sorry i should have mentioned that.

Amazon. :itsnice:

Ok, I'll just throw this one out there. Isn't the original Night of the Living Dead public domain in the U.S.? If so would it be possible for a good transfer to Blu-Ray? I'm sure a lot of people would have problems with this film on Criterion, but I'd love for this to somehow happen.

It's sort of silly when you watch it now. There are so many movies that still hold up today that are worth the finest detail.

You could say the same thing about almost any black & white movie. Some of them are in the Criterion catalog. Heck, I'd even say the supposed "greatest movie of all-time" Citizen Kane seems silly nowadays.

I feel the same way Ingmar Bergman feels about it. It's a film that's a bore until the the twist. The twist is one of the best twists I've seen in a film but the journey to get there is a pain. It dilly dallies way too much and it could have been reduced in length and ended.

As for Night of the LIving Dead the original, I mean the zombies don't even look like zombies. They look like pale people. It's too funny. The beginning is great though.

I'd love to see classic American horror films get the Criterion treatment.

From someone who is not a horror movie fan, Night of the Living Dead is brilliant. I'd love a Blu Ray release.

Personally, I love the journey of Citizen Kane. To me, the journey is always incredibly fascinating, and the ending is fairly empty (but in a good, ironic way).

Night of the Living Dead, despite any of its shortcomings due to its age and era, is deservedly a classic. I personally like Dawn of the Dead (1978) a lot more, but there's little point in denying the breakthrough of the original film.

As for Criterion releasing it - it's not so much a matter of whether it's public domain or not. The rights to release it may be open to everyone, but not everyone has access to quality film materials, which are owned by different companies. In this case, Weinstein Co. currently has a deal in place to license the better materials (from Romero, I believe).

A similar situation within the Criterion Collection is Charade. The film is public domain in the US, but Criterion licensed Universal's materials in order to release a version from quality film elements.

i'm SO EXCITED ABOUT YOMJIMBO&SANJURO!!! just wanted to proclaim that =).

being a huge AK fan, ofc i wish the AK 100 (25 films of) was released on Blu-Ray as well.

do you think there'll come a time for Eclipse series to come to Blu-Ray?

The Eclipse series to blu-ray? From Criterion? No chance. I think you'd personally have to finance a proper restoration of those films if you wanna see them on blu-ray.

CC

It's no more silly than Carnival of Souls.

From what I have seen of the Chantal Akerman in the 70's set, those transfers look fine for a HD upgrade. But I guess it depends on the set. I am sure some are more popular than others.. even the Bergman set isn't bad. I don't mind scratches so much, somtimes those can't be helped.

although I would love Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles , I mean she lives at 1080 Why not see her in 1080P!

I highly doubt that any of the current Eclipse sets will be released on Blu-ray by Criterion, but that doesn't rule out the possibility of forthcoming Blu-ray Eclipse packages once the format becomes more popular.

Also, many sets and their extras are available in Europe (Akerman, for instance, is available in France on DVD with extras and English subs on the features), so the other thing I wouldn't rule out is a former Eclipse set coming to BD with extras and re-branded part of the general Collection.

how did we start talking about "night of the living dead" in the CC thread? That's an interesting thought though. I would love to see a classic like that get the CC treatment.

I started it. As far as I am aware idle speculation about what films would make good Criterion releases are allowed.

Haven't seen that movie IN A LONG TIME.

did you read my whole post about me thinking it sounded like a cool idea? yes speculation certainly is allowed. I didn't mean to come across so stern. like I said, it's an interesting thought and I would like to see it myself.

understand that I and probably many others weren't expecting a speculation of that kind, that's all. don't take it too personally.

I actually like Carnival of Souls a lot. The two disc from Criterion is a really nice set. It has its moments, but I think the film has many layers to it than most think.

er... as opposed to not having to do anything for transferring film->DVDs? :D

one has to do SOMN no matter what when transferring film to optical medium. so why not transfer to BD AND DVDs at the same time? instead of having multiple teams w/multiple focuses, Criterion should have just have 1 team doing the full Criterion AND Eclipse Blu-Rays BOTH. DVDs then become a "downrez" process instead of a focus.

to me, the eclipse brand is movie-only, no bonus/extras. i wouldn't mind a lot of films that are just movie-only =P. i dont watch bonus/extras more than once.