The Criterion Collection

[jshaide]

Yeah, doesn't feel like the day.

[Snicket]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

April would be as good a time as any for Criterion to release a 4K of West Side Story (1961) if they truly have it.

Woah I missed that rumor.

[Shanghai Express]

Come CRITTERion make our day

[jw007]

Originally Posted by TheArgentinian

What do you think of this criticism? (from DVDBeaver):

I think criticizing the Criterion Collection is a good thing. Because it only makes the Criterion Collection stronger if more people are talking about them.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by Snicket

Woah I missed that rumor.

It's a very old one by now, and not much to go on really. In the 2017 New Year's drawing, there were two flags, and musical notes around them. One seemingly a Cuban flag representing Buena Vista Social Club, the other flag was presumed to be for Puerto Rico, but nothing ever came out about it. Sixteen Candles was also shown in that drawing, but Criterion apparently cancelled it, and Arrow picked up the rights.

Kino Insider has also confirmed that they don't have West Side Story, so if MGM did license it out, it would almost certainly be to Criterion.



(I still would like to know what that T in the back was for)

[zackisthewalrus]

I think it’s safe to pack it up for today. Surprising since Monday’s a holiday. See y’all on Tuesday

[Scottie]

Janus update --

Riddance (1973, Márta Mészáros)
https://www.janusfilms.com/films/2052

[gudemameshiba]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

(I still would like to know what that T in the back was for)

What was the R again? (Is there a post that breaks down the clues?)

[yoloswegmaster420]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

It's a very old one by now, and not much to go on really. In the 2017 New Year's drawing, there were two flags, and musical notes around them. One seemingly a Cuban flag representing Buena Vista Social Club, the other flag was presumed to be for Puerto Rico, but nothing ever came out about it. Sixteen Candles was also shown in that drawing, but Criterion apparently cancelled it, and Arrow picked up the rights.

Kino Insider has also confirmed that they don't have West Side Story, so if MGM did license it out, it would almost certainly be to Criterion.



(I still would like to know what that T in the back was for)

You're forgetting that Jerome Robbins had a phantom page appear on the old Criterion site, not to mention the user who had info from a Broadway forum that said Criterion was releasing WSS with new extras.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by gudemameshiba

What was the R again? (Is there a post that breaks down the clues?)

It's tied to the corn stalk behind, so Stalk R = Stalker.

This site has most of the answers https://criterioncast.com/news/wacky...s-2017-line-up

A couple years back I also matched them up to their drawings too (crudely). I did it for 2 other years as well.



Here's my post that also has ones for 2018, and 2019:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...stcount=194187

[gudemameshiba]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

It's tied to the corn stalk behind, so Stalk R = Stalker.

No one in Stalker wears a bowtie, though, right? Maybe the R is waving to the T, and the outfit is part of the T clue?

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by gudemameshiba

No one in Stalker wears a bowtie, though, right? Maybe the R is waving to the T, and the outfit is part of the T clue?

It's possible. I remember when nothing else connected to that T, I started thinking about it more abstractly and came up with Clue T - Klue T = Klute. But there's no way that's their actual line of thought

[afraidofsunlight]

I can’t believe we’re re-litigating the drawing from 2017. For the record, the waving T was for “Othello” (oh, T, hello!).

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by afraidofsunlight

I can’t believe we’re re-litigating the drawing from 2017. For the record, the waving T was for “Othello” (oh, T, hello!).

This is what Criterion deserves for making us wait for their announcements!

[Snicket]

Originally Posted by afraidofsunlight

I can’t believe we’re re-litigating the drawing from 2017. For the record, the waving T was for “Othello” (oh, T, hello!).

lol that’s ridiculous.

(I know it’s true, it’s just such a journey to get there)

[FragnitoM]

Originally Posted by Snicket

I have heard Spencer is worse, and Titane will be just as bad too. Neon's releases outside of Criterion have been such trash. Easily the worst of the indie studios.

i haven’t watched Pig again on disc yet, but the Spencer blu-ray looks pretty accurate to how it looked in the theater. it had a very soft/dreamlike ghostliness look to it. is that not how Spencer is supposed to look on disc, or is it some other issue i’m just not noticing

i remember Titane looking gorgeous in theaters so i am worried about that one since everyone is saying the discs look awful. i was so sure Titane would get a criterion release

[MifuneFan]

Spencer looks a lot worse than its theatrical presentation. It's a poorly encoded, and compressed disc.

