Forthcoming Lists Discussion and Random Speculation Vol. 4

[lethallyfab]

Longtime lurker, first time poster - so both Ebert and Criterion Cast linked via Twitter on this blog post with the news that Criterion is pairing with Bordwell/Thompson's book Film Art: An Introduction, a pretty standard undergrad film studies text, to have specific clips online to illustrate its ideas. It's a wonderful idea. They have a link to a clip and then a list of what clips/films are used to demonstrate what principles and then the editing listicle shows up:

Chapter 6 Editing

Editing with Graphic Matches in Seven Samurai (1954) We use this example in discussing graphic matches in Film Art, but it’s hard to get a sense of the patterning from stills, So this clip shows the scene in its context and then replays the series of matches, freezing and laying them out across the screen.

Shifting the Axis of Action in Shaun of the Dead (2004; above) Erik uses stills and overhead diagrams to show how the axis of action can be shifted when characters turn their heads and when new characters join the conversation.

Crossing the Axis of Action in Early Summer (1951) A friendly argument between Noriko and two of her friends employs cuts that consistently move back and forth across the axis of action. An overhead diagram marks the camera positions shot by shot.

Crosscutting in M (1930) Through a first run-through and then a replay with freeze-frames, we study how editing compares gangsters meeting and police meeting.

Wait, what? Shaun of the Dead thrown in randomly when the entire rest of the films are Criterion titles? HUH!? It's weird.

[captveg]

^ Very cool. It's probably the only textbook I ever really read for the joy of it, too.

[peerpee]

FILM ART was my main first year undergrad book in 1994 (along with CLASSICAL HOLLYWOOD CINEMA (Bordwell, Staiger, Thompson) and THE AMERICAN FILM INDUSTRY (Balio). It's a wonderful book.

It's hard to imagine that we didn't have DVD at all back then.

[Jonathan S]

When I was at university 15 years earlier we barely had video! There were U-matic tapes but they only held an hour each, and the AV dept. had accidentally erased the first tape of Johnny Guitar, so the tutor had to fill us in on the story so far before we came in for the second half...

Still, it did mean we got to see nearly everything on real film, including 35mm (e.g. The Savage Innocents) sometimes. We had to study Hitchcock for a whole year, though, with no access to Rear Window, Vertigo, etc., and most of us had never been able to see those films at all.

[colinr0380]

I don't really know what Criterion could add to Shaun of the Dead, other than upgrading it to Blu-ray. Though I suppose it could be a possibility with it being a Universal title.

We had to study Hitchcock for a whole year, though, with no access to Rear Window, Vertigo, etc., and most of us had never been able to see those films at all.

Wonderful! I wonder what impression that leaves of films - whether they can seem underwhelming (or alternatively overwhelming given all the build up to a first viewing!), or a totally different experience that was created from descriptions of them or looking at stills in a book. Or like completely different, individually imagined films growing out of the limited material available! Like the parable about the blind men trying to describe an elephant!

It is great to read stories of people who grew up reading film books and imagining the content of the films from stills, which might diverge wildly from the actual content of the films themselves! I guess even the most detailed Sight and Sound-style synopsis can still result in surprisingly different films of the material being imagined! Which is something that I think has a value in itself (since film is so often predicated on triggering and working with associations within an audience's brain), even if it might make dry, clinical study of specific passages of a film more difficult to do!

Which I guess is something that brings us back to Film Art wanting to use sequences from the films themselves in a classroom environment rather than just relying on stills and detailed written discussion of scenes.

[eerik]

I don't really know what Criterion could add to Shaun of the Dead, other than upgrading it to Blu-ray. Though I suppose it could be a possibility with it being a Universal title.

Shaun of the Dead already has a good Blu-ray release.

[Perkins Cobb]

La Promesse and Rosetta scheduled for this summer, I'm told.

[swo17]

Why are they releasing only what I want?

[krnash]

I don't really know what Criterion could add to Shaun of the Dead, other than upgrading it to Blu-ray. Though I suppose it could be a possibility with it being a Universal title.

Shaun of the Dead already has a good Blu-ray release.

I'm not sure I buy a possible future Shaun of the Dead release or not, but it is interesting that this is the lone non-Criterion film on that list and that they published Edgar Wright's Top 10 a few months back, seemingly out of the blue.

[Minkin]

Yeah, it's from quite a while ago, but I thought this thread could use some new/old speculations.

Cinephrenic's post from September states that Demy's Bay of Angels screened with a print from Janus/Criterion. Seeing as it was previously released on DVD by Fox Lorber - might this give hope to other Demy films?

I see that Lola was also released by Fox Lorber. Moving forward, might it also pose hope for Umbrellas and Donkey Skin (I can't be the only one to like this latter film)? If you want to go way back, Jules et Jim was originally from Lorber as well, so there's that precedent; plus it seems that Lorber isn't bothered to repress their DVD's, so I wonder if something is up with these films.

I suppose Ryan's post began the Demy speculation, so any investigating turn anything else up?

[zedz]

As long as there aren't any local rights hold-ups, I imagine that any and all Demy would be wide open for Criterion, given their relationship with Cine-Tamaris. But bear in mind that several of the already-released titles from the 'Complete Demy' box set of a few years back (including Baie des Anges) utilised pre-existing, and sometimes dated, transfers, so there would be a bit more work entailed in issuing those. That release also means, of course, that there are extras-a-go-go available for every title: all Demy's shorts, brief 'appreciations' of all the films by friends and family, and so on.

