1104 Citizen Kane

[Ribs]

I’m pretty sure you could - you can’t exactly get away with leaving out Touch of Evil the same as Fellini’s Casanova.

[ftsoh]

Touch of Evil is Universal's and they have a long relationship with Criterion. It is probable to license it to Criterion as a boxset exclusive while Kino retain rights to the standalone release. Kino is also somehow exclusive since it is in 4K.

I am thinking of a similar arrangement of Bergman's The Serpent's Egg that is in the Criterion set while Arrow also has a standalone Blu-ray.

On the other hand, Macbeth (released by Olive) might be a problem since Face to Face (also released by Olive) is not included in the Bergman set.

But then again Casanova is also Universal's. So what do I know?

[Drucker]

"The answer to all of your questions is money."-Tony Kornehiser (by way of someone else he is quoting)

[FrauBlucher]

Touch of Evil is Universal's and they have a long relationship with Criterion. It is probable to license it to Criterion as a boxset exclusive while Kino retain rights to the standalone release. Kino is also somehow exclusive since it is in 4K.

I am thinking of a similar arrangement of Bergman's The Serpent's Egg that is in the Criterion set while Arrow also has a standalone Blu-ray.

On the other hand, Macbeth (released by Olive) might be a problem since Face to Face (also released by Olive) is not included in the Bergman set.

But then again Casanova is also Universal's. So what do I know?

I don't know how this works, but couldn't Kino have put a block on Criterion's attempt to get boxset exclusives from Universal for
Touch of Evil and Fellini's Casanova? The Stranger is in public domain. Can Criterion obtain the same print from the Library of Congress that Kino used for their release? Unfortunately it seems like Olive doesn't want to play ball.

[willoneill]

"The answer to all of your questions is money."-Tony Kornehiser (by way of someone else he is quoting)

Former NBC executive (and noted friend of O.J. Simpson/enemy of Norm Macdonald) Don Ohlmeyer

[swo17]

Forthcoming from Criterion in a UHD/Blu-ray combo

[FrauBlucher]

This from the Wellesnet site....

Further details will be announced next week, though Wellesnet has heard a new restoration of Citizen Kane is among the big surprises. Warner Home Video did a restoration in 2011.

[Calvin]

I'm trying to think of added supplements that Criterion could put on the release. Would Too Much Johnson be available for them to include? And what about The Mercury Theatre on the Air radio program?

Criterion's laserdisc release included Welles' debut short The Hearts of Age which I don't think has made an appearance on a Blu-Ray yet.

I'm hoping that they might be able to get hold of the BBC Arena documentary The Orson Welles Story, which is essentially a two-part near-three hour profile and interview with the man from 1982 and, as ever, it would be nice if the works (unfinished or otherwise) owned by the Munich Film Museum were collected in a release but I doubt it will be here.

[FrauBlucher]

I'm trying to think of added supplements that Criterion could put on the release. Would Too Much Johnson be available for them to include? And what about The Mercury Theatre on the Air radio program?

Criterion's laserdisc release included Welles' debut short The Hearts of Age which I don't think has made an appearance on a Blu-Ray yet.

I'm hoping that they might be able to get hold of the BBC Arena documentary The Orson Welles Story, which is essentially a two-part near-three hour profile and interview with the man from 1982 and, as ever, it would be nice if the works (unfinished or otherwise) owned by the Munich Film Museum were collected in a release but I doubt it will be here.

There is a strong possibility this will be a 3 disc set. The (disc 1) UHD with commentaries, (disc 2) Bluray with commentaries and third disc with special features. Especially, if they include something like the BBC Arena documentary The Orson Welles Story and I'm sure they will port everything from the laser disc. And whatever new supplements they produce.

[Gregor Samsa]

I'm trying to think of added supplements that Criterion could put on the release. Would Too Much Johnson be available for them to include? And what about The Mercury Theatre on the Air radio program?

Criterion's laserdisc release included Welles' debut short The Hearts of Age which I don't think has made an appearance on a Blu-Ray yet.

I'm hoping that they might be able to get hold of the BBC Arena documentary The Orson Welles Story, which is essentially a two-part near-three hour profile and interview with the man from 1982 and, as ever, it would be nice if the works (unfinished or otherwise) owned by the Munich Film Museum were collected in a release but I doubt it will be here.

There is a strong possibility this will be a 3 disc set. The (disc 1) UHD with commentaries, (disc 2) Bluray with commentaries and third disc with special features. Especially, if they include something like the BBC Arena documentary The Orson Welles Story and I'm sure they will port everything from the laser disc. And whatever new supplements they produce.

It may take some adaptation given the unusual format, but the 1991 disc's The Legacy of Citizen Kane would be a great addition.

