criterionforum.org

MVD posted the US Arrow Academy titles early:

Spoiler

The Witches (1967) - January 9, 2018
Roberto Rossellini's Viva L'Italia (1961) - January 30, 2018

Sweet. In for both.

dwk wrote:MVD posted the US Arrow Academy titles early:

will there be others UK only too?

Unfortunately the last Arrow Academy title that excited me was Cinema Paradiso 4 years ago...

MVD doesn't distribute Arrow UK titles, so they wouldn't be able to leak anything about that.

swo17 wrote:MVD doesn't distribute Arrow UK titles, so they wouldn't be able to leak anything about that.

yes, I understood that.
I meant, if we're expecting UK only titles too, other than those 2..

I hope there's more UK Academy titles. Neither of these are particularly interesting. "Wait for a sale" interesting, maybe.

Costa wrote:

swo17 wrote:MVD doesn't distribute Arrow UK titles, so they wouldn't be able to leak anything about that.

yes, I understood that.
I meant, if we're expecting UK only titles too, other than those 2..

My point is that this was an unauthorized leak. No one has any way of knowing what if anything more could be coming. Until tomorrow.

swo17 wrote:

Costa wrote:

swo17 wrote:MVD doesn't distribute Arrow UK titles, so they wouldn't be able to leak anything about that.

yes, I understood that.
I meant, if we're expecting UK only titles too, other than those 2..

My point is that this was an unauthorized leak. No one has any way of knowing what if anything more could be coming. Until tomorrow.

Again, you misunderstood me. (maybe it's my English, I don't know)
I understood that this was an unauthorized leak.

What again I meant is, how many releases do we USUALLY expect each month?
eg for Criterion it's 4-5 I think.
That's why I asked if we're expecting more releases than those 2.

Costa wrote:That's why I asked if we're expecting more releases than those 2.

Nobody else here knows any more than you do. So are you expecting more releases?

Although given what you said about your total lack of interest in Academy releases since Cinema Paradiso a full four years ago, I'm surprised you're so exercised about this.

MichaelB wrote:

Costa wrote:That's why I asked if we're expecting more releases than those 2.

Nobody else here knows any more than you do. So are you expecting more releases?

Although given what you said about your total lack of interest in Academy releases since Cinema Paradiso a full four years ago, I'm surprised you're so exercised about this.

Michael, it troubles me that as a respected film commentator, you debase yourself, on behalf of your current employer, by engaging in an attempt to shut down any criticism or negative comment regarding your current employer. (Costa was asking a plain, simple question; are there, on average, more than two title release announcements per month)

You have been lowering yourself to this kind of behaviour for some time now. I have been aware of your passion for cinema, and Eastern European cinema, in particular, since you ran the Jan Svankmajer website in the 1990's. You have a deep knowledge of film , and have much to contribute, but you are increasingly becoming a mouthpiece, and strident defender, of whichever employer is funding you at the given moment, and your bullish attempts to shut down criticism of said current employer, no matter the validity of the criticism, has become transparent and disturbing.

You have much to offer. Don't whore yourself for a paycheck. It is transparent, and it increasingly undermines your credibility.

Since this thread explicitly invites "wild, irresponsible conjecture", I suppose I can't be too miffed that you've just posted a textbook example - but it might have been a good idea to check who my current employer actually is before using the phrase no fewer than three times, especially in the context of an accusation predicated on it being a particular company. I suspect you've gleaned by now who it isn't?

MichaelB wrote:

Costa wrote:That's why I asked if we're expecting more releases than those 2.

Nobody else here knows any more than you do. So are you expecting more releases?

Although given what you said about your total lack of interest in Academy releases since Cinema Paradiso a full four years ago, I'm surprised you're so exercised about this.

Ok, i don't understand why there's so much misunderstanding about this.
As how rude says, i asked - indirectly though - how many Arrow Academy releases are there each month:2, 4, 5?
If there is no given number and that varies, OK.
I just thought it was a standard number of releases, like Criterion's.

As for my lack of interest in Arrow Academy releases, I didn't mean to offend the label. I'm sure there is something there for everybody.
It's just there isn't anything I personally am interested in.
Maybe I have a very limited taste in movies. I don't know.

And I am exercised about this (well, i wouldn't put it this way), and looking forward every month for the announcements, in hope that there will be something for me too.

