Well, I think I'm safe in saying that no one on these boards has the 'insider info' as to when, or which movies exactly, Criteron will issue the earlier releases in their clear plastic cases.
...
Also, I think the re-releasing of "Last Year At Marienbad" in a clear case is a tougher call than the others because it has a bit of artistic integrity attached to it with the embossing on the cover.
CC
And everybody here seemed to sleep thru my post of a couple of days ago: "But the Blu-ray packaging exchange will start in early October." As with anything, take with a grain of salt, but could be happening pretty soon.
And everybody here seemed to sleep thru my post of a couple of days ago: "But the Blu-ray packaging exchange will start in early October." As with anything, take with a grain of salt, but could be happening pretty soon.
Sorry, perhaps I missed something, but could you elaborate on this? What exactly are Criterion proposing to offer - an exchange of the current digibook packaging for a corresponding Blu-ray case with the necessary artwork? Will this eventually apply to all their BD releases that originally came out in digibook form?
What exactly are Criterion proposing to offer - an exchange of the current digibook packaging for a corresponding Blu-ray case with the necessary artwork? Will this eventually apply to all their BD releases that originally came out in digibook form?
That's what, I believe, we're all guessing... maybe, not an exchange, but maybe just an option through Criterion's site to purchase the clear plastic cases and artwork for the first cardboard packaging releases if someone chooses.
Criterion just keeps responding through e-mails that it will be soon, and it will be announced on their website when it's ready to go. So, until then, no one knows the exact details, I don't think.
That's what, I believe, we're all guessing... maybe, not an exchange, but maybe just an option through Criterion's site to purchase the clear plastic cases and artwork for the first cardboard packaging releases if someone chooses.
Criterion just keeps responding through e-mails that it will be soon, and it will be announced on their website when it's ready to go. So, until then, no one knows the exact details, I don't think.
CC
Really?! I thought they were done with this.
I guess if enough people complain....
Personally I have nothing against the cardboard packaging, I thought some of them were really nice, like "Last night in Marenbad", even though, as CC will atest to, the 1st runs were a little tight.
Really?! I thought they were done with this.
I guess if enough people complain....
Personally I have nothing against the cardboard packaging, I thought some of them were really nice, like "Last night in Marenbad", even though, as CC will atest to, the 1st runs were a little tight.
THe cardboard packaging was crap just MHO. They will get worn and torn and they will not last.
Below is a great e-mail response from the president of Criterion, Peter Becker, to a customer concerning certain happenings and releases at Criterion.
Quote:
My name is Peter Becker. I'm the president of Criterion. Thanks for
taking the time to write in.
You're right to call the Criterion schedule a juggling act, and
juggling this year's schedule has been more challenging than any since
laserdisc days. I understand some of the frustration you're feeling
about the balance of new and classic titles, especially in the later
2009 Blu-ray schedule. Making the Criterion schedule is always a
series of impossible compromises, and in the end, some people, some
years, are going to end up unhappy. Clearly this was not a good year
for you. I'm sorry about that. I know it may not solve anything, but I
thought you might appreciate a quick look at some of the factors that
came into play with this year's schedule.
For what it's worth, we've spent much more time on classic film this
year than our announced schedule shows. The single most time consuming
and expensive mastering project in the history of the company was
Kobayashi's THE HUMAN CONDITION -- that is, until we started work on
Rossellini's War Trilogy, which is still not finished. We had
originally hoped to have the Rossellini set ready for October release,
then November, then December. Ironically the easiest of the masters,
the 2007 restoration of ROME, OPEN CITY, is the one that is giving us
the most trouble. PAISAN, which has never been available in a
watchable video version, has taken us three straight months of digital
restoration, an amount of time and an expense that will probably never
come back, but the film will finally, for the first time, look good --
still damaged, but with a beautiful black and white image that will be
a revelation to anyone who has ever seen the old tapes and 16 mm
prints that are still in circulation. Our tech director is about to
make his third trip to Italy on this project, just to try to
straighten out the last master, next week.
