Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

[FrauBlucher]

I can’t think of a Tuesday, except the last 2 in the Decembers, that there have been no releases like this next one coming up

[jt938]

Like Anderson, Del Toro, and Scorsese, the Coens are also seemingly trying to get as many of their films in the collection as possible. Here's to them getting Raising Arizona out of the Disney vault.

Hopefully they can get Barton Fink as well.

[agnamaracs]

But they didn't even manage to get the entirety of Miller's Crossing...

[jt938]

But they didn't even manage to get the entirety of Miller's Crossing...

That is the one thing that worries me whenever a Coen Brothers title gets announced.

[denti alligator]

I wondered yesterday as I was contemplating trading in my old BFI Ozus whether/when Criterion would release an Ozu box. Those Japanese remasters look awfully nice. And it would be great to have them all with the remaining films in one place. So I emailed Jon Mulvaney who responded (rather, his assistant did) in record time (about an hour) that there were no such plans. [sigh]

[jt938]

I wondered yesterday as I was contemplating trading in my old BFI Ozus whether/when Criterion would release an Ozu box. Those Japanese remasters look awfully nice. And it would be great to have them all with the remaining films in one place. So I emailed Jon Mulvaney who responded (rather, his assistant did) in record time (about an hour) that there were no such plans. [sigh]

They've said that about multiple things that ended up getting announced. It's just the stock answer they give when you ask if they're going to release something.

[denti alligator]

I have received confirmation of an upcoming unannounced release before.

[beamish14]

Janus has Pialat's La maison des bois.
Seeing as this is something like a 7 hour miniseries, do I dare think it might make it past streaming?

Now this is the type of tv series I would like to see Criterion Channel diving into! Hopefully they don't cram it all onto 1 disc like Christ Stopped At Eboli.

Do we have a thread specifically for international television (mini) series that make great candidates for inclusion in the collection? All I see are discussions of individual shows or of international disc releases.

Some of my (upgrade) wants would be:

Mistérios de Lisboa
Cinéastes de notre temps
Days Of Hope (Loach)
La meglio gioventù/The Best Of Youth
Bila jednom jedna zemlja/Underground (Kusturica)
Das Boot (4k)
Heimat I-III (complete)

Michael Winterbottom and Roddy Doyle’s Family or Danny Boyle’s Mr. Wroe’s Virgins would both be amazing, but they’re BBC controlled. Neither even has in-print releases in the UK

[captveg]

I can’t think of a Tuesday, except the last 2 in the Decembers, that there have been no releases like this next one coming up

Doesn't it happen every once in a while when there are five Tuesdays in a month, with the first one not having any releases?

[dwk]

12:08 East of Bucharest and Police, Adjective both open with the Criterion and Janus logos.

You can add Police, Adjective to the list of former IFC acquisitions that they have lost and Janus has picked up.

[Matt]

That's great news! They both deserve good editions, including short films. Now that Criterion is regularly doing two-fers (Marguerite Duras, Edward Yang, Jackie Chan, Richard Lester, Claude Berri), that could be a possibility here.

Bucharest was actually a Tartan USA release. Incredible to remember that label actually existed.

[Omensetter]

The Death of Mr. Lazarescu was also with Tartan, too. It's unfortunate to hear that the Porumboius are the only ones with Janus logos, but the silver lining here, I suppose, is that they have a permanent streaming home.

It's difficult for me to imagine a Corneliu Porumboiu twofer. I had hoped that they'd find a way to angle these films into a Romanian New Wave Eclipse with The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, 12:08 East of Bucharest; Police, Adjective, Tuesday, After Christmas, Aurora, and Sieranevada. If nothing else, Lazarescu seems to be a commonly requested title everywhere, so maybe that'll make it to blu-ray somewhere. (Sieranevada is an amazing film that came out in some super-limited Romanian edition. It's English friendly, but I don't know anyone who owns it.) I don't know which films can reasonably be marketed under the Romanian New Wave branding, but those six seem like airtight fits. Wikipedia has the Romanian New Wave still going, but that seems like a massive stretch.

All of those directors save Muntean faded for me. Întregalde is one of the underrated films of this decade, and I'm grateful for my Grasshopper DVD. Relatedly, Jude's great Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn still has some slipcovers remaining under the Vinegar Syndrome partner labels website. It's a shame that MUBI won't release his equally great Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World.

[MichaelB]

Interesting that you don’t mention Cristian Mungiu (or any of his films), and he’d obviously have to feature in a meaningful survey.

[Omensetter]

Oh, I definitely agree; I was just focusing on films without an English friendly blu-ray (or a blu-ray, period).

[hearthesilence]

A box set of Romanian New Wave masterpieces would be amazing. I imagine economics is preventing it, they all seemed to draw respectable but modest-sized audiences whenever I attended their theatrical runs.

[beamish14]

The Oak would be amazing. I thought a restoration had been completed

[FrauBlucher]

Two posts on the bluray.com CC thread. This seems like a leak to me and we could see Hot Water announced next week with a ton of Lloyd shorts

According to the official Harold Lloyd Facebook page: HOT WATER (1924) will soon be available restored on Blu-ray.

It's unclear how "soon" it might be.

Last summer, the Harold Lloyd Facebook page also announced that his 1923 film WHY WORRY was set for an "upcoming" Blu-ray release, but we haven't seen any sign of that (yet)

Richard Simonton, who is a trustee of the Harold Lloyd estate, mentions in the comments of that post that Why Worry? is still being worked on for Blu-ray along with Girl Shy.

[Brianruns10]

Speaking of silent films, I would just LOVE IT if Criterion released the new restoration of The Black Pirate. One of the early all-technicolor films, restored from the original camera negative.

[TechnicolorAcid]

Speaking of silent films, I would just LOVE IT if Criterion released the new restoration of The Black Pirate. One of the early all-technicolor films, restored from the original camera negative.

Didn't Cohen Film Collection already release a Blu-Ray of this from a new restoration? I could've sworn they did one, although not sure if it was from the original negative or not

[Lowry_Sam]

Speaking of silent films, I would just LOVE IT if Criterion released the new restoration of The Black Pirate. One of the early all-technicolor films, restored from the original camera negative.

Didn't Cohen Film Collection already release a Blu-Ray of this from a new restoration? I could've sworn they did one, although not sure if it was from the original negative or not

Apparently the Cohen Is a re-release of the Kino from 2010 paired with Robin Hood sans extras. There's a better chance of a UK label picking it up and doing it properly, maybe for a Douglas Fairbanks adventure box?

[Tuco]

A further topic detour regarding THE BLACK PIRATE. SF Silent Film Festival showed a MOMA/Film Foundation restoration in 2024 - much deeper colors than the Cohen disc.

https://silentfilm.org/the-black-pirate-2/

[Matt]

Apart from being a Film Foundation restoration, this film just doesn't seem in Criterion's wheelhouse. Especially since they already struggle to get silent films they've already licensed out. Seems more likely to come from Cohen, Kino, or Flicker Alley.

[FrauBlucher]

Not interested in anything this month. But hopefully going forward the 9 releases becomes a thing

[TechnicolorAcid]

Not interested in anything this month. But hopefully going forward the 9 releases becomes a thing

I’m actually feeling the opposite this months because this feels like this one of Criterion’s best months in a while with the 2 Waters, the Panahi, West Indies, the Carlos Saura upgrade, Magellan, and the 4K upgrades of Five Easy Pieces.

[Finch]

I like this lineup too. In for Hairspray (maybe Desperate Living) and Charade 4ks plus the Magellan BD.