criterionforum.org

Mentioned in MoC ad in March issue of Sight and Sound, ROBERT FLAHERTY BOX SET Coming Soon... To contain NANOOK OF THE NORTH, MAN OF ARAN & LOUISIANA STORY...

No Moana?! That's the only one of Flaherty's solo projects that is currently unavailable in R1, and I'd be most keen to see someone release it. Is there a problem with the rights?

BTW, where did the O' come from?

Moana is a beautiful film. I like it even better than Nanook. Let's hope MoC can get it too.

Oh! Now no 'O'... MOANA not mentioned in the ad....

ellipsis7 wrote:Oh! Now no 'O'... MOANA not mentioned in the ad.

Beautiful news... the impossible dream would be they slip into UCLA F&TA vaults, look down at the security guardf's feet & say "Dude your shoes untied" & swipe the safety negs of TABU (I know, it's hardly a Flaherty film in truth but like a dope fiend I'll take Murnau however & wherever i can get him) while he's not looking and tiptoe out & do a full blown restoration w full frame hi-def transfer... then slip back in & return them by saying to the guard "Hey dude I think I saw someone wheedling with the padlock on the portable refrigerator holding the Dwain Esper positives for HOW TO UNDRESS IN FRONT OF YOUR HUSBAND & MANIAC.

I'll buy the box, be he Robert O'Flaherty, R. McFlaherty, Jehuda Gluckssplatt-Takahachi or Gloria Cruz... so long as all his films are in newly minted MoC hi-def transfers.

Is it official yet that MoC is a far more exciting place to be in 2006 than Criterion?

Considering how much of Flaherty's (limited) output was in the area of short films, I'm hoping that this box set will provide the opportunity to "mop up" a lot of those films (24 Dollar Island, Industrial Britain, The Land etc.) There should be plenty of room on the individual discs for this material, and if that's already been tagged for extravagant film-specific extras, how about a bonus disc of shorts?

zedz wrote:Is it official yet that MoC is a far more exciting place to be in 2006 than Criterion?

.. I'm hoping that this box set will provide the opportunity to "mop up" a lot of those films (24 Dollar Island, Industrial Britain, The Land etc.) There should be plenty of room on the individual discs for this material, and if that's already been tagged for extravagant film-specific extras, how about a bonus disc of shorts?

I'm with you on the sentiment that, at least as far as 06 is concerned, MoC has a far, F A R more exciting release schedule. CC is just off-rhythm right now... all off. SOmething is definitely not right. They need to drop a couple of ARKADIN-type bombs to get back on track & get everybody all squiggly-warm in the tummy again. Something is obviously up and the recent releases are not generating the uniform global excitement-- and they are not anywhere near Out Of Settled Masterpieces, not by a long shot... this even going by known Janus-library-posessions. Someone say K.o.b.a.y.a.s.h.i? P.a.b.s.t?

Also zedz, just wanted to give you a head's up that the sublime TWENTY-FOUR DOLLAR ISLAND is in the UNSEEN CINEMA box... and if you don't wanta spring for the whole shebang, you can still grab the disc with this film as Image is marketing the PICTURING A METROPOLIS disc seperately, the only one out of the 7 that is being marketed individually in a full-size Amaray (versus the slimmo digipacs of the box). If you love vintage NYC, this disc is orgasmic. Ah... BRONX MORNING. For you, though, zedz, knowing your tastes & sensibilities to some degree via your posts... you should pick up the whole box.

HerrSchreck wrote:Also zedz, just wanted to give you a head's up that the sublime TWENTY-FOUR DOLLAR ISLAND is in the UNSEEN CINEMA box...

Yeah, I've got the Unseen Cinema box (and if you're reading this, so should you!). I just like the idea of consolidating all of these stray Flahertys in one place, and I can't see too many other opportunities to issue those short pottery films.

zedz wrote:

HerrSchreck wrote:Also zedz, just wanted to give you a head's up that the sublime TWENTY-FOUR DOLLAR ISLAND is in the UNSEEN CINEMA box...

Yeah, I've got the Unseen Cinema box (and if you're reading this, so should you!). I just like the idea of consolidating all of these stray Flahertys in one place, and I can't see too many other opportunities to issue those short pottery films.

I could go on forever creaming over BLACK DAWN alone (w IVANO behind the tripod no less!), but I doubt more than 5 people on the site have the box.

