Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

[Adam X]

While I’m immensely happy for a forthcoming Flowers of Shanghai, it’s a shame The Hourglass Sanatorium wasn’t attributed to anyone. Hopefully that’ll change.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

KL mentions on Twitter that The Killer and Hard Boiled are with another studio that will likely release on blu-ray not on 4K

I do think all those major works by John Woo from A Better Tomorrow to until he left Hong Kong are with Fortune Star except for Hard Boiled and maybe Once A Thief, which Sony previously released. Who owns the rights to Hard Boiled currently?

Bullet in the Head is my absolute favorite John Woo film. I've seen it numerous times, but I saw it with an audience for the first time last Fall and it was fascinating to see an audience expect a 100% campy, action film to only hear them cry during the third act. Jacky Cheung as an actor can often bother me, but I find him suitable here as I do in Wong Kar Wai's As Tears Go By. John Woo introduced the film and sadly confirmed that the original cut and all the footage from it has all been destroyed, so there's very little chance of getting an alternate version other than the VHS sourced festival cut. Is there much history behind the rumored Criterion laserdisc of this back in the day?

[yoloswegmaster]

I do think all those major works by John Woo from A Better Tomorrow to until he left Hong Kong are with Fortune Star except for Hard Boiled and maybe Once A Thief, which Sony previously released. Who owns the rights to Hard Boiled currently?

Bullet in the Head is my absolute favorite John Woo film. I've seen it numerous times, but I saw it with an audience for the first time last Fall and it was fascinating to see an audience expect a 100% campy, action film to only hear them cry during the third act. Jacky Cheung as an actor can often bother me, but I find him suitable here as I do in Wong Kar Wai's As Tears Go By. John Woo introduced the film and sadly confirmed that the original cut and all the footage from it has all been destroyed, so there's very little chance of getting an alternate version other than the VHS sourced festival cut. Is there much history behind the rumored Criterion laserdisc of this back in the day?

Jon Mulvaney confirmed years ago that Criterion never was going to release Bullet in the Head: http://dvduell.de/criterion_website/cri ... chive.html
On a side note, was the version you saw in theaters a restored print?

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Far from it. It was in great shape, but probably a private collector’s print from its original run. Unlike other institutions, I don’t have connections at the American Cinematheque to bug and ask!

[beamish14]

Far from it. It was in great shape, but probably a private collector’s print from its original run. Unlike other institutions, I don’t have connections at the American Cinematheque to bug and ask!

I was there as well. Beautiful copy held by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Woo described it as being his attempt at a David Lean-style
epic, and frankly, I think he succeeded. I wonder if the very brief unauthorized footage in it from Apocalypse Now might be an issue, too.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Far from it. It was in great shape, but probably a private collector’s print from its original run. Unlike other institutions, I don’t have connections at the American Cinematheque to bug and ask!

I was there as well. Beautiful copy held by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Woo described it as being his attempt at a David Lean-style
epic, and frankly, I think he succeeded. I wonder if the very brief unauthorized footage in it from Apocalypse Now might be an issue, too.

You're right! I was told by a projectionist friend that it was a UCLA print that he saw on campus back in 2012.

[willoneill]

Far from it. It was in great shape, but probably a private collector’s print from its original run. Unlike other institutions, I don’t have connections at the American Cinematheque to bug and ask!

Was the print you saw dubbed in English? That's what I saw a couple of years back. It was a loan from someone's private collection (I believe a collector from Philadelphia), and it was a little over two hours, not the 95 minute or so cut version. If I remember the intro correctly, it was a dubbed version Miramax had made for a theatrical run after John Woo came to Hollywood, but the Miramax changed their mind and never went through with the run. (I may be off on some details, it was three years ago and a very late night screening)

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Far from it. It was in great shape, but probably a private collector’s print from its original run. Unlike other institutions, I don’t have connections at the American Cinematheque to bug and ask!

Was the print you saw dubbed in English? That's what I saw a couple of years back. It was a loan from someone's private collection (I believe a collector from Philadelphia), and it was a little over two hours, not the 95 minute or so cut version. If I remember the intro correctly, it was a dubbed version Miramax had made for a theatrical run after John Woo came to Hollywood, but the Miramax changed their mind and never went through with the run. (I may be off on some details, it was three years ago and a very late night screening)

No. It was an original Hong Kong release print subtitled with both Chinese and English subtitles at about the same running time. I am beyond jealous you saw this alternate version. Does that mean Miramax had been hanging on the rights for years? It might explain why it never got a US release. Was the music the same? It has that theme you hear a few times along with an anachronistic cover of Robert Wyatt's version of "I'm a Believer". Or did they do the Supercop thing and drop in random Nate Dogg tracks?

[whaleallright]

A cover of a cover???

[Toby Dammit]

Today Bertolucci´s "The Sheltering Sky" was announced by Arrow Academy, but only for the UK market.
So... is there an opportunity for a Criterion release in the US?

[domino harvey]

Ava DuVernay didn’t direct it, so it’s possible

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Does that mean Miramax had been hanging on the rights for years? It might explain why it never got a US release.

Miramax did release Bullet in the Head at a theater in San Francisco, presumably either out of contractual obligation or as a test for a possible full release that never happened. The San Francisco Examiner reviewed it, in case anybody has access to Newspapers.com and can see if the article mentions any changes. The original announcement of the Dragon Dynasty label also mentioned it as a future release, which obviously never happened either (they never got around to A Better Tomorrow 1 and 2 either).

[black&huge]

Ava DuVernay didn’t direct it, so it’s possible

If there is such thing as comment of the year on these forums. We have a winner.

