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What A Disgrace wrote:I can't help but wonder if spines 67-69 will all be films related by director.

Well, as "Phantom" no longer is #65, I herewith state my plea for "Der brennende Acker", "Phantom" and "Die Finanzen des Großherzogs". Oh, and while I'm at it: any news of the once proposed Lubitsch silents?

I'll throw in a random and likely futile suggestion for Wakamatsu Koji's United Red Army.

I'm starting to thing that this "awful teaser" was only awful in so far as it wasn't true!

Since March, only three new releases - Judex, Nuits Rouges, Vie de Jesus - fit into Nick's date/initial riddle. L'argent, Devil & Daniel Webster, the Sirk and the Pialats do not...

With 2008 fast running out, should we really expect 17 new releases + the lubitsch set, mad detective & phantom??? If so, I need to apply for a night job...

Nick did say they had to push some releases into 2009 in the L'Argent thread.

Andrian Film Revival wrote:I'm starting to thing that this "awful teaser" was only awful in so far as it wasn't true!

After all the recent rubbing up and enthusing about MoC releases (completely justifiably of course) you'd think that after being taken to the glory stroke Nick and co. would have the decency to come over our collective tits and let loose a bit more about what's in store. Even the second letter of each name for chrissakes.

This teaser has become more frustrating than the Bumper Annual of Times cryptic crosswords.

A full page ad in the LFF programme promises that:

2009 will be even busier: five more Pialat films; three by Ichikawa; the 1970s output of Chatnal Akerman; the early silent films of Ernst Lubitsch; Pedro Costa's COLOSSAL YOUTH (2006); Kiyoshi Kurosawa's TOKYO SONATA (2008); films by Godard, Resnais and Jia; more Murnau; and many more.

As I speculated ages ago, the Jia has to be The World - but Godard and Resnais?

foggy eyes wrote:A full page ad in the LFF programme promises that:

2009 will be even busier: five more Pialat films; three by Ichikawa; the 1970s output of Chatnal Akerman; the early silent films of Ernst Lubitsch; Pedro Costa's COLOSSAL YOUTH (2006); Kiyoshi Kurosawa's TOKYO SONATA (2008); films by Godard, Resnais and Jia; more Murnau; and many more.

As I speculated ages ago, the Jia has to be The World - but Godard and Resnais?

Great news about the Akerman as I had my finger on the trigger ready to get the French set. Maybe the new Resnais box set will figure in MoC's plans except for the fact it will probably come with english subs. Hoping for Providence at last on DVD. But the Godard? Maybe it 's a version of the Spanish Dziga Vertov set with english subs?

foggy eyes wrote:A full page ad in the LFF programme promises that:

2009 will be even busier:... three by Ichikawa

This is wonderful. I'll go for Kagi, Enjo, and Seishun. I hope they don't duplicate the two Criterions, but that's possible as they are not available as Region 2 discs. Fingers crossed.

If it's only three films, I'd say they will not duplicate the CCs. Or if they do with one of them, I hope that the three discs will be available individually.

"More Murnau" sounds somewhat cryptic. We know "Phantom" is coming, but if that's the only film, why not name it? So I keep my fingers crossed for something else, too! Worst case scenario of course would be if they just licensed "City Girl" from Fox. And I'd appreciate some details on the Lubitschs,too....

I'm guessing that the Godard will be Les Carabiniers. I don't think it's ever had a UK release and the R1 is nothing to write home about.

2009 promises to be another exciting year. Judging from the ad we are likely to see at least 24 films (as opposed to 18 this year - is this right?) and MANY MORE.... Can we handle it???

I do think that the five Pialat films is a bit too much (was hoping for more work from directors who`s work isn`t yet (or that much) in the collection). I am excited about the Godard, Resnais and Murnau announcement though!

Always excited to see more Jia. I'd be a disappointed if The World was the only release though. More extras and commentary would be appreciated, but the Zeitgeist disc is perfectly passable. Platform is the film I'd most love too see get a better release, but I suppose it, Xiao Wu, and Unknown Pleasures are still under the control of AE.

Also, maybe 24 City?

Shrew wrote:Maybe 24 City?

24 City is soon to be distributed by New Wave Films, so would only become MoC property if they are not planning to release DVDs themselves (as with Ciné lumière and Colossal Youth). It would be great to have a DVD of Useless, but I can't imagine that MoC would plump for that over The World (would be very welcome as an extra of course).

foggy eyes wrote:

Shrew wrote:Maybe 24 City?

24 City is soon to be distributed by New Wave Films, so would only become MoC property if they are not planning to release DVDs themselves

This is a possibility, New Wave are still very new and aren't even handling everything for their current theatrical release Unrelated, their outsourcing doesn't imply they're yet equipped for DVD, though I could be wrong.

tojoed wrote:This is wonderful. I'll go for Kagi, Enjo, and Seishun. I hope they don't duplicate the two Criterions, but that's possible as they are not available as Region 2 discs. Fingers crossed.

As I have already mentioned elsewhere I would be interested in seeing the loose comedic trilogy of Mr. Pu/A Billionaire/Full-Up Train.

