The Criterion Collection

[wobelix]

Originally Posted by mmarczi

To be clear, only Citizen Kane, Menace II Society, and Mulholland Dr. are being released as 4K from the November slate, not La Strada or the Once Upon a Time in China set. In the coming month(s), Criterion has also announced that The Red Shoes, The Piano, and A Hard Day's Night will also be released on 4K.

Allright!
Thanks, I've missed some details about that.

I'm gonna take 'm all but one (Once Upon a Time In China would not even come out of it's seal...), imported from the USA or not, even though I bought the Fellini box.
Seven titles to look forward to, and what's gonna be next!
If you kick of like this, there'll be a lot of happy days to come!!

[bergman864]

I watched The War of the Gargantuas on HBO Max last night. It starts with a Criterion logo. Looks like a future release.

[dvining]

Originally Posted by Gacivory

I feel like also the 4K is a pretty big announcement for them.

Yeah, once I saw the 4K announcement, my hopes for a Kurosawa box plummeted pretty precipitously.

[Jpapp25]

Originally Posted by dvining

Yeah, once I saw the 4K announcement, my hopes for a Kurosawa box plummeted pretty precipitously.

I'm really interested to see how they do with the Citizen Kane release. I absolutely cannot wait to see the Toland cinematography in 4K at home and think if they knock it out of the park with quality, I will get even more antsy to see a deluge of Kurosawa 4K releases!

[NeilZ]

Kurosawa on 4k would be among the greatest releases Criterion could do.

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by dvining

Yeah, once I saw the 4K announcement, my hopes for a Kurosawa box plummeted pretty precipitously.

My hopes keep getting dashed by hearing how difficult Toho is to deal with and they have Kurosawa’s stuff. I’m still hoping, but trying to be realistic.

[dkelly26666]

I've pretty much abandoned all hope of any big end of year box this year.

The long requested 4K transition IS their big end of year thing, this time.

Unfortunately for me, it made for a pretty disappointing November, this time.

I already have existing studio blus of "Citizen Kane" (a 3 disc blu book), the New Line BD of "Menace II Society", the Eureka "Once Upon a Time in China", and the Criterion BDs of "Mulholland Drive" and "La Strada".

4K is useless to me as of now.

So, outside of maybe double dipping on something, there's simply nothing Criterion for me to buy this November. And November was traditionally the most exciting month of the year from them for me. Many years, I'd buy every Nov. release.

Oh well, there will be some overlap at first with this 4K transition. I'm happy everyone got their wishes fulfilled by the addition of the format.

December is often quite quiet from them, but we'll see if I get Christmas present or something.

[dvining]

Originally Posted by dkelly26666

December is often quite quiet from them, but we'll see if I get Christmas present or something.

All of their rumored Scorsese films at once. In separate releases. I don't need a boxset for that.

[MifuneFan]

There's really been no hints of another big box coming this year like we've seen hints for with others. As nice as a Kurosawa set would be, it's always been pure speculation. I feel something like that wouldn't be able to be kept secret. I also think Criterion stands to make more money by releasing the major Kurosawa titles separately first, especially if they could do 4K releases of some of them (Toho licensing for 4K is a big question mark). I think the quality of some of his older films that have been relegated to Eclipse sets also hinder a potential Blu-ray set. Many (if not most) do have HD masters, but they haven't undergone any proper restorations as far I know. Stuff like Sanshiro Sugata (both parts) need a lot of work.

Though it's a disappointing set for many, I think the WKW collection could be seen as Criterion's big box set for the year. It's the kind of release that would get a Novemeber release in previous years, but we just happened to get it in March instead.

[dkelly26666]

Originally Posted by dvining

All of their rumored Scorsese films at once. In separate releases. I don't need a boxset for that.

Although a Scorsese box like the Bergman one WOULD be a major event...

But, yes, just to get "Alice", "After Hours", and "Bringing Out" would be great.

It's been said they have "Mean Streets", and while "Mean Streets" doesn't necessarily need another release, if it had a BD debut of "Who's That Knocking at My Door?" as a supplement (like "Killer's Kiss" on "The Killing"), that would make it all worthwhile...

[mande2013]

At this point, I think they'd be better served trying to release 4K standalones of Kurosawa's films, licensing complications permitting. A 1080p retrospective set would be pointless now, and I say that as someone who hasn't yet upgraded to 4K. Then again, I don't own a single Kurosawa film on blu-ray so I'll buy the 4K combo packs without flinching as they're released. Heck, I don't own a studio blu-ray of Citizen Kane either so have already pre-ordered the Kombo pack (misspelling intended).

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by mande2013

At this point, I think they'd be better served trying to release 4K standalones of Kurosawa's films, licensing complications permitting. A 1080p retrospective set would be pointless now, and I say that as someone who hasn't yet upgraded to 4K. Then again, I don't own a single Kurosawa film on blu-ray so I'll buy the 4K combo packs without flinching as they're released. Heck, I don't own a studio blu-ray of Citizen Kane either so have already pre-ordered the Kombo pack (misspelling intended).

A Blu set wouldn't be pointless with how many of his that never hit blu in the first place. I think the perfect situation would be a set of all his films with some 4k upgrades, his bigger titles.

[dvining]

Originally Posted by Gacivory

A Blu set wouldn't be pointless with how many of his that never hit blu in the first place. I think the perfect situation would be a set of all his films with some 4k upgrades, his bigger titles.

Would that work?

20 titles or so, 5 are 4K the rest are Blu-ray. Or do you include Blu-rays for everything and just extra discs for the 4K?

