Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

[dwk]

A poster at the Blu-ray forum said they went to a screening of The Freshman and Suzanne Lloyd said that they are aiming to get Girl Shy out by the end of the year.

[Roger Ryan]

... the CIVIL warS is one of those semi-legendary pieces of postmodern theatre: it was intended to premiere as part of the 1984 Olympics, but funding disintegrated and only sections of it have ever been staged. One of those sections also holds the distinction of being one of those works that was unanimously recommended by the jury for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, but the board overturned that and issued no prize in 1986. (Which also happened with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Gravity's Rainbow for the fiction prize -- stout company)...

If there is any mainstream recognition of Wilson's effort it would be in the music/songs David Byrne composed for the project which were released as a David Byrne album entitled "Music From the 'Knee Plays'" in 1985.

[captveg]

A poster at the Blu-ray forum said they went to a screening of The Freshman and Suzanne Lloyd said that they are aiming to get Girl Shy out by the end of the year.

Yes! It's been far too long. The last 15 minutes of this film is my personal favorite sequence Lloyd ever did. Not anywhere as famous as the building climb of course, but it's a spectacularly executed comic chase.

[andyli]

With today's announcement of the Audiard releases it seems clear that Criterion has a policy not putting films finished in 2K DI on UHD (barring those few WA titles in the box set). I guess we can safely assume that Criterion won't revisit modern films like Still Walking, Certified Copy, or Personal Shopper in their catalog any time soon (unless some director insist on doing so, I guess).

[DimitriL]

Several of the Wes Anderson films coming up on UHD are 2K DIs, I believe.

[andyli]

Yes, they are the WA films I mentioned above. Given it's Anderson... I think Criterion would love to make a few exceptions.

[Zot!]

Tech question….is redoing movies shot on 35mm to 4k DIs really so cost prohibitive? Sure, if it’s some kind of sci-fi thing with tons of low-res CGI that needs redoing, but aren’t Anderson and Audiard pretty much just doing color correction in the digital realm and that’s it?

[andyli]

I'm not privy to details involved in post-production with digital intermediates, but the fact hardly any 4K titles emerge as negative-rebuild probably points to its difficulties, even with arthouse films. One factor may be the state the negatives are in. Whether they are conformed to the digital final edit, I believe, will make a big difference, for example.

EDIT: found some info from a post over at Cinematography.com,

The "DI" process has changed over the years.

Prior to the advent of low-cost film scanners and high resolution digital post workflow, this is how films were done using the DI process.

- Telecine the negative with edge code
- Edit digitally (usually avid as it's the only solution that can manage the edge code properly)
- Conform the negative using edge code
- Transfer the cut negative
- Color grade the transferred negative
- Record (usually to negative intermediate stock) back to film
- Make prints from the IN

Today, we don't cut the negative anymore, outside of a few filmmakers who do photochemical color (inter positive process) like Nolan and PT Anderson.

- Telecine the negative
- Edit digitally
- High Res transfer just the shots which are in the edit
- Color grade the transferred negative
- Record (usually to negative intermediate stock) back to film
- Make prints from the IN

to which someone else added:

Actually the DI process normally skips cutting the negative — select scans are done to the camera rolls following the edge code information and then the scans are conformed electronically to the EDL to create an edited digital master. If prints are needed, then the digital master is recorded to intermediate stock usually as a negative image.

In that case it would be time consuming to find all these canned negatives for re-scan. And that's just the first step.

[Zot!]

Yeah, I guess the reason I asked is because they can do TV shows (shot on film) as ridiculous as Knight Rider in 4K. That's like 100 hours of bullshit they need to rescan, I would have thought that creating a new DI for like 1.5 hours of a feature is relatively nothing.

But I suspect it's that piece you posted about conforming the film negative that might be the stumbling block. But since that is a step they would have to do with what you posted was the "pre-fully digital" workflow anyways.....why? And here I can only guess they are either just lacking financial incentive, or the new "fully digital" process assumed the film negatives were dispensable, and they weren't organized, poorly stored, or perhaps even disposed of, once scanned.

[yoloswegmaster]

A poster at the Blu-ray forum said they went to a screening of The Freshman and Suzanne Lloyd said that they are aiming to get Girl Shy out by the end of the year.

There was also the news of Why Worry? being scanned for a Blu release by the official Harold Lloyd Facebook page, where they also confirmed that some of the short films will also be added to the release. I wonder if this means that they will be releasing a boxset, which is something that I hope for, as I would love to see For Heaven's Sake get a release.

[Drucker]

Red Beard is not screening as part of this Kurosawa in 4k retrospective at Film Forum. Not sure if that means there is no 4k restoration, but given how often people pine for it...

[yoloswegmaster]

Red Beard is not screening as part of this Kurosawa in 4k retrospective at Film Forum. Not sure if that means there is no 4k restoration, but given how often people pine for it...

A 4K restoration for Red Beard screened 10 years ago at the Venice Festival. No idea why no one has bothered to release it, but I am hoping this means that Toho are working on a new restoration (as they did with Seven Samurai).

[Drucker]

Ha! Okay then you're keeping better tabs than I.

[yoloswegmaster]

Red Beard is not screening as part of this Kurosawa in 4k retrospective at Film Forum. Not sure if that means there is no 4k restoration, but given how often people pine for it...

Good news, there is a new 2K restoration for Red Beard will be screening at the American Cinematheque in L.A. Strange that a new 2K restoration has been done after a 4K restoration was done a decade ago...

I did notice that they have the screening for Rashomon listed as being sourced from a 4K restoration, while Film Forum is screening a 2K restoration. Wonder if that is a mistake on their end.

[Mr.DarjeelingLimited]

Criterion described The Shrouds on Instagram as coming soon to Blu-ray and Dvd with more details later instead of coming soon to Janus Contemporaries. Perhaps a spine numbered release?

[Matt]

They've broken precedent with Flow, putting it in the main line instead of JC. We might expect to see more of that when extras (more than just a filmmaker interview) are available. Cronenberg always delivered excellent commentaries on his own films, so it would be nice to hear one of those again.

[criterionsnob]

I'd love it to have a 4K release and more extras, but they've also posted a clip on YouTube from Cronenberg's Meet the Filmmakers interview. I think they only do those for the JC releases, so it seems headed that way.

[CSM126]

I think Meet the Filmmakers is a thing for the channel that they also slap on JC discs so there’s some sort of extra.

[Billy Beta]

Three upcoming (or whenever they're going to find time to release them...) Criterion titles are: Deliverance, Point Blank and Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. Don't ask me how I found out. x

[domino harvey]

I am the one who bought Deliverance a couple months ago, so you’re all welcome

[beamish14]

Glad to see John Boorman love. It’s such a shame that Leo the Last has never had a home video release of any kind and looks like absolute shit on streaming services

[Mr.DarjeelingLimited]

Three upcoming (or whenever they're going to find time to release them...) Criterion titles are: Deliverance, Point Blank and Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. Don't ask me how I found out. x

Now I gotta ask how you found out.

[yoloswegmaster]

Considering that all 3 titles are owned by WB, it wouldn't surprise me they were informed by a WB employee.

[FrauBlucher]

Being the two Boorman films have not been previously linked to Criterion maybe a new deal has been struck

[crimlaw]

I have an MGM Mod of Leo the Last. Surprised Kino never got its hands on it.