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I think that Schrader prefers the Japanese v/o. I have no idea why the Scheider v/o was dropped.

An online buddy of mine three months back told me that Mishima and Days of Heaven would be coming soon. I guess this may confirm that he was speaking the truth in both cases....hopefully.

Person wrote:Mishima has been OOP for almost a year. The Warner DVD featured the previously unheard (outside of Japan, where the film was barely released) Japanese voice-over. However, the original Roy Scheider voice-over for the USA release was not included, being replaced by a new, inferior voice-over by an unknown actor. Hopefully (and if its true) the Criterion edition will feature the Roy Scheider v/o. I love this movie, so it will be interesting to see what Criterion would do for it.

Ken Ogata recorded the original Japanese narration, and understandably, it is the version that Schrader prefers. However, for a number of reasons, the original version was not released in Japan at the time. Because the film would have had overlapping subtitles in its international version, it was decided that an English narration would be recorded. Prior to the WB DVD release, Schrader located Ogata's original narration and it was included on the DVD along with the optional English narration.

In any event, this is terrific news.

I've seen both versions (Ogata and Scheider), and the Ogata is vastly preferable, for obvious reasons, but having both on any disc is a no-brainer. I hope Criterion dedicate an extra or two to Eiko Ishioka's incredible work on this film, and Schrader will presumably be eager to contribute a commentary.

I suspect Mishima has fallen back into the hands of American Zoetrope.

Given Criterion's great love of Barbet Schroeder, I wonder if Barfly (another Zoetrope title that Warner seems to have lost the rights to) will also appear at some point?

word has it Breathless is a notch for October, one out of four releases.

Narshty wrote:Given Criterion's great love of Barbet Schroeder, I wonder if Barfly (another Zoetrope title that Warner seems to have lost the rights to) will also appear at some point?

hopefully not. it's a terrible film and Rourke's portrayal of Bukowski is a macho man rendition of who the man really was.

SamSanchez wrote:word has it Breathless is a notch for October, one out of four releases.

Hope this is true. Really looking forward to that release. Also wondering what they`re gonna do supplement-wise...

Macintosh wrote:

Narshty wrote:Given Criterion's great love of Barbet Schroeder, I wonder if Barfly (another Zoetrope title that Warner seems to have lost the rights to) will also appear at some point?

hopefully not. it's a terrible film and Rourke's portrayal of Bukowski is a macho man rendition of who the man really was.

Truthfully, if it means seeing some Rivette films Barbet may own, give that fucker a 3-Disc special edition.

EDIT: By the way, do you pronounce the "t" in Barbet?

Have we mentioned RECKLESS MOMENT as a potential Ophuls Box inclusion?

It's mentioned at the bottom of this release.

wasn't Reckless Moment specifically called out as not coming from Criterion since its release was at one point imminent from another R1 studio? Maybe it was another of the four R2 Ophuls I'm thinking of tho

domino harvey wrote:wasn't Reckless Moment specifically called out as not coming from Criterion since its release was at one point imminent from another R1 studio? Maybe it was another of the four R2 Ophuls I'm thinking of tho

Are you thinking LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN?

Macintosh wrote:

Narshty wrote:Given Criterion's great love of Barbet Schroeder, I wonder if Barfly (another Zoetrope title that Warner seems to have lost the rights to) will also appear at some point?

hopefully not. it's a terrible film and Rourke's portrayal of Bukowski is a macho man rendition of who the man really was.

Wow, I couldn't disagree more. I think the film itself is a delightful paradox of dark themes and uplifting tone, and Rourke's performance had just the right amount of Bukowski's misogynist tendencies and sensitivity, not that I claim to know the real Bukowski. Besides, though the screenplay obviously drew from what he knew, I don't believe it was meant to be completely autobiographical. And I could be wrong, but I thought Bukowski fully endorsed Rourke's performance. Anyway, the short version of my post is this: I think Barfly would fit perfectly into the Criterion Collection and would love a better DVD release of it.

