The Criterion Collection

[mrjohnnyb]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Or Peter Greenaway.

Or Béla Tarr.

Or István Szabó.

Or Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

Or Paul Cox.

Or Tran Anh Hung.

Or Zhang Zimou.

Or Chen Kaige.

Or Stanley Kwan.

It doesn't begin and end with any one filmmaker.

I hope that Béla Tarr is next. I just watched the recently released Sátántangó, which I loved! I have The Turin Horse on blu-ray, but Tarr's pacing in that film is much slower and the overall look is much bleaker. In the Sátántangó's supplements, there is a great interview with actor Mihály Vig who shares his remarkable experiences working with Tarr. Part of the interview showed a clip of Tarr's film Damnation and my mouth dropped at how beautifully "noirish" the clip was. In my opinion, no label does "noir" better than Criterion Collection; sorry Flicker Alley, though I do love your noirs, too!

Oh, and I can't wait for Nightmare Alley!

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by mrjohnnyb

I hope that Béla Tarr is next. I just watched the recently released Sátántangó, which I loved! I have The Turin Horse on blu-ray, but Tarr's pacing in that film is much slower and the overall look is much bleaker. In the Sátántangó's supplements, there is a great interview with actor Mihály Vig who shares his remarkable experiences working with Tarr. Part of the interview showed a clip of Tarr's film Damnation and my mouth dropped at how beautifully "noirish" the clip was. In my opinion, no label does "noir" better than Criterion Collection; sorry Flicker Alley, though I do love your noirs, too!

Oh, and I can't wait for Nightmare Alley!

Arbelos is working on also restoring Damnation. I hope they have all his movies. I need more Tarr on Blu!

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

Not sure if you saw my previous post, but Criterion passed on licensing The Tenant after it became available, which was a film they were trying hard to for a long period of time. That alone should tell us something.

Yes, I saw it. Again, we have no knowledge of what the licensing discussions entailed, and therefore cannot conclude the reasoning behind their change of mind. It's possible that Paramount was asking more money for it than Criterion wanted to pay. Or maybe Paramount insisted that Criterion take it as is, and wouldn't allow any tinkering with the master. Who knows?

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by mrjohnnyb

I hope that Béla Tarr is next. I just watched the recently released Sátántangó, which I loved! I have The Turin Horse on blu-ray, but Tarr's pacing in that film is much slower and the overall look is much bleaker. In the Sátántangó's supplements, there is a great interview with actor Mihály Vig who shares his remarkable experiences working with Tarr. Part of the interview showed a clip of Tarr's film Damnation and my mouth dropped at how beautifully "noirish" the clip was. In my opinion, no label does "noir" better than Criterion Collection; sorry Flicker Alley, though I do love your noirs, too!

Based on Sátántangó's release, I'm perfectly happy if Arbelos had a "lock" on Tarr's films (though Cinema Guild's release of The Turin Horse was excellent, as well). I just included him in that list, because he is certainly someone who fits the Collection perfectly, and yet, they haven't released any of his films.

[Kyle15]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

Someone mentioned that Criterion was trying to pick up the film The Tenant to release for years, but Paramount wouldn't give it to them. Then Paramount finally was willing to give it them recently, but Criterion passed on it which was odd as they were asking for it for a long period of time. Shout then swooped in and picked up the film.

I say it's one of two things;

Paramount wouldn't budge on a new master

Or Criterion opted to no longer pursue over reasons we're already aware

Could be either or.

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Yes, I saw it. Again, we have no knowledge of what the licensing discussions entailed, and therefore cannot conclude the reasoning behind their change of mind. It's possible that Paramount was asking more money for it than Criterion wanted to pay. Or maybe Paramount insisted that Criterion take it as is, and wouldn't allow any tinkering with the master. Who knows?

Those are all possible reasons, but I would say those weren't the reasons why they declined. Criterion spends a ton of money in licensing films, and often is able to meet the demands of the studios in that regard. Plus, Criterion has restored many Paramount films in the past, so I can't see why Paramount would balk at such a notion. Yes, it's all speculative, but just on deductive reasoning, I would say Criterion was simply playing it safe by not acquiring the title. It's a title they have wanted for a long period of time, and to turn it down after such a long period of time sounds rather fishy. Plus the transfer that was released by Scream was rather good.

[dwk]

It is possible that they simply passed on the Tenant because they have too much on their plate with however many Fox titles they are sitting on and their ongoing WB deal and they couldn't comfortably slot it fast enough for Paramount.

Or maybe every reason presented played a part in them passing on it. I think it is a mistake to say this one reason, and only this reason is why a title is or isn't picked up.

[mmarczi]

Do we even know for sure that they were actually offered first dibs on the title again and declined, or is this something that was an assumption and became a 'fact'?

As far as the flash sale goes, they generally send out an e-mail the day before the sale alerting people that it's happening. I haven't gotten such an e-mail so I think it's safe to assume it won't be tomorrow.

[theater dreamer]

I for one hope the sale is next Tuesday. We have rolling blackouts here in Texas, and fighting server crashes while dealing with cellular as my only form of internet connectivity...doesn’t sound like a lot of fun.

