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Post by William Smith on Jul 23, 2017 20:43:41 GMT -5
In the course of answering a question on Quora, I ran across some information on a little (and I must say, trivial-sounding) indie film titled Frances Ha. I also noted that Criterion had released it on disc--both Blu-Ray and DVD.
Considering they haven't kept Last Year In Marianbad in print in Blu-Ray, and that they have never released one film by Raul Ruiz, one wonders who makes decisions there.
Very odd.
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Post by antver on Oct 5, 2017 0:28:11 GMT -5
Older or more obscure films are harder to market which is why for every Last Year At Marienbad they remaster they have to remaster a Boyhood or Tootsie or cash in on a big director like Kubrick or Hitchcock to stay profitable(Barry Lyndon and Rebecca are two of some of their most recent releases).
I do agree that their overall catalogue leaves much to be desired. However, am thrilled that they are coming out with Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. On the bright side, I had got some of the films from their catalogue that I didn't really like before buying them( the problem with being a film collector) and I ended up warming up to them. These include Repo Men,Topsy Turvy, Branded To Kill, a couple from Goddard, My Darling Clementine, and some others. I own 150+ from Criterion.
I have only seen Mysteries Of Lisbon from Ruiz. I, personally, would like them to polish up more films from the 60's.
There are other up and coming distributors of high quality disks like Olive, Shout, Arrow, Scream Factory(beautiful prints of Dead Ringers and Manhunter), Kino Lorber and Warner Archives. My print of The Quiet Man from Olive is one of the best I've seen.
Scream Factory can go a little too heavy on the contrast to make the images pop and at times becomes very noticeable with the actor's skin looking a bit too pink in films like The Exorcist III, body snatchers remake, and They Live. |
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Post by William Smith on Oct 5, 2017 21:09:41 GMT -5
I think there's more to it. I cannot believe that there is much of a moarket for Frances Ha, and, guaging by the demand for used copies on eBay, Last Year At Marienbad is a pretty desirable title.
Here is a list of the most represented directors: 10 or more films:
Ingmar Bergman - 22
Akira Kurosawa - 19
Jean-Luc Godard - 13
Jean Renoir - 13
Federico Fellini - 12
Louis Malle - 12
Kenji Misumi - 12
Yasujiro Ozu - 11
Roberto Rossellini - 11
Rainer Werner Fassbinder - 10
Alfred Hitchcock - 10
David Lean - 10
Michael Powell - 10
François Truffaut - 10
Luis Buñuel - 9
13 films by Goddard and Renoir, 12 by Fellini, and 10 by Fassbinder, and they can't have a single Ruiz film, and can't keep Marienbad and two of the three Orpheus films of Cocteau in print? I haven't even mentioned a lot of the other rubbish.
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Post by William Smith on Oct 5, 2017 21:13:24 GMT -5
I think there's more to it. I cannot believe that there is much of a market for Frances Ha, and, gauging by the demand for used copies on eBay, Last Year At Marienbad is a pretty desirable title. There is nothing obscure about Marienbad, either.
Here is a list of the most represented directors: 10 or more films:
Ingmar Bergman - 22
Akira Kurosawa - 19
Jean-Luc Godard - 13
Jean Renoir - 13
Federico Fellini - 12
Louis Malle - 12
Kenji Misumi - 12
Yasujiro Ozu - 11
Roberto Rossellini - 11
Rainer Werner Fassbinder - 10
Alfred Hitchcock - 10
David Lean - 10
Michael Powell - 10
François Truffaut - 10
Luis Buñuel - 9
13 films by Goddard and Renoir, 12 by Fellini, and 10 by Fassbinder, and, for heaven's sake, 10 by Louis Malle, and they can't have a single Ruiz film, and can't keep Marienbad and two of the three Orpheus films of Cocteau in print? I haven't even mentioned a lot of the other rubbish. There is no particularly good reason for a re-issue of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me either, since it was included, with the deleted material, on the Twin Peaks box set, and it makes very little sense unless viewed in the context of the original series.
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Post by cavaradossi on Oct 16, 2017 19:42:18 GMT -5
WIlliam A, Smith
The only Criterian titles I have are on laserdisc, excellent ones, by the way. They are The Tales of Hoffmann and A Night to Remember, THE classic film on the Titanic disaster. The Powell film of Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann is my favorite way of watching that opera, not least for the conducting of Sir Thomas Beecham. Both laserdiscs look so good that they rival my later DVD (Hoffmann) and Blu-ray (Night) of them. The Hoffmann DVD is from another company, but the Night BD is Criterian. As good as the Hoffmann DVD looks, I actually prefer watching the Criterian laserdisc, while it's a toss up between the LD and BD Criterian editions of A Night to Remember as to which one I'll watch on a given viewing.
I, too, have often wondered how the company makes its choices. For instance, why didn't they also release Hoffmann on Blu-ray? I'd be on that like a cat on tuna! Initially it seemed as though the company was concentrating on quality films, and foreign entries of note, but then began to add some truly head scratching choices. I guess they believe that some of those will sell well enough to help subsidize the better films they put out.
I just remembered that my laserdisc of Bergman's movie of The Magic Flute is a Criterian.
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Post by cavaradossi on Oct 16, 2017 19:50:09 GMT -5
antver
You should add Twilight Time to your list of companies putting out very good versions of specially chosen films. Often these are of films the companies that own them aren't interested in releasing at a given time. The one drawback of Twilight Time is that their releases are always limited, usually to between 2,000, and 5,000. While a small company, they do get generally high marks for the quality of their transfers.
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Post by William Smith on Oct 29, 2017 13:56:26 GMT -5
Cav: I took a look at Twilight Time, and there are some interesting titles there.
I completely agree with you about Tales of Hoffman. There really has to be a business model for downloadable, high-quality Blu-Ray versions of films that you simply burn yourself on your computer.
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Post by cavaradossi on Nov 17, 2017 15:15:14 GMT -5
Interesting news for Tom Jones (the film) fans.
Criterion will be releasing this classic on Blu-ray in Feb. 2018. The disc will include both the original uncut theatrical film and the Director's Cut. I saw this film when it was new, so I was disappointed that my laserdisc contained the Director's Cut. It will be good to see the original again. At this point, I can't recall what was cut from the theatrical version, but back then I could tell some things were missing. As far as I know, the DVD release also was only of the DC, which is why I never bought the film in that format.
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cmac
New Member
Posts: 16 
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Post by cmac on Nov 18, 2017 2:13:59 GMT -5
I find that choosing Criterion movies must be approached cautiously. There appears to be little rhyme or reason to their choices give their stated purpose however, I have not received a poor quality transfer from them either on DVD or Blu-ray. I just ordered Masaki Kobayashi's The Human Condition in the Criterion Edition although I find that the Masters Of Cinema collection from overseas usually has slightly better extras. I've been wanting it for some time now & chose today to order it. I feel certain I will be pleased with the three movies & the transfers. All in all I rate Criterion extremely high for quality as long as I take responsibility for what I chose.
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Post by cavaradossi on Jan 31, 2018 17:19:31 GMT -5
I see that Criterion has just recently put out a release of George Romero's now classic 1968 Night of the Living Dead. The review of the quality of the picture on this Blu-ray is reported to be as excellent as possible for this film, and there is a lot of bonus material, some of it new. This is the only zombie movie that has ever given me the willies, and still does. I'm tempted.
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