I'm pretty disappointed by the extras for Eraserhead. I'd be less disappointed if they managed to get everyone of Lynch's shorts and put them on a separate disc.
Pretty consistent with the content of the UK release and therefore obviously how Lynch wants these films presented.
The Straight Story makes more sense to me because I can't see Disney doing it themselves and they have already licensed to other markets. The Elephant Man is with Studio Canal so sadly I don't see that happening. Lost Highway would be the film that sticks out but even if they managed to get him involved with it I can see it taking some time, to say the least. Eraserhead has been talked about by Criterion and their fans for over 10 years.
I recently saw Lost Highway not too long ago for the first time in 14 years or so. What a crazy film.
By the way, I was just thinking ... does anyone know the percentage of movies in the Criterion Collection that are the directors' first film? I seem to notice that a lot of films in the collection end up being the debut or first film of a director more often than not. I guess those first films are easier to obtain for licensing purposes since major studios never picked them up and released them. I can think of a few films off the top of my head that are debut films for certain directors. Recently Michael Mann's Thief came out..and now Eraserhead. But there are soooo many more, no?
I love it because it's dark and there isn't anything else quite like it.
I definitely expect to warm up to it over time. And there were things I liked this time around. For instance, some of the music was brilliant. That sort of distinctly 60s/70s Simon and Garfunkel 'love-in' style of folk singing was so jarringly out of place and on so many levels it was surreal (which I would imagine was the point).
Very excited to see fear eat soul. Just watched the sirk original on Sunday and was telling my girlfriend how great fassbender's take on it was. Might be my favorite from RWF.
Owl, don't take this the wrong way but you seem to be high on basically everything. Makes it hard to take the reviews seriously if everything blows you away or is one of your favorite releases
One type of criticism tells us what to think about a movie. This type never made any sense to me since we've all got such different taste. It'll work if we know that the reviewer's taste tracks our own pretty closely, but otherwise, it's not much use.
I enjoy Owl's comments because instead of just saying "this is great" or "I didn't like this," he finds what he responds to in a film and tells us what that is. That gives me one more thing to look for and enjoy. It's more useful than a gushy string of adjectives or snark. I don't respond to all the same things he does (Owl, you're just not keyed into the right things on Nashville ), but he generally gives me a thing or two to look at or think about in the film. I prefer someone to add to my experience of a movie rather than tell me what I should think it.
David Lynch’s 1977 debut feature, Eraserhead, is both a lasting cult sensation and a work of extraordinary craft and beauty. With its mesmerizing black-and-white photography by Frederick Elmes, evocative sound design, and unforgettably enigmatic performance by Jack Nance, this visionary nocturnal odyssey remains one of American cinema’s darkest dreams.
1977 • 85 minutes • Black & White • Stereo • 1.85:1 aspect ratio
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• “Eraserhead” Stories, a 2001 documentary by David Lynch on the making of the film
• New high-definition restorations of six short films by Lynch: Six Figures Getting Sick (1966), The Alphabet (1968), The Grandmother (1970), The Amputee, Part 1 and Part 2 (1974), and Premonitions Following an Evil Deed (1996), all with video introductions by Lynch
• New and archival interviews with cast and crew
• Trailer
This genuinely frightening, exquisitely made supernatural gothic stars Deborah Kerr (Black Narcissus) as an emotionally fragile governess who comes to suspect that there is something very, very wrong with her precocious new charges. A psychosexually intensified adaptation of Henry James’s classic The Turn of the Screw, cowritten by Truman Capote (In Cold Blood) and directed by Jack Clayton (Room at the Top), The Innocents is a triumph of narrative economy and technical expressiveness, from its chilling sound design to the stygian depths of its widescreen cinematography by Freddie Francis (The Elephant Man).
1961 • 100 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • 2.35:1 aspect ratio
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary featuring cultural historian Christopher Frayling
• New interview with cinematographer John Bailey on director of photography Freddie Francis and the look of the film
• Archival interviews with editor James Clark, Francis, and script supervisor Pamela Francis
• Trailer
• More!
• PLUS: An essay by critic Maitland McDonagh
Roman Polanski (Rosemary’s Baby) imbues his unflinchingly violent adaptation of William Shakespeare’s tragedy of ruthless ambition and murder in medieval Scotland with grit and dramatic intensity. Jon Finch (Frenzy) and Francesca Annis (Dune) are charged with fury and sex appeal as a decorated warrior rising in the ranks and his driven wife, scheming together to take the throne by any means. Coadapted by Polanski and the great theater critic and dramaturge Kenneth Tynan, and shot against a series of stunning, stark British Isle landscapes, this version of Macbeth is among the most atmospheric and authentic of all Shakespeare films.
