The Criterion Collection

[Flex_MythoMass]

How large is the Dekalog set? Is it roughly the same height and width as the Bruce Lee set?

[Rayjg]

Don’t tell me they replaced any guns with walkie-talkies too?

[mmarczi]

Originally Posted by Flex_MythoMass

How large is the Dekalog set? Is it roughly the same height and width as the Bruce Lee set?

It's the same height as (almost) all of their cardboard packaging, but it's thinner than the Bruce Lee set. It's about the width of two of their standard Blu-Ray releases.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by Flex_MythoMass

How large is the Dekalog set? Is it roughly the same height and width as the Bruce Lee set?

[Flex_MythoMass]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Thank you!

[MifuneFan]

Just came back from seeing Drive My Car at an AMC theater. First off, excellent movie. Unlike anything i've seen really. And for a 3 hour film, it flows quite nicely. I was wondering, is this the first Janus film to show at an AMC theater? I can't recall any in recent memory at least.

I went in blindly, not even reading a synopsis for the movie, so I was shocked to see the synpopsis that's posted on Google, and other places be so completely wrong. What's up with that?

An aging, widowed actor seeks a chauffeur. The actor turns to his go-to mechanic, who ends up recommending a 20-year-old girl. Despite their initial misgivings, a very special relationship develops between the two.

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Just came back from seeing Drive My Car at an AMC theater. First off, excellent movie. Unlike anything i've seen really. And for a 3 hour film, it flows quite nicely. I was wondering, is this the first Janus film to show at an AMC theater? I can't recall any in recent memory at least.

I went in blindly, not even reading a synopsis for the movie, so I was shocked to see the synpopsis that's posted on Google, and other places be so completely wrong. What's up with that?

As someone who hasn't seen the film, what's wrong the synopsis?

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

As someone who hasn't seen the film, what's wrong the synopsis?

[Show spoiler]He isn't seeking a chauffeur at all. He loves his car, and vastly prefer to drive it himself. He is obligated to take on a driver however, as part of his agreement to be the the director of a theater production, and the theater company provides him with the driver. She's 23, and there are no misgivings between them, unless they consider his initial resistance of letting anyone else drive his car as misgivings.

[jkoffman]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

[Show spoiler]He isn't seeking a chauffeur at all. He loves his car, and vastly prefer to drive it himself. He is obligated to take on a driver however, as part of his agreement to be the the director of a theater production, and the theater company provides him with the driver. She's 23, and there are no misgivings between them.

I had read that synopsis and then watched the trailer and decided I didn’t need to see it. So now I just read the whole plot in Wiki and it’s got me wondering about the age of the “aging actor”, played by a 50 year old actor.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by jkoffman

I had read that synopsis and then watched the trailer and decided I didn’t need to see it. So now I just read the whole plot in Wiki and it’s got me wondering about the age of the “aging actor”, played by a 50 year old actor.

Yeah, he doesn't look old at all either really. It's such a strange synopsis that completely misses the mark.

Janus' synopsis (posted below), which is on RT and others is better, though could arguably be considered more spoilerish since it goes into more details. I would also not define it a as road movie, though some important parts do take place while driving. There is a part at the end that feels closer to a "road movie" but certainly not the whole film.

[Show spoiler]

Two years after his wife's unexpected death, Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a renowned stage actor and director, receives an offer to direct a production of Uncle Vanya at a theater festival in Hiroshima. There, he meets Misaki Watari (Toko Miura), a taciturn young woman assigned by the festival to chauffeur him in his beloved red Saab 900. As the production's premiere approaches, tensions mount amongst the cast and crew, not least between Yusuke and Koji Takatsuki, a handsome TV star who shares an unwelcome connection to Yusuke's late wife. Forced to confront painful truths raised from his past, Yusuke begins -- with the help of his driver -- to face the haunting mysteries his wife left behind. Adapted from Haruki Murakami's short story, Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car is a haunting road movie traveling a path of love, loss, acceptance, and peace

[Scottie]

The Wandering Princess (1960, Kinuyo Tanaka)
https://www.janusfilms.com/films/2057

[MifuneFan]

Hopefully a complete Kinuyo Tanaka directorial set is coming. Thought Criterion would have done a set for Márta Mészáros, but it looks like they're just doing some individual releases for her.

