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Keep guessing!

bamwc2 wrote:And the post says that it's a DVD only edition. Surely an error.

Upgrades are often listed with incorrect info on the coming soon page for the first 24 hours or so

Very cool. I just wrote a lengthy paragraph on the film in a longer piece about the cinema of the a-bomb to be featured on my forthcoming blog.

ordinaryperson wrote:Something to do with Carroll Ballard is coming.

I do so love The Black Stallion, but given that it recently came out on blu I doubt that's it.

Edit: Well, that' a great surprise! It was an orphan in my 70s list (top 10 in fact), and even called it something like "What it would look like if Terrence Malick made a kid's film"--just like the Criterion tweet!

Moonrise Kingdom
Here Is Your Life
The Black Stallion
The Killers

This is the big BN sale month slate?

The Killers will do for me this month; Interesting note: The Killers was my very first Criterion that I purchased.

bamwc2 wrote: I do so love The Black Stallion, but given that it recently came out on blu I doubt that's it.

Edit: Well, that' a great surprise!

I guess you can say it was a ... dark horse candidate.

I'll show myself out.

Well, my S/O will finally stop being disappointed every month about Moonrise Kingdom (which we saw in theaters, and then decided to wait for Criterion edition.... which was probably a terrible idea in retrospect, but now it is finally available, and will be 50% off too!)

Only Black Stallion is the surprise this month - as the others were all hinted or otherwise known to be forthcoming. Not the huge month I was hoping for, and it does seem like their boxsets keep getting put off again and again. But at least August is usually a big month.. right? (that was when we got Lonesome, Vigo, etc). I'll still pick up everything.

Now we know the Caleb Deschanel interview was for The Black Stallion

Okay month I guess. Arrow got there first with The Killers, and yes, Criterion offer a second version, but Arrow's disc is comprehensive for the Siodmark and cheaper (and a great cover especially compared to Criterion's). Not a Resnais or Frears fan so it's the Ballard and Anderson and even those can wait till November's sale (I'm assuming the July slate won't be included in the July sale?).

Finch wrote: and even those can wait till November's sale (I'm assuming the July slate won't be included in the July sale?).

July films are always included in the July BN sale. The BN sale always ends right before my most-wanted August title is announced.

Minkin wrote:

Finch wrote: and even those can wait till November's sale (I'm assuming the July slate won't be included in the July sale?).

July films are always included in the July BN sale. The BN sale always ends right before my most-wanted August title is announced.

Thanks.

Looks like a pretty good month to me, other than the continued boxset deadlock (the Shawn/Gregory one for June qualifies as more of an end-of-year type giftset/partial repackaging to me, especially in light of how much great stuff is in the pipeline [Wenders, Apu, Koker, Oshima, etc]). The Troell and Resnais releases in particular look superb, and one or two solid upgrades/new to disc titles a month is about the most one can expect at this point, I think, given the marketplace/format hurdles CC are facing.

Finch wrote:Okay month I guess. Arrow got there first with The Killers, and yes, Criterion offer a second version, but Arrow's disc is comprehensive for the Siodmark and cheaper (and a great cover especially compared to Criterion's).

Don't forget that the Arrow release for the Siegel version contains both aspect ratios, which is very nice as it's one of those oddball cases where each ratio is functional and offers benefits the other doesn't. Criterion is very likely to stick with the Academy ratio as such in their original release, and, to my mind at least, will not not be as definitive as the Arrow.

Can't say I care too much about a single title for this month. Actually can't remember the last monthly announcement that got me worked up at all.

david hare wrote:Meh. As it was the previous month. And the month before that.

I can't actually remember when I bought the last new Criterion release, yes. Though given the ridiculous Euro/Dollar exchange rate right now, every bad month for Criterion is a good month for me. Gives me more time to save up for the Apu Trilogy. But where is the upgrade of "Tales of Hoffmann"? Their only excuse would be that they're waiting for the "Herzog Blaubart"-resto to be finished, in order to include it as an extra (which would be a coup, though basically that film warrants a standalone release. Not sure if they have the guts for that, though).

