Cohen Film Collection

[beamish14]

On the Yard is a must-buy. I’m so glad they’re handling the works of Joan Micklin Silver and Raphael Silver. Maybe their daughter Marisa’s film Old Enough is on the docket as well

[therewillbeblus]

I recently watched Chilly Scenes of Winter and found it uniquely naked in its willingness to be honest about an oft-depicted narrative that's typically glamorized in a psychologically protective manner, whereby the protagonist reflexively engages in his own non-pathetic fantasy of being a cool protagonist in a romantic story. Heard and Silver go for an authentic portrait, and it rides a subtle range of tones within that wheelhouse. It's funny and it gently stings in all the right places. If On the Yard or any of their other works are anywhere near on par with that, feed me recs please

[Quote Perf Unquote]

I recently watched Chilly Scenes of Winter and found it uniquely naked in its willingness to be honest about an oft-depicted narrative that's typically glamorized in a psychologically protective manner, whereby the protagonist reflexively engages in his own non-pathetic fantasy of being a cool protagonist in a romantic story. Heard and Silver go for an authentic portrait, and it rides a subtle range of tones within that wheelhouse. It's funny and it gently stings in all the right places. If On the Yard or any of their other works are anywhere near on par with that, feed me recs please

I'd say "Chilly Scenes" is their best, their most beguiling and troubling, and most complex despite its concentrated chamber-like focus. It's less of a recreative project like "Hester Street" or an Altman-esque tapestry like "Between the Lines." The latter is an excellent grimy antidote to the hero-making of other journalism films, though I guess being less plot-driven than those, that really wasn't its intention anyway. Just a great collection of characters in a milieu that stopped existing in any meaningful way about ten years ago. "On the Yard" is a very low-key prison film, somewhat akin to Young's "Short Eyes" but even milder, which if not what we think of as accurate to prison life at least it's refreshing or confounding. Heard is again excellent.

[dwk]

Ugh, Cohen has bough HanWay Films.

[DeprongMori]

Ugh, Cohen has bough HanWay Films.

I hope this doesn't bode ill for any of Criterion’s current licensing for Wenders, Cronenberg, Weir, Oshima, Frears, Roeg, Terence Davies, etc. I’m guessing it will affect future licensing on many other great films. Does Criterion have any history of licensing from Cohen?

[dwk]

I hope this doesn't bode ill for any of Criterion’s current licensing for Wenders, Cronenberg, Weir, Oshima, Frears, Roeg, Terence Davies, etc. I’m guessing it will affect future licensing on many other great films. Does Criterion have any history of licensing from Cohen?

I think Faces Places in the Varda set is the only one.

[ryannichols7]

exactly, this isn't quite the same as Shout buying Westchester. Criterion and Shout work together plenty, but Cohen isn't exactly nice to them. the Hanway titles are some big ones, taking a license hit there would be painful

[FrauBlucher]

Ugh indeed. I was hoping eventually Haynes's Carol would end up with Criterion. Maybe Kino will have a bigger hand in releasing the blu-rays. But my expectations for Cohen getting a lot of these out on bluray are not high. I suspect this is more for their streaming service.

I don't think there is a good relationship between the Cohen and Criterion. City of Women being left out of the Fellini box could be an indication of that. As for Faces Places Agnes Varda was still alive when the box was being worked on. Perhaps she had something to do with Cohen licensing to CC.

[domino harvey]

Ugh?

[FrauBlucher]

I think it’s the disappointment of Cohen slow walking their releases if they get released at all. Their potential was greater than their output has been. But maybe through Kino that will be rectified. And also, what what does this mean for the HanWay films Criterion already have?

[dwk]

Also, I've seen people reporting that some of Cohen's releases have pretty lousy subtitles. (plus the guy that owns the company is a billionaire asshole, but that is a different issue.)

[therewillbeblus]

On the Yard is a must-buy.

"On the Yard" is a very low-key prison film, somewhat akin to Young's "Short Eyes" but even milder, which if not what we think of as accurate to prison life at least it's refreshing or confounding. Heard is again excellent.

