Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

[captveg]

Pee-wee's Big Adventure would give them an opportunity to include the recent Pee-wee as Himself documentary as it was produced by HBO.

I'd love for them to also include the original 1981 HBO special of the Pee-Wee Herman Show stage show, too.

[jazzo]

I suggested,a couple of years ago, in the Great Double Bills thread, the following:

“Pee Wee’s Big Adventure & Eyes Wide Shut

Both films follow a lost, somewhat asexual little boy through an amateur detective’s journey into the underbelly of society, where almost everyone wants to fuck them, and yet they fuck no one.”

If they announce Pee Wee today, you could actually screen both in Criterion 4K this December!

Somebody out there’s listening!

[chrisandy007]

I guess there's no reason it wouldn't be coming, but I thought Anderson didn't care about physical media or special features anymore. So unless he's doing a commentary or has a feature-length making-of doc he hasn't mentioned, I don't see what the point would be.

What is this based on? He supervised an Atmos remix for P-DL’s 4K release. There’s a well reviewed UHD of Phantom Thread as well.

[TBickle020776]

Dawn of the Discs confirmed Pee-Wee is coming from Criterion.

Not sure if for December or down the road.

[eerik]

Dawn of the Discs confirmed Pee-Wee is coming from Criterion.

Not sure if for December or down the road.

They did not confirm anything as they do not know anything. They are just reposting, without citing their sources, what other people discovered on Resillion's website.

[TBickle020776]

My excitement was at 90 percent and you brought it to 15 percent. Haha

[Blutarsky]

I have a sneaky suspicion there will be no announcements today. I know it’s a bit early but I am getting that feeling.

[beamish14]

Pee-wee's Big Adventure would give them an opportunity to include the recent Pee-wee as Himself documentary as it was produced by HBO.

I'd love for them to also include the original 1981 HBO special of the Pee-Wee Herman Show stage show, too.

HBO is a whole other animal to deal with, and they’re loathe to license titles

[redbill]

I have a sneaky suspicion there will be no announcements today. I know it’s a bit early but I am getting that feeling.

any announcements after 1:30 are pretty rare.

[goblinfootballs]

I have a sneaky suspicion there will be no announcements today. I know it’s a bit early but I am getting that feeling.

any announcements after 1:30 are pretty rare.

Blinks in remembers when announcements were routinely posted at 6pm EST.

[Finch]

Pretty decent line-up. Would have gotten His Girl Friday if I hadn't found the Sony 4K (with original poster as the artwork to boot, and a lower price than what Criterion are charging) on ebay nearly two months ago but happy to see I Know Where I'm Going! upgraded and I might also get Pee-Wee which I've not seen before.

[criterionsnob]

Now I'm going to be a little bit disappointed every month there isn't an Eclipse announcement.

[domino harvey]

Now I'm going to be a little bit disappointed every month there isn't an Eclipse announcement.

It’s cruel for them to tease a full slate of future and upgrades boxes and then already start meting them out after only the first month!

[Omensetter]

Second month in a row without a Criterion Premiere. Hopefully, they're just waiting to pair Caught by the Tides with the other Jia films next month, or maybe I just got spoiled with their once-a-month routine.

[domino harvey]

Those were getting announced separate from the main slate, weren’t they?

[swo17]

Yes. Also remember that December is often a lighter month

[Omensetter]

They announced them all together in October (also makes sense because of the Cronenberg twofer), but it's been silence since. I don't see any particular reason for them to rebrand them and then return to announcing them separately. Regardless, they're in good company as a sidelabel that's releases are meted out!

Edit: It's likely October was an anomaly because of the mainline Cronenberg film. Still, it seems they could have released one between November and December, and I imagine the correct answer is an added workload with a heavy December plus Eclipse.

[guyetgenevieve]

I'm genuinely surprised at how robust the December slate is. December is usually pretty slow with 3 or 4 titles at most - this is a really fantastic slate of releases. It makes me very excited to see what's to come in 2026!

[Mr.DarjeelingLimited]

I'm genuinely surprised at how robust the December slate is. December is usually pretty slow with 3 or 4 titles at most - this is a really fantastic slate of releases. It makes me very excited to see what's to come in 2026!

Hopefully more Hindi language films.

