Forthcoming Lists Discussion and Random Speculation Vol. 5

[knives]

There's way better Sherman's to tackle though. It's fine in its present form paired with the other films in the series.

[Moe Dickstein]

It's my favorite of his though, and the only one of the 3 Poltergeists not on Blu yet.

[Lowry_Sam]

I know you're kidding but ..

I've actually only seen Moonstruck (and bits of Solarbabies on Youtube), I just picked a bunch of MGM titles (from the 80s, which for me marks the decline of the quality of the output of the American film industry), with only one of those titles being an actual possibility. I included Moonstruck because I think it's inferior to The Big Chill, the lukewarm response of which prompted the MGM discussion.

[JabbaTheSlut]

Moonstruck inferior to The Big Chill? Moonstruck is a pitch-perfect romantic comedy, smart, funny, emotional with a great cast. The Big Chill has not aged as well, watched it couple years ago: the tone of the film and the performances felt phony. The camraderie, the history, the nostalgia seemed so forced. Too written, too acted in precision, to have anything real, any life, in it.

[Lowry_Sam]

Moonstruck inferior to The Big Chill? Moonstruck is a pitch-perfect romantic comedy, smart, funny, emotional with a great cast.

No, Amelie is a pitch-perfect romantic comedy.

the performances felt phony. The camraderie, the history, the nostalgia seemed so forced. Too written, too acted in precision, to have anything real, any life, in it.

I agree, but it's also how I felt about Moonstruck when I originally saw it, but with a whole bunch of annoying Italian cliches thrown in to the mix in an attempt to give the movie character....at least with The Big Chill, you can just close your eyes & listen to the music and the whole WASPiness of it dissolves under the Motown soundtrack.

[Matt]

Moonstruck inferior to The Big Chill? Moonstruck is a pitch-perfect romantic comedy, smart, funny, emotional with a great cast.

No, Amelie is a pitch-perfect romantic comedy.

HAHAHAHAHAHA! Now I KNOW you're just pulling our legs.

[rrenault]

I'm assuming Rohmer's Six Moral Tales wouldn't get a blu-ray upgrade anytime soon. If that's the case, is there a chance Criterion would put out a stand-alone blu-ray of My Night at Maud's, since that's essentially the centerpiece of Rohmer's entire filmography, along with The Aviator's Wife ?

[MichaelB]

I'm assuming Rohmer's Six Moral Tales wouldn't get a blu-ray upgrade anytime soon.

Why not? Haven't they recently been remastered in HD in France?

[rrenault]

Well the Six Moral Tales certainly haven't been released on blu-ray in France if that's what you're asking.

[MichaelB]

Well the Six Moral Tales certainly haven't been released on blu-ray in France if that's what you're asking.

Not yet, but they're coming out in November.

[colinr0380]

Poltergeist III is a seriously underrated film and much more inventive than the relatively uninspired Part 2 - perhaps not a Criterion release but I'd certainly lobby for a loaded Shout! Factory set of it.

I'm presuming that Criterion are waiting on The Big Chill until they can double bill it with Grand Canyon! (I kid! But if they ever do release a 'serious' Steve Martin film they should try and get their hands on that late 90s BBC Omnibus episode, the name of which is escaping me at the moment, in which he does a neat 'day in the life' expose of his routine! Either that or his Scene By Scene episode!)

And, since we are throwing out John Badham films left and right, I've always liked Nick of Time, the realtime kidnap thriller (anticipating a few trends in television there!). Lean, compact and fast paced, that's a great little film.

[kekid]

I recently saw Olmi's "Tree of Wooden Clogs" in New York. It is a great film. I would like to see it restored and with good supplemental material. It would be a great Blu Ray for Criterion. Are there rights issues? Are there any other issues?

[ianungstad]

I think it's very likely that Criterion will pair The Big Chill with Return of the Secaucus Seven. The Big Chill is a remake of the Sayles film which is with IFC.

[vsski]

I think it's very likely that Criterion will pair The Big Chill with Return of the Secaucus Seven. The Big Chill is a remake of the Sayles film which is with IFC.

Personally I would prefer a reverse of that and have the Sayles film be the main feature and the Big Chill the supplement, as imho the Sayles movie is vastly superior. However, for commerical reasons that is unlikely to happen and my bet is on an edition of the Big Chill only.