EDIT: Since I'm bored, here's how you could get a tidy Criterion three-way out of Cine-Tamaris' Integrale:

Jacques Demy in the Sixties Blu-Ray box-set:

Some or all (depending on licensing constraints) of:
Lola
Bay of Angels
Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Young Girls of Rochefort
Model Shop

(You could also argue the subtle interconnections between Lola, Umbrellas and Model Shop into a loose trilogy.)

Extras:
- All the myriad interview extracts and personal appreciations of the films from the C-T box
- Varda's 'Demoiselles 25 Years Later' doc
- Varda's World of Jacques Demy doc
- La bel indifferent and all the other 50s / 60s shorts

And then, on the diminishing returns front:

Fables and Fantasies by Jacques Demy Eclipse set:
Peau d'ane
The Pied Piper
Lady Oscar

The Late Musicals of Jacques Demy Eclipse set:
Une Chambre en ville
Parking
Trois places pour le 26

This way you can leave L'evenement le plus important. . . under a rock where it belongs. La naissance du jour is also homeless, unfortunately, but maybe it could be snuck onto a BluRay of Jacquot de Nantes.

[mfunk9786]

I don't really know what Criterion could add to Shaun of the Dead, other than upgrading it to Blu-ray. Though I suppose it could be a possibility with it being a Universal title.

Shaun of the Dead already has a good Blu-ray release.

I'm not sure I buy a possible future Shaun of the Dead release or not, but it is interesting that this is the lone non-Criterion film on that list and that they published Edgar Wright's Top 10 a few months back, seemingly out of the blue.

On what list? Somehow I'm not finding the origin post about this.

[krnash]

On what list? Somehow I'm not finding the origin post about this.

FILM ART: AN INTRODUCTION reaches a milestone, with help from the Criterion Collection

[eerik]

I don't really know what Criterion could add to Shaun of the Dead, other than upgrading it to Blu-ray. Though I suppose it could be a possibility with it being a Universal title.

Shaun of the Dead already has a good Blu-ray release.

I'm not sure I buy a possible future Shaun of the Dead release or not, but it is interesting that this is the lone non-Criterion film on that list and that they published Edgar Wright's Top 10 a few months back, seemingly out of the blue.

With the upcoming releases of Being John Malkovich, The Game, and possibly Shaun of the Dead, they can obviously get a lot more titles from Universal. And Shaun of the Dead should be at the bottom of their priorities. Only thing that's wrong with the current Blu-ray is that it is slightly pictureboxed, but otherwise looks fantastic. It has four different audio commentaries and loads of other extras.

[ianungstad]

I don't see any evidence of a criterion Shaun of the Dead. In the section for animated films, one of the studies is on My Dog Tulip which was just released by New Yorker Films last summer. Nowhere on that page does it say that all clips were licensed from Criterion. Sure almost all of them are from Criterion titles, as they helped design the video EPKs and hold the rights to a lot of the canon titles that are studied in the text/course.

[SamLowry]

they can obviously get a lot more titles from Universal

I just watched Joan Crawford in Female On The Beach (it's on youtube), what a hoot! I'd love for this to make it to Criterion, maybe a double bill blu-ray with I Saw What You Did (her only other Universal title).

[Ashirg]

Female on the Beach is being released as part of Women in Danger: 1950s Thrillers TCM/Movies Unlimited exclusive set.

[duck duck]

What are the chances of Querelle? It's an OOP Sony.

I can't see Criterion doing "I Saw What You Did" it's a later film and a mediocre William Castle so there wouldn't be much in the way of supplements.

[SpiderBaby]

What are the chances of Querelle? It's an OOP Sony.

A question I would like answered too.

[SamLowry]

I can't see Criterion doing "I Saw What You Did" it's a later film and a mediocre William Castle so there wouldn't be much in the way of supplements.

That's why a double bill with Female On The Beach would've been nice...Criterion can use more than one camp title (The Naked Kiss) in its catalog.

[knives]

That's not really camp and you seem to be forgetting a lot of films they've released.

[matrixschmatrix]

Such as the entire Monsters and Madmen box, Fiend Without a Face, Equinox, The Blob, arguably the Sirks and Grey Gardens, and probably a bunch more that don't come immediately to mind

[knives]

This is probably the big one.

[SamLowry]

Well Female On The Beach is camp & very good camp too. I haven't seen I Know What You Did yet, but read it was campy too. Since Joan seemed to go ever more over the top with each film toward the end of her career, I would expect at least a few chuckles even if it's not on par with Trog or Strait Jacket. We can wish for Whatever Happened To Baby Jane, but it's a Warner Bros. title.

...and just what titles in Criterion's catalog would rate along the most over-the top Joan or Bette? The Naked Kiss is the only title I can think of that comes close.

I guess I don't see the low-budget indie titles on par with a Hollywood title with well-known actors in the same terms in qualifying as camp..... But If John Waters or Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill! were in the catalog, that would be another story. Or maybe it's just idiosyncratic in that I don't find any of those mentioned all that funny.

[Feego]

Everyone's forgetting Paul Morrissey's Flesh (for Frankenstein) and Blood (for Dracula) one-two punch.