[Hogfather]

Second month in a row without a Criterion Premiere. Hopefully, they're just waiting to pair Caught by the Tides with the other Jia films next month, or maybe I just got spoiled with their once-a-month routine.

If we're waiting for the other Jia films to be released before we get Caught by the Tides, it's going to be a while. Jia said that they were trying to find the negatives for the extended cut of Platform.

Years ago I saw an extended cut of Platform that I think ran about 200 minutes––a version that’s never played here again, and I really feel fortunate to have seen it. Have you restored this version? Or if not, where does that cut exist for you, in your relationship with Platform generally?

We are currently working with the French company Celluloid Dreams; we are trying to find the best way to restore Platform. We currently only have two copies of the film that we can find: one has English subtitles, the other has Italian subtitles. And we really want to, if we can, find the original negatives––restore based on the negatives, rather than using the two best copies that we have with the English and the Italian subtitles. So that is in the works, and then––hopefully with the collaboration of Criterion, also the French distributor––we will be able to accomplish that.

And would this be the longer version?

Yes, longer version.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Thing is that the standard theatrical cut has already been restored and is available for booking through Janus along with their other Jia titles. It's not clear what's going on, but it seems Janus felt they needed to get these out there (DCPs of Unknown Pleasures and The World were added to their catalog at the same time, implying that they were held back for a simultaneous rollout) instead of continuing to wait for a restoration of the long cut that may well never happen. Whether Criterion will follow suit is another question—I would personally be fine if they just released the restored theatrical cut and included the long cut as a bonus feature sourced from the English-subtitled print, à la Andrei Rublev.

[Hogfather]

Thing is that the standard theatrical cut has already been restored and is available for booking through Janus along with their other Jia titles. It's not clear what's going on, but it seems Janus felt they needed to get these out there (DCPs of Unknown Pleasures and The World were added to their catalog at the same time, implying that they were held back for a simultaneous rollout) instead of continuing to wait for a restoration of the long cut that may well never happen. Whether Criterion will follow suit is another question—I would personally be fine if they just released the restored theatrical cut and included the long cut as a bonus feature sourced from the English-subtitled print, à la Andrei Rublev.

Yes, I just mean that we're not going to see a physical release until they find the negatives for the longer cut or are convinced that they'll have to use the print with burnt-in English subs.

[Matt]

I guess there's no reason it wouldn't be coming, but I thought Anderson didn't care about physical media or special features anymore. So unless he's doing a commentary or has a feature-length making-of doc he hasn't mentioned, I don't see what the point would be.

What is this based on? He supervised an Atmos remix for P-DL’s 4K release. There’s a well reviewed UHD of Phantom Thread as well.

I guess I meant to say he didn't care about extras on physical media, not that he didn't care about it at all. And my statement was based on half-remembering some vague post here or elsewhere speculating about this And maybe additional speculation because he has not participated in making substantial behind-the-scenes extras or commentaries since Magnolia.

He did say on a podcast from 2018 that he thought commentaries had become too polished and that, by the time a director would be recording the commentary, they would be sick of watching the film. He suggested that commentaries should be recorded during editing, which is a fantastic idea.

Given the paucity of extras on some of Criterion's releases, I suppose having Licorice Pizza on 4K UHD with a good sound mix would itself be enough. Throw on the Haim videos PTA directed, a video essay, and maybe some deleted scenes. But add maybe an hour-long career retrospective interview with PTA and that would really be something.

[pianocrash]

Since The Master, I've enjoyed the deleted scenes featurettes on PT's films, which are way more illuminating than most extras on other releases. As his career has progressed, I can't imagine he spends as much time indulging in feature-length commentaries than in the laserdisc era of his youth (a rich time to be a collector of that kind of knowledge, anyhow), so that's also why the original Boogie Nights release still feels so special, even now. As he said in that interview, I don't think he has the stomach to retread much of the productions further on after the fact, let alone spend time on something that seems to have little value to as many these days. It seems like he's more interested in moving onto the next thing, whatever it is.

Or he could just let Sam Harpoon & Gary Goetzman run wild for a few days at Criterion HQ & attach whatever comes out of it [-o<

[yoloswegmaster]

According to this Reddit post, we can expect Testament to be announced soon