The Criterion Collection

[dwk]

Originally Posted by mande2013

Is Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down the only Almodovar film to which SPC doesn't own the North American rights. High Heels was temporarily on the Channel a few months back and appears to have been theatrically distributed in the US by Miramax, but I don't know who owns it now. The SPC moniker didn't exist when Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown was initially released theatrically, but it looks like they acquired the rights later for a rerelease.

Is anything else missing from this 2016 annoucement?:

Sony Pictures Classics announced today they have acquired the rest of Pedro Almodóvar’s full library of films including Pepi, Luci, Bom, Labyrinth of Passion, Dark Habits, What Have I Done To Deserve This?, High Heels and Kika. Additionally, Almodóvar’s new film (his 20) Julieta, will be released in theaters on December 21. It debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

With this acquisition, SPC now has the full library of films which also includes Matador, Talk to Her, All About My Mother, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Volver, The Flower of My Secret, Live Flesh, Law of Desire, Bad Education, Broken Embraces, The Skin I Live In and I’m So Excited!

[fatboyslim142]

Originally Posted by mande2013

Is Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down the only Almodovar film to which SPC doesn't own the North American rights. High Heels was temporarily on the Channel a few months back and appears to have been theatrically distributed in the US by Miramax, but I don't know who owns it now. The SPC moniker didn't exist when Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown was initially released theatrically, but it looks like they acquired the rights later for a rerelease.

What about Folle... folle... fólleme Tim! (1978) that doesn't seem to have had ANY English friendly release, in the world, at ALL, NOT even on DVD.

[cjamescook]

Originally Posted by yoloswegmaster420

Lizzie Borden said in a now-deleted tweet that Criterion was releasing 'Working Girls' in July. Credits to dwk for finding this.

Funny story:
I saw Working Girl (1988) back when it was in the theatres, then recommended it to my family. My sister attempted to rent the title, insisting her brother had already done so. What she came away with was Working Girls (1986). Notice the slight title difference.

Yup, my sister brought over a porno film to show Mom.

[mande2013]

Originally Posted by fatboyslim142

What about Folle... folle... fólleme Tim! (1978) that doesn't seem to have had ANY English friendly release, in the world, at ALL, NOT even on DVD.

Fun fact: Aside from Greed, which has yet to be released on blu-ray at all, Viridiana is the only film in the TSPDT Top 100 without an English-friendly blu-ray release.

[mande2013]

Originally Posted by dwk

Is anything else missing from this 2016 annoucement?:

I guess they've got them all with the exception of Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down which Criterion licensed directly from Pathé.

[Gacivory]

With the passing of Larry McMurtry. A great way to remember his writing is to give us Hud.

[bergman864]

My local FYE had a Blu-ray copy of Days of Heaven. I happen to already own it though.

[CRASHLANDING]

Originally Posted by mande2013

Fun fact: Aside from Greed, which has yet to be released on blu-ray at all, Viridiana is the only film in the TSPDT Top 100 without an English-friendly blu-ray release.

Hoping that gets remedied soon. I bought the Spanish BD as one of my first region-free forays - it looks great, but I realized too late that it didn't include English subs. Lesson learned!

[AdmiralNoodles]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

[Show spoiler]

The Sony Pictures Classics line is nice, actually. I've started mining their offerings within the last year or so, and I think I have a good start (I forgot to include Call Me By Your Name in the picture). They won't be loaded up with extras like Criterions are-usually they have a few bonuses; a director commentary is fairly standard, and one or two from either a making of documentary, still galleries, deleted scenes, and occasionally, a director Q&A. For instance, Leviathan director Andrey Zvyagintsev did a Q&A at the Toronto Film Festival, and that's included as a blu-ray exclusive.

They have a really nice group of Best Foreign Film winners and nominees. I like them for contemporary foreign and domestic releases as a supplement to Criterion.

And it's not impossible for a film to get a Criterion release after being with SPC. Before Midnight was released by SPC before Criterion got distribution rights to the entire trilogy. So, that business relationship has at least been established on some level.

The UHD release of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is beautiful with nice film grain. It's from the newer remaster and I highly recommend it.
Regarding error discs, I too should check The Lady Vanishes. Both on my computer and my disc player. Oddly has been quite awhile since I've last watched it. Hopefully none of the other three earlier Criterion releases of Hitchcock, which is also in the 4-title boxset, are affected.