Tommaso wrote:

david hare wrote:Meh. As it was the previous month. And the month before that.

I can't actually remember when I bought the last new Criterion release, yes. Though given the ridiculous Euro/Dollar exchange rate right now, every bad month for Criterion is a good month for me. Gives me more time to save up for the Apu Trilogy. But where is the upgrade of "Tales of Hoffmann"? Their only excuse would be that they're waiting for the "Herzog Blaubart"-resto to be finished, in order to include it as an extra (which would be a coup, though basically that film warrants a standalone release. Not sure if they have the guts for that, though).

Isn't their excuse that they don't have the rights? That's a Canal release.

Actually, the rumor is they will release it. So the excuse is more likely that they are still working on extras.

swo17 wrote:Actually, the rumor is they will release it. So the excuse is more likely that they are still working on extras.

I can't find the post, but my memory was that there was a rumor they were releasing it based on the link you posted, but that someone else who was there disputed that? But perhaps I'm remembering incorrectly. I know I got excited and then unexcited.

Here's the post I meant: http://www.criterionforum.org/forum/vie ... er#p510449

Minkin wrote:Not the huge month I was hoping for, and it does seem like their boxsets keep getting put off again and again.

There was a box set announced last month. Maybe not the box set you wanted, but a box set nonethless.

criterion10 wrote:
Ribs wrote:
Finally, il Sorpasso!

What's with the Il Sorpasso joke that keeps being made with every clue?

Some guy suggested that the newsletter drawing for "Midnight Cowboy" was really for "Il Sorpasso". I have no idea how this became an inside joke among us, no one really made a fuss about his suggestion.

For the record: I'm "some guy". When the clue originally appeared in the Newsletter in November 2013, I was on board for the Midnight Cowboy interpretation. After all, the film had been previously released on LaserDisc by Criterion, and this was a rat-like creature (Ratso?) with a bandaged tail (for Ratso's bad leg?) and an icebag and thermometer (Ratso becomes sick in the movie). I could see it fitting as a clue. But after a year had passed I wondered: Where's the announcement for the film? It's generally only one to at most three months between a newsletter clue.

Someone suggested in another forum that the clue wasn't for Midnight Cowboy after all, but for Il Sorpasso which was announced in January 2014, three months after the newsletter clue was dropped. Their rationale was: It's an opossum (or a possum), which seems obvious in retrospect, it is feverish ("ill"), and has a bandaged tail ("sore"). So, "ill, sore possum"=Il Sorpasso, which is totally in keeping with previous wacky clues like Bad Lambs. The capper was that Il Sorpasso was formally announced three months after the clue was issued. Midnight Cowboy remains unannounced 17 months after it was supposedly a clue. I had never heard of Il Sorpasso, so I had no agenda here. I was simply convinced by the evidence. So, I passed it along here.

Personally, I'd be thrilled if Midnight Cowboy was given a new Criterion release. But the November 2013 newsletter clue was definitely not for Midnight Cowboy. If you are convinced otherwise, I'd love to hear your case as to why it's Midnight Cowboy and not Il Sorpasso.

So, that's the background.

The continued argument for Midnight Cowboy is simply that it was delayed due to Hoffman's health problems. I believe Moe Dickstein confirmed that was the case for Tootsie, which according to him was supposed to come out sometime before November, but was delayed, then had a Hoffman interview taken off after it was announced, then pushed back to December and had the interview re-added. It's not hard to imagine similar issues holding up Midnight Cowboy. Grey Gardens was released on Blu some 2+ years after its newsletter clue. Delays happen.

The difference between Il Sorpasso and Badlands or Lean/Coward is that the former was just about unheard of outside Italy prior to its release. The pun is a clever connection, but only makes sense retroactively (see "Joe Eszterhas comes again").

Looks like confirmation of Dressed to Kill coming to the collection. Nancy Allen posted this on her Facebook page

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