After spending some time with Solaris, its probably my favorite blu-ray of the year so far. Up there with Sony's treatment of Taxi Driver. I wish Criterion would dive into more Russian film.

As far as Nolan goes, I support putting out any of his stuff if it gets Criterion the cash to fund more obscure releases.

Hmm, I am by no means the accomplished videophile that many users are, so don't let me sway you. I think the appreciation of Solaris comes from the fact that this is as good as its ever going to look aside from a pristine 35mm print, rather than its potential to contend with the best of the Blu-ray format. As far as I'm concerned, this is one of the only times a Tarkovsky film in the US has gotten any sort of home video justice.

The long version of Andrei Rublev will be a problem, I don't know what state the parts are that are missing in the Russian Blu-ray. Probably not in a very healthy state, until a large scale restoration is done. That it's still one of my favorites of all time.

These two responses must be skewed for the North American market and not the International one. I don't even think the current Criterion would even consider the titles they released in their Laserdisc days with very few exceptions of revisiting a bunch again on the two more current formats.
Speaking of their Laserdisc output, there's still many extras from their Laserdisc days which aren't even available on current sized media disc formats. Sure there've been Laserdisc to DVD preservations but nothing beats a properly stamped/pressed disc which has been thoroughly worked on.
Case in point is BLADE RUNNER. The special features alone from the Criterion LD could essentially be part of a sixth disc to go along with the 5-Disc Complete Collector's disc if said disc was a DVD9 (if I had the resources and knowledge, I'd make 5 more discs devoted to extras for BLADE RUNNER). These LD-to-DVD, along with professional looking menus, are my "companion pieces" for titles which I own from a release studio. One which immediately springs to mind is Bram Stoker's DRACULA which is befitting to the Sony release. Some of the preservations are only single discs so I figure might as well stick them in with the officially released title.
Sure I own ARMAGEDDON, Silence of the Lambs, RoboCop and a few other OOP Criterion DVDs for their extras and where applicable thick booklet. In fact sometime I own a few different releases of a title just to have the most thorough output of extras and content available.
For example, I own three releases of LÉON. The International Version (Corrected) with 5.1 Isolated Score and South Korean DVDs along with the Blu-ray. Hell, I still own quite alot of HD DVDs which are put into the second disc spot for several Blu-rays I own. For the Bourne series as an example and several others. Yes this will go for the Universal Studios release for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas which I'll have the HD DVD as the second disc. For the Criterion, if they offer 2-Disc cases which I'm sure they won't, I'd put the soundtrack as the second disc.
Have any Criterion titles on DVD or Blu-ray offered isolated scores? It's a feature I'm extra privy of since I am a film score/soundtrack collector and enjoy the complete film scores as an alternate track for several releases.
If that 5-Disc BLADE RUNNER release would have been released by Criterion, they probably MSRP'd it with $69.99 or more, knowing them. So yes my bargain searching still applies for Criterion.

http://i.yai.bz/assets/06/598/l_p0015159806.jpg

After the Japanese Harakiri release know an upcoming UK Blu-ray, very nice.:)
Waiting for Criterion to announce theirs.

MoC's twitter, confirmed by Criterion forum. Imamura's Narayama in a Dual Format release.

That'd be nice but who knows when they'll actually get around to it? Would be nice if this, which I haven't seen in a long time, and several others were announced unexpectedly in a few future waves. Damn glad If.... is being released onto Blu-ray! I'm considering going ahead and search for the OOP Criterion DVDs which I'm still interested in and for the ones which I'd like to buy on Blu-ray format to wait (im)patiently for them. Includes, broken record, THE GAME and LA HAINE.
Nice Cerebus the Aardvark avatar too.

Thank you very much. Gotta love Cerebus, he's like me, always grumpy.;)

No, he does not. His films are soulless yet passable (The Prestige being my favorite), but if Heath wouldn't have died, TDK wouldn't have been near the hit. It's just not a great film.

In my opinion from the younger generation it's Darren Aronofsky or David Fincher who deserve a spot before Nolan.

Been a damn long time since I've read a Cerebus comic though.