[Lowry_Sam]

I recently saw Olmi's "Tree of Wooden Clogs" in New York. It is a great film. I would like to see it restored and with good supplemental material. It would be a great Blu Ray for Criterion. Are there rights issues? Are there any other issues?

I have the dvd, which looks to be possibly going OOP (Amazon prices on the R1 are more expensive than the UK edition). It's on Koch Lorber (as is The Umbrellas of Cherbourg), so a definite possibility. Though I'd love to see restorations/upgrades to Il Posto & I Fidanzati, with 80 films to his name, you would think Criterion could get their hands on more than just these 2.

[Gregory]

I think it's a really bad idea to pair Return of the Secaucus 7 with The Big Chill, and I don't think the latter was a remake of the former. They have obvious similarities, but no direct connection other than that Kasdan may have been inspired by the Sayles film, though he has denied this. There are many, many differences between the films and their stories and characters. I never really got the sense that the Big Chill characters had ever been New Left or seriously countercultural but had simply taken the Sixties detour on their path to careers and "success" in rather ordinary terms.
Sayles says more about it than I can, in the Sayles on Sayles book. Basically, in addition to class differences between the two groups, Secaucus 7 is about people who were politically involved and were trying to maintain their idealism, while The Big Chill is about those who have lost any idealism they once had or never had any in the first place.

They're really about very different people, which is why I never felt like it was a rip-off. . . It's like saying if my movie had an Indian and a horse in it: "Oh, it's a rip-off of Shane."

[domino harvey]

I assumed by "pair" the poster meant sister releases (like Topsy-Turvy/the Mikado)

[Moe Dickstein]

The irony of Nick of Time is that having Johnny Depp in the lead would be worth a lot more now than it was back then. That's one of my favorites of John's, not least for Christopher Walken's manic performance.

[Jeff]

I thought I was the only one who liked Nick of Time. It took a critical beating for its undeniable absurdity, which I always thought was beside the point. Lots of fun.

[knives]

I'll put in a third for it. Not great cinema, but at least very fun. Reminds me of a more serious Premium Rush from last year.

[colinr0380]

Bridget Fonda

Whatever happened to her? The Assassin remains one of my favorite guilty pleasures. Found her to be so sexy for a stretch there in the early to mid 90s and she's fallen off the face of the earth since.

She settled down with Danny Elfman and gave up acting completely over a decade ago. She is terminally underrated and will probably always be-- though I venture most of the posts about her on the board come from me, ha. Her hair in Point of No Return is one of the original wonders of the modern world

I do prefer Nikita, though The Assassin is certainly a more than creditable remake, especially in the way that it finds a great substitute actress for the character of the older 'brothel madam of the hitman scene' originally played by Jeanne Moreau, replacing her with Anne Bancroft!

On Bridget Fonda, I'm afraid everything she did later still gets overshadowed for me by her stunning role in the Liebestod section of Aria (Warning: the linked video is NSFW due to extreme naughtiness and scenes of Las Vegas gambling)

[dwk]

It took me a few days but I've found another Zatoichi sketch from Simon Kercz

More zatoichi. Plotting an illustration on the blind swordsman's extrasensory perception. #zatoichi #criterionfilmcollection

And here is Andrew MacLean's finished (?) piece

[Ibnezra]

Great One-armed Swordsman / Zatoichi pic!

I'm excited to dig into the Zatoichi banquet Criterion's offering on Hulu. Hopefully we'll see some Blu-rays before the end of the year. I'm ashamed to say that I've only seen the Katsu helmed Zatoichi from the late 80's, does anyone have any suggestions as to which of the classic films I should view first? Perhaps I should just go in order of release date, but if the first film isn't strong I could get discouraged... although it's not very likely.

[bainbridgezu]

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters is on the short list for an upgrade, according to an interview linked by CriterionCast. Unfortunately, if Schrader's comments are accurate, the packaging will be standardized (Slacker, Two-Lane Blacktop) as will new pressings of the DVD (The Double Life of Veronique).

[cdnchris]

It should be worth noting that the Slacker DVD is being reissued with a standard case as well, dropping the digipak, which I believe is OOP.