Eclipse Random Speculation

News on Criterion and Janus Films.
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Michael Kerpan
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#776 Post by Michael Kerpan » Sat May 17, 2008 11:25 pm

It seems that most of what was written in the past (in English) about Naruse's work during 1936-1950 was based not on a study of the films themselves but simply on a re-cycling of whatever secondary sources were handy.

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Cinephrenic
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#777 Post by Cinephrenic » Sun May 18, 2008 4:44 pm

How about a Francesco Rosi set with Lucky Luciano, The Mattei Affair, Illustrious Corpes, The Moment of Truth? Seems possible rights-wise.

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Awesome Welles
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#778 Post by Awesome Welles » Sun May 18, 2008 4:56 pm

As much as I would LOVE to see that, it would be great to see those on the main line, especially The Mattei Affair. Who owns Elio Petri's films? I was thinking it would be great to have a Volonté Eclipse set, though of course I'd like to see Petri in the main line also. But beggars can't be choosers.

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Blonde Venus
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#779 Post by Blonde Venus » Wed May 21, 2008 9:29 am

A beginners question for Eclipse:

Is the picture and sound quality as good as the usual Criterion releases? So do they put in "less effort"? If I may be so crude.

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HerrSchreck
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#780 Post by HerrSchreck » Wed May 21, 2008 9:49 am

Read this thread from the beginning, and check www.dvdbeaver.com for any of the titles you're interested in.

MuzikJunky
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#781 Post by MuzikJunky » Thu May 22, 2008 3:28 pm

I'd be down for a Kiyoshi Kurosawa box. That director is a genius. Peace.

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#782 Post by stalker_ozu » Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:24 pm

I will be happy if they release a Eclipse Boxset called "Japanese Cinema of the 30s" containing THE ONLY SON (Ozu), Sisters of Gion (Mizoguchi) Osaka Elegy (Mizoguchi)

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HerrSchreck
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#783 Post by HerrSchreck » Mon Jun 02, 2008 5:18 pm

No Japanese 30's retro would be worth its weight in confetti without Yamanaka... save if a seperate box for Yama came out on its own.

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Cinephrenic
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#784 Post by Cinephrenic » Mon Jun 02, 2008 5:26 pm

Criterion owns a lot of Shimizu, Heinosuke Gosha and other early Japanese masters, it would make sense.

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Michael Kerpan
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#785 Post by Michael Kerpan » Mon Jun 02, 2008 7:46 pm

Gosha is different from (Heinosuke) Gosho -- who was Ozu's contemporary.

1930s Shimazu, Shimizu, (early) Naruse, Gosho -- all this was released by Shochiku Studios.

Yamanaka's work was released by Nikkastsu (except for Humanity and Paper Balloons). I think Uchida was also at Nikkatsu.

Mizoguchi was a floater -- and worked for just about every studio (except Toho) at some point.

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#786 Post by sidehacker » Mon Jun 02, 2008 8:13 pm

Hopefully, if they do release something from Shimizu it'll be something that Shochiku isn't planning for their ongoing boxset series. We really need some Heinosuke Gosho, though. Do anyone of his films even have non-English friendly R2 discs?

I'm not optimistic that a "Silent Japan" boxset will come out anytime soon, though. So far, each Eclipse release has been built around one director, as opposed to a movement, or genre.

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geoffcowgill
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#787 Post by geoffcowgill » Mon Jun 02, 2008 8:32 pm

I don't know what rights issues are like for some of these, but an "Early Hawks" set consisting of Trent's Last Case, The Dawn Patrol, The Criminal Code and Tiger Shark would be pretty fantastic. The Lubitsch Musicals set makes me optimistic for more early 30s Hollywood bunches, and we're unlikely to get a studio set of Hawks like Ford's due to Hawks' bouncing from one studio to another.

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domino harvey
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#788 Post by domino harvey » Mon Jun 02, 2008 8:35 pm

Who controls Tiger Shark? I can see it being penciled into a WB Gangsters set due to Robinson

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#789 Post by What A Disgrace » Mon Jun 02, 2008 9:00 pm

geoffcowgill wrote:The Lubitsch Musicals set makes me optimistic for more early 30s Hollywood bunches, and we're unlikely to get a studio set of Hawks like Ford's due to Hawks' bouncing from one studio to another.
Wouldn't mind seeing a set of early films by Leo McCarrey.

I love the man's work, but apparently I've been missing his two very best films (Red Gap and Make Way for Tomorrow).

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Michael Kerpan
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#790 Post by Michael Kerpan » Tue Jun 03, 2008 12:09 am

Not much Gosho out of DVD -- even in Japan. The release I know about is "Where Chimneys Are Seen" (which, happily, is one of his best --m no subs, of course). A lot of his films were released on video, but these videos are all out of print by now.

Surely he deserves at least one box set -- but then so do people like Uchida and Imai (even more, in my opinion).

Shochiku is releasing its first Shimazu film this month -- Our Neighbor Miss Yae. A box set of his work would be nice too.

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#791 Post by Cinephrenic » Tue Jun 03, 2008 1:08 am

Along with Naruse, Ozu and Mizoguchi, Janus has the rights to the following early Japanese films:

Shimizu: Japanese Girls at the Harbor, Mr. Thank You
Shimazu: Our Neighbor Miss Yae
Gosha: The Neighbor's Wife and Mine

Would make a nice Taisho Chic box set.