You also mention STAGECOACH. We never announced it for December, but
it's true that we had hoped to release it then. Again mastering turned
out to be more complicated than we anticipated. The original negative
of the film is lost, and we have been evaluating a number of different
elements. We are now working closely with UCLA's restoration team to
evaluate all available elements and create a new HD master, starting
from scratch. The bad news is that it's taking a long time. The good
news is that in the time we've been working on the master, we've had
the opportunity to unearth some interesting supplemental materials, so
the edition will be all the better for it. That said, it's frustrating
that it didn't come out -- the cover's been on the wall of our office
for weeks now, and we're looking forward to making it a part of the
collection.
Those two big classics that we've been hard at work on were never
announced, which helped to give disporportionate weight to the
contemporary releases of this fall/winter. I can understand why you
would think we were stepping back from classics in favor of more
contemporary films, but in fact, the opposite has been true. Our
Blu-ray schedule has been heavily weighted toward international
classics with THE SEVENTH SEAL, PLAYTIME, WAGES OF FEAR, THE THIRD
MAN, REPULSION, 400 BLOWS, THE LAST METRO, IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES,
LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD. And when you throw in our DVD schedule with Z,
JEANNE DIELMAN, 2 OR 3 THINGS..., HUMAN CONDITION, MY DINNNER WITH
ANDRE, the Imamura box, Painlevé, etc., I don't think we pulled any
punches or spared any expense where classics were concerned.
Integrating Blu-ray production into our workflow has been challenging
in its own right. Adding an existing DVD upgrade is about equivalent
to adding a new DVD production to the schedule, at least where our
technical team is concerned, and that is where our capacity is most
constrained. New Blu-rays released day and date with the DVD editions
are marginally more efficient, and many of our customers are avidly
urging us not to release DVD-only editions anymore, but each
simultaneous release we do is one more DVD catalog classic we aren't
revisiting that month. Right now we're struggling to bring our Blu-ray
capacity up from one to two a month to three or four. As our capacity
increases, it will be easier to keep a balance, but in the meantime
it's an inexact science.
The other title that you say you were expecting, but which we didn't
officially announce for December, is CHE. It's coming, and as you can
imagine there's a wealth of great content getting developed. We wanted
to be ready for December, but Steven Soderbergh needed time to
reconstruct some deleted scenes, and we were also able, in what we
think is going to be a controversial coup, to persuade Che biographer
Jon Lee Anderson to do commentaries on both films, but he also needed
more time to prepare. In short, it became clear that if we delayed the
release a month we would be able to make a much better set. That's a
trade we will always make, even if it means we don't get the benefit
of sales in the holiday season, and we think that's the kind of
decision our collectors would want us to make.
To touch briefly on some of the other things you mention: more Eclipse
is a goal for us too. Again, this is a capacity issue. Each disc in a
set represents multiple passes for our QC department, and when we're
working on large-scale projects like Rossellini, HUMAN CONDITION, or
the Imamura box, that has a tendency to cramp our capacity to handle
multi-disc Eclipse sets at the same time. Still, we're proud of what
we've been able to do in Eclipse this year, but we are definitely
looking forward to getting more out next year. As for "two-release
months," by which I assume we're referring to December, I've already
mentioned that we intended to have STAGECOACH and CHE ready for
December as well but we delayed them to make them better rather than
sooner. That said, when one of the two releases is a 25-disc set,
that also factors in. I'm sorry you don't like the Kurosawa box idea,
but we felt that his centennial was an important opportunity to draw
attention to his monumental body of work, and so far we've had some
very positive feedback from people who have not been as diligently
collecting his work as you have.
I don't expect anything I've said will change your mind about our
slate, but I hope at least you'll know that we have no desire to
dismiss your concerns. We do value feedback from our customers,
especially longtime supporters like you, and we hope we'll earn your
loyalty again in 2010.
