Criterion Newsletter (Part 2)

[cdnchris]

... and boxed with Made in U.S.A. and 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her.

[HerrSchreck]

Based on Domino's post, I've got it:

They've made a film of 100 Years of Heroin

[Jeff]

I don't imagine the clue is referring to any upcoming film in particular, but rather a general celebration of AK for 2010: theatrical touring series, blu upgrades, gift sets, etc. I think we can count on Dreams (Stephen Prince already recorded a commentary), and a reworked Rashomon disc and Blu-ray from the new restoration. There is an AK 100 world tour planned.

Apropos of nothing, Kurosawa's horse, Yumego, died this year. The horse appeared in Kagemusha and Ran, and was presented to the town where Dreams was filmed upon Kurosawa's death. Perhaps Yumego is the red-faced critter representing Kurosawa in the clue.

[klee13]

Criterion must be so backed up on newsletter clues that they have turned to deliberately nonsensical ones.

[justeleblanc]

It refers to the heroin a viewer must take in order to be sedated enough to sit through a Guy Maddin film

Well put, but didn't Bresson make a sequel to Balthasar, where the horse turns 100 and they all give him gag gifts, like a cake with candles on it and he's supposed to know to blow them out, but instead is tail gets lit on fire. I remember it being very funny the first time I saw it.

[Antoine Doinel]

It's actually spine #500 - Transformers 2 with extra scenes added where a horse's ass transforms into Armond White.

Corrected.

[Cinephrenic]

Mr. Ed televison series.

[kiarostami]

Kurosawa sounds like a safe bet, but wasn't there a rumor at one point that A Time for Drunken Horses would be released?

[Zazou dans le Metro]

Two consecutive riderless horses... K is for Kertesz.
It's a Michael Curtiz box set. " Bring on the empty Horses".
Booklet notes and audio commentary by David Niven.
It's obvious.

[Mr Sausage]

Re bjeggert82: I thought "Ran" (blu) was out of the question now?

New titles for the main line? Not much left, unless they get "Quiet Duel" now that the existing R1 is OOP, or ...hang on.... "Dersu Uzala"??!! :-k

We'll probably get Sanshiro Sugata (aka Judo Saga) and The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail, both of which I think were rumoured at one point to be possible Criterions.

[Magic Hate Ball]

Criterion must be so backed up on newsletter clues that they have turned to deliberately nonsensical ones.

Next month's will be a farting bat eating a pancake.

[Tommaso]

We'll probably get Sanshiro Sugata (aka Judo Saga) and The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail, both of which I think were rumoured at one point to be possible Criterions.

Full CC releases of these films, after they dumped "No regrets" and "I live in fear" into Eclipse? I remember the rumours, too, but it sounds too good to be true.

[swo17]

Anyone think it could end up being a 50 Years of Janus Films type box in celebration of Kurosawa?

[eerik]

Anyone think it could end up being a 50 Years of Janus Films type box in celebration of Kurosawa?

Blu-ray boxset like this would be enough for me.

[Mr Sausage]

We'll probably get Sanshiro Sugata (aka Judo Saga) and The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail, both of which I think were rumoured at one point to be possible Criterions.

Full CC releases of these films, after they dumped "No regrets" and "I live in fear" into Eclipse? I remember the rumours, too, but it sounds too good to be true.

I Live in Fear is certainly more worthy of the full Criterion treatment than either Sanshiro Sugata or The Men Who Tread..., but who knows. If they were going to put together an Eclipse set, my guess is they'd include Sanshiro Sugata 2 and Most Beautiful and call it "Early Kurosawa" or something like that.

[atcolomb]

Probably going to be an orgy of Kurosawa in 2010: an Eclipse set of early films, a couple of Blu-ray re-releases, a gift set of his "noir" films, and maybe a new title or two in the main Criterion line.

As long as Dersu Uzala is in there somewhere, more power to them. Though watching Seven Samurai on on Blu without having to swap discs mid-film would be nice too...

I did ask Criterion a few months ago about Dersu Uzala and i did get a reply from Jon Mulvaney saying that they have no plans to release it any time soon. I do have the laserdisc version from them whch is ok but i think the negatives are in such bad shape that maybe Criterion won't touch it? Or the studio that owns the print won't give it to Criterion?...who knows....but to see this film restored and on blu-ray should be on their to do list!

[zedz]

Given the flood of Kurosawa BluRays coming out in Japan in late 2009, could March 2010 bring a massive Kurosawa on Blu box set (alongside individual releases)? Plus DVD debuts of the unreleased titles (Sanshiro Sugata double feature, The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail). I doubt Criterion would let the centenary hoopla attach to just a couple of minor titles as new releases, or just a couple of Blu upgrades.

[Jack Phillips]

Given the flood of Kurosawa BluRays coming out in Japan in late 2009, could March 2010 bring a massive Kurosawa on Blu box set (alongside individual releases)?

That must be it.

[Antoine Doinel]

25 film Kurosawa boxset confirmed for release by the end of the year. Stagecoach confirmed as well.

[Cinéslob]

25 film Kurosawa boxset confirmed for release by the end of the year. Stagecoach confirmed as well.

So, there'll be at least six new Kurosawa releases by the end of the year (fourteen via Criterion and five through Eclipse coming to nineteen), if one excludes the possibility of Ran (OoP) and Kagemusha (a Fox title) being included in any boxset.

[Tribe]

25 film Kurosawa boxset confirmed for release by the end of the year. Stagecoach confirmed as well.

So, there'll be at least six new Kurosawa releases by the end of the year (fourteen via Criterion and five through Eclipse coming to nineteen), if one excludes the possibility of Ran (OoP) and Kagemusha (a Fox title) being included in any boxset.

More likely it would be via another Eclipse set.

[aox]

Eclipse Series Vol. 18 Kurosawa: The Leftovers

[Tommaso]

Did anyone consider these unreleased Kurosawa's might be exclusive to that 25-disc set? Wouldn't be the first time, if I think of the 30-disc Bergman set from Tartan; the two films exclusive to that set never saw the light of day on their own. I hope I'm wrong, but I have the feeling that we might have to wait for some time before the unreleased films get standalone releases.

[Tribe]

Did anyone consider these unreleased Kurosawa's might be exclusive to that 25-disc set? Wouldn't be the first time, if I think of the 30-disc Bergman set from Tartan; the two films exclusive to that set never saw the light of day on their own. I hope I'm wrong, but I have the feeling that we might have to wait for some time before the unreleased films get standalone releases.

Shit, now that I think of it, it's certainly possible. Le Jour se leve was included in that huge Essential Art House box...and we still have no assurances we'll ever see a proper Criterion release.