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Steven H wrote:

ianungstad wrote:Who knows? He might just very well say that they'll be out in an Eclipse set. Really, it can't hurt to ask.

About twice a year I get the gumption to email Mulvaney and I don't remember the last time I got a response. Maybe someone with more charisma should do it? Or a woman?

Well, I just asked for you. They are usually pretty good about replying to me, so I'll post their response whenever I get it. Probably a few days.

True, there are companies that have released Naruse, Shohei, etc.. on DVD, but I limited my response to R1. I tend to forget that there are members from all over the world on here and that many people buy DVDs regardless of regional coding.

Cronenfly wrote:You're just lucky you haven't seen the Fall 2008 Cinematheque Ontario programme cover, Steven...It's a big picture of Bowie alongside the retro's title: "In the Realm of Oshima". Not only that, but Lawrence and Senses are the only two films with multiple play dates/times...

+ The Man Who Left His Will on Film and The Ceremony are playing on Monday nights

I know this is rather vague, but someone I know who chats occasionally with Peter Becker about such matters suggested to me that Criterion is well aware of efforts like the late JapaneseNewWave.com, and that that project (an unusually ambitious fan-subbing/bootlegging effort, for those who missed it) might've bumped '60s Oshima and Imamura down a bit on Criterion's priority list. I have to admit that, ethical queasiness be damned, in my personal case Criterion was indeed "scooped" by JNW.

That wouldn't have affected Oshima's trio of films from 1960, though, and I'm still avoiding any of the inferior R2 releases in the hopes that those will emerge sooner rather than later.

zedz wrote:What he said, but I'd substitute that Eros debacle for Zabriskie Point.

Re: "that Eros debacle": By which you're referring to The Dangerous Thread of Things. — I think it's a masterpiece, and I've been so disappointed by the received wisdom, and lazy viewing/thinking, and rejection-of-benefit-of-the-doubt for an Antonioni film, from almost every quarter of so-called cinephilia (not to mention mainstream pop-culture smarm), that I had to write the following.

In thirty years it will be taken as a given that this is, of course, one of the great "last films" in cinema — for now, it's way cooler to give metaphorical high-fives to each other so as to trumpet just how much he-or-she hasn't been had by an old man who's lost his mojo.

See also: Stanley Kubrick; Eric Rohmer; Charlie Chaplin.

Well, I admire your gumption!

evillights wrote:In thirty years it will be taken as a given that this is, of course, one of the great "last films" in cinema.

If you're right, in thirty years' time I'll buy you a drink.

zedz wrote:Re: Rossellini. This is more like it! Louis + 6 suggests more than one fully developed Criterion release, or more than one Eclipse box, as they've never gone for a six-disc Eclipse release yet. Whatever way it goes, this is the kind of ballsy release we've seen all too little of in 2008.

Eclipse Series 2: The Documentaries of Louis Malle is a six disc set, so there's a precedent and it's possible for the History Films...

Perkins Cobb wrote:...might've bumped '60s Oshima and Imamura down a bit on Criterion's priority list.

I hope this is true and it is just a "bump". And, of course, this still leaves us with film such as The Catch, Three Resurrected Drunkards, and Violence at Noon to be paid attention to (along with the 1960 trio). Not to mention all of his documentary work of the time (which I'm completely ignorant of.)

I've given up moaning about why won't they release what I want. It's an endless pointless argument that could go on forever and doesn't help anyone.

It's plain as day that Oshima is known for his 'worst' films, incidentally of which I haven't seen (Max, Empire, Realm), though I have seen and own bootlegs of a lot of his 60s output, not to mention the Yume discs (rented and ongoing). Not to mention the availability of rep programmes and Oshima retros recently (yes the Oshima retro will come to London for those not in the know, Geoff Andrew confirmed this to me by email).

I don't think Oshima fans have too much to complain about, at least there are bootlegs out there, a lot of the why won't they release what I want stuff is not even available on bootleg (the missing Rocha, Rivette, Petri, Jakubisko...), as far as I am aware and retros don't seem forthcoming.

Steven H wrote:I hope this is true and it is just a "bump". And, of course, this still leaves us with film such as The Catch, Three Resurrected Drunkards, and Violence at Noon to be paid attention to (along with the 1960 trio). Not to mention all of his documentary work of the time (which I'm completely ignorant of.)

Well, the retro only includes one or two of Oshima's short docs (at least in NYC, where all the features are showing). So those are going to be tough. FSimeoni is right about the bootleg status of Oshima though: I did an audit of the features to figure out what I absolutely couldn't miss in the retro and only came up with 4 or 5 titles that didn't have a decent looking, English-subtitled bootleg readily purchasable on the 'net.

