The Criterion Collection

[RojD]

Originally Posted by Shane Rollins

As much as I want the Batjac impasse resolved, I'd give all of the Batjac titles just to have The Alamo and The Greatest Story Ever Told restored.The Batjac titles at least have a chance on their own. The other two, for multiple reasons, London After Midnight has a better chance of getting restored and released than The Alamo and TGSET do.

So naturally, I'm hoping for a miracle...still.

Do u mean DeMille's Greatest Story? Flicker Alley is doing that next month with both the silent '27 and '28 sound.

There's the G. Stevens one on MGM blu, too. I haven't seen it but the reviews don't sound like I'd want to.

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by RojD

Do u mean DeMille's Greatest Story? Flicker Alley is doing that next month with both the silent '27 and '28 sound.

There's the G. Stevens one on MGM blu, too. I haven't seen it but the reviews don't sound like I'd want to.

Think they mean the 1965 epic, The Greatest Story Ever Told, not the recent Flicker Alley pre-order, The King of Kings.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by StarDestroyer52

Just noticed this is OOP on the Criterion site:



I like to think that this would mean a Blu-ray is coming, but I doubt it.

I can't even find it on their site when I search. Could you provide a link if you have one?

Edit: Using the Way Back Machine, I found the URL, but now it just doesn't exist anymore

https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/38...dplay-classics

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

I can't even find it on their site when I search. Could you provide a link if you have one?

Sorry, I tried to click the link from my wishlist and it just went straight to Collector's Sets. Seems like the individual titles are still available to buy on the site if you search for them. So IDK. Maybe they just discontinued the boxset.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by StarDestroyer52

Sorry, I tried to click the link from my wishlist and it just went straight to Collector's Sets. Seems like the individual titles are still available to buy on the site if you search for them. So IDK. Maybe they just discontinued the boxset.

Yeah, maybe. Samurai Rebellion and Samurai Spy are available individually, but Kill! and Sword of the Beast don't appear to be for sale at the moment.

[HuggyBear73]

So Announcements gonna be today or Monday?

[MifuneFan]

I now see Kwaidan DVD is also Out of Print. I'm not sure if this is a troubling sign to do with Toho (which all of the films recently mentioned are), or just Criterion simply putting their DVD's out of print rather than re-pressing more copies when they go out of stock.

https://www.criterion.com/films/629-kwaidan

[benricci]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

I now see Kwaidan DVD is also Out of Print. I'm not sure if this is a troubling sign to do with Toho (which all of the films recently mentioned are), or just Criterion simply putting their DVD's out of print rather than re-pressing more copies when they go out of stock.

https://www.criterion.com/films/629-kwaidan

They are simply discontinuing DVD print runs on older titles.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by benricci

They are simply discontinuing DVD print runs on older titles.

It's unfortunate though, as some films like the Rebel Samurai sets are only available on DVD. So eventually, aside from secondary market sellers, the only option will be digital / streaming. That fate has already happened with a some of their Eclipse DVD sets too.

[benricci]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

It's unfortunate though, as some films like the Rebel Samurai sets are only available on DVD. So eventually, aside from secondary market sellers, the only option will be digital / streaming. That fate has already happened with a some of their Eclipse DVD sets too.

To be fair, those DVDs (some of them, at least) had been in print for 25+ years in many cases. And there are still plenty of copies floating around and available to buy if you really want them.

I guess it's maybe bad for those new to the titles or collecting in general, but how long do we realistically expect these companies to keep pressing DVDs of obscure catalog titles that likely sell very few copies per year?

I can't really fault them from moving on at this point...

[Shane Rollins]

Originally Posted by RojD

Do u mean DeMille's Greatest Story? Flicker Alley is doing that next month with both the silent '27 and '28 sound.

There's the G. Stevens one on MGM blu, too. I haven't seen it but the reviews don't sound like I'd want to.

Originally Posted by StarDestroyer52

Think they mean the 1965 epic, The Greatest Story Ever Told, not the recent Flicker Alley pre-order, The King of Kings.

Yes, referring to the 1965 George Stevens epic The Greatest Story Ever Told.

Yes, although it's admittedly rusty, it's a hell of a lot better of a movie than most people say it is.