While I can sort of understand what you might have meant, a la "I haven't liked their recent output, so I hope they release lore than those two so might like the third", it easily came out as you complaining that nothing of their output is worth anything, and then asking how many Academy released are coming out.
And it has been known that Michael works for Indicator.

dda1996a wrote:While I can sort of understand what you might have meant, a la "I haven't liked their recent output, so I hope they release lore than those two so might like the third", it easily came out as you complaining that nothing of their output is worth anything, and then asking how many Academy released are coming out.

No, in no way I wanted this to come across like that.
I have never said or implied for ANY label that the films they release don't worth anything.
(the only thing I have complained about some times, is that many horror B-movies get wonderful restorations from labels, and more important and classic movies don't get even a release).
But I understand those have their audience too. That's why they get released.

Costa wrote:i asked - indirectly though - how many Arrow Academy releases are there each month:2, 4, 5?

Based on their recent output, I'd expect more than just two.

Although of course labels have been known to take unexpected breathers - my actual current employers recently shrank their December schedule drastically in order to preserve the production team's sanity (thank God), and the December/January period is usually the best time to do this as it's the weakest time commercially. I suspect this is because Christmas purchasing decisions have already largely been made (hence releases actually scheduled for December often getting passed over) and in January people are keener on post-Christmas sales than they are in buying new stuff at close to full RRP. And from a production perspective manufacturing deadlines for December/January releases are often earlier and more rigid, because of the Christmas break.

Somebody just pointed out another Arrow Academy title listed on Amazon: Three Films by Jia Zhangke.

Excellent news, in my book. I realised recently that Arrow had picked up Mountains May Depart from the previous distributor, New Wave Films (dunno why they lost it), and assumed they'd do a set with A Touch of Sin, and possibly the new Walter Salles documentary on the filmmaker. However, I didn't think they'd get a third Jia feature, so 24 City is very welcome news - especially since I already planned to get it on DVD at some point.

Whereas I'm a little hesitant to double-dip on two of the Koreeda films by buying that set, I'm perfectly happy to double-dip on A Touch of Sin to get this Jia set.

rapta wrote:Whereas I'm a little hesitant to double-dip on two of the Koreeda films by buying that set, I'm perfectly happy to double-dip on A Touch of Zen to get this Jia set.

:-#

Kauno wrote:

rapta wrote:Whereas I'm a little hesitant to double-dip on two of the Koreeda films by buying that set, I'm perfectly happy to double-dip on A Touch of Zen to get this Jia set.

:-#

Sorry, obviously I meant A Touch of Sin...

I'll be more excited for his unavailable earlier stuff, but I don't know if AE still has the rights

*** Failed connect to http://moderate5.cleantalk.org/api2.0. Automoderator cleantalk.org ***

Costa, I apologize for any confusion due to the language barrier. I didn't respond about the likely number of additional announcements because, while they usually release more than two titles, sometimes they're just repackagings of prior releases. Also, with the recent delays in many titles, I figured it might be more up in the air. Also, here we are a day later, and you already have your answer. And also, most importantly, in the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter.

It is legitimately curious that someone who hasn't liked anything this line has put out for years would ask a question like this multiple times. It was not at all out of line or defensive for MichaelB to point that out.

Doesn't this mean we'll get six or seven Academy releases in January? I hope we won't see more delays

No idea where How rude's rant is coming from.

While I feel myself it was a bit unwarranted for Michael to get at Costa this way for what it nothing else than an innocuous question ("we know these 2 have leaked, but do you think more titles will be announced ?"), it's hard to share his views on Michael's trying to "shut down any criticism" (especially because if there is a place where labels strategies and line-ups have been freely discussed, it's here).

dda1996a wrote:Doesn't this mean we'll get six or seven Academy releases in January? I hope we won't see more delays

Providing there isn't any delays in one way or the other, the Academy Jan 18 line up now includes :
The Witches
The Mystery of Picasso
Viva l'Italia
3 films by Jia Zhangke

Total : 6 movies

In parallel, this is Arrow Video line-up for Jan 18 :
The Cat O' Nine Tails LE
Phenomena STD re-release
The Hounds of Love
+ Seijun Suzuki: The Early Years (5 movies) (which now seems to beat the record for the longest title : Seijun Suzuki: The Early Years. Vol. 1 – Seijun Rising: The Youth Movies Limited Edition ) (from Nov)
+ US STD re-releases for Hils Have Eyes & Re-Animator

Three more for the wishlist. Arrow, BFI, MoC and even the likes of AE are killing it right now. I can't keep up!

The Suzuki box is actually with Video, not Academy.

What A Disgrace wrote:The Suzuki box is actually with Video, not Academy.

Ah right, I mixed them up. I edited my post.