Forthcoming Lists Discussion and Random Speculation Vol. 4

[movielocke]

2011 - 40 new mainline releases
2010 - 51 new mainline releases
2009 - 39 new mainline releases
2008 - 40 new mainline releases
2007 - 48 new mainline releases
2006 - 41 new releases
2005 - 51 new releases
2004 - 42 new releases
2003 - 45 new releases
2002 - 32 new releases
2001 - 48 new releases (appears there were many and more delays of early spine numbers)
2000 - 32 new releases
1999 - 31 new releases
1998 - 27 new releases

They've been remarkably stable at releases about 40 new releases a year for the last ten years. they've had a few outlier years, but these have happened before and after the implementation of eclipse or bluray.

Despite many cries to the contrary, the data does not support that mainline releases have been inhibited by the adoption of bluray, the introduction of eclipse, releasing new versions of early spine numbers, or the introduction of bluray upgrades.

[leo_floyd]

There's others brazilian filmmakers that deserve to be mencioned. Maybe Criterion will listen: Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, Hector Babenco (argentinian-born, but brazilian radicated), Roberto Santos, Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Roberto Farias, Walter Lima Jr., Anselmo Duarte, among others.

I would also add Júlio Bressane, Andrea Tonacci, and Rogério Sganzerla. Would be a cool Cinema Marginal Eclipse set.

I'd like to add from Argentina: Leonardo Favio, Eliseo Subiela, Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, María Luisa Bemberg, Luis Puenzo, Fabián Bielinsky, etc.

[jwd5275]

Am I the only one who is suprised that we didn't get a reissue of Tokyo Olympiad to coincide with the opening of the London games at the end of July?

[Brian C]

It's been out of print for ages, so no big surprise.

[jwd5275]

But, I have always assumed that it is out of print pending a restoration / reissue. It is a still Janus property after all, the only one that I can think of that has gone completely out of print.

[movielocke]

I think the whole issue of Criterion's "decline" or "lack of diversity" is largely a figment of adventurous viewers imaginations. Matt Yglesias, in reviewing Tyler Cowen's recent argument, has a very apt explanation that I think is a phenomenon that happens in most niche groups.

I was particularly struck by this because he applies it as an explanation of the general phenomenon of restaurant decline, which I think is better explained by a very different model. Imagine some diners are, by temperament, venturesome while others are regulars. Over the long term, the best business strategy is to appeal to regulars since they offer a stable client base. But when a restaurant is new, it by definition lacks regulars and needs to appeal to venturesome diners both to get an initial wave of customers and also to attract "buzz" and get the temperamental regulars in the door. Over time, a successful restaurant will attempt to switch and become more a place for regulars, which means that venturesome diners will come to like it less. At the same time, alienating venturesome foodies is very low cost because being venturesome they would perceive their own growing familiarity with the food as declining quality one way or the other. One reason venturesome foodies like Cowen particularly enjoy very "authentic" "ethnic" restaurants is that what counts as comfort food for the Annandale Korean community (thus ensuring the existence of a sustainable business model) counts as venturesome dining for the mainstream American diner.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/201 ... time_.html

Criterion has a responsibility to keep the steak and chicken entrees on the menu. They may also put venison sweetbreads on the menu or wild boar belly or tripe of lamb on the menu to satisfy their most adventurous patrons, but they know that their bread and butter is in the steak and chicken.

[warren oates]

Well put, movielocke! So to extend your analogy, Rustle's complaints above are on the order of a foodie saying: I used to love this restaurant. In fact, I've had every item that's ever been on the menu because I loved the food and trusted the chefs' tastes so much. But lately I've found there are some menu items that aren't nearly as tasty as I had expected, not even close to as scrumtrulescent as most of the first 500 odd offerings.

The more menu items on offer, the more likely it is that any number of them will not square with what brought you to said restaurant in the first place.

Unless, like me, you've always been a picky eater...

[Tommaso]

This analogy doesn't convince me. First of all, everybody has to eat but noone has to buy dvds. Those who still buy dvds or blus, given the current economic climate and the easy availability of almost everything that isn't too obscure on the net, are precisely those adventuresome diners. Even if the exotic food may not be as exciting as 500 dishes earlier, nobody would really complain about one more Kurosawa or even (dare I say it) more Ozu. The steak and chicken lovers basically eat at home these days, and the regulars won't eat that stuff. It may be possible, though, that the steak and chicken lovers are attracted by the glamour which eating in that particular restaurant seems to provide, which might be the card that Criterion is playing. But that's short-term thinking: you can't sell old steak and chicken in a few years, but good old wine will get more valuable with time.

[warren oates]

Or it's just old whine in new bottles.

[Mr Sausage]

First of all, everybody has to eat but noone has to buy dvds.

If your point was "everybody has to eat at restaurants," this would make sense. But it's not, because obviously no one has to eat at a restaurant.

