Criterion on Social Media

[med]

So much for the underprivileged who were to recieve Blu-rays of Fat Girl and In the Realm of the Senses.

[Perkins Cobb]

Ha, massive fuck-you campaign in their Facebook comments for not giving us cheap stuff as expected!

[bainbridgezu]

Regarding Monday's announcements:

Here's a hint: The Blu-ray upgrade is one of our most anticipated... It will make a lot of people very happy.

Probably Brazil, which Lee Kline already confirmed at the Heaven's Gate presentation.


On Punch-Drunk Love joining the collection:

C'est un grand film. Peut-être un jour.

(The original comment was in French)

[captveg]

Regarding Monday's announcements:

Here's a hint: The Blu-ray upgrade is one of our most anticipated... It will make a lot of people very happy.

Probably Brazil, which Lee Kline already confirmed at the Heaven's Gate presentation.

Could be Brazil, but other "most anticipated" upgrades have been Picnic at Hanging Rock, Passion of Joan of Arc, M. Hulot's Holiday, Andrei Rublev, and Wild Strawberries, off the top of my head.

I'd be more than happy with any of them.

[Brianruns10]

Regarding Monday's announcements:

Here's a hint: The Blu-ray upgrade is one of our most anticipated... It will make a lot of people very happy.

Probably Brazil, which Lee Kline already confirmed at the Heaven's Gate presentation.

Could be Brazil, but other "most anticipated" upgrades have been Picnic at Hanging Rock, Passion of Joan of Arc, M. Hulot's Holiday, Andrei Rublev, and Wild Strawberries, off the top of my head.

I'd be more than happy with any of them.

I think we can eliminate M. Hulot's Holiday, since Studio Canal has acquired the rights to his works, and may be yanking them from CC's catalog. I'd also rule out "Joan of Arc" in the short term, as Gaumont is in the midst of a restoration of this title; I think we'd be more likely to see this Spring or Fall 2013.

Brazil was mentioned as being in the works, which could work against it for a December release. This leaves Wild Strawberries, Picnic at Hanging Rock and Andrei Rublev.

The latter is surely one of the most wanted re-releases, but CC has made no hints or mention of it before now. Same goes for Wild Strawberries.

However, CC did recently post a photo or two from the behind the scenes of the making of "Picnic" on their facebook.

So I think Picnic at Hanging Rock is the most likely possibility. Though personally I'd rather see Andrei Rublev first. And since Joan of Arc is my favorite film, I'd also have to say I hope I'm severely wrong in that estimation as well. A 2012 release would please me to no end.

[captveg]

All good points.

I wouldn't say Wild Strawberries hasn't been hinted at. It's been in the last two New Years Newsletter clues.

[jwd5275]

I think we can eliminate M. Hulot's Holiday, since Studio Canal has acquired the rights to his works, and may be yanking them from CC's catalog.

This is exactly why they will be doing the Tati films soon. Janus has a deal pre-dating the new Studio Canal deal and no one really knows how long that is for. They are likely to take advantage of the time they have on this longer deal to put out the remaining Tati on blu, just as they did with the Melvilles last year.

[rattlebag]

I think we can eliminate M. Hulot's Holiday, since Studio Canal has acquired the rights to his works, and may be yanking them from CC's catalog.

This is exactly why they will be doing the Tati films soon. Janus has a deal pre-dating the new Studio Canal deal and no one really knows how long that is for. They are likely to take advantage of the time they have on this longer deal to put out the remaining Tati on blu, just as they did with the Melvilles last year.

This is exactly what BFI are doing at the moment in the UK so you could be right.

[ryannichols7]

do we have confirmation that Janus has the rights (for now) to Jour de Fete and Parade?

[Brianruns10]

I think we can eliminate M. Hulot's Holiday, since Studio Canal has acquired the rights to his works, and may be yanking them from CC's catalog.

This is exactly why they will be doing the Tati films soon. Janus has a deal pre-dating the new Studio Canal deal and no one really knows how long that is for. They are likely to take advantage of the time they have on this longer deal to put out the remaining Tati on blu, just as they did with the Melvilles last year.

I'm not sure if this logic holds for me. I guess it all depends on CC's sales figures, but do they really stand to clean up that much in the initial run to recoup their costs in licensing and producing the title? Seems to me they stand the risk of getting burned if a new release gets yanked soon after release, or worse, when it is stillborn, as was the case with Ran and Contempt.

To my mind, it makes more sense that, if they know they stand to lose the rights, they'd focus their attentions on other titles which they can better rely upon to retain for a longer period, to maximize the return on their investment.

Please correct me if my assumptions are inaccurate.

[Jeff]

I guess it all depends on CC's sales figures, but do they really stand to clean up that much in the initial run to recoup their costs in licensing and producing the title? Seems to me they stand the risk of getting burned if a new release gets yanked soon after release, or worse, when it is stillborn, as was the case with Ran and Contempt.

To my mind, it makes more sense that, if they know they stand to lose the rights, they'd focus their attentions on other titles which they can better rely upon to retain for a longer period, to maximize the return on their investment.

Please correct me if my assumptions are inaccurate.

With Ran and Contempt, Criterion was still negotiating and hoping to renew that contract with StudioCanal when they put those in production. StudioCanal then abruptly decided that all their product would be distributed by Lionsgate in the U.S. as existing contracts expired. For Contempt and Ran, that was right away. That's an unusual situation with Criterion betting on something that didn't come to pass.

