Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

[ryannichols7]

it's time for this month's Speculation Roundup* everyone! my first month taking over for Minkin was certainly full of surprises and indeed - four is the magic number for December. after our long boxset drought of 2022, we will now get four in three months to close the year. can anyone name the last time we saw two announced boxes in one month?

Cooley High - confirmed via NYT article, every single person guessed this in the speculation thread.

The Velvet Underground - first Apple title; confirmed by Todd Haynes at multiple events

Three Films by Mai Zetterling - only murmurs of Zetterling seeing releases, though mostly just Flickorna, amazingly a box of all three! we can count this as a surprise!

Michael Haneke: Trilogy - all films are on the Criterion Channel with Janus logos; long running stream of Haneke releases we know Criterion has the rights to, impressively a box!

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I will have the OOP and upgrade lists available for my year end recap, noted below. since there were no upgrades at all I'm sure this is okay.

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apologies for the slight delay in this post, I meant to have it out quicker but I had to go in and count the OOP titles and upgrades myself. since this is the first and only Roundup for 2021 titles, I will go back and make a retroactive post covering the previous months in the near future, as well as a total for the year in terms of upgrades, UHD upgrades, etc. I have not gotten to count (by hand, as you can't filter it!) the number of spines awaiting upgrades ans also fully out of print titles that remain, but I will for my year end roundup. I hope there is some interest in such a topic!

I am bringing back the Roundup champion and admittedly, not a single person guessed a second title besides Cooley High, which all of us guessed. we did have two members guess titles, in previous months:

bressonaire guessed Flickorna and "something left field, along the lines of Painleve", which is filled by the avant garde films on The Velvet Underground, but it is bressonaire, so...

tolbs1010 guessed The Seventh Continent in August, bravo!

hopefully we can all have better luck next round.

*-I will be calling it the "Speculation Roundup", as I think "Speculation Rodeo" is definitely Minkin's thing and if she returns to doing this, that name is all hers. plus, I really like Miklós Jancsó, who will probably never see a Criterion release. until next month!

[Finch]

Thank you for doing the speculation roundup/rodeo in minkin's stead, ryan; I've enjoyed and missed those.

[FrauBlucher]

Domino gave it a gallant attempt but in the end he is no Minkin

[domino harvey]

I never had the necessary investment required to do it justice. I think we can all agree ryannichols7 nailed it and secured his position out of the gate

[tolbs1010]

...we did have two members guess titles, in previous months:

bressonaire guessed Flickorna and "something left field, along the lines of Painleve", which is filled by the avant garde films on The Velvet Underground, but it is bressonaire, so...

tolbs1010 guessed The Seventh Continent in August, bravo!

Cool to receive partial credit for my previous month's guess. Thank you for saving me from a pathetic tooting of my own horn, ryannichols7. Glad you're running and funning with this thread going forward.

I don't think I'll be buying that Haneke set. All of those films are effective and still relevant, but I can't see myself re-watching any of them.

[jbeall]

So, are these three film, single spine# titles the new version of Eclipse sets?

[cdnchris]

That's how I'm seeing them. If that's the route they're going I'm all for it.

[swo17]

Agreed

[Kracker]

I can’t imagine there’s much motivation in them producing DVD-only sets anymore.

[dwk]

I just noticed that the two box sets are at the old box set MSRP of $79.95 instead of the now usual $99.95 MSRP

[Stefan Andersson]

Re: The Rules of the Game and the new UHD restoration co-financed by Criterion -- does Criterion have world rights outside France? Les Grands Films Classiques released the UHD resto in France recently, accompanied by a regular Bluray featuring an older restoration. I´m not UHD-equipped, so a Bluray release from Criterion UK with the new restoration would be attractive. Or is UK rights still with the BFI?

French review with screenshots:
https://digitalcine.fr/4k-bluray-dvd/te ... jeu-en-4k/

[ryannichols7]

Thank you for doing the speculation roundup/rodeo in minkin's stead, ryan; I've enjoyed and missed those.

I never had the necessary investment required to do it justice. I think we can all agree ryannichols7 nailed it and secured his position out of the gate

thank you guys very much, I enjoyed Minkin's posts a lot and missed them enough to take on the task. I am currently working on the herculean task of rounding up all previous months (I'll spoiler tag the various months so it doesn't take up a whole page, don't worry) between February 2021 and now, as Minkin's final one to date was for the January '21 titles. this forum is basically the best document/archive of this sort of thing, and I find a lot of the stuff really fascinating. I will say you will see a lot more "complete surprise" stuff compared to Minkin's roundups, since we don't have the Jason Polan hints anymore among others. so to differentiate my comments, I am going to notate when its Criterion maintaining a relationship with a respective licensor/studio or director. I think that sort of thing could be good to look at, and maybe if I look at Chris' database closely I can say "this is their ___th MGM license" or "penultimate upgrade of a Paramount DVD-only title, only White Dog remains" (which is actually on there, The Furies being the title in question)

Domino gave it a gallant attempt but in the end he is no Minkin

I'm no Minkin either! no one can replace her energy, wit, and flourishes she added to these roundups. it was a tough balance between taking an established format and doing my own thing without encroaching on hers. I couldn't bring myself to think of a creative closeout comment/youtube, but I did want to throw in the Jancso tribute.

Cool to receive partial credit for my previous month's guess. Thank you for saving me from a pathetic tooting of my own horn, ryannichols7. Glad you're running and funning with this thread going forward.

