The Criterion Collection

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

The Grate S Cape

I’m curious as to how Criterion will be able to improve on the existing Blu-ray, given the source material.

In order to answer that question, I'll refer you to their work on In The Heat of the Night.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by Arawn

I'm confused. How was it the same character?

In the credits for Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, his character is called "Nobody" just like in Dead Man. I just assumed he was playing Nobody, but in a different time period. He also acted the same way saying the same lines he did in both movies: "Stupid f#cking white man!". Gary Farmer might have just been reprising his role, or maybe Jarmusch was pranking us. Either way, watch both films and you'll see what I mean.

Originally Posted by jayembee

I imagine he meant "the same character" in the sense that he has all of the same quirks, etc., not that he's literally the same character.

Maybe he is though? Maybe after Nobody

[Show spoiler]died

in Dead Man, he was

[Show spoiler]reincarnated

as Nobody in Ghost Dog.

[jw007]

I'm psyched for The Great Escape, if that's truly the case. I've been holding off on buying the MGM blu-ray that came out in 2013 because of the truly mediocre video quality. This will be a day 1 buy for me!

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by regeyer

We've been seeing this a lot lately. I personally would rather have Criterion skip movies that are already available on Blu-Ray. At the same time, perhaps doing so is more profitable for them, which allows them to work on other projects.

It will almost certainly be an improvement over the current BD.

[belcherman]

I went to B&N at lunch today and picked up the following items:

[Show spoiler]

A fairly light haul for me, but I already have three Criterions on pre-order from the Target sale and with all the other sales this month, I have plenty to watch between now and 2020.

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Yeah.

*sigh*

I love The Great Escape and on UHD, it would be an immediate buy for me. I already have a mighty-fine Blu-ray of it, though. Failing the obvious UHD route that Criterion needs to embark upon yesterday, I really wish they'd focus on stuff that's not already on Blu-ray... or, at least, really good Blu-ray.

There's a better blu-ray out there than the one available? Because it sure isn't "mighty fine," it's riddled with issues that aren't source-related.

[FragnitoM]

Rick Dalton would have killed it in Great Escape

[Cholly]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi

Yeah.

*sigh*

I love The Great Escape and on UHD, it would be an immediate buy for me. I already have a mighty-fine Blu-ray of it, though. Failing the obvious UHD route that Criterion needs to embark upon yesterday, I really wish they'd focus on stuff that's not already on Blu-ray... or, at least, really good Blu-ray.

You're a broken record. Go cry in a corner somewhere.

[Reddington]

Originally Posted by FragnitoM

Rick Dalton would have killed it in Great Escape

I really enjoyed that scene. Although if I remember correctly, it was added in after the Cannes Film Festival showing. Glad it was.

[RBBrittain]

Originally Posted by Dailyan

The digipack is cheaply made and the disc hubs are just as bad.

I'm not sure if I would call it "digi"-anything -- just two rubber hubs glued to a piece of cardboard, folded over for double thickness behind each disc, stuck inside a cardboard sleeve. Vastly inferior to the original 2010 Fox digibook, despite that release's hubless slot for the disc (another Fox cost cutting measure).

What's worse, in addition to the rubber hubs sticking to the booklet cover, my booklet has duplicates of other pages in place of pages 3-6 & 39-42, so I'm missing the cast & credits and parts of both essays. Should I call Criterion for a replacement book, or take it back to B&N for an exchange?

[yoloswegmaster420]

[Gacivory]

I feel like I’m the only person that hates The Great Escape Scene from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood!

Also McQueen>Leo forever and ever!

[SeanJoyce]

Originally Posted by Gacivory

I feel like I’m the only person that hates The Great Escape Scene from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood!

Also McQueen>Leo forever and ever!

You're not the only one; totally pointless and just one of many reasons why it's the worst thing he's ever done.

[Reddington]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

You're not the only one; totally pointless and just one of many reasons why it's the worst thing he's ever done.