We moved to Texas 31 years ago, and this is the coldest it’s been since we arrived. It’s 7°, and supposed to get down to 3° overnight. We have no electricity, and no heat. And tomorrow night, we’re supposed to get 3-5 more inches in addition to the 6-7 we already have on the ground. It won’t be above freezing until Friday afternoon. 🥶

To those of you in the same boat, stay warm, and stay safe!

617A4817-461F-4B52-BC48-9269367FB128.jpg
”I’m in the dark here!”

[SuperFlyHighGuy]

My thoughts are with you there. I live in the north and the cold has been brutal lately, but you guys just don't have the infrastructure to deal with this scenario. I can't imagine having no heat or pipes freezing during this. Stay safe and best wishes to you!

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

I for one hope the sale is next Tuesday. We have rolling blackouts here in Texas, and fighting server crashes while dealing with cellular as my only form of internet connectivity...doesn’t sound like a lot of fun.

We moved to Texas 31 years ago, and this is the coldest it’s been since we arrived. It’s 7°, and supposed to get down to 3° overnight. We have no electricity, and no heat. And tomorrow night, we’re supposed to get 3-5 more inches in addition to the 6-7 we already have on the ground. It won’t be above freezing until Friday afternoon. 🥶

To those of you in the same boat, stay warm, and stay safe!

Attachment 255588
”I’m in the dark here!”

It’s 7 degrees and you have no heat?

...what are you doing to keep from freezing to death?

[Show spoiler]

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by mmarczi

Do we even know for sure that they were actually offered first dibs on the title again and declined, or is this something that was an assumption and became a 'fact'?

A few users have posted about it. Here is the first one I found:

Originally Posted by dkelly26666

Well, I don't think that.

I know I and others wrote Criterion for years, asking about "The Tenant". I received an email back from the mythic "Jon Mulvaney", saying that they'd love to release the film, and had tried to, but that the rights were not available to them, at that time. They released a number of Polanski films during those years.

Now, in this climate, "The Tenant" was finally made available, and Criterion passed on it, so it went to Shout. Shout released it, and with a brand new Polanski interview on it, no less. And to my knowledge, they didn't receive any significant backlash about releasing it.

Criterion released a number of Lars von Trier films before, with his involvement. But since the current climate, they passed on at least two of his titles that were offered to them, first.

I'm not just imagining theories out of thin air.

But, yes, everyone is right in saying I've nothing necessarily concrete.

I'm just explaining WHY I've felt this way. I again admit I could be totally off. But it just LOOKS like they have a 'naughty list' , now.

Anyway, I've really said all I should say on the subject by now, and I'm certain people are sick of me, so, I'll leave it alone, now. For real, LOL.

[traths]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

I for one hope the sale is next Tuesday. We have rolling blackouts here in Texas, and fighting server crashes while dealing with cellular as my only form of internet connectivity...doesn’t sound like a lot of fun.

We moved to Texas 31 years ago, and this is the coldest it’s been since we arrived. It’s 7°, and supposed to get down to 3° overnight. We have no electricity, and no heat. And tomorrow night, we’re supposed to get 3-5 more inches in addition to the 6-7 we already have on the ground. It won’t be above freezing until Friday afternoon. 🥶

To those of you in the same boat, stay warm, and stay safe!

Attachment 255588
”I’m in the dark here!”

Lol, it's going to be -17 here in Minnesota.

[mmarczi]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

A few users have posted about it. Here is the first one I found:

I remember seeing this post, but it doesn't offer any proof, just says that they passed on it. It doesn't say how they know Criterion ever passed on anything. This is why I asked if this is something that we know is true or if it's something that has become 'true' because it's been repeated enough times. I'd like to see something of actual substance that shows they had the opportunity to release it outright when it was made available again and decided not to do it, rather than, for example, it being offered to everybody and Shout was the first to jump on it, or offered more, or was more accepting of the terms of its availability.

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by traths

Lol, it's going to be -17 here in Minnesota.

When it "warms" up to 3, turn off all the power to your house for 24 hours and stow away any and all winter gear that someone in Texas typically would not own and see how comfortable it is.

[Bradsdadg]

Originally Posted by Mister_Kidd

Flash sale tomorrow?

What time would they announce it on the day of? Noon or a bit earlier?

[dvining]

Originally Posted by Bradsdadg

What time would they announce it on the day of? Noon or a bit earlier?

It's usually announced around noon, yeah. So, just a couple more hours before we know it's next week. Or possibly the week after.

Gotta keep us on our toes.

[dylrichard02]

Is their release of Don't Look Now OOP?

[dvining]

Originally Posted by dylrichard02

Is their release of Don't Look Now OOP?

No. The Blu-ray shows up as "Currently Unavailable", which they seem to use when they are just waiting for another printing and are out of stock.

[dylrichard02]

Originally Posted by dvining

No. The Blu-ray shows up as "Currently Unavailable", which they seem to use when they are just waiting for another printing and are out of stock.

Good to know, ordering from them directly for the first time lol. Thank you.