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#792 Post by sidehacker » Tue Jun 03, 2008 10:14 am

Michael Kerpan wrote:Not much Gosho out of DVD -- even in Japan. The release I know about is "Where Chimneys Are Seen" (which, happily, is one of his best --m no subs, of course). A lot of his films were released on video, but these videos are all out of print by now.
Do you have these out of print videos? Perhaps some old TV broadcasts?

Speaking of which, Shimizu's Undying Pearl (which I obtained via a TV broadcast) seems to be in very good condition. I'd imagine that it wouldn't be too difficult for some company to clean this up. It would be a surprise if Criterion introduced Shimizu (or any director for that matter) with a silent film, though.

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#793 Post by Perkins Cobb » Tue Jun 03, 2008 12:42 pm

It is interesting that we're more than a year in and so far they've stuck exclusively to single-director box sets, despite the initial indication that there would also be themed Eclipses (French New Wave miscellany and Japanese samurai were the examples I recall, although I can't remember if those were just forum guesses or actually floated by Criterion).

You'd think they'd have trotted one of those out by now if they were going to; it'd be a big changeup if the first one that's not auteur-driven is Eclipse 14 or 15.

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#794 Post by dadaistnun » Tue Jun 03, 2008 2:46 pm

I think someone else may have speculated this back around the time of his death, but I wonder if a Robbe-Grillet set could be in the cards? As was pointed out in the International DVD section, there are Italian discs of three films coming out this summer, and prints of his first four films are playing in Toronto and NYC.

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Cinephrenic
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#795 Post by Cinephrenic » Mon Jun 09, 2008 1:52 am

Perkins Cobb wrote:It is interesting that we're more than a year in and so far they've stuck exclusively to single-director box sets, despite the initial indication that there would also be themed Eclipses (French New Wave miscellany and Japanese samurai were the examples I recall, although I can't remember if those were just forum guesses or actually floated by Criterion).

You'd think they'd have trotted one of those out by now if they were going to; it'd be a big changeup if the first one that's not auteur-driven is Eclipse 14 or 15.
Criterion mentioned they would focus on directors at the moment and cashiers du cinema said that they plan to release themed sets later on, such as the samurai or Nouvelle Vague.

I think Criterion should release a Cinema Nova set. There is hardly any of these in the market.

Cinema Nova
Antonio das Mortes (Rocha, 1969)
Anguished Land (Rocha, 1967)
Black God, White Devil (Rocha, 1964)
Vidas Secas (Nelson Pereira dos Santos, 1963)
Macunaíma (Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, 1969)

...and maybe some Carlos Diegues.

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#796 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Mon Jun 09, 2008 2:19 am

Macunaíma is a confirmed Criterion, although I suppose it could end up with Eclipse.

I would like to see some Situationist/crypto-Situationist films from Eclipse -- Gaumont released a box set of Guy Debord's films a few years back (with no English subs) and there's been talk of René Viénet getting similar DVD treatment. Of course, there are copyright issues to consider (especially with the Viénets) and these could definitely benefit from the contextualizing an extras-laden Criterion release could provide, but they do fit in with Eclipse's mission.

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tryavna
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#797 Post by tryavna » Mon Jun 09, 2008 3:47 pm

Cinephrenic wrote:Black God, White Devil (Rocha, 1964)
My understanding is that Koch Lorber owns the rights to this one -- and must be storing them in the same drawer where they keep Los Olvidados languishing.

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#798 Post by toiletduck! » Mon Jun 09, 2008 4:54 pm

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:I would like to see some Situationist/crypto-Situationist films from Eclipse -- Gaumont released a box set of Guy Debord's films a few years back (with no English subs) and there's been talk of René Viénet getting similar DVD treatment. Of course, there are copyright issues to consider (especially with the Viénets) and these could definitely benefit from the contextualizing an extras-laden Criterion release could provide, but they do fit in with Eclipse's mission.
A box of Debord would rock my world, and a very corrupt part of me would prefer to see it released without contextual extras, just to see the reaction.

-Toilet Dcuk

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Gregory
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#799 Post by Gregory » Mon Jun 09, 2008 5:19 pm

Vidas Secas is out on DVD from New Yorker, but I agree that they could do a Cinema Novo set. The number of landmark Latin American films, from the 1960s and '70s in particular, that have still not been released on DVD is a real crime, but this is hardly surprising by now. Many of them end up getting distributed on DVD only institutionally, with poor transfers and no supplementary material, but they are really deserving of more widespread appreciation.

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zedz
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#800 Post by zedz » Mon Jun 09, 2008 6:44 pm

I rewatched Story Written with Water last night and imagined a five-disc "Incest and the Japanese New Wave" Eclipse set:
A Story Written with Water (Yoshida)
The Profound Desire of the Gods (Imamura)
Inferno of First Love (Hani)
The Ceremony (Oshima)
Mujo (Jissoji)

Beat that!

It'll never happen, of course (imagine trying to market that particular concept), but all of those titles are theoretically available to Criterion in acceptable transfers.

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