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Med Hondo’s West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty
Martha Coolidge's Not a Pretty Picture

jwd5275 wrote: Fri Jan 26, 2024 8:07 pm Martha Coolidge's Not a Pretty Picture

I did hear from a reliable source close to Coolidge that Criterion were interested in this, but she wasn't seeing any movement on it. This was a few years ago, so maybe that meant a Janus acquisition or things have moved along towards a physical release

That's really exciting news – it's a great film (certainly the purest cinematic exercise in psychodrama I'm aware of) and really should be more widely available. Hopefully it'll be out on DVD before too long!

Janus has the Kenji Misumi Swords trilogy which will screen at MOMA in late March from 4k restorations.

Finch wrote: Mon Jan 29, 2024 11:14 pm Janus has the Kenji Misumi Swords trilogy which will screen at MOMA in late March from 4k restorations.

The restorations have already been released by The Jokers on UHD in France (no English subs) and look terrific in DV, likely FiM or LSP encoded. The first Zatoichi is also included in this set. Many Japanese restorations are unfortunately affected by more or less grain management but the Sword trilogy looks exceptional.
We can only hope that Criterion takes over the HDR/DV grades and NexSpec doesn’t botch the encodes. I could see them giving the first one an individual BD-66 and the other two films one BD-100 similar to the Ranown Westerns or Heroic Trio sets. For comparison, the Jokers has the trilogy all on individual BD-66s and Zatoichi on a BD-100.

Would be great to see Post Tenebras Lux (imo, the greatest film of the twenty-first century!) released by Criterion. I have the close-to-bare-bones Drakes Avenue release and it's fine, but this would no doubt be a major upgrade.

Ryuichi Sakamoto/Opus

About Dry Grasses and Trailer

Per my local theatre who is hosting a Melville month in March, Le Samouraï is getting a re-release by Janus in “a few months”. Indication of hopefully a 4K release soon.

jwd5275 wrote: Fri Jan 26, 2024 8:07 pm Martha Coolidge's Not a Pretty Picture

Apparently there was a Q&A w/ Coolidge at MoMA last year, pairing this with Valley Girl, which I wasn't aware allows for its own in-joke between films: As someone put it, "without knowing the former, almost no one will make the connection to E. G. Daily’s topless scene in the latter as a direct reference," layering meaning to both. I haven't seen the earlier film yet, but now I'm curious to revisit Valley Girl in close succession after I do.

Also, not sure where to put this, but I've been able to locate rare supplementary material from Real Genius that includes an entire documentary on behind the scenes footage of the popcorn house stunt, absent from home video releases after an initial VHS. If any boutiques are interested in licensing this or re-issuing it with new material..

Pressure (Horace Ové)
Sarraounia (Med Hondo)

Restoration/re-release trailer for Med Hondo's West Indies

3 films of Kenji Misumi
Kenki
Kiru
Ken

De Lo Mio
Milford Graves Full Mantis

Looks like we'll be getting a UHD eventually. Le samouraï 4K restoration trailer.

criterionsnob wrote: Wed Mar 13, 2024 7:39 pm Looks like we'll be getting a UHD eventually. Le samouraï 4K restoration trailer.

Oh boy that looks good!

Gentle reminder for anyone looking forward to the new restoration of Le Samouraï. Instead of waiting for the Criterion UHD, Pathé already released their 4K version in France last December as a collector’s edition and now again in April as a standard edition with English subtitles. https://www.amazon.fr/Samoura%C3%AF-.../dp/B0CRLGP3MP

I’ve tested the French UHD and it’s absolutely amazing in every regard - free of scratches as well: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php? ... stcount=45

As Criterion likely retain the old BD in the upcoming UHD set, I simply kept my BD for the bonus. Hope you enjoy this beautiful and necessary 4K upgrade as much as I did.

The extras are not subtitled or are they?

Finch wrote: Thu Mar 14, 2024 12:58 am The extras are not subtitled or are they?

They are not.

Thank you. I suspected as much but ordered the Pathe edition anyhow a few days ago. I'll hold onto the Criterion DVD for the extras.

Blutarsky wrote: Sat Feb 24, 2024 8:13 am Per my local theatre who is hosting a Melville month in March, Le Samouraï is getting a re-release by Janus in “a few months”. Indication of hopefully a 4K release soon.

Hopefully this means there will be some movement on the 4k restoration of Les Enfants Terrible

Hogfather wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2024 7:45 amHopefully this means there will be some movement on the 4k restoration of Les Enfants Terrible

That restoration is already available on Blu-ray from the BFI, in a very nice edition.

dwk wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2024 7:06 pm Cyrano de Bergerac (1990)

Also Golden Eighties
Jean de Florette
Manon of the Spring
Late August, Early September...