LeeB.Sims wrote: I could be wrong, but I thought Bukowski fully endorsed Rourke's performance.

No, if you watch Bukowski: Born into this, he says that he thought Rourke's performance was too animated, and he wasn't please with it. Also, the whole experience of working on that film led him to write the novel Hollywood. Bottom line, Bukowski hated that film and had a miserable time being invloved with the production of it.

My bad. I still like it though. "Drinks for all my friends!"

By the way, I didn't come across this info myself, but rumor has it that Luke and Owen Wilson said something about a Criterion Bottle Rocket in the future.

Can anyone here confirm or deny this?

LeeB.Sims wrote:By the way, I didn't come across this info myself, but rumor has it that Luke and Owen Wilson said something about a Criterion Bottle Rocket in the future.

Can anyone here confirm or deny this?

Confirmed.

As a huge Mickey Rourke fan I want to add my thoughts on Barfly..

...people say that Mickey Rourke's portrayal of Bukowski was romanticized and not the way Bukowski was in real life, BUT the character Rourke is playing is not supposed to be Bukowski, his character is Henry Chinaski!

...By assuming that Henry Chinaski is Bukowski himself is to be incorrect, and something Bukowski would most likely disagree with...Rourke's humorous and off-beat performance is misunderstood, and in his own words (in the interview included with the DVD), he says "I'm portraying someone who is dead inside, was it something that happened before? We don't know"...

...clearly he was not intending to represent Bukowski in the first place...

Mental Mike wrote:people say that Mickey Rourke's portrayal of Bukowski was romanticized and not the way Bukowski was in real life, BUT the character Rourke is playing is not supposed to be Bukowski, his character is Henry Chinaski!

By assuming that Henry Chinaski is Bukowski himself is to be incorrect, and something Bukowski would most likely disagree with...Rourke's humorous and off-beat performance is misunderstood, and in his own words (in the interview included with the DVD), he says "I'm portraying someone who is dead inside, was it something that happened before? We don't know"... clearly he was not intending to represent Bukowski in the first place.

Not in the literal interpretation, no.... but Bill Lee is William Burroughs and Joe Gideon is Bob Fosse, so why not Chinaski as well?

justeleblanc wrote:

LeeB.Sims wrote:By the way, I didn't come across this info myself, but rumor has it that Luke and Owen Wilson said something about a Criterion Bottle Rocket in the future.
Can anyone here confirm or deny this?

Confirmed.

The film they're there to talk about makes it seem as though it was recorded in 2005, which would make it old 'rumoured' news... could be wrong, but pretty sure on this...

daniel p wrote:The film they're there to talk about makes it seem as though it was recorded in 2005, which would make it old 'rumoured' news... could be wrong, but pretty sure on this...

No, it's fairly recent. The interview is from late last month.

LeeB.Sims wrote:My bad. I still like it though. "Drinks for all my friends!"

exactly. The way he says this line is totally off. Bukowski (or Chinaski) meant this to be sarcastic in delivery, like here are the same old drunkards again, my friends, but Rourke says it literally, in a straight forward manner.

Macintosh, you mean Mickey Rourke delivers the line "For all my friends!" in a straightforward manner? I disagree. I think it has similarity to the beggar's Last Supper in Viridiana...watch this movie in a theatre and the whole audience is laughing when Rourke delivers the lines...I don't think most audiences take these lines seriously; they are intended to be and are recieved by and large as ironic...

Kino is announcing an all new restoration of Battleship Potemkin on its web site. Anyone aware of this and is it the end of the long delayed Eisenstein silents box?

Tribe

Narshty wrote: The Thief of Bagdad (1940) is on the way

This is just wonderful news!

Tribe

There is further discussion of Janus' acquisition of the Korda library in the Janus thread, beginning here.

Jeff wrote:There is further discussion of Janus' acquisition of the Korda library in the Janus thread, beginning here.

Yes, I remember that discussion...but I don't think there was any confirmation regarding Thief of Baghdad at that time. In any event, I just think it's great news.

Tribe