The point of an analogy is not that every single aspect of the two subjects correspond exactly. The point is that the two are similar enough on a specific point for one to be able to highlight something essential about the other. Stretching an analogy to the level of absurdity is not an argument against it, it is a failure to understand the use of analogy.

The key point here that everyone ought to consider fully is this: "being venturesome they would perceive their own growing familiarity with the food as declining quality one way or the other."

Exactly. The effect of this psychological point cannot be overstated. It is very much at work here, and other places on the board, too. For example, it is the thing that makes it more likely for people who've spent a lot of time exploring--and championing--the eclectic outer edges of an area of interest to look back on their starting points or the fundamental bases of that area and perceive a diminished quality. And it is not because those things actually have diminished in quality, it's a general psychological effect that comes from being "venturesome." The more people recognize this, the more this discussion can actually go somewhere meaningful (to say nothing of people better understanding their reactions).

[SpiderBaby]

Is there some company out there I'm not aware of exploring the cinema of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan?

Well Kino has some Third World countries represented. There was Fantoma (released Brazilian films) until they went. Zeitgeist Films. Milestone.

Criterion surely can if they can/did.

Forgot to add the biggest one with New Yorker, already has dvd releases from these places (Senegal with the Ousmane Sembene films) and has films in hand but haven't released them (Brazil-Ganga Zumba, Cuba-Memories of Underdevelopment, Argentina-The Hour of the Furnaces).

Couldn't Criterion get these with the other New Yorker films they snatched up? Sounds like they passed on them.

[Tommaso]

First of all, everybody has to eat but noone has to buy dvds.

If your point was "everybody has to eat at restaurants," this would make sense. But it's not, because obviously no one has to eat at a restaurant.

This was exactly the point I was trying to make when writing the two or three sentences that follow this initial sentence you're quoting. I simply don't believe that there are too many restaurant goers these days (perhaps I just too much believe the whining of the industry about the breakdown of the dvd market because of downloading), and those who still do so are not the 'steak and chicken' crowd.

The key point here that everyone ought to consider fully is this: "being venturesome they would perceive their own growing familiarity with the food as declining quality one way or the other.".

Again, I subscribed exactly to this, and the psychological effects you mention, when I was saying that nobody would seriously complain should they release even more Ozu; the result would only be a bit of bitching and moaning perhaps, as we had in the past. But that would still be a far cry from the far more 'fundamental' complaints of the 'regulars' in the last two months.

[arsonfilms]

Look at that cute little baby Rosemary in the newsletter!

[eerik]

I hope we'll also get The Tenant to complete the so-called apartment trilogy.

[FilmFanSea]

They've been remarkably stable at releases about 40 new releases a year for the last ten years. they've had a few outlier years, but these have happened before and after the implementation of eclipse or bluray.

Despite many cries to the contrary, the data does not support that mainline releases have been inhibited by the adoption of bluray, the introduction of eclipse, releasing new versions of early spine numbers, or the introduction of bluray upgrades.

OK, the QUANTITY of new releases has been consistent, but I'm more concerned about QUALITY. Here are the CC releases from 2005:

Jan 268 Youth of the Beast
269 Fighting Elegy
270 Casque d'or
271 Touchez pas au grisbi

Feb 272 La Commare secca
273 Thieves Highway
274 Night in the City
275 Tout va bien
277 My Own Private Idaho

Mar 267 Kagemusha
276 The River
278 L'eclisse
279 Young Törless
280 The Sword of Doom

Apr 282 Andrzej Wajda: Three War Films
283 A Generation
284 Kanal
285 Ashes and Diamonds
286 Divorce Italian Style
288 F for Fake

May 281 Jules and Jim
287 Burden of Dreams
289 Hoop Dreams
290 The Phantom of Liberty
300 The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

Jun 291 Heaven Can Wait
294 The Browning Version
295 Crazed Fruit
297 Au hasard Balthazar

Jul 292 Unfaithfully Yours
296 Le notti bianche
298 Gate of Flesh
299 Story of a Prostitute

Aug 293 The Flowers of St. Francis
302 Harakiri
305 Boudu Saved from Drowning

Sep 301 An Angel at My Table
303 Bad Timing
304 The Man Who Fell to Earth
307 Naked
308 Masculin féminin

Oct 36 The Wages of Fear [re-release]
306 Le samouraï
310 Samurai Rebellion
311 Sword of the Beast
312 Samurai Spy
313 Kill!

Nov 309 Ugetsu
314 Pickpocket
316 Ran
317 The Tales of Hoffmann

Dec 315 Shoot the Piano Player
318 Forbidden Games

Nearly every month that year saw a first-time release of a film by a major or canonical director: Becker, Bertolucci, Dassin, Godard, Kurosawa, Renoir, Antonioni, Wajda, Welles, Truffaut, Buñuel, Lubitsch, Bresson, Sturges, Visconti, Roeg, Leigh, Melville, Mizoguchi, Powell & Pressburger, Clément ...