And yes, the Blu-ray is a turkey on stilts. It's the 2001 DVD (not the 2001 DVD transfer, the actual DVD file) dropped on a Blu-ray, with the bigger file sizes and (more) modern encodes just giving more breathing room to a 9GB file with lossy sound. It opens with a "best available elements" disclaimer, even though...

1. It's sourced from an automated 2K scan/restoration/master of a 65mm IP from the late 90s-early 2000s, and that IP could still exist.
2. The OCN still exists at the LoC.
3. Also at the LoC, possibly at the OCN level, is the original rough cut of the film.
4. Everything at the LoC could've been used by MGM with a simple phone call.

Yes it's no Ben-Hur or Ten Commandments, but it deserves much better than it's gotten over the years.

Originally Posted by Brad1963

My June predictions.

Flow UHD, BD + DVD
Saving Face BD
The Great Escape This month's former Kino UHD upgrade.
Splendor in the Grass UHD + BD
Man Ray: Return to Reason BD
High and Low UHD upgrade

I know we've all said this ad nauseam, but I can't for the life of me figure out what's taking so long on Splendor In The Grass. I have a DVD from 2015, and it looks like a disc from the late 90s-early 2000s, leading me to believe that the 2001 snapper (I don't own that release) has just been repackaged and repressed for 24 years now.

SITG and High Society are probably the two WB titles where there's truly no reason why they just haven't been available. They sold well, they were successful theatrically and critically, audiences love them, and they're both highly demanded. (Compare with the most frequently thrown WB title, The Devils, both HS and SITG have been mentioned way more than The Devils, it's at least 20:1 for each title.)

Seriously, where the hell are they?

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

It's unfortunate though, as some films like the Rebel Samurai sets are only available on DVD. So eventually, aside from secondary market sellers, the only option will be digital / streaming. That fate has already happened with some of their Eclipse DVD sets too.

Welp, to Fleabay we go I guess.

My eventual goal is to own the complete Collection, and I'm already shuddering at the thought of how much moolah those guys are going to get from me.

[DukeTogo84]

If we get an upgrade to the Samurai Rebels set, I won't say a single bad word against Criterion for 18 months. Scouts honor!

[MifuneFan]

Brazil 4K UHD

https://www.criterion.com/films/211-brazil

DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration of Terry Gilliam’s director’s cut, supervised and approved by Gilliam, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and two Blu-rays with the film and special features
• Audio commentary by Gilliam
• What Is “Brazil”?, Rob Hedden’s on-set documentary
• The Production Notebook, a collection of interviews and video essays, featuring a trove of Brazil-iana from Gilliam’s personal collection
• The Battle of “Brazil,” a documentary about the film’s contentious release, hosted by Jack Mathews and based on his book of the same name
• “Love Conquers All” version, the studio’s ninety-four-minute, happy-ending cut of Brazil, with commentary by Brazil expert David Morgan
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by film critic David Sterritt

Cover based on a theatrical poster

[MifuneFan]

Sorcerer (1977) 4K UHD

https://www.criterion.com/films/34370-sorcerer

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack approved by director William Friedkin
• Alternate 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and two Blu-rays with the film and special features
• Friedkin Uncut (2018), a documentary by Francesco Zippel featuring interviews with Friedkin; screenwriter Walon Green; filmmakers Wes Anderson, Francis Ford Coppola, and Quentin Tarantino; and others
• New conversation between filmmaker James Gray and film critic Sean Fennessey
• Archival audio interviews with Green and editor Bud Smith, from the collection of Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, author of William Friedkin (2003)
• Conversation from 2015 between Friedkin and filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn
• Behind-the-scenes footage of Friedkin on set
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by film critic Justin Chang

New cover by Nessim Higson

[MifuneFan]

