Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

[MovieBuff647]

It's hilarious seeing all these people online say they're not going to buy Wild at Heart until the Lynch set comes out when there is a decent chance it won't be a film set.

Not sure if you saw but a Lynch fan account on Twitter confirmed there is no complete filmography set coming and then someone else in the Criterion thread on the Blu-Ray dot com forums confirmed this was true. The latter individual also added Criterion are well aware there’s demand for them to release TWIN PEAKS in particular but there’s no chance of that happening either as licensing it would be a nightmare for them.

Also, someone pointed out elsewhere Janus recently picked up Dynamic:01 so that's probably what the Lynch thing they're working on is. But I also think it's possible StudioCanal, who have the Germany/France rights to nearly all of his work, are planning something big for those two countries, and it's likely Jennifer got the two mixed up.

All said, Lynch is a top three filmmaker for me—my single favorite of his is probably INLAND EMPIRE, though until recently I might've said TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN (saw both around the same time over two years ago), but I utterly adore both, MULHOLLAND DRIVE, FWWM, and love most of his work generally—and yet I never understood the point of Criterion releasing a Lynch filmography set given they’ve already released most of his work on UHD individually and they sell extraordinarily well even when some of them have superior alternatives from other non-US labels and, if they did release a filmography set, would likely just recycle the same existing discs. The only way it ever made sense to me is if it were a ploy to get Paramount to play ball vis-a-vis TWIN PEAKS and that always seemed like a long shot, especially when Lynch sadly isn’t even alive to sign off on it.

Edit: Missed this, whoops.

To be taken with a grain of salt. From the other forum a person with connections to Criterion, they will not be doing a Lynch box.

Here

Also, on an unrelated note: though I do own a 4K setup, I am a dual format person and thus share the frustrations of Criterion seemingly moving away from that, especially given how great many of their discs have been this year.

Thank you, TFN, I forgot that Chris had put these together. I hope Paramount would be flexible about Rosemary's Baby if Criterion asked for it. Their own UHD has been out for a while and the film deserves the best possible presentation.

I'd love for Criterion to get ROSEMARY'S BABY back but I think it's evident that they're sadly not interested in releasing any Polanski at the moment. They still haven't upgraded KNIFE IN THE WATER to Blu-Ray!

[James Stock]

Yes, I'm well aware a movie set isn't happening and it'll probably be a shorts set. That's why I said that in the first place.

[MovieBuff647]

Yeah I missed that someone else here linked my post from the other site sharing the original source and edited my post to reflect that, apologies.

[MovieBuff647]

Is there proof they passed on Sunrise? I agree that it would be exceptionally foolish to pass on that. Did Disney fund the new restoration or was it from another source considering it’s now public domain?

AFAICT the new restoration (which is actually three restorations: the Movietone version, the Czechoslovak version, and the Dutch version) had no involvement from Disney. It was spearheaded by the San Francisco Film Preserve with funding from a Minnesota nonprofit aptly called the Sunrise Foundation for Education and the Arts. I imagine the film's public domain status is the reason this project happened in the first place.

Also BFI were involved.