Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

[yoshimori]

Total longshot here, but any chance of Yasmin Ahmad? The "Orked trilogy" would be a dream come true for me.

Would love to see The Convert and Talentime -- and all her commercial work -- on blu-ray. Dreams dreams dreams.

[flyonthewall2983]

The Palm DVD is evidently out of print, and indeed Palm themselves seem to be a "zombie company"—they still have a website, but AFAIK they've released nothing since 2009, and despite being called "The Palm Store" there's no way to actually order anything through the site. If the rights are still tied up with Palm, it's probably just a matter of waiting, since I can't imagine whatever remains of the company would bother to re-up.

Did they ever release anything on Blu-ray?

[swo17]

Stop Making Sense and a few other things.

[hollis]

The new Film Forum calendar lists The Coen Brothers' Blood Simple as "a Janus Films Release."

[jwd5275]

Both Becker and Turell are going to be on hand with the Coen Brothers for a showing Blood Simple in San Francisco on the 30th. More here

We are thrilled to present sister companies Janus Films and the Criterion Collection with this year's Mel Novikoff Award—a prize given annually to an individual or institution whose work has enhanced the film-going public's appreciation of world cinema. Join Peter Becker and Jonathan Turell of Janus/Criterion, filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen and Variety's Scott Foundas for an onstage discussion about the history of the iconic film distributor followed by a screening of the latest Janus/Criterion restoration: the Coen brothers' directorial debut, Blood Simple

[FrauBlucher]

The new Film Forum calendar lists The Coen Brothers' Blood Simple as "a Janus Films Release."

Kind of oldish news. This was mentioned at the Wexner talks.

[flyonthewall2983]

[Randall Maysin]

Hooray! I hope they're doing a full documentary

[Minkin]

The new Film Forum calendar lists The Coen Brothers' Blood Simple as "a Janus Films Release."

It still seems odd that it now belongs to Janus - as they were on record a couple of years ago balking at licensing it from MGM/Fox (probably due to the high price). Makes sense now though - that they'd rather wait and get the rights themselves (from the Coens?) than sub-license them. I would guess a Janus tour will be followed by a disc release.
--------------

Tiff is showing some recent restorations. Although they don't say who the restorations are coming from, its a bit easy to read through the lines:

Insiang (World Cinema Foundation)
An Actor's Revenge (Ichikawa)
Panique (Duvivier)
Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (finally a Blu upgrade?)
Fists in the Pocket (finally a Blu upgrade?)
A Touch of Zen (already known, many times over, to be forthcoming)
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On another note, Mill Creek keeps re-releasing titles from the OOP Sony William Castle set, but they've never included The Tingler in any of their many releases... which leads me to believe that its probably been licensed to Criterion (since Criterion + Sony have such a strategic partnership now).

[Cinephrenic]

Panique is with StudioCanal. And I doubt Criterion will have interest in releasing The Tingler. It's pretty bad. More Shout Factory, Olive or Kino territory. The others are possibilities. You forgot the Bunny Lake is Missing. New 4K restoration and it's Sony.

[cdnchris]

Bunny Lakes is with Twilight Time. Was just eying it for the sale...

[knives]

That's the ultra dumbed down explanation by the way.

[Minkin]

And I doubt Criterion will have interest in releasing The Tingler. It's pretty bad. More Shout Factory, Olive or Kino territory.

Well only TT, Mill Creek and Criterion have the ability to license from Sony. Mill Creek has had plenty of opportunities to release it (they've already done several Castle sets - DVD and now Blu) - so its either TT or Criterion. The Tingler is a 50s horror/sci-fi classic -and perhaps Castle's best film + it would be in line with the Monsters and Madman /Fiend without a Face /etc. I don't think its too long of a possibility for a Criterion Tingler.

Is the TT Blu of Bunny Lake from a 4k scan? It wouldn't be until 2017 until TT's license expires. I expect Criterion will be far more likely to increase their Sony output now (what with the UK deal) - so I'd highly expect far more Sony films - even some that were previously with other companies (see TCM + Only Angels have Wings). Also expect to see more Criterion upgrades of already existing Sony blu titles (Sex, Lies and Videotapes comes to mind - along with other former Laserdisc titles).

[Noiradelic]

Well only TT, Mill Creek and Criterion have the ability to license from Sony.