Is he talking about a blu-ray transfer of CHE or just a standard DVD?
He's talking about the release in general - the issues that caused the delay are not specific to either DVD or Blu-ray, they are related to the actual source material that would go into either disc. With that said, it is strongly believed that both a DVD and Blu-ray of Che will come out at the same time (whenever that ends up being).
He's talking about the release in general - the issues that caused the delay are not specific to either DVD or Blu-ray, they are related to the actual source material that would go into either disc. With that said, it is strongly believed that both a DVD and Blu-ray of Che will come out at the same time (whenever that ends up being).
Well I ordered the Contempt blu on the U.S. Amazon link last night with 2-day shipping. It still says delivery date to my house would be Oct. 1st. Won't hold my breath though until it ships and I see the tracking info.
Like I said before, ordered Le Mepris and Elephant Man through Amazon.co.uk. Someone else said not to, that they would never ship or take months or something, but they just shipped out today. I have ordered from them enough to know that the 3rd party seller was only to the U.K., and international shipments to the U.S. come directly from Amazon.
Like I said before, ordered Le Mepris and Elephant Man through Amazon.co.uk. Someone else said not to, that they would never ship or take months or something, but they just shipped out today. I have ordered from them enough to know that the 3rd party seller was only to the U.K., and international shipments to the U.S. come directly from Amazon.
I got an email last Friday that it will be here in a week. Thanks alot for your help. If for some reason it doesn't get here, I will try the U.K. site.
I got an email last Friday that it will be here in a week. Thanks alot for your help. If for some reason it doesn't get here, I will try the U.K. site.
Its just funny, the guy who swore 100% that ordering on amazon.co.uk wouldn't work, that the 3rd party seller absolutely doesn't ship to the U.S. (despite my and a few others claim to have no issues with that seller) paid almost double what I did by ordering it off ebay. I got 2 imports for the price of his one.
Its just funny, the guy who swore 100% that ordering on amazon.co.uk wouldn't work, that the 3rd party seller absolutely doesn't ship to the U.S. (despite my and a few others claim to have no issues with that seller) paid almost double what I did by ordering it off ebay. I got 2 imports for the price of his one.
Do you know if he got it yet, from the ebay seller?
But the 3rd party seller still isn't 100% true yet. Won't get my hopes up until I see a tracking #. But atleast I can be the guinea pig for anyone ordering from a 3rd party seller in the future. I got it for a cheap price, but the way it is going now, you have to wait 2+ weeks to get it. I think they had some but ran out, so they sent that message to me about not having any, and had to get more. So if your lucky, buying from a 3rd party seller, you might get it earlier.
I haven't rec'd mine yet... I was never 100% sure about the amazon.com third party seller but last time I tried to order the Blu-Ray and they were the third party seller the order sat there in amazons system and was finally canceled because they couldn't ship to the US, I found that odd. But I can't remember the title.
I am sure it was an isolated incident at the time but I am impatient and I didn't want my order sitting on amazon.com in UK for a week while no one even contacts me at all to even let me know they can't ship my order. I am not sure who it ended, I can't remember if I rec'd an e-mail notification or if I had to contact customer service. I just knew if they used a third party seller, I was NEVER gonna do another order.
Yes I paid $45.00 for my copy but it did ship, and they did have the item stocked. Most us sites that formerly listed it in US as selling it - well they don't have their stock at all.
I took my chances with the ebay seller and I have NO regrets. I would have paid $60.00
I guess I am still used to paying laserdisc prices for films it didn't matter.
I still want the Japanese import of BOUND but that goes for $50.00+ currently.
^ Quick question, when you ordered from that 3rd party seller, did you ever get an email saying your order should ship within a week or 2 before it canceled?
^ Quick question, when you ordered from that 3rd party seller, did you ever get an email saying your order should ship within a week or 2 before it canceled?
I just remember I placed the order and kept on checking its status and never got a shipped confirmation at all.. so if you go tone then that is a good sign. I wouldn't worry.
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