criterionforum.org

MitchPerrywinkle wrote: Fri Feb 03, 2023 1:47 am Dixon charges Baldwin with that very sentiment ford is expressing, and he dismisses that with a graceful answer which I happen to believe whole-heartedly. Just because white liberals read his books didn't mean he wrote for them, and he certainly wasn't under the assumption that they'd get the full scope of what he was attempting to communicate with his writing.

Oh, I think he definitely wrote for white liberals, as in...I don't even see how one could deny it. They were the near sole audience for capital L literature at the time. And that's fine. I just think the whole 'struggle session with the whites, one-on-one' was of limited value in the 1960s -- the labor movement's partnership with the Civil Rights movement was infinitely more effective -- and today is just a way for elite whites to self-flagellate in order to cleanse themselves of the sin of being on top in an altogether far, far more materially unequal America -- but one in which antiracism is now a totally hegemonic value, supported both by the federal government and Fortune 500, with an elite stratum that's unimaginably less white and male than in Baldwin's day. I mean, that this is a thing today says a lot about our times.

The question remains: why is inequality even worse? Why is the state of the bottom third of black America as bad as it was before? I don't think Baldwin, who was hardly any kind of Marxian economist, can do much to answer these questions. He was a literary figure. And while we can find truth from literary figures (even ugly truths, as in Dostoevsky), we cannot find a blueprint. The section in Peck's Baldwin doc where he talks about Hollywood and media depictions of black men, in which it splices in historical examples, is frankly just totally alien to what anyone can see when they turn on the TV or watch a movie today. The shift has been enormous and I don't see any use in denying it unless one wants to, for whatever reason, obscure the progress.

I'd argue the answers to those aforementioned questions has almost nothing to do with racist sentiments in human beings and infinitely more to do with the political economy of American postwar capitalism -- the sudden collapse of sharecropping combined with offshoring, automation, a global assault on the trade union movement (who didn't get nearly as far here as it did elsewhere in the west) and a new commitment to free trade that enriched the rich, did well for the upper middle class, tore the middle class in two, dealt a body-blow to the working class and essentially murdered the already impoverished.

ford wrote: Fri Feb 03, 2023 2:44 pm I mean, that this is a thing today says a lot about our times.

What does it say?

Black Hat wrote: Fri Feb 03, 2023 6:21 pm

ford wrote: Fri Feb 03, 2023 2:44 pm I mean, that this is a thing today says a lot about our times.

What does it say?

That there’s a big demand from affluent white people desperate for a literal confessor/priest class to cleanse them of their racial sins.

It appears, based on her Linkedin page, Penelope Bartlett, the Channel's director of programming, is no longer with the company. The Linkedin page says November 2022 was her last month, so I don't know if she was part of the October massacre or not, but she did a pretty fantastic job with the programming.

Skolimowski’s EO will have its streaming premiere on the channel on February 21. Also included:

•A portrait of the 6 donkeys who play EO
•A program on the making EO
•3 of Skolimowski’s early films—DEEP END, THE SHOUT, & MOONLIGHTING
•An episode of our Criterion Channel original series MEET THE FILMMAKERS with Skolimowski

So this is the future of Janus Films and the Criterion Collection, maybe: exclusive streaming premiere on the channel with extras, perhaps followed by a disc release if merited.

Matt wrote:So this is the future of Janus Films and the Criterion Collection, maybe: exclusive streaming premiere on the channel with extras, perhaps followed by a disc release if merited.

Maybe, but possibly they just wanted to get this pushed out quickly pre-Oscars? I’m sure the disc will follow shortly after.

Matt wrote: Thu Feb 16, 2023 6:49 pm •3 of Skolimowski’s early films—DEEP END, THE SHOUT, & MOONLIGHTING
•An episode of our Criterion Channel original series MEET THE FILMMAKERS with Skolimowski

The three early features and the MEET THE FILMMAKERS episode are on the channel now (and have been since the beginning of the year) - in case anyone was unaware and wanted to view them.

criterionsnob wrote: Thu Feb 16, 2023 6:58 pm

Matt wrote:So this is the future of Janus Films and the Criterion Collection, maybe: exclusive streaming premiere on the channel with extras, perhaps followed by a disc release if merited.

Maybe, but possibly they just wanted to get this pushed out quickly pre-Oscars? I’m sure the disc will follow shortly after.

Feels more like the future of Sideshow specifically than of Janus in general -- because they're dealing in new releases. We'll see if catalog titles start to go this route.

Matt wrote: Thu Feb 16, 2023 6:49 pm Skolimowski’s EO will have its streaming premiere on the channel on February 21. Also included:

•A portrait of the 6 donkeys who play EO
•A program on the making EO
•3 of Skolimowski’s early films—DEEP END, THE SHOUT, & MOONLIGHTING
•An episode of our Criterion Channel original series MEET THE FILMMAKERS with Skolimowski

So this is the future of Janus Films and the Criterion Collection, maybe: exclusive streaming premiere on the channel with extras, perhaps followed by a disc release if merited.

presently imagining a world where Deep End is relegated to an extra

yoloswegmaster wrote: Wed Feb 22, 2023 7:16 pm Coming in March 2023.

Last Days of Chez Nous is a gem. A restored version has been on Kanopy for a while, and I hope Criterion releases more of Armstrong’s work

I'm hoping that a restored version of Ann Hui's The Stunt Woman is going to show up with the CC/Janus logos appearing at the start. I just want to see more Ann Hui films get restored and get a blu release.

yoloswegmaster wrote: Wed Feb 22, 2023 9:23 pmI just want to see more Ann Hui films get restored and get a blu release.

Ditto. So many wonderful films and most of them now unavailable.

April's programming (Is this the earliest they've announced the next month's lineup.)

Very curious to see the state of their unreleased (on Blu-Ray) Harold Lloyd features.

And I’m curious to see if Body Heat is from a restoration.

I’m hoping that the addition of Rohmer’s Tales of the Four Seasons means that they’ll finally be released on disc in the not too distant future.

Body Heat seems like one of those titles that should get a UHD release sooner or later. I watched it on the channel and it might have been a bit better than the blu-ray in that I recall an awful lot of video noise in the blu-ray's encoding (particularly in dark scenes) whereas the streamed version seemed better in that regard, picture quality might have been a little better too (but I'm going by memories of a blu-ray viewing from its release time frame on much older (and lesser) equipment, from almost 15 years ago, so it could be a more negligible difference if watched on my current rig).

Buried down below, and not included with the David Lynch features announcement, is a showcase of Lynch's short films... including episodes of Dumbland for those who thought Criterion wouldn't touch these!

I seem to remember Criterion posting Dumbland on their Hulu channel way back when.

Not too surprised they showed up on the Channel where they can be removed whenever, but cementing them permanently on a disc is another matter. The climate has already moved to a place where these will be looked at in poor taste by many rather than entertained in good faith as satire, and I doubt Criterion will stack their chips on the needle moving in the opposite direction by putting them as a future disc extra.

Oh man, Living on Tokyo Time. That’s a good little indie flick that doesn’t get enough love or attention. Hopefully Criterion (or anyone, really) can do a nice blu-ray of it some day. It’s fun in a low-key, ragged-around-the-edges sort of way.

The Suzuki series looks great as I've been meaning to watch the Taisho Trilogy for a while now.

I sure miss when they'd include a list of all the new titles at the bottom of the post. While I appreciate how they curate titles into series, ultimately that's what I care about.