criterionforum.org

As many of you are following all these MGM acquisitions better than I, can anyone tell me the likelihood that Kino will put out Fritz Lang's The Woman in the Window on Blu? Given that it is MGM and Kino's track record of interest in Lang titles?

I think we'll have to wait and see because Criterion and Twilight Time have also both licensed numerous titles from MGM and have a track record of interest in Lang. Kino seems to be cranking out the most titles, though.

Here's hoping whoever nabs Carnal Knowledge is able to muster another Nichols/Soderbergh track.

Sad to see The Long Goodbye go Kino, but the Arrow is, as noted, pretty much insurmountable in quality. Not only that, but it plays just fine on my sub-$100, remote hacked Insignia: I don't begrudge those who choose not to go region free, but know that it is neither particularly difficult nor costly to do so and that it really does widen one's viewing horizons/potentialities considerably.

Criterion is already way past overburdened with studio product, to the detriment of their other holdings (not a complaint, more of a statement of fact at this point, and a pretty much inevitable result of their success as a brand); the Olives and Kinos of the world are essential in removing some of that pressure, too much of which is placed on CC these days, and I for one am thankful there are still labels out there willing to risk putting out catalogue blus in what has become a pretty bleak marketplace indeed (even if that almost certainly means my dream Elliott Gould commentary track will continue to go unrecorded).

I've read some recently released books on Paddy Chayefsky and Bob Fosse. I've enjoyed them tremendously and hope that this flood of Kino releases might lead to The Hospital and Lenny getting reissued before I break and buy the OOP DVDs.

You can grab Lenny in a twofer with Bojangles for all of $6.95 on Amazon right now. It's also in the Dustin Hoffman Collection box, which is "OOP" on Amazon but probably available at your local Costco/Sam's Club for cheap

And I hope you're watching Fosse's films as an actor too-- gimme My Sister Eileen or Give a Girl a Break over anything he directed any day!

domino harvey wrote:And I hope you're watching Fosse's films as an actor too-- gimme My Sister Eileen or Give a Girl a Break over anything he directed any day!

Truer words were never spoken.

Thanks for the recommendations, Domino. I'll add them to my wishlist since everything Fosse directed is just stuff I'm revisiting.

HitchcockLang wrote:As many of you are following all these MGM acquisitions better than I, can anyone tell me the likelihood that Kino will put out Fritz Lang's The Woman in the Window on Blu? Given that it is MGM and Kino's track record of interest in Lang titles?

If that title is pre 1982 MGM, then it's with WB.

The library Kino and others have access too is mostly UA titles, and only post 1982 MGM titles.

The Woman in the Window was not an MGM production, so I'd be amazed if it's now with Warner (thank god). It was an International Pictures film, much like The Stranger if I'm not mistaken, which Kino has already released.

The Woman in the Window is indeed with MGM. The Stranger was released from the Library of Congress restoration due to it being in public domain, before deal with MGM came along.

Does anyone know what happened to Kino's release of The Trial?

FrauBlucher wrote:bluray.com on Witness for the Prosecution

4.5 for the film baffles me, and I'm a fan of Wilder. I enjoy it every time I happen to catch it but it feels slight compared to his best work, or Dietrich's or Laughton's. 3 out of 5, more like.

Which I guess goes to show the relativity of taste. For the record I'd personally rate it amongst his better films.

Askew wrote:Does anyone know what happened to Kino's release of The Trial?

I was wondering the same thing, though I believe the news about this had only come from a blu-ray.com forum?

And what happened to Kino's blu-ray editions of Come and See, Dersu Uzala and The Mirror?

Moe Dickstein wrote:

HitchcockLang wrote: If that title is pre 1982 MGM, then it's with WB.

The library Kino and others have access too is mostly UA titles, and only post 1982 MGM titles.

The cut-off date as it pertains to MGM studio titles is actually May 1986. WB / Turner owns the pre-May 1986 MGM catalog.

It seems a lot of that 3/5 review is due to Kauffman's questioning of the aspect ratio.

kneelzod wrote:

Moe Dickstein wrote:

HitchcockLang wrote: If that title is pre 1982 MGM, then it's with WB.

The library Kino and others have access too is mostly UA titles, and only post 1982 MGM titles.

The cut-off date as it pertains to MGM studio titles is actually May 1986. WB / Turner owns the pre-May 1986 MGM catalog.

Except for a couple of very special exceptions, like Robert Altman's O.C. & STIGGS (which has a 1985 copyright notice on it)

beamish13 wrote:

kneelzod wrote: The cut-off date as it pertains to MGM studio titles is actually May 1986. WB / Turner owns the pre-May 1986 MGM catalog.

Except for a couple of very special exceptions, like Robert Altman's O.C. & STIGGS (which has a 1985 copyright notice on it)

OC & Stiggs was produced in 1985, but not released until 1987.

FrauBlucher wrote:Let the head banging begin-Marty

It would have been impossible for Kino to have produced an accurate matte using that transfer, which loses information even compared to the very old DVD master. So fair enough that they had to renege on their commitment to 1.85:1 (although their spin about 1.37:1 being the OAR is less appreciated), since presumably doing a new transfer would have been outside of their budget. Below is the Blu-ray at 1.85:1, and the DVD at 1.85:1 beneath it:



A print would give even more space at 1.85:1, as the DVD will be zoomed as well, though it's unknown by how much.

They could have gone with 1.66 instead of all the way back to 1.33 though. Not ideal, but at least widescreen.

Drucker wrote:

Askew wrote:Does anyone know what happened to Kino's release of The Trial?

I was wondering the same thing, though I believe the news about this had only come from a blu-ray.com forum?

I'm thinking this was simply a mistake which originated in thedigitalbits.com news column. Note that the column is dated only about a week prior to the official announcement that Kino was going to release THE STRANGER on Blu-ray. Since the column mentions nothing about this 1946 Welles effort as forthcoming, I suspect "The Trial" was simply typed in by mistake instead of "The Stranger".

Too bad. If they did for The Trial what they did for The Stranger I'd be over-the-moon.