[Mike0284]

Reviews for the World of Wong Kar Wai set are on the site.

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/World...261077/#Review

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by mande2013

Continuing the SPC thread, it's too bad Criterion passed on Antonioni's The Passenger, presumably because they weren't willing to release the rather dated master currently available.

Even if it's true that they were offered and passed on such an opportunity, the dated master is unlikely to be a reason. They released a blu based on a dated master of Le Samourai, when they saw that no worthwhile new master was available.

[monorail91]

Originally Posted by dancerslegs

I wonder if they will offer the Italian (director's) cut of Burn!? It's clearly the superior of the two, even if it means losing Brando's voice.

Ah when they’ve had Burn! in the past I think it was Brando’s voice

[mande2013]

I'm tempted to buy the Arrow release of Rohmer's Comedies and Proverbs, but I'm just afraid as soon as I get it Criterion will end up announcing a superior release like a year later. I've already gone through this after owning the BFI blu-rays of Teorema and Celine and Julie Go Boating. Thankfully, BFI's Two Films by Lino Brocka release is worthy of Criterion's treatment of the films, and I don't feel the need to double-dip the way I'm tempted to with Celine and Julie.

I'm not a label fetishist per se. In the case of the Dietrich/von Stenberg set, I opted for the Powerhouse Films release over the Criterion after they'd both been released/announced.

[jw007]

I've been reading Dr. Svet Atanasov's reviews on this site of the World of Wong Kar Wai box set that was just released and have noticed the video quality on many of these releases are a mixed bag of encoding anomalies (I noticed the phrase "not convincing" a lot), with flattened imagery, unnatural hues, crushed nuances, density fluctuations, and in the case of one of the films (Fallen Angels) the aspect ratio was artificially widened from 1.85:1 to 2.35:1.

I'm hoping Criterion's high standard of quality isn't going down, and that this is just an isolated exception based on the director's artistic choices.

[shadowofdreams]

Originally Posted by jw007

I'm hoping Criterion's high standard of quality isn't going down, and that this is just an isolated exception based on the director's artistic choices.

Given that these changes have been present in the restorations for a few years, I have a feeling alot of this is WKW. Lee Klein did a discussion with Roger Deakins on his podcast, and from the sound of it they do the best they can but try and take as much input from the director as possible. Given that he brought up multiple situations in the podcast where they talked people down from drastic changes into more manageable ones, there is a distinct possibility that WKW wanted even more extreme changes and Criterion was the one trying to keep it from going that far.

[Warm Gun]

For a company that has for decades prided itself on using original aspect ratios and such, I wonder if maybe they should have refused WKW's new restoration ideas and not released this at all. He still would have been able to release the 4K discs through that other label. I'm not buying either of them.

[shadowofdreams]

Originally Posted by Warm Gun

For a company that has for decades prided itself on using original aspect ratios and such, I wonder if maybe they should have refused WKW's new restorations and not released this at all.

To be fair, better a sub-par release than no release at all, and if Criterion refused it somebody else would have done it. Also there would have been years of "why no WKW box set" that they would have had to deal with

[dancerslegs]

Originally Posted by monorail91

Ah when they’ve had Burn! in the past I think it was Brando’s voice

Indeed they did, unfortunately.

[BamaDullard]

Originally Posted by jw007

I've been reading Dr. Svet Atanasov's reviews on this site of the World of Wong Kar Wai box set that was just released and have noticed the video quality on many of these releases are a mixed bag of encoding anomalies (I noticed the phrase "not convincing" a lot), with flattened imagery, unnatural hues, crushed nuances, density fluctuations, and in the case of one of the films (Fallen Angels) the aspect ratio was artificially widened from 1.85:1 to 2.35:1.

I'm hoping Criterion's high standard of quality isn't going down, and that this is just an isolated exception based on the director's artistic choices.

I would say it’s the latter. But I think Criterion has always been pretty dependent on other organizations for the quality of their presentations. Much more than WAC for example, who usually do their own remasters/restorations.

[mande2013]

Either way, I'm assuming the standalone blu-ray of In The Mood For Love with the old master will still remain in circulation. I was watching the new restoration on Mubi earlier today, and I guess the flatness I was noticing wasn't strictly due to streaming compression after all.