The Criterion Collection

[blkhrt]

Originally Posted by rock, stone

Oh my!

Has a set been confirmed? I knew that Brief History was in the works but I've been slowly getting more and more out of the loop.

It was announced a while back (maybe at the Wexler talk) that they were working on a Morris set. This seems to confirm that it is coming soonish.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by blkhrt

It was announced a while back (maybe at the Wexler talk) that they were working on a Morris set. This seems to confirm that it is coming soonish.

Fast Cheap & Out of Control!!!! I can't wait to see that in sparkling HD (it goes without saying that he has made other masterpieces too--Thin Blue Line, Gates of Heaven. ).

[ccg1978]

Any chances of Criterion doing Mr Smith Goes to Washington?

[captveg]

Originally Posted by ccg1978

Any chances of Criterion doing Mr Smith Goes to Washington?

It wouldn't surprise me if they got the premiere Capra films via Sony like they did with the BBS films.

Sent from my VS920 4G using Tapatalk 2

[The Great Owl]

I think that 2014 would be a fine year for Criterion to adopt Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World as a title.

Ghost World needs Blu-ray treatment in some form or fashion, and it would be a great follow-up to Zwigoff's Crumb.

[jrsl76]

Originally Posted by SimBelm

Seems likely with the confirmed Morris set.

If true, excellent news, however what I found most exciting was the indication of Janus releasing Jacques Demy to theaters which would seem to indicate some Demy coming to Criterion. Come on Umbrellas and Lola!

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I think that 2014 would be a fine year for Criterion to adopt Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World as a title.

Ghost World needs Blu-ray treatment in some form or fashion, and it would be a great follow-up to Zwigoff's Crumb.

Definitely. It's a shame Art School Confidential was middling at best.

[jrsl76]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Definitely. It's a shame Art School Confidential was middling at best.

Agreed. GW was great however and I've been hoping the rumor would prove true.

[SimBelm]

Originally Posted by rock, stone

Oh my!

Has a set been confirmed? I knew that Brief History was in the works but I've been slowly getting more and more out of the loop.

Originally Posted by CriterionForum.org

Jonathan Sehring, president of IFC, confirmed to me at the same Q&A that he announced Tiny Furniture and the "major-minor" fiasco, that Criterion would release Morris' first three films. This was after a screening of Cave of Forgotten Dreams.

I believe Morris has confirmed Criterion will release A Brief History of Time on his Twitter page, and recently Criterion mentioned on their Twitter that they had Herzog in to do an interview about one of his favourite filmmakers.

[Clodius]

Originally Posted by zkirkland

I haven't seen Seconds, Last Temptation, or Kiss Me Deadly but I hear that they are both outstanding films and their Criterion transfers are magnificent. I might add M to my list depending on my budget.

M is tremendous, as is Kiss Me Deadly. Last Temptation is a great movie but the transfer is meh (and for Criterion its actually pretty bad unless there are serious source issues)

[jrsl76]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

If Criterion releases a set of Errol Morris movies, then The Fog of War should definitely be included.

I saw The Fog of War at the theater several years ago. There's a chilling scene in the documentary where Robert McNamara discusses the estimatrage number of human deaths caused by each bomb during the extensive firebombing of Tokyo, and we see actual footage of the bombs being dropped on Tokyo from an airplane camera view, except that the bombs have been digitally replaced by numbers to represent the deaths caused by each bomb. Every half second, we see a different random number drop out of the plane. 5, 12, 4, 9, 16, 1, 8, 13, etc.

I'd like to see The Thin Blue Line and Mr. Death on Criterion.

[SammyJankis]

I've read so much about Crumb in different parts on the web over the past couple of days. Think I might watch my copy tomorrow.

Somewhat related: I love American Splendor. It's one of the few films I have to sit down and watch when it's on.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by jrsl76

I'd like to see The Thin Blue Line and Mr. Death on Criterion.

Ooh. I haven't seen Mr. Death yet.

Thin Blue Line is EASILY one of the top five or ten documentaries of all time. The first time I saw it was just before a screening of Lincoln Lawyer, and needless to say, my mind was elsewhere (sorry Matthew McCounaghey).

[jrsl76]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Ooh. I haven't seen Mr. Death yet.

Thin Blue Line is EASILY one of the top five or ten documentaries of all time. The first time I saw it was just before a screening of Lincoln Lawyer, and needless to say, my mind was elsewhere (sorry Matthew McCounaghey).

You should check Mr. Death out. Of the Morris films I've seen, it's my favorite. It's quite fascinating.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Ooh. I haven't seen Mr. Death yet.

A GOOD example of how a (post-TTBL) Errol Morris documentary is never quite what you expect it to be going in...
A documentary on Fred Leuchter, happy (and not short on ego) self-proclaimed electric-chair expert, who found himself notoriously out of his element when he was hired by a...certain group of people to be a scientific expert on gas chambers. (Like, the ones at Auschwitz.)

