Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

[CSM126]

what are the chances Criterion resurrects Once Were Warriors from their LD days?

Assuming the rights are still with Film Movement it might be possible (they licensed Farewell My Concubine from them).

And if we’re talking Film Movement titles I’d also wonder about Robert Frank and Rudy Wurlitzer’s Candy Mountain, which has a new 4K restoration and is a dream title of mine for basically anyone to release so I can retire my VHS.

[Forrest Taft]

Film Movement are releasing Candy Mountain early next year!

[hearthesilence]

Anyone see the restoration yet? I posted this before, but I caught what may have been an early preview of the restoration at MoMA (the description said it was a new digital restoration courtesy of Film Movement) as part of their Bulle Ogier retrospective early this year. To be clear, the only version that was circulating was a crappy VHS transfer, so it goes without saying this was much more preferable, but frustratingly it looked very grain managed and looked more like a video image than something trying to replicate the look of film. If this is the same exact restoration that's currently playing, that upcoming Blu-ray may be disappointing.

[domino harvey]

I'm trying to compile complete and incomplete excerpts from Cinéastes de notre temps on Criterion releases. Here's what I know so far:

FULL EPISODE
Bresson: A Man Escaped
Casavetes: Faces
Guitry: La poison
Ophuls: Lola Montes
Pasolini: Pasolini 101
Renoir: Toni
Vigo: the Complete Jean Vigo

EXCERPT ONLY
Becker: Casque d'or & Touchez pas au grisbi
Bunuel: Viridiana
Fuller: the Naked Kiss
Melville: Le cercle rouge
Pagnol: the Baker's Wife
Truffaut: the Antoine Doinel Collection & Jules et Jim
Varda: 4 by Agnes Varda

Any I'm missing?

Also, Rohmer's episode about Carl Th Dreyer is not on a Criterion disc but got subs earlier this year on back channels, for those interested and who missed it (like me)!

[cdnchris]

I try to log as much as I can, but this is what I have:

Cinéastes de notre temps

I also have this, and I'm not sure if I have them logged under the incorrect program:

Cinéma de notre temps

[domino harvey]

Thanks! Your second link is for the 90s incarnation, the first link is the original run in the 60s

The Boudu excerpt is of the full program on Toni, so I didn’t include it

[zedz]

Claire Denis' episode(s) on Jacques Rivette appear on the Celine et Julie disc.

[ryannichols7]

Also, Rohmer's episode about Carl Th Dreyer is not on a Criterion disc but got subs earlier this year on back channels, for those interested and who missed it (like me)!

if they ever upgrade their Dreyer box, I would hope this is something they include. they seem very uninterested in that, though...

[ianthemovie]

A seven-minute excerpt from the David Lynch episode is included on Eraserhead.

[ianthemovie]

Also, not sure if this is also included on Toni, but The Rules of the Game has "Part 2" of an episode on Renoir, subtitled "Le regle et l'exception," directed by Rivette.

[domino harvey]

Also, Rohmer's episode about Carl Th Dreyer is not on a Criterion disc but got subs earlier this year on back channels, for those interested and who missed it (like me)!

if they ever upgrade their Dreyer box, I would hope this is something they include. they seem very uninterested in that, though...

I watched about 20 minutes of this and gave up. I don't know if I'll ever finish it because the interviews Rohmer presents us are so bad and frankly inept (he includes footage of the star of Day of Wrath losing her train of thought and never finding it, which should never have seen the light of day-- the actual Dreyer interview so far is equally insightful). But he does give us sequences of famous Dane Anna Karina reading out loud from Cahiers, so that's cool, I guess

[Hogfather]

Also, not sure if this is also included on Toni, but The Rules of the Game has "Part 2" of an episode on Renoir, subtitled "Le regle et l'exception," directed by Rivette.

In 1967, Jacques Rivette made a three-part tv documentary for Cineastes des notre temps called Renoir le patron. The first episode, about Renoir's early career, is included on Toni. The second episode is included in part on Boudu Saved From Drowning and as a whole on La chienne. The third episode is about The Rules of the Game and La Marseillaise; only the excerpts about the former are included on that release.

[Hogfather]

There are a couple 4Ks listed on Kino's While Supplies Last sale, and they're all Criterion blu-ray releases that are still in print:

- 12 Angry Men
- Dressed to Kill
- The Great Escape
- In the Heat of the Night
- Killer's Kiss
- The Killing
- The Manchurian Candidate
- The Night of the Hunter
- Paths of Glory
- Some Like It Hot

Pretty sure this means Kino's license on these titles has expired and Criterion will be putting out 4ks of these pretty soon, especially since some of the Kino releases use the same 4k transfers that the Criterion blu-rays use.

[captveg]

"Pretty soon" is of course relative. I can surely see many getting upgraded, but I'd say they'll probably take longer than most labels would if they acquired the 4K UHD rights for these titles. Especially since these would be releases of titles already on the market, even if OOP.

[yoloswegmaster]

Well it looks like they stopped updating the screencaps for existing pages early in the morning, so we won't be able to know what's getting upgraded anymore.

[Mr.DarjeelingLimited]

Well it looks like they stopped updating the screencaps for existing pages early in the morning, so we won't be able to know what's getting upgraded anymore.

This makes me sad hopefully it comes back next month.

[yoloswegmaster]

This makes me sad hopefully it comes back next month.

I doubt it since I know the pages for Godzilla, Seven Samurai, and Paris, Texas weren't updated on the day they received upgrades.

[Mr.DarjeelingLimited]

https://www.vudu.com/content/browse/det ... id=3810015

Art for a Jean De Florette and Manon of the Spring boxset is uploaded to VUDU.

[domino harvey]

Wow, one of the worst covers of all time if that’s the box art

[Mr.DarjeelingLimited]

Wow, one of the worst covers of all time if that’s the box art

Heavily agree, both films contain a plethora of striking visuals to use instead.

[fiendishthingy]

For what it's worth, the same pictures (arranged differently) are used in the artwork for the two films on the Criterion Channel. It seems odd, too, to have the image from Manon of the Spring at the top and the one from Jean de Florette at the bottom.

[What A Disgrace]

I hope this release would include Pagnol's own version as well. I wouldn't even be mad if it had no supplements, just give me some more Pagnol!

[ryannichols7]

sometimes you just land a month where it's a lot of filmmakers you don't like, and that's just the way things go. glad others are happy for sure, and at the least I'm glad to see a Columbia Classics rescue that I quite enjoy. but man, I can recognize these are all pretty in need/sought after titles, just funny they all landed in one month like this

[MichaelMiles]

I noticed that BFI has announced a blu ray release of Stray Dog. I wonder if that means Criterionb will be doing the same. The slow pace of getting more Kurosawa on blu-ray is really annoying. They only seem to want to do 4K upgrades on already available blu ray titles. What is happening with Red Beard, Madadayo, Rhapsody in August, The Idiot, Quiet Duel, etc.? Some have already been restored.

[yoloswegmaster]

Alan Rudolph revealed that Choose Me will be getting a Criterion release in this interview:

Criterion picked up "Choose Me"—40 years later, but I'll take it. That is my first film with them, and they do really good work. We have retimed that, and man is that good. They told me they wanted "Remember My Name" but that there is some kind of legal thing involving the music. Now, everyone involved with the music is dead, and the music wasn't pop music—it was Alberta Hunter and her blues tunes. It is probably just some lawyer who got lazy and didn't do something, but that has stopped it from anybody who has tried to pursue it. Nobody will tell me what the issue is—they just say it is a legal thing.