And Image. True that Kino (at least through their Studio Classics line) and Olive haven't licensed from Sony yet -- does that also hold true for Shout Factory?

[cdnchris]

Isn't Living in Oblivion (which Shout! just released) a Sony Classics title? Or did the rights change around?

[Ashirg]

The back cover of Living in Oblivion credits only Lemon Sky Productions, but Shout! Factory release some TV series from Sony library. The other possible release on blu-ray may be Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Bear, but if Sony Pictures does license to Shout! Factory theatrical features, it's very little. I think their policy for exclusive extras prevents more companies like Scream Factory or Arrow Video to license from them...

[colinr0380]

I'd certainly second a release of The Tingler, if only because it feels very in tune with the horror influences going on around it at the same period, being the only film that I'm aware of that melds the exploitation nature of The Blob ("the monster is in the cinema with you right now!") with one of the more fun homages to Les Diaboliques!

Spoiler

In what is still quite a disturbing scene of a mute woman, therefore unable to scream to kill the fear-created tingler monsters, being tormented to death.

[Minkin]

In 2012, the IFC Center held a retrospective of the films of Nanni Moretti. They don't specify for what film, but Janus was credited as involved with the retrospective. Since I'm having difficulty finding out which of the films it might be - which is perhaps the most likely?

[RSTooley]

In 2012, the IFC Center held a retrospective of the films of Nanni Moretti. They don't specify for what film, but Janus was credited as involved with the retrospective. Since I'm having difficulty finding out which of the films it might be - which is perhaps the most likely?

Upon reading this, my knee jerk reaction was to say the IFC-distributed We Have a Pope, but it doesn't appear to be on the list.

[bradass]

In 2012, the IFC Center held a retrospective of the films of Nanni Moretti. They don't specify for what film, but Janus was credited as involved with the retrospective. Since I'm having difficulty finding out which of the films it might be - which is perhaps the most likely?

Close-Up, no?

[Minkin]

In 2012, the IFC Center held a retrospective of the films of Nanni Moretti. They don't specify for what film, but Janus was credited as involved with the retrospective. Since I'm having difficulty finding out which of the films it might be - which is perhaps the most likely?

Close-Up, no?

Oh, oops. I somehow completely missed that. I was hoping it would be one of his older films (and it still could be a possibility, since nothing is attributed to any film), but yeah Close-Up would certainly explain it.

So in better news / speculation theory:

Criterion has a deal with Corinth Films - who used to license to Image - who then sub-licensed to Criterion (thus things like Bicycle Thieves, 8 1/2, etc were released on DVD by Image & also licensed to Criterion). Now Corinth licenses directly to Criterion (does Image, now RLJ, do anything other than Acorn Media stuff nowadays?). I thought it odd that Corinth only had 6 films in their "classics catalog" - and 6 very random films at that. So I did some more digging on their website and found a link buried in a PDF to "www.corinthhomevideo.com" which redirects you to Corinth's Amazon seller page. If you click on the products page you'll find that they are only selling two DVDs, both listed as from Image Entertainment (and both from 1998):

Alexander Nevsky
October (Ten Days That Shook the World)

Obviously Alexander Nevsky was licensed to Criterion (perhaps in the same sort of situation as 8 1/2, etc) - but I wonder about October (and I know Mos Films is involved as well). The essential death of Image Entertainment has left the rights to their rather large catalog up in the air. Some things have reappeared with Flicker Alley, but some with Criterion. This perhaps goes into stuff like that "AudioBrandon" article several months ago.

I do wonder what else Corinth owns the rights to. Corinth does have the documentaries: Einstein's Universe (1979) and Hollywood On Trial (1976); as well as some newer films, like Mohsen Makhmalbaf's The President (2014). Obviously Corinth has licensed out Of Mice and Men and Oedipus Rex (given the phantom pages).

[Cinephrenic]

The Son's Room?

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Pretty sure The Son's Room is still with whoever inherited it from Miramax. It's on Netflix U.S. with a Miramax logo and Amazon sells a burn-on-demand DVD-R with the studio listed as "Miramax Home Video."

[FrauBlucher]

Maybe an announcement spoiler....

Spoiler

Janus has Night on Earth listed as having a bluray.....Either a mistake or we'll know Monday.

[Ribs]

It just means that a theater can rent a BD for exhibition. Has no bearing on anything.