Forthcoming Lists Discussion and Random Speculation Vol. 4

[Chaney_TUX]

Ah! Wilderness...
funny thing about Haxan is that there's a random not-relevant shot about Persian witches in the film!

btw, I thought this forum/board would be more sophisticated than IMDb.

[MichaelB]

btw, I thought this forum/board would be more sophisticated than IMDb.

Well, you thought wrong. Clearly.

[Chaney_TUX]

Obviosuly.

[swo17]

I always hate it when I post a serious question on IMDb and the only responses I can get are quippy references to 100-year old films. When will those guys grow up?

[MichaelB]

I always hate it when I post a serious question on IMDb and the only responses I can get are quippy references to 100-year old films.

90-year-old films, please. We have standards round here.

[Professor Wagstaff]

I imagined the process to be something like this, with Peter Becker in charge of the chicken while Mulvaney plays kazoo.

[zedz]

I believe it's been well established that Criterion closely monitors this forum, waits until some forum member announces that they've finally tracked down a shitty edition of a long out-of-print title and paid through the nose for it, then they announce a newly restored BluRay of the film the following month.

Otherwise, they select directors' names from a Scrabble set missing the letters R, I, V, E and T.

Truer answer: there's a bunch of producers, a bunch of well-established industry contacts (primarily Janus, but also IFC), a long, slow pipeline of ongoing restorations that they'll be keeping their eye on, the vagaries of personal taste, the realities of the market, the nightmare of scheduling, and very occasional bolts of inspiration in the form of consumer suggestions or stray finds. Within those constraints there isn't a lot of wiggle room. Criterion can't just magic up good elements for any desired title, and some rights are unnegotiable or too legally tangled to be economically feasible.

[barryconvex]

...some rights are unnegotiable or too legally tangled to be economically feasible.

can you give any examples of these? would one of them be Out:1?

[ianungstad]

Has anyone heard if Palisades-Tartan has lost the rights to their Park Chan Wook films? The dvds and blurays for Oldboy/Lady Vengeance/Sympathy for Mr.Vengeance all seem to be out of print on Amazon. (Some of the dvds are available from 3rd party retailers). Oldboy is still available for streaming but I figure that won't be for much longer. Tartan filed for bankruptcy back in 2008 and the library was sold on the cheap to Palisades Media. The new company may not have the resources or desire to renew the rights if Criterion, Shout, Kino, etc. went after these films. The director is certainly much more known now than when these were new releases.

Also, it looks like Anchor Bay took Dawn of the Dead off their site sometime in the last week, so they've definitely lost the rights to all their Romero films. It's likely that Scream picked this up since they are reissuing Day of the Dead (but it's worth noting that the films come from different licensors.) Cliff says they don't have it but he could just be playing coy since they might not want to announce it this early. One of the major studios might have also nabbed it since Zombies are so popular at the moment. A Criterion would be nice but existing releases of this film have been pretty stacked. It will be interesting to see which studio/label landed the rights.

[tenia]

...some rights are unnegotiable or too legally tangled to be economically feasible.

can you give any examples of these? would one of them be Out:1?

I understood it is the case.
In France, Fanny and Alexander have always been a nightmare to licence, that's why we still don't have even a DVD edition of it, with Gaumont only planning to release the theater cut and the TV cut next year (finally !).

[Adam]

I received a newsletter from the Flaherty Seminar, named for Robert Flaherty. In it is this:

"Criterion Collection Partnership - We recently negotiated our distribution agreement with Criterion to re-release Nanook of the North and Louisiana Story on DVD. Look for these films along with many exciting special features in 2013!"

That is the full information provided.

Seems pretty official, if limited in info.

[jwd5275]

Let's hope we get Man of Aran and Tabu too...

[swo17]

Hopefully they are just being informal when they say DVD and not Blu-ray. If ever a film cried out for hi-def treatment, it's Louisiana Story.

[htshell]

Nanook was presented in an HD transfer at the Flaherty Seminar, so that's a safe bet.

[zedz]

Hopefully they are just being informal when they say DVD and not Blu-ray. If ever a film cried out for hi-def treatment, it's Louisiana Story.

The prospect of Louisiana Story on BluRay (and I can't imagine Criterion would pass up that opportunity), along with a sampling of the hours of available outtakes, is enough to send my head spinning.

