't plan on any UK exclusive titles - since the numbering system will be the same between the two countries. This seems like a bad move regardless, since it will be strange for UK customers to walk into the store (Fopp, I suppose) and purchase one of these, and see some random numbers on the spine. Perhaps this is meant to get people addicted enough that they start importing US releases to fill the gaps (don't put anything past OCD collectors), but why not start over or just remove the # altogether? I'm sure they'll (at some point) own some UK exclusive right, so what will happen then? Not release it, since there's no US spine # counterpart? Perhaps Chris can ask about UK exclusive titles.

4 - I wonder if they'll offer reversible artwork without the logo. Its a lot of work for a fairly minor thing, but I can't imagine anyone being happy with the logo. Someone mentioned the logo isn't required on the spine - then why does nearly every company even bother putting them on the spine (sometimes even two of them - Ireland, I suspect). I own some UK steelbooks (Demons, Evil Dead)that don't have a spine logo, so I suppose there's something to the notion.

Speaking of Evil Dead, now there's a Sony owned UK exclusive that would be perfect for Criterion to handle.

Ireland is also included in the UK's distribution system (like US + Canada)? So this is actually Criterion UK + Ireland.
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Here's a Variety article (finally giving some official confirmation from Criterion). It repeatedly mentions Sony.. thus as I suspected, this is predominantly a move backed by Sony (probably indicating a lot more Sony titles to come to both regions).

Why would they bother with UK exclusive releases? I don't work in the industry so this is conjecture, but expanding into the UK makes sense if they can author the discs as Region A+B, wet the BBFC's beak, and then distribute the exact same discs they are selling to US consumers (maybe with a flimsy BBFC-ised slipcover over the top) to a few thousand more people. If the sales outweigh the BBFC's demanded skim, then it's smooth sailing into extra profit. Securing rights and then devoting resources to gathering materials, producing extras, and authoring discs from scratch for a small market when they already have a dominant presence in a much larger one doesn't make as much sense on the face of it, but I'm open to correction.

Here is a list of OOP DVDs and Blu rays in the UK that Criterion could have picked up:

F for Fake
Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence
Chungking Express
The Seventh Seal
Fanny and Alexander (both the TV and Film versions)
Cries and Whispers
Persona
Vengeance is Mine
The Big Chill
The Phantom Carriage
Rosetta
La Promesse
Chronicle of a Summer
Cronos
Life of Oharu
Metropolitan
Weekend
Sansho The Bailiff
George Washington
Hearts and Minds
Hoop Dreams
In Cold Blood
Samurai Trilogy

The below might be oop.

Following
Hiroshima Mon Amour
Babette's Feast is OOS
Make Way for Tomorrow is also OOS

TMDaines wrote:They'll be far cheaper than B&N then, regardless of shipping and customs.

Wonder if US customers will be blocked from purchasing these from official outlets. Obviously the last thing Criterion wants to do is cannibalize itself.

It'll be interesting to see if they keep up the newly established rate of release, 7 or so titles per month (I may have got that slightly wrong) or increase it to. I'm really excited by this news as there are so many Criterion titles I'd love to have on Blu (I only have a region B locked player, so I am missing out at the moment).

Looks like Overlord will be coming out on June 6th.