What one critic said on Twitter

Oof, sad to report the SPENCER Blu-ray is a disaster. So poorly compressed and encoded it looks like it was poorly captured off cable. This is the worst presentation of a new film on home video I’ve seen in a long time. So inept it should honestly be recalled.

This was shot on 16mm so it’s very grainy, and the compression on this disc is so out of whack it crushes it all into noise and artifacts, especially in darker scenes (blacks are uniformly crushed and noisy). The colors are ok although this is a movie that begs for HDR.

This film was finished as a 4K DI so there’s no reason there shouldn’t have been a 4K UHD release. Luckily digital retailers DO have it in 4K HDR. I’ll be returning the BD and buying that instead - hopefully it does the movie justice.

I mean it really takes a special kind of technical ineptitude to take a source this beautifully, richly filmic and encode it so bad that the grain looks like rough digital noise from a mid 2000s camcorder. They shouldn’t be selling this.

Even the subtitles are ****ed up. We’ve got them on cuz the folks are a touch hard of hearing and they’re formatted weird, frequently breaking into 3 or 4 lines when they’re clearly supposed to be 1 or 2. This whole disc screams “half-assed rush job

And BD Scan info:

Disc Size:      23,215,519,618 bytes
Protection:     AACS
BDInfo:         0.7.5.9 (compatible layout created by DVDFab 12.0.5.7)

PLAYLIST REPORT:

Name:                   00020.MPLS  
Length:                 1:56:45.373 (h:m:s.ms)
Size:                   20,609,224,704 bytes
Total Bitrate:          23.54 Mbps

VIDEO:

Codec                   Bitrate             Description    
-----                   -------             -----------    
MPEG-4 AVC Video        18989 kbps          1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1

AUDIO:

Codec                           Language        Bitrate         Description    
-----                           --------        -------         -----------    
DTS-HD Master Audio             English         3243 kbps       5.1 / 48 kHz / 3243 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)

SUBTITLES:

Codec                           Language        Bitrate         Description    
-----                           --------        -------         -----------    
Presentation Graphics           English         21.668 kbps

[Snicket]

Originally Posted by FragnitoM

i remember Titane looking gorgeous in theaters so i am worried about that one since everyone is saying the discs look awful. i was so sure Titane would get a criterion release

At least Worst Person in the World will be spared, and likely Petite Maman as well.

[Abdrewes]

I saw Tongues Untied about a decade ago. I appreciated the nature of it being what I assumed was one of the earliest video representations of the black gay experience. Its stark, staged, confrontational images of black men in embrace posing a middle finger to an unwelcoming society. What strikes me now having viewed Riggs' longer video essays, is how much more there is to his body of work than I would have initially guessed. His assements of the "Black image" from the Jim Crow era onwards are nothing if not persuasive as are his assessments on the black identity and "blackness" post-Civil Rights.

The deconstructions provided in this set of black caricatures, movies, and TV series are particularly effective. On multiple occasions I was reminded of my own negligence in my movie-watching where I fail to register the weight of negative stereotypes on screen. In Ethnic Notions there's a segment that juxtaposes a clip of John Ford's Judge Priest in which a black character, in droopy posture, ambles off shoeless against a printed coon caricature, illustrating its garish antecent. I still love John Ford, I still really want Judge Priest on blu-ray, but whether I like it or not this bit is seared in my memory now. Admittedly, I find alot to enjoy in some of this media. As a visually oriented person, I'd love to own the Little Black Sambo cartoons on blu-ray as they are bold and blooming with energy but clearly it's neccessary to view them with added context. This set offers that and a glimpse into Black America circa late 80s/early 90s. As the closing scenes with Marlon Riggs on a hospital bed rolled by on the posthumously completed Black Is...Black Ain't, I couldn't help but lament the fact that we are missing one of the great cultural commentators.

*note: this set is not an A/V knockout as the source elements are standard definition videotapes.

[BluProofie]

Announcements tomorrow, maybe?