Has anybody here even considered the possibility that Criterion could release Rene Clair's version of And Then There Were None (1945) ?

The film hasn't been given the proper DVD treatment it deserves.

AfterTheRain wrote:Has anybody here even considered the possibility that Criterion could release Rene Clair's version of And Then There Were None (1945) ?

The film hasn't been given the proper DVD treatment it deserves.

I would die for I Married a Witch with Veronica Lake.. The studiocanal transfer sucks... the z1 is even worse...

I don't think anyone has brought this up...at least not recently. Has anyone heard anything about Russian Cinema releases. This is a relatively untouched area. At least as far as Criterion is concerned. Albeit I'm happy as hell we've received the Tarkovsky's to date...I'd really like to see a lot more. I loved the Shepitko set. If someone could email about some of these directors or give me some hope, it would make my week!

Alexander Dovzhenko, Grigori Chukrai, Mikhail Kalatozov, Sergei Parajanov, Elem Klimov, Michael Romm...

I'll take what I can get...!

P & P's One of Our Aircraft is Missing ? Will this get the Criterion treatment? I forgot who owns the rights.

i wonder will Alphaville or Les Diaboliques get a reissue. They should get reissues. Im just saying.

Taketori Washizu wrote:P & P's One of Our Aircraft is Missing ? Will this get the Criterion treatment? I forgot who owns the rights.

I believe that Lionsgate has the rights via Republic.

DrunkenGaijin wrote:I don't think anyone has brought this up...at least not recently. Has anyone heard anything about Russian Cinema releases. This is a relatively untouched area. At least as far as Criterion is concerned. Albeit I'm happy as hell we've received the Tarkovsky's to date...I'd really like to see a lot more. I loved the Shepitko set. If someone could email about some of these directors or give me some hope, it would make my week!

Alexander Dovzhenko, Grigori Chukrai, Mikhail Kalatozov, Sergei Parajanov, Elem Klimov, Michael Romm...

I'll take what I can get...!

Ruscico has films from most of the above (more than one apiece in most cases), though opt for the PAL transfers if at all possible - their NTSC releases are almost invariably poor-quality conversions.

Russico seems to be saying that the Josif Heifits’ film "Lady with the Little Dog" will be coming to DVD at some point.

That is a most marvellous film with a true Chekhovian flavor. I only have the film in an inadequate VHS copy from a rare TV broadcast.

Would love to have the DVD in my collection.

Panda

Ruscico HAD a DVD of Lady With a Dog -- and I have a copy of this (bought a couple of years ago).

Panda wrote:Russico seems to be saying that the Josif Heifits’ film "Lady with the Little Dog" will be coming to DVD at some point.

Looks like it's coming from Facets in November.

Michael Kerpan wrote:Ruscico HAD a DVD of Lady With a Dog -- and I have a copy of this (bought a couple of years ago).

I've had mine for five years. Ruscico's website currently says that it's out of stock, but I don't think it's OOP.

Hi--

I was considering purchasing Persona from a major online retailer (I'm brand new here, not sure if I can mention names) and the gist of several comments was to "wait for the Criterion edition." Does anyone know if this is in the works? Thanks

Umm, I wouldn't hold your breath. MGM owns the rights to Bergman's late 60s works, including Persona, and I highly doubt they'll ever let go of this one. But maybe someone on here with more insider knowledge knows differently.

I think this might be the wrong forum for this. But, I think the MGM version of this one is fine. It has a pretty interesting commentary, fairly "academic" if I remember correctly. I don't know if they sell it apart from the others in the boxset though. That shouldn't be a problem if you don't have the others because they're pretty great films also.

I don't know where those comments came from, but a lot of people tend to assume that any big-name arthouse title will eventually get a 'Criterion edition' (that's what Criterion's for, right?), and I've heard several people refer to the 'Criterion editions' they've seen of Chaplin's features, for instance. For better or worse, it's become a kind of shorthand, and without any harder evidence this sounds like all smoke and no fire.

As for the MGM disc, it's fine, but I can't agree on the commentary being OK. The commentaries on that set are down there with William Friedkin as my gold standard for worthlessness!

EDIT: Further to this, it's not unreasonable for people to assume that ultimately Criterion will get around to releasing editions of every Bergman film, since, on the basis of that Eclipse set, they're clearly completists who'll take anything they can get their hands on!