[HistoryProf]

Hopefully they are just being informal when they say DVD and not Blu-ray. If ever a film cried out for hi-def treatment, it's Louisiana Story.

The prospect of Louisiana Story on BluRay (and I can't imagine Criterion would pass up that opportunity), along with a sampling of the hours of available outtakes, is enough to send my head spinning.

I just gasped reading that post. holy cow. I mean...wow. and within the year? This with the Medium Cool hint is the best 24 hours not around the 15th of the month in a long long time.

Throw in a Rouch box set of his ethnographic work and I will officially know what heaven looks like.

[stroszeck]

Anyone know what the chances are that we will ever see Patrick Dewaere in some capacity in the collection? I just finished watching his manic, pitch-perfect performance in Serie Noire and have to say, in spite of his untimely death at 35, his short but amazing body of work should be more recognized, both in Europe and, especially, in America.

[Arthur House]

I'd like to second that. I recently celebrated my birthday by taking some friends to a rep screening of Get Out Your Handkerchiefs. The problem is, I just checked up on some of Dewaere's biggest titles on IMDB, and it appears Studio Canal owns or at least distributes many of them--Serie Noire, Get Out Your Handkerchiefs & Beau Pere to name three.

Claude Miller's The Best Way To Walk is with MK2, and saw a now OOP dvd release via Fox Lorber. So it could be in play perhaps?

[zedz]

Get Out Your Handkerchiefs

Well, there aren't too many other pro-pedophilia films in the collection, so it'd fill a niche - I guess.

[bamwc2]

Get Out Your Handkerchiefs

Well, there aren't too many other pro-pedophilia films in the collection, so it'd fill a niche - I guess.

No, that niche belongs squarely to Janus's David Hamilton acquisitions. Off the top of my head though, there doesn't seem to be much of a shortages with Arabian Nights, Harold & Maude (Depending on how old Harold is), and Murmur of the Heart. Other films like Salo, My Life as a Dog, and The Ice Storm all feature underage sexuality, but it would be a stretch to call any of those an endorsement.

For what it's worth though, Get Out Your Handkerchiefs is a fine film and I'm glad to have the Criterion LD. If ever given the chance they'd probably re-release it.

[Gregory]

Get Out Your Handkerchiefs

Well, there aren't too many other pro-pedophilia films in the collection, so it'd fill a niche - I guess.

No, that niche belongs squarely to Janus's David Hamilton acquisitions. Off the top of my head though, there doesn't seem to be much of a shortages with Arabian Nights, Harold & Maude (Depending on how old Harold is), and Murmur of the Heart. Other films like Salo, My Life as a Dog, and The Ice Storm all feature underage sexuality, but it would be a stretch to call any of those an endorsement.
For what it's worth though, Get Out Your Handkerchiefs is a fine film and I'm glad to have the Criterion LD. If ever given the chance they'd probably re-release it.

Harold is definitely not underaged. Aside from that, no surprise that many films will continue to reflect the reality that teenagers tend to have some form of sexuality.

[Lowry_Sam]

Get Out Your Handkerchiefs

Well, there aren't too many other pro-pedophilia films in the collection, so it'd fill a niche - I guess.

No, that niche belongs squarely to Janus's David Hamilton acquisitions. Off the top of my head though, there doesn't seem to be much of a shortages with Arabian Nights, Harold & Maude (Depending on how old Harold is), and Murmur of the Heart

..and don't forget Die Blechtrommel, If..., My Own Private Idaho, & Fat Girl. Now if only Kids, Careful He Might Hear You, Europa, Europa, Happiness, American Beauty, and Lolita would be added to the collection...

[Brian C]

If.... is pro-pedophilia? What did I miss during that one? Maybe this discussion has just gotten really stupid?

And if we do decide to keep being stupid ... I haven't seen most of the others on that list, but can we please distinguish between the lust for a high school senior in American Beauty and actual pedophilia? The word has a meaning, look it up.

[knives]

If... is probably the closest to accurate mentioned yet as a subplot concerns a relationship between an older boy and a decidedly prepubescent boy though I still wouldn't call it pro-pedophilia.

[Brian C]

Yes, perhaps I'm really dense, but I read If.... as a rather scathing attack on boarding school culture, not as a celebration of it. People here are conflating the presence of certain content with an endorsement of said content.