criterionforum.org

nicolas wrote: Thu Aug 15, 2024 5:20 pm

ryannichols7 wrote: Thu Aug 15, 2024 4:47 pm
honestly it's a good month all around for licenses. with word that Sony is going to be doing less, it's good to see Criterion do a new title from them, and I'm generally in for all Wyler. and yes, while it's one I really do not like, a Fox title! they almost made up for that joke of a boxset. almost

Where did you hear that from? Their current output probably isn’t reflective of what’s to come but they’re really pushing the format into uncharted territory and deliver quite the amount of unexpected upgrades.

DimitriL wrote: Fri Aug 16, 2024 2:00 am A best picture winner is a best picture winner.

Unless it’s Crash.

DimitriL wrote: Thu Aug 15, 2024 7:00 pm I think they would LOVE to break open the Apple Films pipeline. If they get Killer Moon, I would be unsurprised to see that follow.

RSTooley wrote: Fri Aug 16, 2024 11:09 am

DimitriL wrote: Thu Aug 15, 2024 7:00 pm I think they would LOVE to break open the Apple Films pipeline. If they get Killer Moon, I would be unsurprised to see that follow.

Criterion has already released The Velvet Underground by Todd Haynes. I'm sure the opportunity to license CODA is there if they ever wanted to pursue it.

rrenault wrote: Fri Aug 16, 2024 9:31 am So are Criterion abandoning new Blu-ray only titles for the main line then. That’s what it seems. My concern is this means they’ll just sit on titles that aren’t commercially viable enough for a North American UHD release, not make them physically available at all. I’m thinking of all the Eustache and Naruse films, some of the less popular Truffaut titles, and even something like Classe Tous Risques. “Risques” and Confidentially Yours are getting/have gotten the UHD treatment in France, but how many UHD units would those realistically move in North America?

Of the five Truffaut films getting UHDs from Carlotta in October in France only Shoot The Piano Player has a chance of getting a North American UHD in my opinion.

dwk wrote:I do wish they'd resurrect either the Essential Arthouse or Eclipse lines as a way to get some of the Janus stuff out on Blu-ray (or even start a new line called Janus Classics.)

Matt wrote: Sat Aug 17, 2024 12:01 am I wonder if some of the extreme austerity we’ve been seeing from them recently is from courting buyers by making the balance sheet look good. Perhaps they’ll be a little more generous now that they’ve got more stable funding. They can’t be seeing all these boutique labels like Indicator and Radiance and Arrow kicking their ass with good transfers and lavish features and taking away the lesson of “we need to just put a couple 10-minute interviews on a disc with an adequate transfer and charge $40-$50 for it.”

dwk wrote: Sat Aug 17, 2024 12:53 am I think to increase the amount of new extras on everything, they'd have to reduce what they pay their contributors to what those primarily UK labels pay. I dont known how that would go over with said contributors.

Spoiler

yoloswegmaster wrote: Sat Aug 17, 2024 1:09 am Don't you know that you're only allowed to mention that if you're planning on doing an exposé on the situation?

On the real though, it's not just the UK labels who are underpaying, as every other US label is doing the same thing. Hopefully the new owner will help increase funds towards extras but since he was only hired a few months, we won't be seeing any noticeable changes until next year since these releases have been locked in for a while now...

dwk wrote: Sat Aug 17, 2024 2:26 am

yoloswegmaster wrote: Sat Aug 17, 2024 1:09 am Don't you know that you're only allowed to mention that if you're planning on doing an exposé on the situation?

Actually that would be something that I would like to read/watch/listen to. How many podcasts/YouTube channels are dedicated to physical media? This should be a topic that they would want to cover.

Spoiler

yoloswegmaster wrote: Fri Apr 26, 2024 10:15 pm Janus is listed as the rightsholder for Cairo Station, and I was also able to confirm with the company that holds the rights to the films of Youssef Chahine that Criterion has the rights to around 20 of his films that have been restored.

MichaelB wrote: I can certainly confirm first-hand that they pay their contributors a lot more than is the norm for most labels - and I've worked with multiple labels on both sides of the Atlantic, so know that current rates elsewhere are much of a muchness.

Of course, one could argue that Criterion's rates are fairer for the amount of work typically involved - I don't know what they pay for commentaries, but I suspect it's a rather more realistic fee than is the norm pretty much across the board now, which is well below minimum wage on an hourly basis if you do a ton of research and prep before getting in front of the microphone. And in fact I know of a couple of audio commentators who won't do them any more (including one of my favourites) because fees have dropped below what they consider to be an acceptable minimum for the amount of preparatory work needed to do a good one.

But if Criterion-level fees were the norm, the sad fact is that most boutiques wouldn't record commentaries any more.

jsteffe wrote: When I contributed special features to a Criterion edition I felt that they did indeed pay fairly for the time involved. Not a "lavish" amount of money, but very fair. I have heard anecdotally that the fees for other labels can be far lower, as in not economically sustainable for contributors.

yoloswegmaster wrote: Thu Aug 22, 2024 2:28 pm Criterion listed as one of the restorers (alongside The UCLA Film and Television Archive, Wimmin With a Mission Productions, and The Sundance Institute) for Zeinabu irene Davis's Compensation, which will be screening at the NYFF

dwk wrote: Sat Aug 17, 2024 12:53 am

Matt wrote: Sat Aug 17, 2024 12:01 am I wonder if some of the extreme austerity we’ve been seeing from them recently is from courting buyers by making the balance sheet look good. Perhaps they’ll be a little more generous now that they’ve got more stable funding. They can’t be seeing all these boutique labels like Indicator and Radiance and Arrow kicking their ass with good transfers and lavish features and taking away the lesson of “we need to just put a couple 10-minute interviews on a disc with an adequate transfer and charge $40-$50 for it.”

I think to increase the amount of new extras on everything, they'd have to reduce what they pay their contributors to what those primarily UK labels pay. I dont known how that would go over with said contributors.

TechnicolorAcid wrote: Tue Jun 18, 2024 10:40 pm

therewillbeblus wrote: Tue Jun 18, 2024 10:30 pm Woah, I had no idea either! Is there a reasonably-priced way to get this stateside? Orbit's copy is $$

If you’re referring to Hellzapoppin, that’s one I’ve been wanting to get too for a while now but it appears that your best bet is to contact them or Diabolik for a restock of their copies otherwise you’d need to import directly from Wicked Vision (which only accepts Euros), Amazon.de, or pay reasonably high prices on EBay.