It's different with the Tatis. They already know when their contract with the Tati estate expires, and they know they won't be able to renew it. It won't get "yanked" and be a surprise to them. They will know precisely how long those titles will be on the market. When the StudioCanal thing happened, they made the decision to press on with their Blu-ray release of The Third Man, even though they knew they wouldn't be able to have it on the market very long. Everyone knew that it wouldn't be around for long, and I'm sure Criterion sold a ton of copies in a few months because of its "limited time" nature. The same thing happened when they had the ABC films license and decided to release Straw Dogs. They were going to have it available for one year only as that's when the license expired. They announced that upon release, and I think there was even a sticker on the packaging to that effect.

It was believed that Blu-rays of Le Cercle Rouge, Army of Shadows, and Léon Morin were bumped up in the schedule to give them a longer time on the market.

That's exactly what's happening with the Tatis here. There are no new licensing costs for Criterion here. They licensed these titles a long time ago. When the Tati estate announced that they had reached a worldwide distribution deal with StudioCanal, Criterion and The BFI knew that they wouldn't be able to renew those contracts when they expired (something they had probably previously counted on). They know that whatever value they are going to get from those existing contracts, which they've already paid for, they have to get now in the coming months (year?). If they want to wring anymore profit from this current contract with the Tati estate, they'd better get something to market fast. That's likely why the BFI bumped half their schedule back several months. The Tatis became priority. I'd imagine that Criterion's contract covered roughly the same time frame as the BFI's and they will follow suit.

[Feego]

Regarding Monday's announcements:

Here's a hint: The Blu-ray upgrade is one of our most anticipated... It will make a lot of people very happy.

Probably Brazil, which Lee Kline already confirmed at the Heaven's Gate presentation.

Probably no more than wishful thinking on my part, but Criterion has put up a new spotlight on their home page called Dazzling Dietrich. It's a photo gallery showing off the costumes from The Scarlett Empress.

[onedimension]

Any chance we'd ever see a giant Sternberg/Dietrich box?

[MichaelB]

That's exactly what's happening with the Tatis here. There are no new licensing costs for Criterion here. They licensed these titles a long time ago. When the Tati estate announced that they had reached a worldwide distribution deal with StudioCanal, Criterion and The BFI knew that they wouldn't be able to renew those contracts when they expired (something they had probably previously counted on). They know that whatever value they are going to get from those existing contracts, which they've already paid for, they have to get now in the coming months (year?). If they want to wring anymore profit from this current contract with the Tati estate, they'd better get something to market fast. That's likely why the BFI bumped half their schedule back several months. The Tatis became priority. I'd imagine that Criterion's contract covered roughly the same time frame as the BFI's and they will follow suit.

This is all pretty much bang on. The Tatis have been perennial bestsellers in the BFI's catalogue ever since the days of VHS (I remember an annual sales chart very comfortably topped by the DVD box set - and this was measured in units shifted, so the actual income relative to the single-disc releases would have been a fair bit higher), and of course they've been constantly and automatically renewing the rights ever since the old contracts expired.

So, as you rightly say, as soon as they were unable to renew the contract for the first time, they did a bit of number-crunching and decided that the most sensible thing to do would be to postpone a handful of non-urgent titles and release the two previously SD-only Tatis on Blu-ray in double-quick time (the fact that these are world premiere BDs with previously unreleased alternative versions doesn't exactly hurt). Being able to do it in time to catch the Christmas market provided an even more powerful incentive - even if the rights expire on the dot of December 26th, it would still be worth doing.

(Ironically, I could have had a double deadline extension on essays I contributed to two of the postponed releases - Cría cuervos and Potemkin/Drifters - if I hadn't handed them in already!)

The only thing I'd take issue with is that there's no reason to assume that Criterion's contract covered the same time frame - it depends entirely on when they signed it initially. It might be days away from expiry or they might still have a few years: only they and the Tati estate (and, presumably, StudioCanal) will know for certain.

[Jeff]

The only thing I'd take issue with is that there's no reason to assume that Criterion's contract covered the same time frame - it depends entirely on when they signed it initially. It might be days away from expiry or they might still have a few years: only they and the Tati estate (and, presumably, StudioCanal) will know for certain.

Yes, that is indeed just a blind guess on my part. I guess I was figuring that the Tatis probably had a standard five-year contract or something that was originated, and thus renewed, on both sides of the Atlantic around the same time, but I suppose that there really isn't any logical reason to believe that's the case.

[captveg]

do we have confirmation that Janus has the rights (for now) to Jour de Fete and Parade?

They've specifically mentioned both in the past. I believe it was in Newsletters, or Facebook posts, or both.

[Finch]

Criterion just posted a pic of Martin Sheen on their FB page with the caption Look who's just dropped into the office. Pretty much confirms Badlands.

[ShellOilJunior]

That was great to see. Sheen is really proud of Badlands and is good friends with Malick.

[ryannichols7]

Malick biographer insists some incredible info in the comments

Paul A Maher Jr: Terrence Malick is highly-involved with the Criterion treatment of Badlands - and Sheen, Spacek, Jack Fisk and Billy Weber all contributed commentaries.

was really hoping Sheen and Spacek would do commentary, i'd love to hear them talk about the full film. even a Richard Gere commentary on Days of Heaven would've been stellar. he loved that movie and spoke about it really well.

[duck duck]

Hopefully when they had Sheen there they said, "oh, by the way care to talk a bit about The Dead Zone?"

[domino harvey]

Sheen then proceeded to hide behind a DVD copy of Hearts and Minds

[colinr0380]

Hopefully when they had Sheen there they said, "oh, by the way care to talk a bit about The Dead Zone?"

Well, it is an election year!

[flyonthewall2983]

Was there much on-set stuff shot for Badlands?

[LQ]

Anyone else submitting their best Criterion costume for their latest contest? Pretty great prize up for grabs.

[jedgeco]

Anyone else submitting their best Criterion costume for their latest contest? Pretty great prize up for grabs.

I will -- My wife and I are going as "He" and "She" from Antichrist, as long as I can find and good pair of scissors.