Forthcoming Lists Discussion and Random Speculation Vol. 5

[Askew]

Wasn't there a Red River Newsletter clue too?

I think the clue that people thought was for Red River was for the Lean/Coward set instead.

[jindianajonz]

It looks like once again it's going to be close to impossible for Criterion to get to everything they announced via the New Year's drawing and subsequent newsletter clues. Based on only those clues, here's what should be coming in November and December:

Frances Ha
All that Heaven Allows
Scanners
Eraserhead
Barton Fink
Zatoichi
The Kid
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Well, the newsletter clues don't imply release dates the way the New Years drawing do- the New Years drawing is supposed to be what's coming out within the next year, but the newsletter stuff just means its coming out eventually.

I think actually it would be great to see a really in depth article/interview with Becker and the other top people at the label to just get a sense of their direction for things, what do they feel is important in terms of title selection, what kind of extras are worth investing in, what's changed with Eclipse that's cause the release trickle.

My personal theory is that Shoah and Pierre Etaix were both slated for Eclipse but bumped to the mainline; if you treat them both as Eclipse sets then it's been a decent enough year (4 so far and likely a fifth before January)

[ptatler]

So, best case scenario is three Eclipse sets this year, assuming one comes out next month, since to the best of my knowledge they've never released an Eclipse in December. I don't understand why there isn't an Eclipse set every month-- there's no extras and no hi-def reconfigurations and Janus is sitting on hundreds upon hundreds of titles. But 2-3 a year? Seriously, what has happened to this company?

Last year was such a banner year for Eclipse [Gorin, Czech pearls, Downey Sr., Gremillon, Gainsborough, Shochiku horror (Mailer intentionally left out)]... I was really hoping for that momentum to continue.

My personal theory is that Shoah and Pierre Etaix were both slated for Eclipse but bumped to the mainline; if you treat them both as Eclipse sets then it's been a decent enough year (4 so far and likely a fifth before January)

I guess I see the logic in this but -- as has been said already several times -- it would be nice to have a firmer understanding of what their aims are with the Eclipse line at this point (other than as a clearing house label).

[Red Screamer]

Looks like they lowered the prices for both The Uninvited and I Married A Witch. Probably just took a while to change them

[johnnysnatchclub7]

After the price drops, everyone can collectively take a breath now, right? Thought we were going to need some lynching paraphernalia for a sec.

[Drucker]

After the price drops, everyone can collectively take a breath now, right? Thought we were going to need some lynching paraphernalia for a sec.

Very nice to see that The Uninvited and I Married a Witch dropped in price. It was a simple error after all.

[domino harvey]

After the price drops, everyone can collectively take a breath now, right? Thought we were going to need some lynching paraphernalia for a sec.

Very nice to see that The Uninvited and I Married a Witch dropped in price. It was a simple error after all.

Or it was Criterion realizing they went too far and taking a step back

[Charles]

After the price drops, everyone can collectively take a breath now, right? Thought we were going to need some lynching paraphernalia for a sec.

Very nice to see that The Uninvited and I Married a Witch dropped in price. It was a simple error after all.

Or it was Criterion realizing they went too far and taking a step back

Really. Seems more like they were floating the old trial balloon. But whatever happened, happened -- and I for one am much happier that a little bit of sanity has been restored.

[criterion10]

Just a random thought that's probably invalid, but is there a chance maybe Criterion has more Cronenberg's than Scanners and The Brood? I mean, I assume that they would want Crash, but for the time being, considering WB has it, I'll assume that Criterion doesn't...

But, who has the rights to something like Rabid, or other films in similar vein to Scanners and The Brood? I could picture them putting out a small box set of sorts if they had at least another film to go with the two they already have.

And since The Dead Zone is Paramount and OOP, I assume that they would be able to license it out (although WB may have reissued this one).

[Minkin]

Looks like they lowered the prices for both The Uninvited and I Married A Witch. Probably just took a while to change them

That's a good sign (that they aren't going to charge us the same prices between a barebones title and something like Lonesome/etc).

It does beg the question though, what the hell happened to The Ghost Goes West? Does this mean its going to get its own spine? Rene Clair Eclipse? Is there some other goofy ghostly/spiritual Clair movie that it could possibly be tacked onto? Why wouldn't Criterion add it? Better than it sitting on Hulu for the rest of eternity.

[colinr0380]

It's not really goofy or ghostly but I'd love to see Clair's And Then There Were None make it into the Collection.

I agree about the lack of features this month being pretty disappointing for such long awaited titles - it's like Zazie dans le Metro all over again!

[Askew]

It's not really goofy or ghostly but I'd love to see Clair's And Then There Were None make it into the Collection.

