Criterion on Social Media

[aox]

If they release Weekend, I will never give another cent to Criterion.

[Howard Roark]

If they release Weekend, I will never give another cent to Criterion.

How about you just don't buy it? [-(

Week End is actually one of the forthcoming titles I'm looking forward to most!

[aox]

I was kidding. I am looking very forward to it; however, Facebook and the people barraging Criterion for it are insufferable.

[Michael Kerpan]

Mizoguchi's Life of Oharu has been requested quite a lot recently on the Facebook page, Criterion replied to someones comment about how great a film it was:

One of the greatest. The issue is not rights — it's film materials. The original negative appears no longer to exist and the best surviving fine grain master we've seen is very, very badly damaged. This needs a full-on film restoration. What source were you were looking at? How was the quality?

Surely Toho must have something better in the vaults?

This film was made by Shintoho. While much of Shintoho's library eventually got passed on to Toho, these films do not seem to have been preserved (prior to accession) nearly so well as Toho's own films. Alas, I see no reason to assume that better prints exist anywhere.

[Rowan]

I refuse to believe there's nothing better than Artificial Eye's ancient burned-in subs master. Even that print, or one generation better, would be a godsend in carefully rendered 1080, with the customary cleanup and stabilisation. I found BFI's blu of The Only Son to be a beautiful, textured, filmic experience - and we know (from the AE) that Oharu can't be that bad!

[Tom Hagen]

I believe that the Weekend hostage crisis may finally be over, hopefully with happy results for all parties:

@Jackson We heard our tech director down the hall talking about booking a weekend in Paris in November. Not sure if that was the Godard or a vacation thing, but there was also some talk about Raoul, so we have a hunch they might be looking... at materials, which should be good news for you.

Except that it also means that it would be quite a while before Weekend actually came out on Blu-ray — a year or more in all probability, especially since Weekend seems like a likely candidate for a Janus theatrical tour too. Anyway, that's an awful lot of daily updates. We appreciate your passion, but if everyone did this for the movie they want most, this page would not serve anyone's purposes. So from here on, let's drop the daily plea. Some things are worth repeating, but very few are worth repeating every day. The good news is, we've heard you, we're working on it, and we're grateful to you for being an active part of this community. Thanks!

[Michael Kerpan]

I refuse to believe there's nothing better than Artificial Eye's ancient burned-in subs master.

My recollection is that the French DVD looked noticeably better than the AE DVD (albeit far from great).

[aox]

Jackson just got Jimmy Carter'ed.

[swo17]

Criterion also had this to say about a guy who suggested the Weekend guy be banned:

We've heard your pleas, and we've heard Jackson's pleas about Weekend. There is a difference, though: Jackson is still talking about a movie he wants to see come out from us. That's an appropriate use of this page. This post is just talking about another fan, and that's something we don't welcome. We're going to delete posts like this in the future. Thanks for understanding.

[Tom Hagen]

Now that this is over, my conclusion is that Criterion simply wanted us all to experience the internet equivalent of watching the interminably long tracking shot of the traffic jam from Weekend.

[Napier]

Still Walking

[knives]

Finally, wasn't this one of the first IFC titles announced? Hopefully for this wait we're getting a truly magnificent disc.

[daniel p]

Excellent! Hopefully we get a few Koreeda Blu releases now - would love to see all of his major works get a box set release, well I can dream anyway

[eljacko]

Excellent! Hopefully we get a few Koreeda Blu releases now - would love to see all of his major works get a box set release, well I can dream anyway

A major box set can't really happen - at least, not with all his films. Maborosi and After Life are both owned by New Yorker (and have terrible out of print DVDs) while Hana is already on a cheap Funimation DVD (that isn't that bad, actually). However! Nobody Knows is an IFC film which needs a DVD upgrade, while Distance has no R1 release at all! And then there's the matter of his short documentaries, which would make great supplements...

[Finch]

At long last! I've been looking forward to Still Walking all year and I can't wait for the Blu. It's my favourite theatrical release of 2010. Finger crossed for a January or February release.

[daniel p]

Excellent! Hopefully we get a few Koreeda Blu releases now - would love to see all of his major works get a box set release, well I can dream anyway

A major box set can't really happen - at least, not with all his films. Maborosi and After Life are both owned by New Yorker (and have terrible out of print DVDs) while Hana is already on a cheap Funimation DVD (that isn't that bad, actually). However! Nobody Knows is an IFC film which needs a DVD upgrade, while Distance has no R1 release at all! And then there's the matter of his short documentaries, which would make great supplements...

Damn

Oh well separate releases would still be great - Nobody Knows seems probable at least. And yes the Mabarosi and After Life DVDs are terrible, hopefully they can get the rights to some of his other films after Still Walking is released.

What about Air Doll?

I would love to see his short films, haven't come across any of them before.

[Michael Kerpan]

The Japanese DVDs of Maborosi and After Life are quite lovely (and subtitled).

[Jun-Dai]

I second the recommendation of the Japanese DVD of Maboroshi, but that film could really use a Blu-ray transfer

[aox]

looks like another hostage crisis:

Day 5: Christian Volckman's Renaissance in the mainline

[Tom Hagen]

looks like another hostage crisis:

Day 5: Christian Volckman's Renaissance in the mainline

Hey at least this one isn't a "if they can get rights, they'll release it, and they've almost certainly already asked" title (compounded all the more because it had been reliably rumored at the time that the campaign started that they already were working on it). That was what made The Weekend thing especially infuriating to me.

[HistoryProf]

whatever is Criterion to do? Bill Melidoneas is upset about the January announcements!!!!!

[Tom Hagen]

I'm sure he'll have plenty more to add later after he has had a chance to lurk the forum and plagiarize from the discussion here.

[Tribe]

whatever is Criterion to do? Bill Melidoneas is upset about the January announcements!!!!!

Christ, he just doesn't quit.

[aox]

[HistoryProf]

I won one of the Seven Samurai blu rays for guessing the number of Quality Control hours they put in. Only one off! (422)

I've literally never won anything in my life. While the lottery would be great and all, if I had to win one thing this is a pretty good one. I'd never picked up the old release, and once they redid it I figured it was only a matter of time until a blu came out. pretty cool.