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters 4K UHD

https://www.criterion.com/films/588-...-four-chapters

DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• 4K digital restoration of the director’s cut, supervised and approved by director Paul Schrader and cinematographer John Bailey, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• Two alternate English narrations, including one by actor Roy Scheider
• Audio commentary featuring Schrader and producer Alan Poul
• Program on the making of the film featuring Bailey, producers Tom Luddy and Mata Yamamoto, composer Philip Glass, and production designer Eiko Ishioka
• Program on Yukio Mishima featuring his biographer John Nathan and friend Donald Richie
• Audio interview with coscreenwriter Chieko Schrader
• Interview excerpt from 1966 featuring Mishima talking about writing
• The Strange Case of Yukio Mishima, a 1985 documentary about the author
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by critic Kevin Jackson, a piece on the film’s censorship in Japan, and photographs of Ishioka’s sets
  
• Cover by Neil Kellerhouse

[MifuneFan]

The Wiz (1978) 4K UHD

https://www.criterion.com/films/33810-the-wiz

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, approved by producer Rob Cohen, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• New audio commentary featuring scholars Michael B. Gillespie and Alfred L. Martin
• Archival interviews with director Sidney Lumet and actor Diana Ross
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by critic Aisha Harris

New cover by Komi Olafimihan

[MifuneFan]

Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould 4K UHD

https://www.criterion.com/films/2791...ut-glenn-gould

DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director François Girard, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• New audio commentary featuring Girard and cowriter and actor Don McKellar
• New conversation between Girard and filmmaker Atom Egoyan
• Glenn Gould: Off the Record and Glenn Gould: On the Record, companion programs from 1959 produced for Canadian television
• Archival interviews with actor Colm Feore and producer Niv Fichman
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by author and film critic Michael Koresky

A rare film biography as boldly unconventional as its subject, writer-director François Girard’s visionary portrait of iconoclastic, world-renowned pianist Glenn Gould explodes the conventions of the form to illuminate the brilliant mind and innermost obsessions of a singular artist. Across thirty-two vignettes encompassing everything from dramatic sketches to documentary interviews to avant-garde animation, Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould pieces together the story of Gould’s trajectory from child prodigy to celebrated concert pianist who turned his back on public performance to pursue his all-consuming fascination with recording technology. Led by a tour-de-force performance by Colm Feore and underscored by Gould’s landmark recordings of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Girard’s film daringly deconstructs the enigma of genius.

[MifuneFan]

Midnight (1939) Blu-ray

https://www.criterion.com/films/28989-midnight

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• New audio commentary featuring author and film critic Michael Koresky
• New program featuring audio excerpts of a 1969 interview with director Mitchell Leisen
• Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film from 1940
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by film critic David Cairns

New cover by Abigail Giuseppe

Screwball comedy doesn’t get any more effortlessly elegant and gleefully irreverent than this roulette wheel of romantic deception, gleaming with cunning wit and Continental élan. A couture-clad Claudette Colbert is divine as a penniless American showgirl who crashes Parisian high society by posing as a wealthy Hungarian baroness—but both a scheming nobleman (John Barrymore) and a smitten taxi driver (Don Ameche) are soon on to her game. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett’s sophisticated script—a typically subversive blend of fairy-tale escapism and caustic social observation—and the pitch-perfect direction of master craftsman Mitchell Leisen yield a topsy-turvy Cinderella story with a cynical bite.

[MifuneFan]

Thelonious Monk Straight, No Chaser (1988) Blu-ray

https://www.criterion.com/films/3380...ight-no-chaser

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• Introduction by director Charlotte Zwerin
• New interview with musician T. S. Monk, son of Thelonious Monk
• New program about Zwerin and the making of the film featuring interviews with writer Michael Schulman, assistant editor Bernadine Colish, and Zwerin’s nieces Lisa and Laura Tesone
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by musician and scholar Paul Grimstad

New cover by Adam Maida

The closest a film camera ever got to enigmatic jazz visionary Thelonious Monk, this intimate portrait sheds light on the corners of a brilliant and complex life. Superbly crafted by Direct Cinema pioneer Charlotte Zwerin from a trove of precious 1960s archival footage, Thelonious Monk Straight, No Chaser captures the pianist and bebop innovator in rare, unguarded moments on- and offstage, revealing an eccentric and complicated personality. Made with the same freedom of spirit that defines Monk’s artistry, this essential slice of jazz history is a unique glimpse into the quixotic world of one of the twentieth century’s most revolutionary artists.

[Brad1963]

Wow! What a great line-up of titles in June. Sorcerer was not on anybody's radar.