Making up the entirety of side six is The Legacy of Citizen Kane, an incredible 73-minute interactive documentary made up of 35 interviews with various directors, cinematographers, Kane collaborators and Welles' associates, all of whom are talking about how great Welles and Kane are (and rightfully so, I might add...). Broken up into 13 individual chapters, each chapter contains three separate interviews, presented simultaneously on a three-way split screen, with each interview obviously having its own audio track (digital, analog 1, analog 2). Each chapter opens with a still frame introducing each of the three participants, and includes a short list of credits. A complete chapter and audio index for all 35 participants is tacked onto the end of each chapter. The interviews were videotaped during the fall of 1990 in New York, Los Angeles and Europe, and were shot in a variety of formats, all of which transferred very well to disc. Oh, and in case you're curious, the folks interviewed include Peter Bogdanovich, Roger Corman, Joe Dante, Allen Daviau, Brian De Palma, Lynwood Dunn, Richard Edlund, Blake Edwards, John Frankenheimer, Costa Gavras, Gary Graver, Taylor Hackford, Henry Jaglom, Rick Jewell, Lawrence Kasdan, Laszlo Kovacs, John Landis, Barry Levinson, Gary Lucchesi, Frank Marshall, Paul Mazursky, Burt Reynolds, Martin Ritt, Joel Schumacher, Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, Susan Seidelman, Penelope Spheeris, Robert Townsend, Theo Van de Sande, Ruth Warrick, Haskell Wexler, Richard Wilson, Robert Wise and Vilmos Zsigmond.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

It wouldn't be too hard to adapt. All they need to do is go back to the original tapes of the interviews (I assume Criterion still has them) and remaster them the conventional way. The only reason they used the split-screen approach on the LD was to avoid spreading the interviews over two sides, which would've required a fourth disc. The extra that would be hard to adapt is the visual essay by Robert Carringer, since it's made up mostly of still frames and would need to be completely recreated for Blu or UHD. My guess is they won't even attempt to bring that over, as was the case with the still-frame extras on the Ambersons LD, but a lot of the info will presumably be covered in other supplements.

[FrauBlucher]

Kane is unbelievably packed.

[Boosmahn]

They knew they had to go all-out, and they did. The amount of bonus features is overwhelming (but appreciated).

[domino harvey]

So this is missing the 2 hour the Battle Over Citizen Kane from the first release?

[solaris72]

Kane is unbelievably packed.

You're not kidding, I can't remember the last time they pulled out all the stops like this. 3 commentaries, 2 blu-rays just for special features...it might be their most loaded new release since the DVD era. Good that they didn't duplicate "Battle Over Citizen Kane", anyone who cares to own this probably already has a copy of that.

[Ribs]

It's also missing Eyes of Orson Welles, which, seeing as it's jointly owned by WB and Criterion (due to being originally bought by Filmstruck with Janus as the theatrical partner), seemed like it had to go on this title if anything.

[Calvin]

It looks great and is, indeed, packed, but I'm surprised that it's going to need three Blu-Ray discs when most of the extras will be SD upconverts. I notice that they haven't listed the source of The Hearts of Age, but hopefully it's from a new restoration.

I'm not surprised that they've went for The Complete “Citizen Kane” (1991), which is a terrific BBC documentary that repurposes its own interview footage with Welles from the BBC Arena documentary The Orson Welles Story that I mentioned earlier alongside then-new interviews with the likes of Bogdanovich and Pauline Kael. I'd still love to see The Orson Welles Story get a release sometime, but this is more suited for Kane.

[hearthesilence]

So this is missing the 2 hour the Battle Over Citizen Kane from the first release?

Addition from subtraction IMHO.

[movielocke]

WOW, this is probably the most stacked release since the Seven Samurai second edition dropped. Impressive array of extras. Did the CAV and CLV criterion LDs not have commentaries?

[FrauBlucher]

Oye... They left Gregg Toland off the credit page

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

WOW, this is probably the most stacked release since the Seven Samurai second edition dropped. Impressive array of extras. Did the CAV and CLV criterion LDs not have commentaries?

None of the Criterion LDs had a commentary.

It does appear they're dropping most of the interviews from the 50th Anniversary LD and focusing mainly on those with people who worked with Welles. From my recollection most of the interviews were fairly generic gushing so I don't think this is a huge loss.

[Pavel]

Aside from the awful cover, this looks like a very nice package. Kind of funny they put so much effort into the extras and so little into the artwork

[knives]

WOW, this is probably the most stacked release since the Seven Samurai second edition dropped. Impressive array of extras. Did the CAV and CLV criterion LDs not have commentaries?

None of the Criterion LDs had a commentary.

This is untrue. They came into existence in part because of commentaries.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

I mean none of the Criterion LDs of Kane (four altogether, not counting reprints). The Laserdisc DataBase lists a commentary on the CAV 50th Anniversary edition, but that's incorrect. For the LDs Criterion opted for Carringer visual essays in lieu of a commentary, except for the CLV releases that were just movie-only editions.

[DimitriL]

It does appear they're dropping most of the interviews from the 50th Anniversary LD and focusing mainly on those with people who worked with Welles. From my recollection most of the interviews were fairly generic gushing so I don't think this is a huge loss.

Yeah, I’m pleased that they went back and used some of the relevant material in a thoughtful way.