The Criterion Collection

[aes3728]

Might be getting the Apu Trilogy sooner than we thought! Presentation on Criterion's treatment of it will be held August 23rd in Los Angeles.

The Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray is considered to be among the most important achievements in the very rich and diverse tradition of Indian cinema. But when Criterion set out to remaster the three films of the trilogy – Pather Panchali, Aparajito and Apur Sansar, there was no indication of how difficult the task would be. The films were beautifully shot in black-and-white by Subrata Mitra, Ray’s great cinematographer, but have long been available only in low quality video editions and rare 35mm prints.

This presentation will talk about the preservation program for these films conducted in the 1990’s by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which included the devastating fire at a film laboratory in 1993 that damaged or destroyed a number of negatives. There were no technologies available in 1993 capable of restoring the deeply damaged film elements. When this current Ray remastering project was initiated, these materials were revisited. Many portions were indeed burned to ash. Nevertheless, some of the negative had survived, and after further inspection and consultation with the Academy Film Archive, the fragments were consigned to Bologna’s Immagine Ritrovata, where technicians rehydrated the film, painstakingly fixed the sprockets and other physical damage, and made 4k wet gate scans of the remaining reels for all three films. This work required hundreds of hours of exacting and meticulous hand labor by expert film preparators. Using fine grain masters and duplicate negatives from Janus Films, the Academy and the BFI, suitable replacements were made for the non-usable or missing sections of the original negatives. To control costs, a workflow developed for a previous project (A Hard Day’s Night) was deployed.

The presentation will be in four sections: outlining the importance of the films, the 1994 preservation project, the phase of detailed film repair and scanning, and the 4k workflow that made this project economically feasible.

http://www.the-reel-thing.co/program-abstracts-2/

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

In Erik Skjoldbjærg's Insomnia, the fact that Stellan Skarsgård's character is from Sweden and speaks as such is a key point in the film, because several of the Norwegian characters have trouble understanding him. The specifics, unfortunately, are lost on most of us who do not have an understanding of Scandinavian languages and accents.

This fortunately does not interfere with my enjoyment of Insomnia, because I can still grasp the overall point, but I wish that I were more knowledgable about the differences when I revisit the movie.

There was an American indie film from the early 90s, Combination Platter, that had a similar situation. There was a scene in which two Chinese men, a cook and a waiter, were talking to each other while waiting for the boss of the restaurant they worked at to get there to open up.

Everything that each of the men was saying was subtitled, and yet it was obvious from context that neither one could understand what the other was saying. To get the joke, you had to know that one of them was speaking Mandarin and the other was speaking Cantonese, two Chinese dialects that sound completely different. Most Chinese speak only one, and cannot understand the other.

But to typical Western ears, they sound alike, and the joke is lost unless you knew about the differences between the two dialects, and happen to work out that the cook was from Mainland China and was speaking Mandarin while the waiter was from Hong Kong and was speaking Cantonese.

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

Hey Pro-B - can we expect a review of Truffaut's Stolen Kisses (region B)? They just announced it, I guess, and it already has a street date of less than a week away.

all of these foreign releases are breaking me down..

Hey bwdowiak

I actually just received the screener about an hour ago, so, yes, we will have a review up later this week. My schedule has been disrupted a bit because of some of the box sets that have come up lately (Chaplin, Reichardt), but I will be doing some extra work to cover as many releases as possible

Pro-B

[RojD]

Originally Posted by *DrStrangelove*

This is interesting. I can see a huge difference in the English subtitles on Y Tu Mama Tambien. A lot of the humor is found in the Mexican slang that is used between Julio and Tenoch. That of course is lost in translation. Man, I need to learn French or Japanese.

I saw Mood Indigo last week, and I'm glad I wasn't the distributor who had deal with that film. It's the closest thing I've seen to House, so you can imagine how much you don't want to read subtitles and instead want to watch all the invention on screen. In fact, the visual invention is the point. But on top of that, there's about as much play and invention going on in the language of the film as there is in the imagery, so accurate subtitles are, well, just not possible.

Having to rely on subtitles in this film is to have a different experience from that of fluent French speakers. Not necessarily a lesser experience, but definitely a different one.

[AaronJ]

Just ordered this, and it's arriving Friday. I am SO psyched. Demy was a genius, and heck I would have paid $71 for the Criterion restored version of Umbrellas alone!

[Akijama]

Just in case no one has posted this yet.

Judging from this photo, it looks like Tod Haynes's Safe (hinted last year at the Wexner chat) and Rome, Open City / Roberto Rossellini's War Trilogy (upgrade) will be coming to blu shortly.

[Polaroid]

Originally Posted by Akijama

Just in case no one has posted this yet.

Judging from this photo, it looks like Tod Haynes's Safe (hinted last year at the Wexner chat) and Rome, Open City / Roberto Rossellini's War Trilogy (upgrade) will be coming to blu shortly.