So far, through 7 months of 2012, we've had first-time releases of films bu Buñuel, Preminger, Fassbinder, Malle, Lean, Bergman, and Chaplin (and many of these had already seen a previous Region 1/A release).

I'm not saying there's an infinite reservoir of canonical films, but there are still major films from Renoir, Ozu, Mizoguchi, Buñuel, and Bresson (to name just a few) clamoring for a Region 1/A release. (And it absolutely KILLS me that studios such as Warner and Universal are content to sell overpriced, barebones DVD-R's of unrestored MAJOR films from their back catalogs, but that's another topic entirely.)

My point is that Criterion has drifted away from the types of films that made them famous (and made me a fanboy to begin with).

[zedz]

I don't see much value in that kind of compare and contrast, which ultimately boils down to matters of preference, especially as you've got to artificially exclude Schorm, Menzel, Chytilova, Nemec, Jires, Gorin, Downey and Gremillon from your 2012 list. And Kiarostami isn't a major filmmaker for you but Mike Leigh and Rene Clement are? Yikes!

2005 was a great year, but I don't see any release in that list as adventurous as a single one of this year's Eclipse sets or Letter Never Sent, or Alambrista!, or the Hollis Frampton set - or The Report, for that matter. (Okay, maybe Crazed Fruit and Story of a Prostitute - but let's not forget that the 'completely unwarranted excess of Suzuki' was the whining point du jour back then.)

[Mr Sausage]

The key point here that everyone ought to consider fully is this: "being venturesome they would perceive their own growing familiarity with the food as declining quality one way or the other.".

Again, I subscribed exactly to this, and the psychological effects you mention, when I was saying that nobody would seriously complain should they release even more Ozu; the result would only be a bit of bitching and moaning perhaps, as we had in the past. But that would still be a far cry from the far more 'fundamental' complaints of the 'regulars' in the last two months.

I think you're underestimating the level of bitching this crowd is capable of. If CC reverted just to releasing Ozu and Kurosawa, there would be a lot of vocal complaints along the lines of "why won't they release [insert less well known Japanese director]!" and a lot of accusations about Criterion pandering to this or that, or not being adventurous, or just sticking to the established whatever. Indeed I seem to remember just these kind of complaints years ago.

[Jeff]

I actually recall people bitching about Edward Yang entering the collection!

[domino harvey]

While the search function remains unavailable, I'd like to remind everyone that I've never bitched about anything ever

[zedz]

I think every possible kind of release has been bitched about at one point or another.

Coming Attractions:

2017: "OMG. Don't they ever get tired of Rivette? Okay, they're putting on a play or something. And it takes forever. I get it already!!!"

2019: "Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Ho-so-hum, more like it."

2023: "Another month, another Chico Ejiro box set. Have they forgotten there are First World filmmakers or something? It's been years since we've had any Lena Dunham!"

[Bruce]

Look at that cute little baby Rosemary in the newsletter!

Wow! I haven't seen the newsletter, but that's great news if Rosemary's Baby is coming from Criterion. Is it likely to appear this year do you think?

[Jeff]

Look at that cute little baby Rosemary in the newsletter!

Wow! I haven't seen the newsletter, but that's great news if Rosemary's Baby is coming from Criterion. Is it likely to appear this year do you think?

October, I'd guess.

[Tommaso]

I think you're underestimating the level of bitching this crowd is capable of. If CC reverted just to releasing Ozu and Kurosawa, there would be a lot of vocal complaints along the lines of "why won't they release [insert less well known Japanese director]!" and a lot of accusations about Criterion pandering to this or that, or not being adventurous, or just sticking to the established whatever. Indeed I seem to remember just these kind of complaints years ago.

I remember them, too. These were the years when the restaurant regulars (I swear this is the last time I'll use that unfortunate analogy!!) began to get used to and tired of the exquisite stuff they were offered, just as you described. But today? I guess many people would really be glad to see "Madadayo" finally getting its release outside that massive Kurosawa box... A month or two containing mainline releases only of Ozu, Mizoguchi, Kurosawa - and perhaps Gremillon's "La petite Lise" thrown in for the more adventurous - would stop all the bitching immediately. See how far we've come.

[onedimension]

I think the running-out-of-canon thinking has some validity- spine number 1200 would dilute the brand pretty significantly, which is why the Eclipse sub-label was a good idea. They can do blugrades and 4kgrades for another decade without adding any new titles, but in addition, they can maintain customer interest by placating their various demographics sporadically: Imamura, Naruse, Oshima, Pasolini, Ray, Rossellini, Rivette are the only directors with majorish films unseen in the U.S. that I have much curiosity about, after a decade of cinephilia- but waiting patiently for those, I'll be more likely to bite on titles from my personal second-tier, take a chance on something I'd never heard of, like Letter Never Sent, or revisit something because of its Criterion-grade transfer or supplements like Anatomy of a Murder. To paraphrase Stringer Bell, they give us the weak shit because we'll buy it anyway.

[Cinephrenic]

Hopefully, The Tenant and Don't Look Now is also in the works?