1971 • 140 minutes • Color • Stereo • 2.35:1 aspect ratio
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New documentary about the making of the film, featuring interviews with director Roman Polanski, producer Andrew Braunsberg, assistant executive producer Victor Lownes, and stars Francesca Annis and Martin Shaw
• Polanski Meets Macbeth, a 1971 documentary by Frank Simon featuring rare footage of the film’s cast and crew at work
• Theatrical trailers
• More!
• PLUS: An essay by critic Terrence Rafferty
The wildly prolific German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder (World on a Wire) paid homage to his cinematic hero Douglas Sirk with this update of that filmmaker’s 1955 All That Heaven Allows. A lonely widow (Brigitte Mira) meets a much younger Arab worker (El Hedi ben Salem) in a bar during a rainstorm. They fall in love, to their own surprise—and to the outright shock of their families, colleagues, and drinking buddies. In Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, Fassbinder expertly uses the emotional power of classic Hollywood melodrama to expose the racial tensions underlying contemporary German culture.
1974 • 93 minutes • Color • Monaural • In German with English subtitles • 1.33:1 aspect ratio
BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• Introduction from 2003 by filmmaker Todd Haynes
• Interviews from 2003 with actor Brigitte Mira and editor Thea Eymčsz
• Shahbaz Noshir’s 2002 short Angst isst Seele auf, which reunites Mira, Eymčsz, and cinematographer Jürgen Jürges to tell the story, based on real events, of an attack by neo-Nazis on a foreign actor while on his way to a stage performance of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s screenplay
• Signs of Vigorous Life: New German Cinema, a 1976 BBC program about the national film movement of which Fassbinder was a part
• Scene from Fassbinder’s 1970 film The American Soldier that inspired Ali
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by critic Chris Fujiwara
In this provocative Academy Award winner from French director Serge Bourgignon, a psychologically damaged war veteran and a neglected child begin a startlingly intimate friendship—one that ultimately ignites the suspicion and anger of his friends and neighbors in suburban Paris. Bourguignon’s film makes thoughtful, humane drama out of potentially incendiary subject matter, and with the help of the sensitive cinematography of Henri Decaė (The 400 Blows) and a delicate score by Maurice Jarre (Lawrence of Arabia), Sundays and Cybčle becomes a stirring contemplation of an alliance between two troubled souls.
1962 • 110 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In French with English subtitles • 2.35:1 aspect ratio
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New interviews with director Serge Bourguignon and actor Patricia Gozzi
• Le sourire (1960), Bourguignon’s Palme d’Or–winning short documentary
• Trailer
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: An essay by critic Ginette Vincendeau
Definitely getting Eraserhead (at ANY price) and I like The Innocents enough to get during a 40% or more off sale. I'm sure I'll enjoy that one more when I re-watch it. Very spooky
Huge thumbs up for Sundays and Cybele. I have wanted to see it since I first saw Rapture and discovered Patricia Gozzi. One of the most talented child/teenage stars I have ever seen, a young actress so talented for her age she could own any scene she is in. Sundays and Cybele is the film that brought her to the attention of the world. She made very few films and one of the great "what ifs" of cinema is how far her career might have gone had she not quit acting at an early age. She is (or was) already in the Criterion Collection with Leon Morin, Priest. Super excited to finally get this on Blu-ray.
Also very happy about another Fassbinder. I have not seen Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, but I will blind buy anything Fassbinder with confidence.
The issue with Le Samouraļ is that the current available master is not all that great. As I understand it, the French BD release is just barely acceptable, if that. Criterion would probably have to do their own restoration, and it's unknown where that stands.
Le Samouraļ is not a StudioCanal title, so I don't think Criterion's in any danger of losing the rights soon.
The issue with Le Samouraļ is that the current available master is not all that great. As I understand it, the French BD release is just barely acceptable, if that. Criterion would probably have to do their own restoration, and it's unknown where that stands.
Le Samouraļ is not a StudioCanal title, so I don't think Criterion's in any danger of losing the rights soon.
I actually heard someone mention something about the master, that's not good news. I hope they do a restoration because it would definitely be worth it, commercial wise.
I wonder who has rights to Alphaville, I would like to see that released as well. I know Criterion did the DVD release of it. Also, who has the rights to Le Cercle Rouge now?
Last edited by ultlife2013; 06-17-2014 at 05:52 AM.
I wonder who has rights to Alphaville, I would like to see that released as well. I know Criterion did the DVD release of it. Also, who has the rights to Le Cercle Rouge now?
The prices never raised or lowered when they went dual-format. DVDs were still listed at $39.95 for the most part just like the blu-rays. Criterion even said the prices would remain the same because it brought the costs on packaging down. The costs of producing two separate packages were more expensive than combining both DVD and blu-ray into one.
Actually, dvds were basically $10 cheaper after the first few years of blu-rays, so 29.95 more like. So $10 more for the dual disc versions. Quite a hurdle.
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), but he generally gives me a thing or two to look at or think about in the film. I prefer someone to add to my experience of a movie rather than tell me what I should think it.
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