Another good "Not what you expect" Morris documentary is Standard Operating Procedure, which goes past the usual PC Abu Ghraib nagging, to ask the key question "What were those Polaroid pictures, anyway, and why were they taken?"

[Dumbhuman]

Releasing the first three Errol Morris films on Blu-ray seems slightly wasteful to me simply because Gates of Heaven and Vernon, Florida don't exactly scream out for high definition visuals. The Thin Blue line was the start of Morris's distinctive look/sound, but it was still being polished a bit at that point. I'd instantly jump at owning Mr. Death, Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, and The Fog of War on Blu-ray though.

Don't get me wrong, Errol Morris is one of my favorite film-makers and eventually I'm sure I'd get around to upgrading all of my DVDs of his work, but I would prioritize much differently. The only work of his available on Blu-ray happens to be his weakest in my opinion, Standard Operating Procedure, and his latest film, Tabloid, which I'd love to own is somehow only available on DVD (so I've been holding out). It's a bit frustrating waiting for the world to fully embrace Blu-ray so that I'm not wasting money on DVDs only to find a much better version announced in a year or two or five.

I suppose it all comes down to what Criterion could get the rights to for a reasonable amount.

edit: Forgot to mention though, if that drawing does refer to A Brief History of Time, that gives me more hope for future releases. It was the fourth documentary from Errol Morris afterall, which means they're going beyond the first three.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by EricJ

A GOOD example of how a (post-TTBL) Errol Morris documentary is never quite what you expect it to be going in...
A documentary on Fred Leuchter, happy (and not short on ego) self-proclaimed electric-chair expert, who found himself notoriously out of his element when he was hired by a...certain group of people to be a scientific expert on gas chambers. (Like, the ones at Auschwitz.)

Another good "Not what you expect" Morris documentary is Standard Operating Procedure, which goes past the usual PC Abu Ghraib nagging, to ask the key question "What were those Polaroid pictures, anyway, and why were they taken?"

I wasn't a fan of how he got his message across in S.O.P., but often, the material speaks for itself. There's no doubt that those photos were well worth the price of admission. Still don't know what to make of them.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Dumbhuman

Releasing the first three Errol Morris films on Blu-ray seems slightly wasteful to me simply because Gates of Heaven and Vernon, Florida don't exactly scream out for high definition visuals. The Thin Blue line was the start of Morris's distinctive look/sound, but it was still being polished a bit at that point.

TTBL is the first "art" Morris documentary that set his career on the road--
Gates and Vernon make their "cutesy" points early and often, that these are wacky, preciously eccentric small-town folk with their own idiosyncratic dreams, but none of the more cosmic sweeping philosophies of something like Fast, Cheap and Out of Control.
At the end, the two come off as gratingly "quirky" as some extended My Name is Earl reruns.

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

I wasn't a fan of how he got his message across in S.O.P., but often, the material speaks for itself. There's no doubt that those photos were well worth the price of admission. Still don't know what to make of them.

It's summed up by the one indicted black guard who says

[Show spoiler]"The news didn't have a photo of me, so they took some photo from back when I was in the track team at school, and I had this determined look on my face as I was jumping hurdles...They just cut it down to the grimace on my face, put it on the news graphic, and I ended up looking like some kind of psycho."

Which is one of the good points of the movie, that we got into a lot of PC over-reaction over....what, exactly? Did we know?
That, and the recognition that some of the only info we did get out of Ghraib didn't come from waterboarding or rock music, but from good old-fashioned 96th-Precinct psycho-bad-cop backroom interrogation, of Arabs who were already convinced Americans were crazy anyway. All the fancy "psychological" CIA stuff just wasn't doing a danged thing.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

If Criterion releases a set of Errol Morris movies, then The Fog of War should definitely be included.

I saw The Fog of War at the theater several years ago. There's a chilling scene in the documentary where Robert McNamara discusses the estimated average number of human deaths caused by each bomb during the extensive firebombing of Tokyo, and we see actual footage of the bombs being dropped on Tokyo from an airplane camera view, except that the bombs have been digitally replaced by numbers to represent the deaths caused by each bomb. Every half second, we see a different random number drop out of the plane. 5, 12, 4, 9, 16, 1, 8, 13, etc.

Having said the above, though...

I probably will not pull the trigger on an Errol Morris set, because I don't go out of my way for documentaries these days, save for the ones that are included as supplemental features on my Blu-rays of fictional films. As much as I loved The Fog of War at the theater, it's not the type of film that I'll watch time and time again on a frequent basis. I urge anyone who has not seen this film to check it out, of course.

[Edward J Grug III]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Having said the above, though...

I probably will not pull the trigger on an Errol Morris set, because I don't go out of my way for documentaries these days, save for the ones that are included as supplemental features on my Blu-rays of fictional films. As much as I loved The Fog of War at the theater, it's not the type of film that I'll watch time and time again on a frequent basis. I urge anyone who has not seen this film to check it out, of course.

Yeah, it's a very dull announcement for me, BUT I am glad for the people who are excited, and I only really want half of the Criterion releases each month to be must-owns, or else how will I ever keep up? ;P