Forthcoming Lists Discussion and Random Speculation Vol. 4

[domino harvey]

Why is this happening

[Askew]

Le Samourai
Pina
On the Waterfront
Ghost World
Wild Strawberries
Y tu mama tambien
Bitter Rice
Pierre Etaix Eclipse
The Shooting and The Hired Hand

I must have missed the clues for Pina and Ghost World, what were they? Also, you forgot the Grey Gardens upgrade that was hinted at in a newsletter and I think you're mistaking The Hired Hand with Ride in the Whirlwind.

[cdnchris]

I'm not sure about Pina. Was it something in the New Years drawing? But Zwigoff stated he wanted to do Ghost World with Criterion, and since it's Fox/MGM it seemed to be likely. But he also said it would be a few years.

[ellipsis7]

Didn't the BITTER RICE clue turn out to be a SUMMER WITH MONIKA clue?...

[Jeff]

I'm not sure about Pina. Was it something in the New Years drawing?

Jonathan Sehring confirmed at one point that Criterion would be doing Pina. There was also some thought that the iceberg/big wet rock in the middle of the last New Year's drawing referred not to A Night to Remember, but to this:

[peerpee]

but it's okay, I'm sure 2013 will have plenty (Le Samourai, Wild Strawberries, Ikiru, Tokyo Story, Ace in the Hole..)

As well as those you mention, I'd like to see Blu-ray upgrades of:

IVAN'S CHILDHOOD (should be easy?)
ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (would look great)
THE SCARLET EMPRESS (ace materials are available)
ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL (would look great)
NANOOK OF THE NORTH + those amazing HVE editions of MAN OF ARAN and LOUSIANA STORY brought into the CC
obviously ANDREI RUBLEV
L'AVVENTURA (+L'ECLISSE+LA NOTTE)
SPARTACUS (if Universal will admit the truth, that they badly muffed the BD)
DREYER BOX
THRONE OF BLOOD
LA STRADA (the DVD is HD from the neg!)
AU HASARD BALTHAZAR / MOUCHETTE / PICKPOCKET / with L'ARGENT? A Bresson Blu Box?
LA BETE HUMAINE
THIS SPORTING LIFE
THE THIEF OF BAGDAD
some of those Ophuls if they can be improved at all?


and they're late with:

HENRY V (out on UK BD - looks great)
RIFIFI (amazing BD out in the UK)
EYES WITHOUT A FACE (out in France on BD)
THE RIVER (out in France on BD)
BOUDU (out in UK)
SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE (out in Spain on BD)
where's BICYCLE THIEVES? (out on UK BD)
CRIA CUERVOS (out soon in UK on BD)

[matrixschmatrix]

Are there HD scans of the Dreyers anywhere? I've been putting off buying it in hopes of a blu set, but I get the feeling it's going to take a lot of upgrading to get there.

[peerpee]

I know that there are HD scans of the Dreyers. I don't know whether Criterion have them or access to them though (they should be able to get them?) A lot of work to upgrade a boxset though.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Re Ophuls remark from Nick above. Festival Lumiere at Lyon are featuring an Ophuls programme including restorations of Le Plaisir, Madame De, Letter from an Unknown Woman and Caught. So perhaps there's something on the horizon. Strange though that the upcoming Gaumont box isn't blu, although it might be just their policy of DVD only box sets and individual releases on blu.

[perkizitore]

Thief Of Baghdad will be out on blu-ray release in Germany pretty soon.

[mfunk9786]

From Cigarettes and Red Vines:

@cigsandredvines: A reader at the ATP festival passed along that @Criterion is looking into releasing HARD EIGHT. Nothing official but it's "being discussed."

[Jeff]

From Cigarettes and Red Vines:

@cigsandredvines: A reader at the ATP festival passed along that @Criterion is looking into releasing HARD EIGHT. Nothing official but it's "being discussed."

Nice. The original DVD was great, but is long out of print. A Criterion release could possibly also afford Anderson the chance to retitle the film with his preferred title, Sydney.

As long as you're looking at the Rysher properties now distributed by Paramount, Criterion, I'll take Big Night as well.

[eerik]

I wonder if they'll release it as Sydney (PTA preferred title) or Hard Eight.

[mfunk9786]

Hey which title are they gonna release it under (that's three posts in a row, let's keep it going)

[swo17]

I hope they release it under the title Punch Drunk Love.

[warren oates]

Or as a twofer some month. Punch Drunk Love is so overdue on blu I'd almost settle for a Twilight Time of it.

[Peacock]

More minor new acquisitions to help push back all the classic Janus titles they are sitting on.

[ianungstad]

Great news on Hard Eight. Man, they are getting some great films in this new Paramount deal.

[criterion10]

Great news about Hard Eight. Considering that a Paul Thomas Anderson page is already up, couldn't it thus be assumed that Criterion has the rights to Punch-Drunk Love? Also, remember that comment back on the Facebook page around announcement time where they said something to the effect of "maybe one day."

[tojoed]

Sydney Eight is a good title. Then everyone's happy.

[knives]

I remember hearing an interview with PTA around the time There Will Be Blood came out where he expressed embarrassment over his behavior in regards to the title and said he should have just let it go so I doubt there will be a title change this late in the game.

[zedz]

Yeah, I find the "Sydney" cultishness pretty embarrassing too. It's like the 'PTA Extra-Special Fanboy Club' secret handshake or something. Like it or lump it, the film is called Hard Eight. It's not as if "Sydney" is, like, an Earth-shatteringly genius title that the world was cruelly denied, is it? (Now, if its 'preferred title' was something like Go, Go, Second-Time Virgin! I might feel differently.)

[Jeff]

I actually prefer Hard Eight to Sydney, but it would not be uncriterionlike to release it under the director's preferred title if it was still a big deal to him, which it doesn't sound like it is.

[peerpee]

Nah, I don't think it's "cultishness", nor is it embarrassing to want a director to be able to name a film that he also wrote. 'Tedious' that it's taken so long to correct it? Yes! -- Fuckers are always getting in the way, and fuckers got in the way with this one - so much so that he stole the neg, put his cut back together, and got it screened at Cannes without Rysher knowing. Rysher named it "HARD EIGHT". Rysher are dead. I vote for a rebirth.

[warren oates]

Both titles leave something to be desired. Hard Eight sounds straight to videoish and staring Ving Rhames, while Sydney conjures up a tomboy romcom and/or a Baz Luhrmann musical about Australian night life. The writer/director's not always right about the title. Look at David Mamet, who, if he'd gotten his way, would have called his con man flick The Tell instead of House of Games, which is one of the better titled works in his oeuvre, just shy of the real masterpieces of naming like Glengarry, Glen Ross.