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Der Spieler wrote:Let's hope the Allen movies get released in the UK.

I'm not paying 30$ for any single movie, ever.

I think it costs that much to go to a movie in Manhattan for two people.

Der Spieler wrote:I'm not paying 30$ for any single movie, ever.

You young whippersnapper! Why, back in the laserdisc days, $35 per movie was typical! Heck, some collector's editions went up to $100! And you had to walk 10 miles through waist-deep snow both ways to get 'em!

More relevant, blu-rays of Woody Allen's MGM titles have typically been available for between $10 and $15 in what was supposed to be an ongoing "Woody Allen Collection." These are among their best-known batches of catalog titles by a single director, so why can't they just release them, instead of trickling out two per year and then starting to license them to TT, a label that I thought was supposed to be a specialist label for more obscure, cult, and other films for which there's relatively little demand on blu-ray? I mean, they even waited years after Blu-ray became the established HD format to release Annie Hall and Manhattan.

Maybe the sales for Sleeper and Hannah and Her Sisters were not enough for them to continue releasing them themselves?

Should have been enough. But Crimes and Misdemeanors in particular is, in my experience, one of those films that non-cinephiles who rarely watch any film that's more than a couple years old, will still revisit and will talk about how good it is. If it was Alice or September that they were licensing to TT, I would understand it a lot more easily (but even then I'd be inclined to think they should just put out a couple of Allen box sets—production costs aren't that high, and it's not as if they'd have to come up with any bonus features). One of the main reasons TT has become so prominent (and notorious) is that the majors generally don't have a clue what to do even with their no-brainer catalog titles.

It's a sure sign that just about everything is up for grabs.

Zot! wrote:

Der Spieler wrote:Let's hope the Allen movies get released in the UK.

I'm not paying 30$ for any single movie, ever.

I think it costs that much to go to a movie in Manhattan for two people.

I think the fact that I paid 10$ for all my other Allen blu-rays contributes. I'm not a big fan of Twilight Time either. Not to the point where I'll pass on all-time favorites like The Big Heat, but I'm definitely trying to avoid them whenever possible.

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973)
Release Date: December 10th, 2013
Pre-order date: Wednesday, November 20th at 4 pm EST.

Cover art:

Royal Flash (1975)
Release Date: December 10th, 2013
Pre-order date: Wednesday, November 20th at 4 pm EST.

Cover art:


Malcolm McDowell appears to be taking the phrase 'royal flash' literally.

Royal Flash is already out in the UK on Blu-ray with commentary and other extras, FYI

Oh boy, I hope they don't get any more Richard Lester. They better keep their greasy hands of the MGM titles (The Knack, Juggernaut, Cuba, and How I Won the War among them).

The Narrator Returns wrote:Oh boy, I hope they don't get any more Richard Lester. They better keep their greasy hands of the MGM titles (The Knack, Juggernaut, Cuba, and How I Won the War among them).

At least one of those is for sure coming from Criterion...

Please be Cuba. That's probably his most formally daring film of the decade and after Royal Flash probably his film in most need of context.

Per Variety

U.S. classic film distributor Twilight Time has pacted with London-based Protagonist Pictures on U.S. distrib rights to a package of Film4 movies.

Announced at the Lumiere Festical’s first Classic Films Market in Lyon, the acquisitions pack a powerful punch, catching a part Film4-driven renaissance in British filmmaking. They include: Four Ken Loach films – “Riff Raff,” “Raining Stones,” “Carla’s Song” and “Fatherland” – the debut features from Neal Jordon (1982’s “Angel”) and Paul Greengrass (1986’s “Resurrected”), anti-nuclear war animated feature “Where the Wind Blows,” Shekhar Kapur’s “Bandit Queen,” “A Month in the Country,” starring a young Colin Firth and Kenneth Brannagh, and Alan Clarke’s “Rita, Sue and Bob Too!”

U.S releases will be half and half, 2014/15, made on 3,000-unit Blu-ray issues.

When The Wind Blows is one of my favourite books. The film is less effective, but still unique.

I'll plop down $34 for an Alan Clarke Blu-ray.

This part of the Variety article caught my eye:

“We want to have world cinema, not just American cinema,” Redman said at the Lumiere Festival’s Marche du Film Classique, which he attended with Jamieson to begin negotiating French titles.

What A Disgrace wrote:I'll plop down $34 for an Alan Clarke Blu-ray.

For my part, I'm very glad it's that particular Alan Clarke film, which I can happily ignore, rather than one of his TV masterpieces.

In particular, it's been made largely redundant by The Arbor, a far more complex and formally adventurous look at the same material.

Wah??????????????????????????????????? RITA, SUE, AND BOB TOO is great!

They're almost certainly going to be coming out in the UK on Blu for peanuts too. Also, it looks like Criterion might have snagged larger Film4 titles, notable by their absence in the TT batch.

peerpee wrote:it looks like Criterion might have snagged larger Film4 titles, notable by their absence in the TT batch

Could any of our UK-based industry friends share some insight as to what might have been available to Criterion through Film4 (IMDB being unreliable and out-of-date)? I'd be especially interested in knowing which Peter Greenaway films they may have finally acquired.

I expect that they have would have taken any more Mike Leigh films that may have reverted from their original American licensors. Croupier and Drowning by Numbers were also among the titles thrown around after the reissue of Naked was announced and the "phantom pages" appeared on Criterion's website.

I look forward to TT selling like maybe 100 copies of each of those titles

bainbridgezu wrote:

peerpee wrote:it looks like Criterion might have snagged larger Film4 titles, notable by their absence in the TT batch

Could any of our UK-based industry friends share some insight as to what might have been available to Criterion through Film4 (IMDB being unreliable and out-of-date)? I'd be especially interested in knowing which Peter Greenaway films they may have finally acquired.

I expect that they have would have taken any more Mike Leigh films that may have reverted from their original American licensors. Croupier and Drowning by Numbers were also among the titles thrown around after the reissue of Naked was announced and the "phantom pages" appeared on Criterion's website.

Film4 Library

Not all of those will be available to Criterion, many are locked up with other US distributors.

peerpee wrote:Wah??????????????????????????????????? RITA, SUE, AND BOB TOO is great!

Have to agree with Nick. The camerawork is just as good as it is in Clarke's other films of the same period. But the narrative is bursting with life in a way that owes more to writer Andrea Dunbar. Like Michael, I admire The Arbor, but find it somber and relatively humorless compared to Rita, Sue, and Bob Too, which is definitely the funniest Clarke film I've yet seen.