Editions Montparnasse in France will release a Flaherty Box in November. Specs:

Coffret 4 DVD Robert Flaherty
Collection Le Geste Cinématographique
Nanouk l'Esquimau (1921)
L'Homme d'Aran (1934)
The Land (1942)
Louisiana Story (1948)
Nombreux compléments : documents inédits (entretiens avec Robert Flaherty, Frances Flaherty, son épouse et sa collaboratrice, le documentaire "Filmer pour voir- Flaherty et la mise en scène documentaire "par Gilles Delavaud et Pierre Baudry
Films restaurés

The Land (1942)

Hmm, this is an interesting inclusion. Based on the lengthy excerpt included on either HVe's Man of Aran or Louisiana Story, and based on what I've read about Flaherty, The Land may rank as Flaherty's weakest feature, but it's nice to know that it's being included somewhere. Still no sign of Moana, though....

The new Montparnasse Box seems to be out now, both amazon.fr and alapage are listing it. But I couldn't find any further information. Does anyone know whether they retained the original titles for "Nanook" and whether the subs are removable for the three sound films?

Is/was MOANA available on a reasonable disc in any region now or at any time? I've got 'NOOK, ARAN, LOUISIANA ST. (the last two constituting sad reminders of how pre-Image HVe were "almost CC... or rather, what Eclipse sounds like it's gonna be"), some shorts, but I've seen neither hide nor hair of this beautiful film on decent home vid.

To the best of my knowledge, Schreck, MOANA has never been released on DVD anywhere -- not even on bootleg discs. I've pestered the folks at Milestone once or twice about releasing this movie, since it's right up their alley. (Would make a nice pairing with SIMBA, even.)

By the way, you should consider picking up Network's recent R2 release of ELEPHANT BOY, which Flaherty co-directed with Zoltan Korda. I've been fairly pleased with the few London Films titles that Network have released over the past year, and ELEPHANT BOY is next in line for me.

ellipsis7 wrote:Mentioned in MoC ad in March issue of Sight and Sound, ROBERT FLAHERTY BOX SET Coming Soon... To contain NANOOK OF THE NORTH, MAN OF ARAN & LOUISIANA STORY...

What happened to the flaherty box set ?
Any upgrades ?

So still no news on this set. I am starting to think that I might have to look into the Editions Montparnasse box. Did anyone ever find out about removable subs and original titles on Nanook?

FSimeoni wrote:So still no news on this set. I am starting to think that I might have to look into the Editions Montparnasse box. Did anyone ever find out about removable subs and original titles on Nanook?

I do not know about the EM box, but if you really do consider purchasing these Flaherty titles, before MoC gets around to them, I think you should look at the HVe releases. Especially Louisiana Story is a very nice presentation of the film. The print used was restored by the Library of Congress, and the disc features a number of interesting and worthwhile extras (amongst them another Flaherty short film The Land, as well as interview/material with Frances Flaherty and cinematographer on the film, Richard Leacock. Really, a nice disc, very affordable, and, of course, the film itself is a must see (and own).

Thanks for the info. I would love to see MoC release these and can wait until around October/November so I think I'll wait for MoC's new catalogue in October. If there's no sign of them there I'll take your advice.

The MoC Flaherty set is on the backburner. We concur with Scharphedin2, the R1 HVE discs of MAN OF ARAN and LOUISIANA STORY are stunning, loaded with extras.

Ah thanks for the info. I think I'll take the Hve discs then!

Scharphedin2 wrote:another Flaherty short film The Land

Actually, at 45 minutes, The Land is a feature-length documentary. HVe simply included an abridged version as an extra. I've never seen the entire thing, but I don't suppose we're really missing much. In its abridged state, The Land strikes me as the weakest of Flaherty's features.

I much agree, I found "On Land" visually not very striking, and - hate to say it - was quite bored even by that short excerpt. The Montparnasse edition has it complete, apparently, but I remember reading somewhere that it only has a French dub there instead of original audio (the other films in the set seem to have the original audio, AFAIK). This rules the Montaparnasse "On Land" out in my opinion, and I would agree with everything said before: both "Man of Aran" and "Louisiana Story" on HVE are stunning discs. For "Nanook" one might perhaps go for the German arte disc, as it's a relatively new disc and has a lot more extras than the Criterion. But I haven't seen it, and honestly am not too displeased with the old CC edition.