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François Truffaut's review of The Red Balloon mostly negative. He said that the film was "carefully made" and "admirably photographed" but that it lacked "real [his italic] poetry, fantasy, sensitivity or truth". He republished that review in The Films in My Life which is available on-line at Google Books.
As irony would have it, the cover photo on the January 1954 issue of Cahiers du Cinema in which Truffaut's "A Certain Tendency of French Cinema" was published was a still from Morris and Ruth Engel's The Little Fugitive.

Jeff wrote:Since Red Envelope (Netflix) co-produced the theatrical reissue with Janus, I wonder if they might have some kind of bare-bones Netflix-exclusive disc available this month.

Both films are available on Netflix right now in the Instant Watch feature. The films start with the Janus logo. No Criterion logo.

The DVD is also available now. I added it to my queue as a test, and it says "available now." It's a combo Red Balloon/White Mane DVD. P.S. - The Instant Watch version of White Mane features the stellar English dub track. I'd heard the French just previously, and wow, the English one is ridiculously bad. Awful. Horrendous. Obnoxious. Should not be allowed. (I have no information on whether the French track is on the physical Netflix combo DVD.)

P.S. - The Instant Watch version of White Mane features the stellar English dub track. I'd heard the French just previously, and wow, the English one is ridiculously bad. Awful. Horrendous. Obnoxious. Should not be allowed. (I have no information on whether the French track is on the physical Netflix combo DVD.)

Donald Trampoline wrote:

Jeff wrote:Since Red Envelope (Netflix) co-produced the theatrical reissue with Janus, I wonder if they might have some kind of bare-bones Netflix-exclusive disc available this month.

Both films are available on Netflix right now in the Instant Watch feature. The films start with the Janus logo. No Criterion logo.

The double Lamorisse bill, TRB and White Mane, both were on Janus/Criterion Laserdisc with one of the few N/A spines. Really wonderful prints in comparison to the bootleg trash available on current DVD pressings.

I'm so very excited for these releases. There was a short documentary made for the production of the film as well as a small book covering the production--perhaps some of this will be covered in the upcoming Criterion release.

-- Jon Dambacher

Donald Trampoline wrote:P.S. - The Instant Watch version of White Mane features the stellar English dub track. I'd heard the French just previously, and wow, the English one is ridiculously bad. Awful. Horrendous. Obnoxious. Should not be allowed. (I have no information on whether the French track is on the physical Netflix combo DVD.)

I currently have the physical Red Balloon/White Mane disc. It is produced by Red Envelope Entertainment. The only special feature on the disc is a trailer featuring both films. Each film is preceded by a Janus logo and a Les Films Montsouris/Films Distribution logo. The Red Balloon features the French audio track. White Mane has the French audio track as the default and an English dub track. The picture quality of both films is very good.

CriterionDVD.com recently added the April releases, without including any of the children's shorts. Criterion.com also doesn't have any mention, now nearly two weeks after the other announcements. They've never done that before. The Image website is the only one that puts these releases into the collection, but even that has limited information. My thought is either that they're playing down a formal announcement to keep the Netflix edition in circulation, or we have something different altogether (a la Home Vision or the Merchant Ivory collection).

arsonfilms wrote:CriterionDVD.com recently added the April releases, without including any of the children's shorts. Criterion.com also doesn't have any mention, now nearly two weeks after the other announcements.

The Red Balloon and White Mane are on amazon.com for preorder

Availability: This title will be released on April 29, 2008.

Hail_Cesar wrote:They are on amazon.com for preorder

Availability: This title will be released on April 29, 2008.

Yeah... and the studio is Discovery Films. I don't think this is going to be a Criterion release.

Anthony wrote:

Hail_Cesar wrote:They are on amazon.com for preorder

Availability: This title will be released on April 29, 2008.

Yeah... and the studio is Discovery Films. I don't think this is going to be a Criterion release.

Maybe you're right but the Image site lists those as Criterion.

