Criterion on Social Media

[zedz]

You're all way off.

[nails-on-blackboard voice]"Bring me a donut, Donut!"[/nails-on-blackboard voice]

[fiddlesticks]

I'm thinking its the complete The Simpsons.

[colinr0380]

And who can forget Fishing with John!

Or I Love Lucy back in the Laserdisc days!

[Murdoch]

I'm thinking its the complete The Simpsons.

That assumes that could ever exist.

[Feego]

Note that one of the doughnuts on the middle plate is a wacky C. Cheeky, Criterion.

[Jun-Dai]

I'm more concerned that there is some sort of square donut fad that I wasn't previously made aware of.

Agreed. That's pretty messed up.

The Doughnut Plant makes square donuts, and if you're in NYC (or anywhere, for that matter), there's no better place to get donuts from.

[mteller]

This seems like a random thing to put up on the Facebook page. Are we finally going to get that Picnic at Hanging Rock upgrade?

[jorencain]

I was wondering the same thing....fingers crossed.

[Matango]

... the fact none of her films have found their way in the Criterion criterion and FOUR of Jarmusch's has is mind-boggling.

Why is it that, even at this late date in DVD history, people still pretend that they don't know how licensing works, and insist on treating Criterion like some sort of omnipotent Hall of Fame committee?

It's been worse. When Monsoon Wedding was announced, I recall some crying of "I can't believe Mira Nair is in the Collection before Satyajit Ray!" as if Criterion had some sort of racial quota they needed to fill.

That was me. And I wasn't talking about a racial quota, just a national one. Indian films, not Indians. And, as has since been shown here since your post, licensing isn't, or doesn't appear to be an issue.

[Jun-Dai]

That was me. And I wasn't talking about a racial quota, just a national one. Indian films, not Indians. And, as has since been shown here since your post, licensing isn't, or doesn't appear to be an issue.

It seems unlikely that Criterion wouldn't jump at the chance to put out some Satyajit Ray (at least top-tier Ray films). Where was it shown that it wasn't a licensing issue?

If it's not a licensing issue, then I can only assume it's about timing and the condition of the materials (e.g., CC is waiting for some pending restoration). In the case of Monsoon Wedding, I assume that favorable licensing terms, easy-to-work-with materials, and the ability to get some good primary-source extras had a lot to do with it. It's not as though CC has a queue of Indian films, and Monsoon Wedding got the first slot because CC doesn't respect Ray's films enough or they don't think they'll generate enough revenue. CC has demonstrated a willingness to invest a lot of time and money into releases that don't bring much of a return, and whenever Ray has come up they've always talked about how much they'd love to get their hands on them.

Anyhow, I'm pretty sure CC doesn't have national quotas of any kind. If they have any quotas, they are most likely studio quotas.

This is all speculation on my part, but then again, unless someone has heard from either CC or Sony about the issue, then Ray's films not being a licensing issue would be speculation also.

[Matango]

I'll just quietly dwell on the sad irony then. Which was really all I was doing anyway before someone started shouting about racial quotas.

[knives]

Licensing is unlikely the issue and materials definitely are not. Nearly all of Ray's films have had major restorations. I believe they were done by AMPASA. To get an idea of the quality of these restorations look no further than MOC's Abhijan. Licensing I'll admit is trickier. If Nick's right concerning all of the Ray films rather than just the ones he's looked in to than it is more costly to license them than difficult to find. They basically don't want royalties and instead demand a large initial payment.

[ianungstad]

Considering that they showed extended clips from several Satyajit Ray films in the supplements of The Darjeeling Limited, it seems highly probable that Janus is probably sitting on these films. They could have just licensed the clips for use in the documentary on Ray's music and don't have the rights to the actual films...but considering these Satyajit Ray films don't have a R1 distributor, it seems more likely they picked them up after Sony let the rights lapse.

[Jun-Dai]

If the licensing terms include an unfeasibly large lump sum, I would classify that as a "licensing issue". Not unlike when the Tati estate refused to let anyone look at the 70mm negative of Playtime until they were willing to perform a multimillion dollar restoration of it (or at least that's my vague memory of how it went down).

That said, your posts make me hopeful that CC is or will work out such licensing issues and we'll see an Apu trilogy BD set sometime before I die.

[manicsounds]

Yeah, especially how Masters Of Cinema has pretty much abandoned releasing more Satyajit Ray films, at least there is Artificial Eye to fill the void for good watchable versions, but Ray BDs? At least Ray Eclipse would suffice for me, but BDs would be something more than I could hope for.

[dwk]

Kent Jones posted the following over at Glenn Kenny's blog

Satyajit Ray's films are beset by all kinds of issues. Unless I'm mistaken, Criterion is on the case.

[andyli]

Kent Jones posted the following over at Glenn Kenny's blog

Satyajit Ray's films are beset by all kinds of issues. Unless I'm mistaken, Criterion is on the case.

AWESOME!

[Arthur Bannister]

Kent Jones posted the following over at Glenn Kenny's blog

Satyajit Ray's films are beset by all kinds of issues. Unless I'm mistaken, Criterion is on the case.

Criterion has been "on the case" for some time now, if memory serves. The question at this point is has there been any progress? I'm as eager as anyone for a Criterion release of any of Ray's works, but this statement is vague enough to mean anything or nothing.

[dwk]

I realize that it is a vague statement, but I would never expect someone who may know something going on behind the scenes on things like this to be anything other than vague. I was responding to the notion that the films are just sitting there, ripe for the picking and Criterion doesn't want anything to do with them.

[videozor]

Criterion has been "on the case" for some time now, if memory serves. The question at this point is has there been any progress? I'm as eager as anyone for a Criterion release of any of Ray's works, but this statement is vague enough to mean anything or nothing.

Agree with every word

[ianungstad]

Criterion added a folder of Criterion-related sketches by Jason Polan to their Facebook page. Noticed that Jason Polan snuck in a sketch for Blow-Up...

[ellipsis7]

Criterion added a folder of Criterion-related sketches by Jason Polan to their Facebook page. Noticed that Jason Polan snuck in a sketch for Blow-Up...

Interesting, it's basically the Warner cover with the classic poster image, no Criterion logo in the sketch, but why is it there? Could the impossible be about to take place, Warner licensing BLOW UP to Criterion?.... Or maybe more mundane, JP just prefers BLOW UP to BLOW OUT which is coming to the CC...

[Arthur Bannister]

I realize that it is a vague statement, but I would never expect someone who may know something going on behind the scenes on things like this to be anything other than vague. I was responding to the notion that the films are just sitting there, ripe for the picking and Criterion doesn't want anything to do with them.

Understood. For everyone's sake I sincerely hope the vagueness is because he does "know something going on behind the scenes" and not just because he read something like this. That would be too funny.

[kinjitsu]

Criterion added a folder of Criterion-related sketches by Jason Polan to their Facebook page. Noticed that Jason Polan snuck in a sketch for Blow-Up...

Interesting, it's basically the Warner cover with the classic poster image, no Criterion logo in the sketch, but why is it there?

From the December 16 newsletter:

Someone absolutely asked for a Blow-Up drawing!

[ellipsis7]

Now I get it - is why there's so many sketches of AK100 box sets, the most straightforward way to put an order over $150...