That seems like a question that Criterion might not want to answer themselves, so I imagine we're either going to get a Kurosawa boxset of just Blu-rays with potential 4K upgrades down the pipe, or they just start with 4Ks of some Kurosawa titles and just skip the boxset completely.

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by dvining

Would that work?

20 titles or so, 5 are 4K the rest are Blu-ray. Or do you include Blu-rays for everything and just extra discs for the 4K?

That seems like a question that Criterion might not want to answer themselves, so I imagine we're either going to get a Kurosawa boxset of just Blu-rays with potential 4K upgrades down the pipe, or they just start with 4Ks of some Kurosawa titles and just skip the boxset completely.

I misstyped. I meant a set like Bergman but then solo releases of 4K’s. Like how BFI announced a set of Bergman Vol. 2 then also a 4K of Seventh Seal. I thought that would be a good option.

[dvining]

Originally Posted by Gacivory

I misstyped. I meant a set like Bergman but then solo releases of 4K’s. Like how BFI announced a set of Bergman Vol. 2 then also a 4K of Seventh Seal. I thought that would be a good option.

Yeah, that could happen.

But imagine the caterwauling. Having to buy Seven Samurai two times! At least!

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by dvining

Yeah, that could happen.

But imagine the caterwauling. Having to buy Seven Samurai two times! At least!

Forget it dvining its Criterion threads.

[Show spoiler]There will alway be caterwauling.

[dvining]

Originally Posted by Gacivory

Forget it dvining its Criterion threads.

[Show spoiler]There will alway be caterwauling.

[ShellOilJunior]

I think Criterion's move would be an AK set with everything on blu-ray and select movies also on UHD.

This is the same company that released Zatoichi on dual format. Anything is possible.

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by ShellOilJunior

I think Criterion's move would be an AK set with everything on blu-ray and select movies also on UHD.

This is the same company that released Zatoichi on dual format. Anything is possible.

Someone else agrees with me!

[MifuneFan]

The New York Film Festival have announced their slate of revival screenings. Several Janus/Criterion films listed, and some from the World Cinema Project / Film Foundation that will very likely get a Criterion release too.

They include:

Adoption (1975) (Hungary) -

Márta Mészáros’s fifth feature, which won the Golden Bear at the 1975 Berlin International Film Festival, follows 43-year-old Kata (Katalin Berek), a tough yet lonely factory worker who wishes to have a child with her married lover. But she soon crosses paths with Anna (Gyöngyvér Vigh), a young girl who has been in and out of homes for “troubled” teenagers, and their quickly cultivated bond leads Kata to conclude that she could be ready for single motherhood and that she should try to adopt. Beautifully lensed, vividly traced, and defiantly unsentimental, Adoption finds Mészáros bringing her own documentary background to bear on this masterful parable about female self-actualization in 1970s Hungary. A Janus Films release. New 4K digital restoration undertaken by The Hungarian National Film Fund and approved by director Márta Mészáros.

Kummatty (1979) (India)

Embodying a watershed moment in Indian film history, Govindan Aravindan’s fourth feature is one of the great achievements of the Parallel Cinema, of which Aravindan was a key member—a movement which also included such masters as Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak. A poetic work informed by folklore and early cinema alike, Kummatty tells the tale of a trickster “bogeyman” who descends upon a village in Malabar year after year, drawing children whom he transforms into animals through sorcery. Aravindan’s camera synthesizes mythology and documentary, alchemically conjuring a singular kind of magical realism through the glorious accumulation of sensually photographed details and a delightful array of Méliès-esque cinematic sleights of hand. Restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna in association with General Pictures Corporation and the Film Heritage Foundation at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory. Funding provided by the Material World Foundation.

Mississippi Masala (1991) (UK/US)

Denzel Washington stars opposite Sarita Choudhury in Mira Nair’s second fiction feature, which endures as a seminal screen romance of the 1990s. Choudhury is Mina, a Ugandan Indian from Kampala whose family leaves Uganda after the implementation of Idi Amin’s policy of forcefully expelling all Asians from the country. They wind up in Greenwood, Mississippi, living with relatives and trying to reconcile the trauma of their involuntary exile with assimilating to American culture. Some 17 years pass before Mina falls for a self-employed carpet cleaner, Demetrius (Washington), and their romance puts them in conflict with the local Black and Indian-American communities—not to mention Mina’s family. At once a powerful parable and a deeply personal work, Mississippi Masala remains an incisive examination of race relations and the tension between passion and tradition. A Janus Films release. New 4K digital restoration undertaken by The Criterion Collection and supervised by director Mira Nair and cinematographer Ed Lachman.

Sambizanga (1972) (Angola / France)

A searing, indelible portrait of anti-colonial struggle in 1970s Africa, Sarah Maldoror’s adaptation of a novella by the Angolan writer José Luandino Vieira was banned by the Angolan government until the country obtained its independence from Portugal in 1975. Sambizanga follows Maria (unforgettably and alluringly portrayed by Cape Verdean economist Elisa Andrade) as she tries to pick up the pieces after her husband, a secret anti-colonial activist, becomes a political prisoner. Co-written by Maldoror’s husband Mário Pinto de Andrade (himself a leading figure in the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola), Sambizanga is a forceful, stirring evocation of the Angolan population’s plight before the revolution and their intensifying political consciousness during it. Restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna at L’Image Retrouvée in association with Éditions René Chateau and the family of Sarah Maldoror. Funding provided by Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. This restoration is part of the African Film Heritage Project, an initiative created by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers and UNESCO—in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna—to help locate, restore, and disseminate African cinema.

I could also see Ed Lachman's Song for Drella getting a Criterion release too.