The Image site also lists Silent Ozu: Three Family Comedies as Criterion. Have we picked up on that elsewhere on the board?

Matango wrote:The Image site also lists Silent Ozu: Three Family Comedies as Criterion. Have we picked up on that elsewhere on the board?

Hammocks? My goodness, what an idea. Why didn't I think of that? Hammocks! Homer, there's four places. There's the Hammock Hut, that's on third. There's Hammocks-R-Us, that's on third too. You got Put-Your-Butt-There. That's on third. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot... Matter of fact, they're all in the same complex; it's the hammock complex on third.

I'll take that as a yes, then.

Anthony wrote:

Hail_Cesar wrote:They are on amazon.com for preorder

Availability: This title will be released on April 29, 2008.

Yeah... and the studio is Discovery Films. I don't think this is going to be a Criterion release.

If you check the others April release of Criterion they are all from Discovery Films... Maybe an error...

Oh, the hammock district.

The amazon listing has Red Balloon, White Mane and Paddle to the Sea listed as 'Released by Janus Films, in association with the Criterion Collection' and the cover-art here doesn't have a criterion logo or anything, so looks like these aren't going to be proper criterion releases (no spine number).

'Released by Janus Films, in association with the Criterion Collection'
have there been other films released liked that, in the past?

The laserdisc double feature of this did not have a collection number either.... interesting.

Wow, who would have thought THAT would happen?

Oh wait! I did! Two and a half weeks ago!

arsonfilms wrote:The last time (as far as I remember) we got something in the press release that didn't immediately go to the website, it was a re-pressing of a catalogue title (Traffic), and a Collector's Set (Olivier). Anybody think its possible that these three shorts will NOT have spine numbers, and instead be something else entirely?

What an odd decision. The discs are clearly being produced by the same Criterion/Janus staff that produces all the numbered releases. I understood the decision with the Merchant-Ivory Collection, as M-I had contracted them to create a collection of their films. These are Janus properties though. Why would Night and Fog get a spine number, but not The Red Balloon? I had assumed that the two Lamorisse titles would be released as a double feature. They could have included Paddle to the Sea as a supplement on that, or simply called the disc "The Red Balloon and Other Short Films for Especially Precocious Children." I wonder if this opens the door for other Janus properties being released on neither the Criterion nor Eclipse labels. I'm betting that if the "Classic Collection" joint venture with Home Vision still existed, these would have gone there.

The question now is where to put these threads.

LightBulbFilm wrote:The laserdisc double feature of this did not have a collection number either.... interesting.

The spine numbers floated away perhaps?

I suspect that this has everything to do with marketing to parents. If they are released under the Criterion banner, then in many stores they'll end up in the Criterion section - alongside foreign language titles that might scare off concerned parents (alphabetically, White Mane would follow When a Woman Ascends the Stairs and Paddle to the Sea would precede Pandora's Box...).

Meanwhile, Criterion collectors will still snap these up ('No spine number? How rare!') regardless of what label they fall under.

Also, as a side note, will Paddle to the Sea be released in Canada, since the NFB undoubtedly holds the rights north of the 49th? It is not up for preorder on Amazon.ca.

Everything's answered and rationalized in Peter Becker's blog entry.

I agreed with all of Mr. Becker's rationalizations, and I eagerly await the full Criterion release of these two films. I'll leave this thread here awaiting spine numbers until the Fall.

I've moved the Paddle to the Sea thread to the "Boutique Labels" section.

Jeff wrote:I've moved the Paddle to the Sea thread to the "Boutique Labels" section.

In my opinion, I don't think it should go in the Boutique label section. It makes more sense to place the thread in the Rumors and News sub-forum...like was done with the Janus mega-disc set.

Tribe

Amazon.com has posted the covers for each:



I don't think that these releases are going to have spine number. According to the listing this is a Janus DVD release in association with the Criterion Collection. I think these belong to the Boutique section since their releases are similar to what Home Vision did before being bought by Image.

Isn't Criterion working on a special edition of these?