I don't think I'll be buying that Haneke set. All of those films are effective and still relevant, but I can't see myself re-watching any of them.

thank you! I'm glad you saw it, with the thread locked I wasn't able to fully quote your post so it could show up in the notifications (I could do it manually, but the "time=" entry was impossible to figure out). it was a great guess and I had to reward somebody my first goaround. I hope to make this a fun read for all members

I think it's safe for me to share my own thoughts on the releases now. I agree with you on Haneke, but he's one of my least favorite directors. his style and mine do not mix at all, though I really do enjoy Code Unknown and Cache, though feel Juliette Binoche has a lot to do with that (I love Huppert too but Piano Teacher was not in any way for me). it's cool its getting a release and I'm glad they're still working with him, because even if I'm not a fan that's still the kind of thing that needs rescuing and should have good disc releases. I know many have made concerns about lack of new transfers and whatnot, but it seems to me that's by design.

So, are these three film, single spine# titles the new version of Eclipse sets?

That's how I'm seeing them. If that's the route they're going I'm all for it.

I just noticed that the two box sets are at the old box set MSRP of $79.95 instead of the now usual $99.95 MSRP

if 2023 is the year of the slimmed down $79.99 boxset with some extras versus none, I'm all in. I'm sure they'll reach one where I'll bitch about not having essays for each film, or lack of commentaries (I still remain disappointed only one Koker film got one, all three are ripe) or whatnot, but this is a positive step forward and much better than them just sitting on these or uploading new transfers to the channel but not upgrading discs (Il Posto in 2023, please!)

the amount of films by Ozu, Kinoshita, Ichikawa, Itami, Kazuo Hara, etc that they're sitting on is wild, and I'm sure I'm blanking on European directors where this is the case too. I just hope they don't forget about the Kinyuo Tanaka and Eric Rohmer boxsets, and reconsider a Marta Meszaros one (though Adoption is definitely standalone worthy, great release)

this post sat in an open tab for days, thought I submitted it. sorry everyone!

[yoloswegmaster]

All of the Ishiro Honda films that were newly added to the Criterion Channel this morning have the Criterion and Janus logos at the start of them.

[knives]

Is it too much to hope for one of his pre Godzilla films?

[yoloswegmaster]

Is it too much to hope for one of his pre Godzilla films?

I would love to see a boxset featuring the non-Godzilla Kaiju films that he had directed. This all depends on if Toho are willing to play ball and have new restored masters ready to go.

[dwk]

All of the Ishiro Honda films that were newly added to the Criterion Channel this morning have the Criterion and Janus logos at the start of them.

According to a post over at the Blu-ray.com forum Jim Cirronella (I think he assisted on Criterion's Godzilla set and on the Night of the Living Dead Blu-ray) said that Criterion has more Toho sci-fi stuff than the titles recently added to the Criterion Channel.

Obvious the main issue with these titles is getting Toho to let them have access to the new masters, so who knows when, if ever, they will get released on Blu-ray.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Can anyone speak about the issues with Toho? It strikes me as so bizarre about how protective they are of their catalog and their restorations. In my mind, the Toho catalog was a foundational aspect of Criterion's catalog stretching back to the laserdisc day. Criterion has clearly shifted their focus on the types of titles they release especially in regards to Japanese cinema (or lack of it in comparison to fifteen years ago), but so many of these Toho titles are just languishing. I'm surprised essential Akira Kurosawa like Drunken Angel and Stray Dog have yet to make it to HD.

[yoloswegmaster]

It's been said that the region code is the main issue with Toho. Japanese discs are Region A and they want the Japanese customers to be buying from them instead of importing other Region A releases that could be seen as being superior to the Toho release. It doesn't help that they have been overly protective of the Godzilla franchise, which leads to releases like the Godzilla boxset being lackluster since they aren't letting Criterion use newer transfers or add more English dub tracks. There's a reason why none of the other labels are licensing titles from Toho.

[FrauBlucher]

At some point I expect CC to release at one of the Shakepeares in UHD. Has the Olivier Shakepeares gone through restorations?

[hearthesilence]

At some point I expect CC to release at one of the Shakepeares in UHD. Has the Olivier Shakepeares gone through restorations?

In terms of UHD, IIRC the only one suited for it at the moment is Richard III (shot on VistaVision) and it should look AMAZING. One catch - they didn't recover the OCN for the stuff that was cut out when they prepared the film for TV broadcast, so those parts look noticeably worse. (Unless they've found the OCN for those parts since they premiered the restoration at the NYFF - Scorsese told the audience they were still looking.)

[yoloswegmaster]

Alongside Europa, the page for The Element of Crime has been updated. I could see these 2 films being released in a boxset that also has Epidemic, though I selfishly hope this isn't the case since I really only want Europa.

[ryannichols7]

did they hear the complaints for more boxsets? I didn't have a Lars Von Trier box on my bingo card to kick off 2023

also, if anyone cares...I will be a little late on my speculation roundup today - likely won't be till early evening EST. but I'll be watching for the announcements on my phone!

[justeleblanc]

An E Trilogy box would be nice, but Five Obstructions would have been nicer. Not sure where those rights are.

[Omensetter]

If this Von Trier trilogy is due to be released, it seems more likely they'd be packaged like December's Zetterling and Haneke releases.

[swo17]

I don't see special features posted for any of the new announcements besides von Trier