Not seen Safe but looks great!

[silverlakephil]

Originally Posted by Polaroid

Not seen Safe but looks great!

Safe is a great film, Juliane Moore gave a memorable perfomance. Looking forward to seeing this again since its been awhile. Maybe Criterion will eventually release Todd Hayne's less known early film, Poison.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Hey bwdowiak

I actually just received the screener about an hour ago, so, yes, we will have a review up later this week. My schedule has been disrupted a bit because of some of the box sets that have come up lately (Chaplin, Reichardt), but I will be doing some extra work to cover as many releases as possible

Pro-B

Awesome! Thanks for replying. I'll keep my eye out for it and keep up the good work.

[ShellOilJunior]

Stolen Kisses is a great film. I'd buy without hesitation - although, I'm going to wait for CC to upgrade their Doinel box.

[Ausjdm]

Originally Posted by silverlakephil

Safe is a great film, Juliane Moore gave a memorable perfomance. Looking forward to seeing this again since its been awhile. Maybe Criterion will eventually release Todd Hayne's less known early film, Poison.

Safe next yr? Sweet great movie! Def a buy I haven't seen that in over a decade

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by ShellOilJunior

Stolen Kisses is a great film. I'd buy without hesitation - although, I'm going to wait for CC to upgrade their Doinel box.

has Criterion ever upgraded an entire box set? not saying that they wouldn't but this thought occurred to me the the other day.

once again, I find myself considering getting a region-free player. I personally don't care if its Criterion, ITV, Arrow, or whoever.. the thought was, that I could potentially save a few dollars on certain titles because CC titles go for a premium (relative to everything else.)

that thinking kinda went out the window, though, when I realized that you have to pay for shipping and whatnot. I don't think the exchange rate right now is too favorable either (dollar vs. pound)

[bdmartin134]

Just watched L'Eclisse last night and it was awesome. Not awesome in the sense of a great story being told, but of the emotion's Vitti was conveying and making me feel. It's hard for me to put in words right now, as I'm still processing it, but the word I would use on why I was so moved was just the 'feeling' of the whole thing. The camera work and juxtaposition was freaking amazing. Delon is so cool by the way, perfect dude to take your money. I'm glad I finally gave this one a shot and it's my first Antonioni. Next I think I obviously have to go with L'Avventura.

[biglou114]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

has Criterion ever upgraded an entire box set? not saying that they wouldn't but this thought occurred to me the the other day.

Off the top of my head, Cassevettes, Samurai Trilogy, and sadly that's all I can think of.

[vertigo12314]

Originally Posted by bdmartin134

Just watched L'Eclisse last night and it was awesome. Not awesome in the sense of a great story being told, but of the emotion's Vitti was conveying and making me feel. It's hard for me to put in words right now, as I'm still processing it, but the word I would use on why I was so moved was just the 'feeling' of the whole thing. The camera work and juxtaposition was freaking amazing. Delon is so cool by the way, perfect dude to take your money. I'm glad I finally gave this one a shot and it's my first Antonioni. Next I think I obviously have to go with L'Avventura.

The L'Eclisse audio commentary is good.

[minister_x]

Originally Posted by vertigo12314

The L'Eclisse audio commentary is good.

And you'll have an even crazier time if you listen to the one on the DVD.

[Andrew13]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

has Criterion ever upgraded an entire box set? not saying that they wouldn't but this thought occurred to me the the other day.

Cassavetes and the Samurai Trilogy were upgrades, plus there's strong indication that Bergman's Faith Trilogy may be coming sometime soon (an HD version of Through A Glass Darkly was added in iTunes in the spring). It's somewhat rare, but not unprecedented.

[shadedpain4]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

has Criterion ever upgraded an entire box set? not saying that they wouldn't but.his thought occurred to me the the other day.

once again, I find myself considering getting a region-free player. I personally don't care if its Criterion, ITV, Arrow, or whoever.. the thought was, that I could potentially save a few dollars on certain titles because CC titles go for a premium (relative to everything else.)

that thinking kinda went out the window, though, when I realized that you have to pay for shipping and whatnot. I don't think the exchange rate right now is too favorable either (dollar vs. pound)

Shipping isn't as bad as you'd think. Eureka ships worldwide with free shipping, and places like AmazonUK and Base.com remove VAT from the price before adding shipping costs. That means things from those sites frequently ship to the US at or below the price listed.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by shadedpain4

Shipping isn't as bad as you'd think. Eureka ships worldwide with free shipping, and places like AmazonUK and Base.com remove VAT from the price before adding shipping costs. That means things from those sites frequently ship to the US at or below the price listed.

Awesome! Will have to look at the Eureka site to see what prices are like. Thanks for the info.

[TJS_Blu]

Originally Posted by biglou114

Off the top of my head, Cassevettes, Samurai Trilogy, and sadly that's all I can think of.

Monterey Pop & Yojimbo/Sanjuro are the only other ones I can remember.