Charlie Chaplin and Criterion

[Roger Ryan]

They're showing the Janus prints of The Kid and The Pilgrim on TCM right now. Guess that makes them the next ones, March hopefully. Also I haven't seen the Warner disc, but the transfer's real sweet.

THE KID looked fantastic on TCM last night, the best quality I have ever seen that film in. THE PILGRIM transfer was less stellar.

[aox]

I was really hoping City Lights would be next.

[Askew]

What would people recommend: getting the MK2 boxsets at a reasonable price or wait for the Criterion releases?

[kaujot]

Wait.

[jbeall]

The Belcourt Theater in Nashville just finished a retrospective of Chaplin films with new 35mm prints. Glorious. I'd wait for the CC.

[tenia]

Wait.
The Kieslowski box is 4 1080i flawed transfers, for instance.

[Jeff]

An obviously new print of The Great Dictator is playing on TCM right now. Great to see it preceded by the Janus logo.

[Minkin]

I just noticed that Chaplin's The Gold Rush on Hulu is the 1925 version!

[Cinephrenic]

Wait a minute... Criterion is gonna release Chaplin?!?!?

[ShellOilJunior]

Might The Gold Rush be the next Chaplin CC release?

I recently saw the sublime Janus print and was mightily impressed. It was preceded by A Day's Pleasure.

[monks19]

Hi, any news on the next Chalin release ?

Thanks to answer

[knives]

Nothing at the moment. It will probably be until next year until we hear anything if precedent has any say.

[Brianruns10]

City Lights is easily the most requested Chaplin, and it'd be a surefire big seller, so it can't be discounted.

But I wouldn't be surprised if they went with one of Chaplin's lesser known though (IMO) equally as good works, such as Monsieur Verdoux or the Circus.

Personally, I'd love to see "The Kid" released as part of a set collecting (for the first time) all of Chaplin's First National films. Few realize that "The Kid" was initially going to be another short film as part of his contract, but he expanded it into a feature. A contract dispute ensued, over whether he had breached it. It was determined he had not, and he delivered one more short "The Pilgrim, before concluded his time with First National, and embarking on feature films from then on.

The Kid has always been it's own, separate release, but really ought to be included with the rest of the shorts.

[Peacock]

I might be forgetting one (Limelight possibly?) but the ones out on Blu currently in Europe are The Circus, City Lights and The Kid.

It seems Criterion did their own master for The Gold Rush so possibly (hopefully) they are just going to forget these underwhelming MK2 restos and do their own.... but we'll see. The City Lights Blu is particularly disappointing so perhaps that's one of the reasons Criterion have pushed that one back a bit so that they can do some serious work to it first.

[Ashirg]

Monsieur Verdoux is out in Scandinavia.

[JPJ]

Monsieur Verdoux is out in Scandinavia.

Also The Kid,Woman of Paris,Gold rush(re-release version),The circus,City lights,Modern Times and Limelight.Just picked up dual format Woman of Paris for 6 euros from the local shopping mall.

[Kauno]

Monsieur Verdoux is out in Scandinavia.

Also The Kid,Woman of Paris,Gold rush(re-release version),The circus,City lights,Modern Times and Limelight.Just picked up dual format Woman of Paris for 6 euros from the local shopping mall.

Aren't they all 1080i/25fps?

[JPJ]

Monsieur Verdoux is out in Scandinavia.

Also The Kid,Woman of Paris,Gold rush(re-release version),The circus,City lights,Modern Times and Limelight.Just picked up dual format Woman of Paris for 6 euros from the local shopping mall.

Aren't they all 1080i/25fps?

Actually I'm not sure,The Great Dictator(forgot that one from the previous post)definitely isn't.

[OrphanSeasun]

Criterion has released all four of their Chaplin titles in chronological order: Modern Times (1936), The Great Dictator (1940), Goldrush (the 1942 re-release is the officially sanctioned version), and now Monsieur Verdoux (1947). If Criterion continues the pattern we can look forward to Limelight next and a long, long wait for the earlier great works from the 20s.

[Jeff]

Criterion has released all four of their Chaplin titles in chronological order: Modern Times (1936), The Great Dictator (1940), Goldrush (the 1942 re-release is the officially sanctioned version), and now Monsieur Verdoux (1947). If Criterion continues the pattern we can look forward to Limelight next and a long, long wait for the earlier great works from the 20s.

I'm betting that pattern continues, more or less, and that it mainly has to do with how much work is needed on various titles. If I was to randomly speculate (as I am wont to do), I would say that the release schedule for the remaining titles might look something like:

Summer 2013: Paired spines of Limelight and A King in New York (the latter being a lower-tier $30 release)

Holiday 2013: Charlie Chaplin at First National Pictures (includes The Kid, The Pilgrim, Shoulder Arms, and the six shorts) [two-disc set]

Spring 2014: A Woman of Paris (with new commentary by David Kalat??? I suspect Criterion will try to rehabilitate this one.)

Summer 2014: The Circus

Holiday 2014: City Lights and Chaplin125 (Like AK100, a set of all Criterion's Chaplin holdings with a big, fancy book and no supplements)

[MongooseCmr]

If they did a big Chaplin box set I imagine A Woman of Paris would be the Madadayo of the set. A title by the director that may not sell very well on an individual release but would be an essential bit for a collectors edition.

[knives]

I hope you are very wrong on that as A Woman of Paris is easily one of his best.

[zedz]

Sounds like a decent plan, Jeff, but I have no doubt that The Kid will be top-billed as such. That said, it does make sense to load the shorts in with it, unless the Chaplins are doing so well for Criterion that they want to spin them into their own release.

I also wouldn't be surprised if the two 'lesser lights' among the features (Woman of Paris and King in New York) come out as a double feature, speciously linked by the title similarities but actually linked because they're not commercially strong enough to stand alone.

[bamwc2]

I hope you are very wrong on that as A Woman of Paris is easily one of his best.

I know that we've gotten into this before, but it's easily my least favorite of Chaplin's films. I've only seen it once, but found it excruciatingly boring.

[Brianruns10]

Criterion has released all four of their Chaplin titles in chronological order: Modern Times (1936), The Great Dictator (1940), Goldrush (the 1942 re-release is the officially sanctioned version), and now Monsieur Verdoux (1947). If Criterion continues the pattern we can look forward to Limelight next and a long, long wait for the earlier great works from the 20s.

I'm betting that pattern continues, more or less, and that it mainly has to do with how much work is needed on various titles. If I was to randomly speculate (as I am wont to do), I would say that the release schedule for the remaining titles might look something like:

Summer 2013: Paired spines of Limelight and A King in New York (the latter being a lower-tier $30 release)

Holiday 2013: Charlie Chaplin at First National Pictures (includes The Kid, The Pilgrim, Shoulder Arms, and the six shorts) [two-disc set]

Spring 2014: A Woman of Paris (with new commentary by David Kalat??? I suspect Criterion will try to rehabilitate this one.)

Summer 2014: The Circus

Holiday 2014: City Lights and Chaplin125 (Like AK100, a set of all Criterion's Chaplin holdings with a big, fancy book and no supplements)

Oh my yes, a First National set (with the Kid in its proper place, not separate) is one I do crave.

And what about "A Countess from Hong Kong?" Standard Def bonus feature seems about right