VCI is releasing that later this year on bluray.

[dwk]

Just a random thought that's probably invalid, but is there a chance maybe Criterion has more Cronenberg's than Scanners and The Brood? I mean, I assume that they would want Crash, but for the time being, considering WB has it, I'll assume that Criterion doesn't...

But, who has the rights to something like Rabid, or other films in similar vein to Scanners and The Brood? I could picture them putting out a small box set of sorts if they had at least another film to go with the two they already have.

And since The Dead Zone is Paramount and OOP, I assume that they would be able to license it out (although WB may have reissued this one).

Rabid is owned by Somerville House.
Shivers is owned by Lionsgate.

[Moe Dickstein]

and we all know what a Paragon of quality VCI is.

ATTWN is my favorite Clair film and I'd LOVE to see it in the collection - think what they could do with Agatha Christie!

[criterion10]

Looks like they lowered the prices for both The Uninvited and I Married A Witch. Probably just took a while to change them

I would like to take a moment to commend Criterion for lowering the prices. I assume that they saw the posts on their Facebook page and read through this forum (they do read through this forum from time to time, right?), and then decided to act upon our complaints. It does show that they still are one of the best (well, the best to me) home video companies around.

[Feego]

And since The Dead Zone is Paramount and OOP, I assume that they would be able to license it out (although WB may have reissued this one).

The Dead Zone is one of the many Paramount films that is now distributed by Warner Brothers and is readily available again.

[swo17]

I would like to take a moment to commend Criterion for lowering the prices. I assume that they saw the posts on their Facebook page and read through this forum (they do read through this forum from time to time, right?), and then decided to act upon our complaints. It does show that they still are one of the best (well, the best to me) home video companies around.

That presupposes though that they were trying to see if they could get away with the higher price point initially, which would kind of cancel out any goodwill generated from lowering the prices today. I think it's far more likely that their template lists a default price of $39.99, and they just neglected to change it for these two titles until today.

[matrixschmatrix]

That price drop, whatever the reasoning behind it, makes the features on those releases go from almost insultingly thin to actually pretty good, really- and more importantly, reinforces the idea that a $40 price tag necessitates a reasonable features set, and sort of implies that Criterion's not backing off from that. I was probably going to buy these anyway, but now I'm really excited about them.

[Jeff]

I don't think it was just an error caused by a web default. The PDF sell sheet ads they sent out, which are a completely different format, also had the titles at $39.95 on Blu-ray and $29.95 on DVD. I do think the online reaction might have caused them to rethink the price point on those two. It wasn't just here and Facebook, but in the comments on just about every site. Good call, Criterion. I'll actually pre-order those two from Amazon now rather than waiting for a 50% off sale.

The same thing actually happened during the early days of Criterion Blu-rays when Wings of Desire, Howard's End, and Monsoon Wedding were announced. They tried pricing the Blu-rays at $49.95 (DVDs were still $39.95 at that time). People freaked and pointed out that Criterion's initial Blu-ray announcement said they had promised the Blu-rays would be priced at the same level as the DVDs. They lowered the prices a few days later.

[zedz]

That does suggest that this 'pricing malfunction' was actually a trial balloon that went down, to quote Keith Moon, like a lead zeppelin.

[bamwc2]

I was confused by all of the discussion of the price point yesterday. I swear that I looked about ten minutes after the titles were posted and they were listed as having a MSRP at the lower price point. We've seen the higher price point mistakenly appear in the past only to be corrected within the hour.

Re. Claire: Since we didn't get The Ghost Goes West this month, I doubt that it'll ever make it off of Hulu (though I pray that I'm wrong because I think it's a fairly excellent movie. However, given it's presence on Hulu, I think that we'll probably see Les grandes manoeuvres enter the collection sometime in the next couple of years.

[domino harvey]

It was no mistake. No lower tier Blu-ray release has had on-disc extras beyond a trailer, with the exception of the Organizer, which had a brief introduction. This is why nearly-barebones discs cost the same as something stacked like Sweet Smell of Success. Criterion just got ahead of themselves with gouging their market, saw the backlash, and did quick damage control

[The Narrator Returns]

Actually, Moment of Truth had an interview with the director.

[Jeff]

And Ministry of Fear had a "new interview with Fritz Lang scholar Joe McElhaney."

But still...

[vsski]

I think Jeff summarized it quite nicely and I agree this was no mistake or slow reaction on web postings. They tried this before with releases like Something Wild and 3:10 to Yuma and basically got away with it, but I believe the crucial mistake this time around was to have 3 new releases nearly bare-bones at the same time.