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Yeah, I asked about Chantal Akerman a few days ago and got the same response. Could be the new "nothing is certain at this time."

Apparently, Touch of Evil is OOP. Would make a great special edition from Criterion if they could wrestle it away from Universal.

Dr. Mabuse wrote:Apparently, Touch of Evil is OOP. Would make a great special edition from Criterion if they could wrestle it away from Universal.

I hope not:
They really need to rerelease only films that have had intolerably bad transfers, like Rohmer's Pox-Lorber DVDs.

Otherwise Criterion really needs to stick to unreleased films. Think of all the Mizoguchi, Malle, Ozu, Saura, Bresson, etc. etc. that they already have the rights to... Not to mention the already scheduled Tati & Kurosawa re-releases.

Suppose they were to switch to some new HD format in a couple of years and restart the collection at spine #1, re-realesing things in a similar order to what they released on DVD -- then all the unreleased stuff would fade a half decade into the future.

Couldn't possibly happen? Isn't that what happened between Laser & DVD?

Ted Todorov wrote:Otherwise Criterion really needs to stick to unreleased films. Think of all the Mizoguchi, Malle, Ozu, Saura, Bresson, etc. etc. that they already have the rights to... Not to mention the already scheduled Tati & Kurosawa re-releases.

While I share your sentiments, Ted, from a business perspective, Criterion must realize that sales of the Mizoguchi, Naruse, Ophuls, Ozu, Ichikawa, Rossellini, et al films I'm dying for them to release are unlikely to pay last month's electric bill.

I'm happy with the current version of Touch of Evil, but would I ante up $50 (retail) to see it get the Mr. Arkadin treatment? You bet I would, and I suspect many others would as well.

I would be delighted if Criterion could license the more popular canonical films--which may already have received decent DVD releases--and give them the deluxe treatment. If only because the sales of those discs could help bankroll the release of the more 'obscure' films you and I crave. I also suspect that the Criterion diehards would find this business strategy more acceptable than the mercifully short-lived Armageddon model.

re Touch of Evil: as far as I know, the only version available is the restoration. I like to see them release the original film as well.

FilmFanSea wrote:Criterion must realize that sales of the Mizoguchi, Naruse, Ophuls, Ozu, Ichikawa, Rossellini, et al films I'm dying for them to release are unlikely to pay last month's electric bill.

this statement simply makes no sense.
Those film directors are the absolute classic cream of film directors. If criterion can release films by Suzuki or hideo gosha, if they can release truly obscure films like Fat Girl, then they sure as fuck (from a money-making viewpoint) can release Mizoguchi, Naruse, Ophuls, Ozu, Ichikawa and Rossellini.

I am sure its simply either a rights issue or (most likely) finding good enough elements, which then take time to be restored.

They need to introduce Rohmer, Naruse, Ophuls, Marker, Teshigahara, Kinoshita, Oshima, Chabrol, Rivette, Pabst, Parajanov, Erice, Saura into the collection this year alone for that matter.

FilmFanSea wrote:While I share your sentiments, Ted, from a business perspective, Criterion must realize that sales of the Mizoguchi, Naruse, Ophuls, Ozu, Ichikawa, Rossellini, et al films I'm dying for them to release are unlikely to pay last month's electric bill.

I wonder if this is true. My understanding is that the Ugetsu disc is selling quite well for Criterion.

I wonder if Criterion would release a list of their top selling and lowest selling discs of last year if we were to ask. It might help settle this dispute regarding the gas bill. But this could be a moot point since Bush will be cutting our addiction to foreign oil like [snap] that!

So, the five May releases according to whats up on Image's and Criterion's sites combined seem to be:

Viridiana
Late Spring
À nos amours
Harlan County USA
Grey Gardens 2-disc

A very nice mix.

Narshty wrote:So, the five May releases according to whats up on Image's and Criterion's sites combined seem to be:

Viridiana
Late Spring
À nos amours
Harlan County USA
Grey Gardens 2-disc

A very nice mix.

at least three of those will be 2-disc editions as well and Viridiana, even if a single disc, appears to have several supplements

No other titles?? Am I getting spoiled or what.

Whatever happened to 400 Blows?

Yeah, I'm a little confused. I thought we knew about three of those last month. And Late Spring not much later. Did we just get word on those unusually early? No matter, to my tastes this is one of the strongest months I've ever seen. Rarely are two long-awaited must-buy DVDs calling my name in the same month's announcements....

Nothing to celebrate Rossellini's Centennial

Dr. Mabuse wrote:Apparently, Touch of Evil is OOP. Would make a great special edition from Criterion if they could wrestle it away from Universal.

The hell are you talking about?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/6305999872/

That's what I was thinking, Touch of Evil is still in stock at on-line places but if you go to Universal's website it's not available to purchase.

At about 8:31 PST, I went to the Criterion website. À nos amours was not listed there. Just wanted to tell you guys this and keep up on what is going on.

pzman84 wrote:At about 8:31 PST, I went to the Criterion website. À nos amours was not listed there. Just wanted to tell you guys this and keep up on what is going on.

I spotted it earlier today (about 6PM EST/3PM PST) by going to the 'browse the catalog' section, sorting by spine number, and it was listed (with no info) as "spine # 0". About an hour later it was gone...

May is shaping up to be a very expensive month - the Ozu is good enough, Tokyo-Ga is an unexpected surprise, and the Kopple on DVD (after years of rotten VHS editions) is not to be missed...

LightBulbFilm wrote:Mulvaney's response to me in question of any releases from the Indian filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak:

Hi Thomas,
We consider many films and directors, and face many factors in attaining
them I really can't speak to your question, because I can't discuss more
than the allready announced or released films.
Best
JM

I've never gotten a response like this before. It's always been: There are no plans to release anything... So these could be a possibility.

There is hope - I sent in an inquiry a few days ago (before spotting this post) and haven't gotten a response yet. BFI was able to get a pair of Ghatak's films (and a retrospective of all of them made the rounds in Europe some years ago), and Cloud-Capped Star at least is quite deserving of a wider audience. I've never gotten a response like this one though - intriguing...

Perhaps there is hope for more from Wong Kar-Wai (maybe it's just me, but this suggests that while the films aren't on the scheduled release list, they could be in the future):

Hello Matt,
These films are not on our scheduled release list at present. I can't really
discuss titles that aren't already released or are announced on the website.
Best
JM

On 1/20/06 12:58 AM, "Matt Lingo" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Sender: Matt Lingo
> Email: [email protected]
> Question Type: Question
> Comment: Any chance of a DVD release of Chungking Express? Or, for that
> matter, anything else by Wong Kar-Wai?

I asked about WKW a while back, and he just said 'no plans to release'.
This does sound positive. I'm hoping for at least Chungking and Days of Being Wild. They both need good releases (his entire oeuvre pre 2000 needs re-releasing) - although my R2 Chungking isn't too bad.

I'm not so sure (though I'd love you to be right). This "we can't even talk about unannounced titles" reply is a completely new formulation (as far as I know) and may have been engineered to fob off any enquiry. It's really just saying "I am now only permitted to discuss released and officially announced titles" and probably can't be construed too optimistically. Has anybody received a different response to an enquiry about an unannounced title in the last few weeks?

As of right now, the "Grey Gardens" 2-Disc seems to be off Image's release slate for May.

-BJ

Now that Dazed and Confused has been confirmed for release, I hope Criterion will plump to release Lucile Hadzihalilovic's Innocence as another recent film to be added to the series - the rights are all in order, as Image owns the US rights by way of Home Vision.