With the BFI releasing Jour de Fete and Mon Oncle in October, I wouldn't be surprised to see Criterion upgrade their Tati's by the end of the year.

Hmm, according to the Studio Canal thread below, Criterion's rights for the Tatis are about to go adieu.

...maybe not quite yet.
Truth is we don't know length of their current contracts on those Tatis ...or for that matter, on a couple of others like Last Year at Marienbad, Mafioso, Native Land, as well as five of the in print Melvilles. This likely explains the rush to release Leon Morin and upgrade Army of Shadows and Le cercle rouge to blu within the span of a single year. The best case scenario would be for them to do the same with releases of Jour de fete and Parade, as well as the upgrades of Hulot's Holiday and Mon Oncle.

I never thought about how intense a crunch it was with all those Melvilles at the same time. It was welcome, but also pretty intense. Still, I wonder if they plan on getting to Le Samourai any time soon. It's a separate license, isn't it?

I believe that Le Samouri is coming. Proof:

That's great. That gives me shivers.

I really hope they upgrade Le Samurai and Brazil in 2012, they are my most anticipated Criterion upgrades!

Barring a L'Enfance Nue cock-up, Crit's Le Samourai BD will banish lingering memories of Pathe's shoddy French disc.

Re: Jon giving direct responses
Remember the brief era of Tamara who would tell you damn near anything?

Yeah, that thing is a nightmare. Since it's the only blu-ray of the film I know of, it's a persistent nightmare. If Criterion throws it's hat into the ring the Pathe disc will just creep away into legend.

People trashed the non-US releases of The 39 Steps and Welt am Draht in the past, which were both considered poor, and then kept their mouth shut when the Criterions didn't exactly deliver too much more.

Who did that? Who are you talking about? Criterion's 39 Steps is from the same source as the ITV, so a lot of the print damage is the same, but it's double the bitrate and a significantly better transfer overall. Tooze thought the French blu of World on a Wire was fantastic for a 16mm source.

At any rate, the current Le Samourai blu is shitty because it's absurdly over DNR'd, not because of weak source material, and there's no reason to think Criterion would repeat that mistake (nor a conspiracy to claim that Criterion's great when it's awful.)

The big difference/improvement between the Welt Am Draht discs is that the French disc had most of the grain sucked out of it, and Criterion's did not. Don't recall reading any complaints about Criterion's version, aside from yours (TMDaines).

In both cases Criterion delivered far superior picture quality as compared to the previous editions. Not sure if you've seen captures of the Le Samourai Pathe disc, but Criterion could hardly fail to improve upon it. There's a lot of sharpness and detail in Le Samourai that could emerge in a well-done blu-ray edition.

I've only seen the Beaver screencaps of the French World on a Wire, but it looked like a complete disaster due to excessive filtering and processing, to the point where basic visual information was scrambled (even to the extent of objects behind characters being grafted to their skin). Criterion's transfer simply looks like it comes from an extremely grainy 16mm source. Which it does.

I'm going to abuse the random part of the header right now, but is it safe to assume that Criterion will never in a million years release any of the films Donald Richie directed even the ones in that Japanese set?

November predictions:

Foreign Correspondent (BD & DVD)
Pasolini's Trilogy of Life (BD & DVD)
On the Waterfront (BD & DVD)
Red River (BD & DVD)
Wild Strawberries (BD upgrade)
Y tu mamá también (BD & DVD)

Hoping for that Wenders box set, and maybe City Lights.

Heaven's Gate
Looking For Mr Goodbar (wishful thinking)
Foreign Correspondent
Le Samourai
On The Waterfront

I can't imagine any of those experimental shorts ending up on a Criterion release (unless there's some strong connection to a more marketable director that I'm missing, and one of them gets stuck on as an extra). An essay film like The Inland Sea might be more of a possibility, though it's technically not directed by Richie, but again, it's more like an extra and I don't recall it having a particularly strong connection to any one film or filmmaker.

November predictions:

Brazil Bluray
Spartacus bluray
On the Waterfront
Trilogy of Life
Eraserhead
Mulhulland Dr.
Heavens Gate
Pina
etaix eclipse

a good chunk of that will probably be in December, maybe the lynch films or the Trilogy of Life. Wenders is still rumored to be coming too...

I get the feeling they're going to tease us more on Eraserhead, and as I recall there isn't really any evidence for Mullholland Dr. It's pretty short after the clue for Heaven's Gate, too.

If Criterion releases Pina, that'd be interesting- it really does require the 3d to be of any value, and I'd be very interested to see how Criterion would handle a 3d blu.

That's what I thought. At least there's hope that his Kurosawa film might be released on Madadayo.

If my intel is right, they're going to announce an Eclipse that contains some surprises but also delivers on a very long-delayed title.

Eclipse 37: Here's Rivette Already You Annoying Fucks.