Also very interested to see what the films by Godard and Resnais are! What's the consensus on Chantal Akerman - a box set? I would be happy to plump for Jeanne Dielman but can't afford an entire boxset at the moment especially with someone like Akerman, a director I know not what to expect, no matter how great her reputation is.

It’s about time La Ciociara got the proper treatment it deserves instead of the shocking DVDs I’ve seen.

So i’d like to suggest Vittorio De Sica’s La Ciociara (Two Women). You can get it in Italy from Medusa nice picture but no English subs. It would be a great addition to the catalogue.

Some info on the Italian release.

Tommaso wrote:Oh, and while I'm at it: any news of the once proposed Lubitsch silents?

Only confirmed as coming in 2009.

How about Pialat's La Maison Des Bois release by MoC?

The full 5 and a half hour version of Best Intentions (Den Goda Viljan) is released in Scandinavia as a 2 disc set in December. As the full version was shown on Channel 4 once, english subtitles must be readily available.
Could I beg Moc to consider this. I am even willing to donate various vital organs if it lubricates a course of action.

Since we're nearing the end of the year and I assume all the 2008 releases have been announced, I had a look back at this and was surprised but pleased to see how much hadn't come to pass (and how much other stuff had). As far as I can tell, only three releases related to this teaser (the two Franjus and the Dumont), and the forthcoming Jia title (presumably The World) would account for another date and letter.

But none of the other formally announced / released titles (L'Argent, Devil and Daniel Webster, Tokyo Sonata, the Sirk and the Pialats) fit the bill.

As for future releases we know of, P could be for Pialat and A could be for Akerman, but the dates don't add up (unless they're planning to skip Jeanne Dielman), and Ichikawa and Costa aren't represented by letters.

Godard and Resnais could be the G and R, which means the two 'existing' directors might begin with A, L, M, P, R, T or V - narrowing the possibilities to:
Antonioni (Chung Kuo is the only possibility),
Goulding (nothing likely),
Laloux (nothing left),
Lang (nothing fits - Nibelungen is 1924, but it was already announced),
Lanzmann (a couple of possible matches, but this seems extremely unlikely),
Matsumoto (Shura would be a MoC shoo-in, but it doesn't match a date - War of the 16 year Olds does, but seems a real outside chance),
May (nothing likely),
Maysles (several possible matches, but nothing that seems likely),
Melville (L'Aine des ferchaux),
Mizoguchi (alas no),
Murnau (Finances of the Grand Duke is the only possibility),
Pabst (Kameradschaft or L'Atlantide),
Teshigahara (just Rikyu)
Visconti (Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa is most likely)

And assuming that R is not for Resnais:
Nick Ray (55 Days at Peking? - surely not)
Satyajit Ray(Distant Thunder seems to be the only contender)
Renoir (La Chienne and La nuit de Carrefour? - yes please!)
Rossellini (Acts of the Apostles or Age of the Medici?)

(My money would be on Visconti and Melville)

The unspoken for dates and letters are:
1924, 1931, 1932, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1976, 1978, 1989, 1992, 1994, 1997, 1998.

A, (G), L, M, M, P, (R), T, V

Un Flic is out on Optimum in R2

Thanks for the compilation work, zedz, even though it hasn't led to much of a solution!

I think somebody suggested this before, but could 1992, 1994, 1997, 1998 be a run of Tsai films? All four are crying out for better releases that the R1 discs, and it's unlikely that anybody else has UK distribution rights. (Although would the BFI still have The River?) With Jia and To now in the collection, surely Tsai is a very likely candidate.

Ok - some things didn't come to fruition in 2008, but others did unexpectedly, for various reasons -- the nature of the job -- but they're all still being worked on.

Probably best to let the original March 2008 teaser rest in peace now. I'll try and work out a more accurate one or something else less tedious for 2009...

Right now: we've finished L'ARGENT, and are working on TOKYO SONATA for theatrical release in January; a new 2009 MoC Catalogue; and around 10 releases for Feb/Mar/April/May 2009. We'll be announcing the February titles at the end of November. The March titles right before Xmas, the April titles by the end of January, and so on... if all goes to plan.

peerpee wrote: -- but they're all still being worked on.

This is very good to know!

Anyway, if you keep getting 'distracted' by the kind of projects you've been turning out in their stead I don't think anybody's going to complain. A great year's work!

domino harvey wrote:Un Flic is out on Optimum in R2

Noted and corrected. Thanks.

Is it viable to consider that MoC might ever consider doing anything with Griffith?

Zazou dans le Metro wrote:The full 5 and a half hour version of Best Intentions (Den Goda Viljan) is released in Scandinavia as a 2 disc set in December. As the full version was shown on Channel 4 once, english subtitles must be readily available.
Could I beg Moc to consider this. I am even willing to donate various vital organs if it lubricates a course of action.

Unfortunately it's not quite as simple as that as copyright in the subtitles rests both with the source film and its writer/director and the subtitler/translator for Channel 4 who created a new version from the old as it were...