Tell us how you really feel...

I think it's Tarantino's best film.

[bonehica]

Picked up a few more from the sale today after work. My local B&N has been pretty much picked clean.

[Show spoiler]

[StarDestroyer52]

If it's The Great Escape hopefully that means it won't be too long before a release. Crosses finger for a March 2020 release. When the Temple Drake newsletter clue came out it was a short time before they announced it for a release.

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

You're not the only one; totally pointless and just one of many reasons why it's the worst thing he's ever done.

Oh man, I’m with you on that! But we a small group!

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by Gacivory

I feel like I’m the only person that hates The Great Escape Scene from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood!

Also McQueen>Leo forever and ever!

I wasn't a fan of it. "The Great Escape" is one of my absolute favorites and I found it to be a jarring scene.

[StarDestroyer52]

This was posted in the Criterion Now Facebook group:

Latest info on what's happening over at Janus Films.

The following films are available for theatrical presentation on Blu-ray, but are currently only available on DVD in the Criterion Collection:

122 SALESMAN (Albert Maysles, David Maysles & Charlotte Zwerin ,1968, United States )

146 THE CRANES ARE FLYING (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1957, Soviet Union)

185 LES MISTONS (short) (François Truffaut, 1957, France)

231 THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE (Fritz Lang, 1933, Germany)

232 FLOATING WEEDS (Yasujiro Ozu 1959 Japan

239 THE LOWER DEPTHS (Jean Renoir, 1936, France)

285 ASHES AND DIAMONDS (Andrzej Wajda, 1958, Poland)

405 THE 3 PENNY OPERA (G. W. Pabst, 1931, Germany)

Eclipse 3 LATE AUTUMN (Yasujiro Ozu, 1960, Japan)

Eclipse 19 LES RENDEZ-VOUS D'ANNA (Chantal Akerman, 1978, Belgium)

Except for the last two, you may want to hold off longer if you're waiting for an upgrade on these.

The following Abbas Kiarostomi films are also on Blu-ray from Janus (theatrically, of course):

THE BREAD AND ALLEY (1970, 10 mins.)

THE WIND WILL CARRY US (1999, 118 mins.)

ABC AFRICA (2001, 83 mins.)

FIVE DEDICATED TO OZU (2003, 74 mins.)

There are an additional 18 short films, features, and documentaries in the Kiarostomi retrospective which have never been released on disc by Criterion. These 22 films seem ripe for several box sets, with maybe one or two stand-alone releases, including an upgrade of TASTE OF CHERRY.

Freshly-distributed Janus Films on Blu-ray:

VARDA BY AGNES (Agnès Varda, 2019, France)

THE EYES OF ORSON WELLES (Mark Cousins, 2019, United Kingdom)

STREETWISE (Martin Bell, 1984, United States)

TINY: THE LIFE OF ERIN BLACKWELL (Martin Bell, 2016, United States)

IKARIE XB-1 (Jindřich Polák, 1963, Czechoslovakia)

IRMA VEP (Olivier Assayas, 1996, France)

Older-distributed films that haven't seen action on the physical front include the four remaining films of the Wim Wenders retropsective:

THE GOALIE'S ANXIETY AT THE PENALTY KICK (1971)

LIGHTNING OVER WATER (1980)

THE STATE OF THINGS (1982)

NOTEBOOK ON CITIES AND CLOTHES (1989)

I would love The Threepenny Opera, it saw a BluRay release earlier this year in Germany but not English friendly. I would pick up Testament of Dr Mabuse depending on the extras though its not a priority since I got it during Eureka's Weimar Cinema sale earlier this year. What I would really love would be The 1,000 Eyes of Dr Mabuse since the upcoming German release isn't English friendly. Also, have to think its probably very likely we get Floating Weeds.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by bonehica

Picked up a few more from the sale today after work. My local B&N has been pretty much picked clean.

[Show spoiler]

Oh, that last one is the perfect family, holiday movie! Good choice!