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I use an iTV for Huli+ and the only consistent issue I've been having is when the stream desyncs and, an hour or so later, the stream stops and forces me back to an earlier stop in the film. That's quickly fixed, thankfully. There aren't any commericals on my end, so I can only sympathize with you guys.

Today's pick is Wild Geese (Toyoda, 1953).

The only problem I've had on the ps3 is that one film was missing random subtitles, but I'm not sure if that was due to the Hulu or if Criterion had an error in delivering them (said film: Winter Light).

Never have playback problems on my Roku. My only problem only on a few short films that are supposed to be commercial-free, but because they happen to be in the length range of a normal american sitcom, end up with riddled with commercials...

Martin Scorsese on the World Cinema Foundation

Eight WCF restorations will be available on Hulu Plus soon. Judging by the video, those will be:

The Housemaid (1960) - Kim Ki-young
Touki Bouki (1973) - Djibril Diop Mambéty
Law of the Border (1966) - Lüfti Ö. Akad
Trances (1981) - Ahmed El Maanouni
Dry Summer (1964) - Metin Erksan
A River Called Titas (1973) - Ritwik Ghatak
Revenge (1989) - Ermek Shinarbaev
Redes (1936) - Fred Zinnemann, Emilio Gómez Muriel

I wonder if this is a way to track interest (though DRY SUMMER, TOUKI BOUKI, and HOUSEMAID have had plenty of time over at MUBI to generate hits). The "this summer on Hulu" time frame makes me doubt we'll see any of these titles as mainline releases for a while.

I'm sure someone else has posited this but do you think that they'll just end up making the WCF stuff a sublabel, a la Merchant-Ivory or Eclipse?

Excellent to hear that I'll be able to see some of these films soon, but I'm a little disappointed that there was no mention of A Brighter Summer Day, maybe they're making its physical release a priority over a Hulu premiere.

On the odd times that adverts are included, how are they handled? Are they just shoved in anywhere, do they only come at scene changes, how long are they typically, etc?

They're about a minute in length and come at the end of scenes.

Calvin wrote:Martin Scorsese on the World Cinema Foundation

Youtube wrote: This video is private.
Sorry about that.

Is there another link? or a non-private posting?

That's so weird. I'm not even sure what that could mean for them to decide after a day of it being up that it's private.

Likely was posted prematurely and the announcement was meant for after the 101 Days of Summer promotion is completed. I was wondering how they were going to fit all that in when from my count, they have at least 33 phantom pages like this:

Even if you group all the shorts into logical groups (Etaix, Frampton, Lloyd), we still come up with enough new adds to take us nearly through Labor Day...

And we now have confirmation from Jon Mulvaney that commercials should not be appearing in any Criterion film on HuluPlus. Here's the response I received late today:

Thanks for your email. You are in fact correct, all Criterion content
streamed via Hulu Plus should not have commercials. We've contacted
Hulu, and are in the process of getting the commercials removed from
WOMAN OF TOKYO. We appreciate your making us aware of this mistake.
Thank you for your support of The Criterion Collection!

As for other news concerning Criterion's HuluPlus page, I am completely excited by the news about the World Cinema Foundation and just as excited by seeing that phantom page for Bergman's The Devil's Eye that jwd5275 posted!

The Housemaid (a wonderful movie, by the way) is up today for the 101 days of summer promotion, making it the first of the WCF films.

Touki Bouki is now up. For those of us taking part in the 70s voting thread this is essential viewing. I'm not sure if it'll make my list, but its certainly deserving of a spot.

Satyajit Ray's Three Daughters is up now

It's interesting they are treating it as three different films.

Why not? They always do that! They treated Kapurush (as a extra "short" now) and Mahapurush (added on Hulu as an individual film) differently (the director could never like such idea). They can do anything they want.

Good news is they got all the three films now as Three Daughter! Don't know why, but for some reason it was always Two Daughters (no Monihara included) in abroad (UK/USA), I could be wrong though. Although only the first two stories of the 3 were written by Tagore, I just wish that if they ever want to release it as combo pack, they do it as "Three Daughters" keeping all three so called "shorts" together, because its meant to be like that. Monihara is my favorite among the lot, its special, its a ghost story directed by Ray

I suspect since no HD for it and the Tagore (also no HD) doc they added some time ago they're working on a Ray does Tagore eclipse.

Strange! I wonder why did they upload such terrible looking SD versions! Three daughters has been restored by multiple foundations. I ever have a much better looking version of Three Daughters. The Tagore Box set, released couple of years ago in India, contains Three Daughters and that Tagore doc in pristine digitally remastered forms (NFDC release)! All 4 of them look stunning! These prints Criterion loaded looks like something taken from YouTube bootleg DVD rips.
I don't think Criterion will release these films in such poor quality, but I guess if Criterion ever releases an eclipse for these 3 and Tagore doc with such prints, I will easily skip it (I totally agree with your speculation of a Tagore/Ray Eclipse set though)!

The other two segments do appear to be in much better condition---just as an add on. Some of these Hulu uploads are just damned weird.

Yeah, I remember they said previously on their FB page that the hulu upload prints don't mean anything! Most of the time its not the print they use for their physical releases! Also, Three Daughters is one of Ray's high profile films, so probably this will not end up in an eclipse set! I can also think with confidence that the Tagore doc is gonna end up as an extra feature to another Tagore film The Home and the World as Charulata being out of the question now!

I am just worried and hope that we don't have to wait 2 more years again for the next batch of Ray films to be released in "dual format"!!! I want The Hero and Days and Nights in the Forest so badly (considering the fact that Apu Trilogy is on its way in near future, I am not gonna think it as my most anticipated Ray films anymore!).

Yeah, I really want those two kids fantasy picks he made as the clips in the doc on The Music Room made them look like a lot of atypical fun.

chatterjees wrote:Yeah, I remember they said previously on their FB page that the hulu upload prints don't mean anything! Most of the time its not the print they use for their physical releases!

I've noticed that, too, but what if anything is the reasoning behind this?

albucat wrote:

chatterjees wrote:Yeah, I remember they said previously on their FB page that the hulu upload prints don't mean anything! Most of the time its not the print they use for their physical releases!

I've noticed that, too, but what if anything is the reasoning behind this?

Maybe it's a combination of haste and laziness. They get the digital-streaming rights (if those are a thing now), they take an earlier digital transfer they either have in their vaults or are sourced from another source, and then they use those. Then they might replace that transfer later with a better restoration at a later date. I don't know if they have, though.

I'm just guessing here, anyway.