criterionforum.org

Perkins Cobb wrote:I'm impressed that you managed to get an interview with Turell without being able to spell his name correctly...

Eep I've been editing the piece for a while so I guess my eyes just glazed over that one......thanks for the heads up.

Nice work! I bought Criterion Blu-rays and I don't even have a Blu-ray player. LoL. (ok... it plays on my notebook computer, just how cinema should be displayed)

Roger Ebert has a little piece on the Criterion Contraption

There is a 3-page interview with Peter Becker in the December issue of Positif. Conducted by Michel Ciment in March 09, it is light on news (announcing the Eclipse Makavejev release), it's more a background type interview on the company's history and philosophy, so nothing really new. There was an interesting question regarding the number of units produced, to which Becker answered it depends on the title, they do a mock up of the cover and a pre-release sheet they send to retailers, and judge reactions based on pre-orders, they usually produce 30% than pre-orders. For what he calls a solid title pre-orders can be around 10,000-12,000 in the first year, for a film with higher potential it can be 20,000, 30,000 is the top. Amongst their best-sellers he named: 7 Samurai, Fear and loathing in Las Vegas, 7th seal, 8 1/2, Dazed and Confused, My own private Idaho. They also sold a lot of Days of heaven.

cdnchris wrote:Roger Ebert has a little piece on the Criterion Contraption

Good for Matthew!

7 Samurai, Fear and loathing in Las Vegas, 7th seal, 8 1/2, Dazed and Confused, My own private Idaho

Here some of your next Blu-rays

Cinephrenic wrote:

7 Samurai, Fear and loathing in Las Vegas, 7th seal, 8 1/2, Dazed and Confused, My own private Idaho

Here some of your next Blu-rays

Universal is releasing Fear and Loathing on Blu-ray Feb. 10th 2010.

Arn777 wrote:There was an interesting question regarding the number of units produced, to which Becker answered it depends on the title, they do a mock up of the cover and a pre-release sheet they send to retailers, and judge reactions based on pre-orders, they usually produce 30% than pre-orders. For what he calls a solid title pre-orders can be around 10,000-12,000 in the first year, for a film with higher potential it can be 20,000, 30,000 is the top.

Border Radio: 237.

Cinephrenic wrote:

7 Samurai, Fear and loathing in Las Vegas, 7th seal, 8 1/2, Dazed and Confused, My own private Idaho

Here some of your next Blu-rays

I'm pessimistic about that. Seven Samurai and the already released Seventh Seal and 8 1/2? Sure. Those are all Janus properties.

Universal has yet to allow Criterion to release a single Blu-ray though. I would imagine that in addition to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Dazed and Confused, The Last Temptation of Christ, Charade, Brazil, and Videodrome are among the better selling Criterions, but not a single one has been mentioned as a possible Blu-ray by Criterion, and I think that speaks volumes. I'm betting that Uni has yet to concede to allow it.

My Own Private Idaho was part of a rather unlikely deal made years ago with Ira Deutchman. It and the other New Line titles under license to Criterion would have to be renegotiated with current rightsholder Warner.

Actually, Universal has begun allowing Criterion to release blu-rays. See: Monsoon Wedding.

Arn777 wrote: they usually produce 30% than pre-orders.

What does this mean? They produce 30% more units than pre-orders?

Yes sorry missed a word. They seem to be basing their decisions on the level of pre-orders from retailers.

Interestingly in the same issue there was a round table discussion with a few French labels, and the guy from Gaumont said that they were planning to have Lola Montès on Blu-Ray, but pulled it off the schedule after getting only 600 pre-orders instead of the 3,000 they hoped to have (in this case it's not a surprise they want Criterion to region lock their blu-rays, if they paln to wait for more interest later on when a critical mass of players has been reasched).

I came across this article The Curious Case of the Instant Classic via Richard Brody aka Mr. Exactly Right's Twitter account and was going to post in a certain thread but that is locked.

What a turd of an article. Idiot.

What a pointlessly vitriolic piece. That reads like a blog rant, or a post on The Auteurs from the "Rivette or die" crew.

What an idiotic, useless article. I have no desire to own Benjamin Button, but neither it nor the inclusion of the IFC films (a couple of which are pretty great) in the Criterion Collection are omens of doom. Criterion has released FAR more mainstream films over the past 26 years. Any cinephile (or "journalist") who thinks that because a film gets a spine number, it has been "anointed" as a must-have canonical film is a moron.

I did think the revelation that Criterion considers Button an "asterisk" in their releases interesting, though

If you mean "interesting" as in the author almost certainly misquoted Peter Becker, I agree. I really don't see Peter Becker making any kind of comment on record that could be considered condescending to Fincher and his film(s) to this gentleman. Becker was probably referring to the uniqueness of Button, where it was already a completed product produced by David Prior/Paramount and they just wanted the wacky C, or something along those lines that make the release atypical.

That author has an axe to grind and should be ashamed of himself if he indeed misquoted people to try and give his ranting credibility or the appearance that any research or thought was put into it.

What a pointlessly vitriolic piece. That reads like a blog rant, or a post on The Auteurs from the "Rivette or die" crew.

...or criterionforum.org.
I agree it's a lame article.

BB wrote:

What a pointlessly vitriolic piece. That reads like a blog rant, or a post on The Auteurs from the "Rivette or die" crew.

...or criterionforum.org.
I agree it's a lame article.

I don't know what you're implying, pal, but none of the misinformed twattery that I read in that article is anywhere near the things I read on this website, which are usually very intelligent.

domino harvey wrote:We have our moments

Hmm, I must've missed that. I guess I just wish that people would see that not every release can be another By Brakhage Collection.

CBC Article on Criterion Collection, featuring some comments from Wim Wenders as well: read it here.

Interesting interview with Bob Stein concerning the future of publishing, in which he discusses his early days with Criterion and laser discs.

gubbelsj wrote:Interesting interview with Bob Stein concerning the future of publishing, in which he discusses his early days with Criterion and laser discs.

That's a great article. Stein doesn't get enough credit, and I loved seeing how all of those conceptual drawings have come to fruition. Am I correct in understanding that Ron Haver's commentary for King Kong, the first commentary track ever, was done in exchange for weed?