[dwk]

Fortunately Dragon Dynasty seemed to lose the rights to the Fortune Star titles almost as soon as they launched. It is a shame that so many of the ones that were licensed to Miramax seem to still be stuck there. (I know that MoC/Eureka and 88 Films have been doing nice work with these titles, but since hardly anyone in the US imports, they are essentially gone from the movie consciousness.)

[yoloswegmaster]

Fortunately Dragon Dynasty seemed to lose the rights to the Fortune Star titles almost as soon as they launched. It is a shame that so many of the ones that were licensed to Miramax seem to still be stuck there. (I know that MoC/Eureka and 88 Films have been doing nice work with these titles, but since hardly anyone in the US imports, they are essentially gone from the movie consciousness.)

Doesn't Paramount (via Viacon) have the rights to the Miramax titles? If so, then I can see it be easier for a third-party label to get those titles. I really just want to see Drunken Master II get a proper release.

[dwk]

Paramount is now distributing Miramax, but so far everything they've announced appears to be re-pressings of the previous Blus with no indication that they will be able to do new scans or, in the case of Hong Kong titles, use the new uncut restorations.
Warner Brothers released an uncut Drunken Master II in Korea and (I think) Japan, but the Engliah subtitles are dubtitles. I wonder how many more years Miramax has on their license?

[Bressonaire]

The cover story of the Sunday Arts & Leisure section of today's New York Times is about the Criterion Collection. It's a slam on Criterion for not having enough Black filmmakers in the collection. Peter Becker mentions that Gordon Parks's TheLearning Tree is coming next year, and it sounds like he's going to add Ava DuVernay's Middle of Nowhere. Another film he has in the pipeline is Medicine for Melancholy by Barry Jenkins. It's a fascinating story, and worth chewing over.

[CSM126]

We’ve been discussing it over in another thread.

[Bressonaire]

Thanks. I posted it at midnight and thought this morning that I had done something wrong. I hadn't realized it had been diverted.

[aox]

I got a tip from a friend that Netflix(US) has Cairo Station up for streaming. I had always wanted to see this film, and it certainly didn't disappoint. The real surprise was that Netflix(US) not only had a movie pre-1960, but an obscure Egyptian film from 1958 to stream. This certainly isn't in my suggested algorithm which is currently pushing Schindler's List and Donnie Brasco. After I watched the movie, I discovered that Netflix(US) has at least fifteen other Egyptian films to stream such as, The Land, The Blazing Sun, An Egyptian Story, Dark Waters, etc... I am kind of pissed that below the surface of the usual shit Netflix pushes on me might be foreign classic gems that I would have absolutely no way of knowing are there. I feel like I am missing a whole new world down in the Netflix basement.

Anyway, the point of this post was that after I viewed Cairo Station, I went through this board to read any thoughts on the film. While sifting through the posts, it was brought up in a thread around the late-00s that Criterion was working on an Eclipse set, "Egyptian Golden Era". Obviously, this didn't happen; however, do any of you know what happened or how this fell by the wayside? Are there any rumors that Criterion might add some of these films to the mainline?

BTW, if you haven't seen Cairo Station, check it out. It's fantastic and the print up on Netflix(US) is gorgeous.

[mteller]

Cairo Station is an all-time favorite for me. The Land and The Blazing Sun are well worth your time too. Were all the Egyptian films by Chahine?

[aox]

Cairo Station is an all-time favorite for me. The Land and The Blazing Sun are well worth your time too. Were all the Egyptian films by Chahine?

Not all of them, but the majority appear to be. Some of them are very recent movies. Subsequent to my post, I discovered that Netflix is doing a (quiet) tribute to Chahine.

But again, my complaint still stands. I had not heard of this anywhere, it wasn't being advertised, and certainly wasn't coming up in my algorithm.

[KJones77]

I watched Chahine's Saladin the Victorious recently and loved it, though I still need to see more of his work. A set would be terrific news.

[skilar]

I often feel I’m not getting the real gems out of Netflix, as well.

Last year Tamasa released a box set of nine of Chahine’s films, but the subtitles are in French, and it was a DVD release. Here’s to hoping some (or all) of them find their way to blu-ray with English subs.

[Rupert Pupkin]

since Richard Brooks is already in the Criterion collection that's been a while that I'm looking desperately for a Criterion Blu-Ray (or simply a Blu-Ray (since even no WEB 1080 release are available) of this intriguing movie with Diane Keaton (IMHO one of her best role) : Looking for Mr. Goodbar
I still remember the disco scenes (great disco soundtrack; a kind of "Saturday Night Fever" but with a proper soundtrack ), Diane Keaton character being a teacher, another great small role by Richard Gere, and the unexpected ending with the stroboscopic effect (which would probably need a "warning for epileptics" sticker on it)
I think that this is really a great acting by Diane Keaton which is gorgeous in this movie - instead we got "An Unmarried Woman" which is not a bad movie with the lovely scene of the mother and her daughter singing together (with some bad chords) "Maybe I'm Amazed" by Paul Mccartney...
I really like the editing (it kind of reminded me something between Nicolas Roeg (although it's not as daring) or Ken Russell for the fantasy scenes.
Really this is such kind of difficult to find movie which would be happy to get a blu-ray treatment by Criterion. In the 90's that was Criterion's job to put out such gems.

In the meantime I'm happy with "Straight Times" with Dustin Hoffman (in web 1080 release). So, how much longer we have to wait before seeing Theresa Russell as the lovely temporary secretary (and who would not like to get a job interview (which turned out to be a job dating with an half "yes") with Mrs Theresa Russell ? (especially since they already talked about "Straight Times" in "Thief" since Michael Mann was on it at the beginning - thus a lot of interesting bonus could be done)

that was my Criterion wishes for the week-end