I really liked this as well- it's certainly restrained but feels like a realist take on the more fantastically-drawn prison exploitation films of the earlier 70s. There are the conspiring guards and theatrical elements, but everything is pared back and emotions are allowed to exist in omissions, since they're often hidden beneath the surfaces we can examine from a humble position. This isn't a hand-holding exercise with melodramatic stakes and surrogate involvement, and if we're wanting more of Heard's back story and personality, that seems entirely the point. He's so clearly a carefully drawn character with a rich background known to Heard and the filmmakers that we only get a glimpse of, and I was captivated by his presence whenever he's on screen. Everyone else is good too, but the film is loose and a bit directionless by design; the details more significant or interesting to the filmmaker than the core narrative of the kingpin's power being disrupted etc. I didn't love it, but I'm not sure it's working towards the adoration earned from large payoffs. As a slice of life with vivid textures in place of cheap contrivances that may serve some great narrative purpose but detract from the purpose of the film, this is a winner.

[therewillbeblus]

Looking to pick up some Cohen titles for the Kino site sale, and would love some recs. Also, I recall there being some contention around which version of Dementia is compromised between the Cohen or BFI- or am I misremembering?

[swo17]

Apparently both the Cohen and BFI releases have some cut footage and you need the old Kino DVD for the complete version of the film

[DeprongMori]

Apparently both the Cohen and BFI releases have some cut footage and you need the old Kino DVD for the complete version of the film

Fortunately, I was able to snag a copy of the OOP Kino DVD shortly after reading about the problems with my BFI Blu-ray (and the Cohen) release of Dementia.

[justeleblanc]

I don't think there is a good relationship between the Cohen and Criterion. City of Women being left out of the Fellini box could be an indication of that. As for Faces Places Agnes Varda was still alive when the box was being worked on. Perhaps she had something to do with Cohen licensing to CC.

I'm thinking it's more likely that Criterion saw the Varda as a "completist" boxset (like Bergman and Tati) and was therefore willing to make the effort to license Faces Places from Cohen. Whereas the Fellini box was more of a "here's the stuff we own, which contains the famous titles and a few others" (like the WKW and Demy boxes) and so it didn't justify trying to get some of the later titles that aren't as famous.

[dwk]

Apparently Lee Kline said the Fellini set was a real difficult project. No doubt it was due to so many different licensors. In fact, I wonder if the struggle to get the Fellini box put together has scared them away from attempting any big career spanning boxes.

[FrauBlucher]

I don't think there is a good relationship between the Cohen and Criterion. City of Women being left out of the Fellini box could be an indication of that. As for Faces Places Agnes Varda was still alive when the box was being worked on. Perhaps she had something to do with Cohen licensing to CC.

I'm thinking it's more likely that Criterion saw the Varda as a "completist" boxset (like Bergman and Tati) and was therefore willing to make the effort to license Faces Places from Cohen. Whereas the Fellini box was more of a "here's the stuff we own, which contains the famous titles and a few others" (like the WKW and Demy boxes) and so it didn't justify trying to get some of the later titles that aren't as famous.

I have to believe that City of Women would've been in the Fellini box if they had access to it. It wasn't a critics fave but it's a big name title of his late works. It's not an obscure film, the film opened in 80 theaters throughout Italy. Cohen had to play hardball with CC and there is no Fellini estate to push Cohen. Just my two cents

[Roger Ryan]

Cohen did allow Criterion to stream City Of Women on the Channel for a time.

[Finch]

Cohen's next Fairbanks silent bundle dated Oct 17 is Three Musketeers and The Iron Mask, the latter of which was scanned at 21fps at Jeffrey Vance's suggestion.

[What A Disgrace]

Wonderful news. I wonder if the two Zorro films are next.

[Tuco]

The Iron Mask was shown at the most recent San Francisco Silent Film Festival. It looked close to spectacular, and the audience was captivated.

[What A Disgrace]

Besides the Zorro films, an obvious double feature, there's also The Gaucho, which I have long been fascinated with because I read the synopsis and whoa.