David Fincher already has a spot technically with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and the LD of THE GAME. But the latter I guess is still being worked on for Blu-ray by Criterion or I would've already imported it from another country.
Guess I'm part of the younger generation but would be nice for the current releases for Criterion to include far older titles. Based on both Modern Times along with The Great Dictator, they'll be releasing Charlie Chaplins films through them. What I've posted in this thread many times before, I do have a varied slate of films I'd enjoy for Criterion to revisit on Blu-ray disc format.
Maybe it's best for what I own and what's in my wishlist to say more than myself about my overall encompassing "taste" in film.
Although I wish I could immediately afford it all along with the proper shelving, I'm one of those sticklers to wait for a good price before jumping on title. Would be nice to rectify my only title I own through Criterion by gradually adding more titles as the pricing falls more into my pricing criteria.
Regarding Aronofsky. I've only seen Requiem for a Dream and only thought it alright. Nothing big to go by.

Anyone else have The Leopard? I watched it last night, and thought it was an absolutely gorgeous film, both PQ wise, and story wise. Burt Lancaster was fantastic as usual, and it's such an interesting period in Italian history. I highly recommend it.

I watched the original Italian version, although the set comes with the English cut for people who hate subtitles. The print for that doesn't look as nice as the Italian one, I glanced at it briefly testing out my new computer's blu-ray drive, so it could have just been because it was on a 23" HD monitor and computer set-up, rather than a proper TV.

I don't want to go off on a tangent from a tangent (and yet here I go) but that seems awfully unlikely. Batman Begins was a pretty big hit and people were going batshit (see what I did there? batshit? I freaking kill me) for years waiting for the next one. I seriously doubt the added buzz created by Ledger's death had all that much impact on either the prerelease frenzy or the popular reception.

Critical reception, on the other hand, that was probably affected. His performace was every bit as remarkable as critics said buuuut there's a pretty good chance they wouldn't have paid nearly as much attention to it had he not died. It could very well have been disregarded as just another (grudgingly acknowleged as above average) comic book role.

The Leopard caught my eye a couple sales ago and I finally added it along with 8 1/2 during the recent Amazon sale. All this recent talk about Italian cinema had me leaning toward checking them out sooner rather than later.

That's pretty much where I am too. I would love to have them release Chinatown and Rosemary's Baby but in the long run I'll be better off letting them go after Repulsion and Cul-de-Sac (and hopefully The Tenant) while I wait for what is almost certain to be perfectly good 'big releases' from Paramount. Aside from the ridiculous wait and the possibility Paramount might actually hose one of the releases it seems like a pretty clear win/win.

And not to forget large parts of the Godfather I and II are very clearly influenced by Visconti's Gattopardo. And if comes to the recreation of bygone era there's not a lot that has or ever had the vision Visconti had.

That's exactly why I bought it, along with the fact Burt Lancaster's in it. :) 20 bucks during the Amazon US sale a couple weeks ago, when it retails for 46 here in Canada, is awefully hard to resist. It's long, 3 hours or so, but it doesn't feel at all like it's a long movie because the story is so captivating. The English cut is just that, a cut, with 40 minutes missing from it, from what I've read.

It's been a month since the Amazon sale started and many titles are still much cheaper than usually. High five Amazon! :rock:

So does Criterion still have the rights to Traffic?

I don't understand the Nolan hate. He makes a lot of movies that are different then the typical genre movies that flood the box office. If anything I commend him for taking the chances he does. Memento, Inception and The Prestige were all good and very imaginative films with excellent casting and directing. Also may I add his direction of Insomnia was superb.
I get the feeling that hating Nolan is just the in thing right now and usually it just comes off sounding like some overly critical movie reviewer. Then again I've always been a 'glass half full' person. I try to find what I like in a movie and not overly condemn what I don't. I will critique things I don't like in a movie, but usually find something to like about most movies.

While I agree the film's plot was full of holes. Heath gave a amazing performance of a character that audiences love. I don't think his death had any real impact on the popularity of the film. It has enough elements that are good enough to stand on its own. Plot wasn't one of them. My biggest disappointment about Heath's death is how it hurt Terry Gilliam's film so badly.