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Hopefully a complete Kinuyo Tanaka directorial set is coming. Thought Criterion would have done a set for Márta Mészáros, but it looks like they're just doing some individual releases for her.

I think this would make for a nice set. I do hope Criterion gets on the Juzo Itami boxset as well since they have his entire filmography.

[BluProofie]

Where is Demonlover?

[koberulz]

Originally Posted by jkoffman

I had read that synopsis and then watched the trailer and decided I didn’t need to see it. So now I just read the whole plot in Wiki and it’s got me wondering about the age of the “aging actor”, played by a 50 year old actor.

Reminds me of American Woman:

A young grandmother in a small Pennsylvania town raises her daughter’s child after the girl disappears. All the while, a desperate search for her continues.

Through the magic of multiple teen pregnancies, the grandmother is in her early thirties when the film begins, and her daughter isn't mentioned at all after the 15 minute mark. Her grandson gets a couple of minutes of screentime after that point, but that's it.

[mmarczi]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

I think this would make for a nice set. I do hope Criterion gets on the Juzo Itami boxset as well since they have his entire filmography.

I just have a hard time seeing them do a box set for such relatively 'small' directors, sadly. I mean, they even passed on fully upgrading their Wajda trilogy (though hopefully they still put out the other two from the set, along with some of his other works, but I'm not holding my breath). Truth be told, it would be more something they would put in the Eclipse line if it weren't dead. That's the only way we've gotten more Kinoshita, Kobayashi, Naruse, and even Ozu. But just comparing to the names they do choose to release as box sets, I can't find myself surprised, unfortunately. I mean there's no comparison to Bergman, Fellini, Varda, Cassavetes, Rossellini, Rohmer, Kieslowski, WKW...and even their Bunuel set was trimmed from five titles to three when they upgraded it.

[yoloswegmaster420]

Originally Posted by mmarczi

I just have a hard time seeing them do a box set for such relatively 'small' directors, sadly. I mean, they even passed on fully upgrading their Wajda trilogy (though hopefully they still put out the other two from the set, along with some of his other works, but I'm not holding my breath). Truth be told, it would be more something they would put in the Eclipse line if it weren't dead. That's the only way we've gotten more Kinoshita, Kobayashi, Naruse, and even Ozu. But just comparing to the names they do choose to release as box sets, I can't find myself surprised, unfortunately. I mean there's no comparison to Bergman, Fellini, Varda, Cassavetes, Rossellini, Rohmer, Kieslowski, WKW...and even their Bunuel set was trimmed from five titles to three when they upgraded it.

What Bunuel set are you talking about? The set they released in 2020 was the first time they had released and it always had 3 titles.

[latehong]

Originally Posted by mmarczi

I just have a hard time seeing them do a box set for such relatively 'small' directors, sadly. I mean, they even passed on fully upgrading their Wajda trilogy (though hopefully they still put out the other two from the set, along with some of his other works, but I'm not holding my breath). Truth be told, it would be more something they would put in the Eclipse line if it weren't dead. That's the only way we've gotten more Kinoshita, Kobayashi, Naruse, and even Ozu. But just comparing to the names they do choose to release as box sets, I can't find myself surprised, unfortunately. I mean there's no comparison to Bergman, Fellini, Varda, Cassavetes, Rossellini, Rohmer, Kieslowski, WKW...and even their Bunuel set was trimmed from five titles to three when they upgraded it.

Which immediately reminds me of these superb sets.



Making a box set does not solely depend upon the amount of fame the director has. If anything, it's more to do with the availability of rights and materials, as well as a proper, marketable point of view to tie certain films together.

In that sense, I think there's a fair chance that Criterion will release a box set of Kinuyo Tanaka films. She was a rare female director of her time, whose directorial efforts had been overshadowed by her works as an actor with bigger male 'masters' of Japanese cinema for decades and have been restored and rediscovered just recently through repertory cinema and film festivals around the world (I live in South Korea and there was a retrospective of her last year). So there's a good enough story for the set.

Also, fortunately (and unfortunately) for us, she could direct only six films in her entire life. So it doesn't have to be a big box set, perhaps a small 3-disc digipak release (or even a regular scanavo release) might be enough. I know at least four of them are already restored in 4K and Film at Lincoln Center announced that they will present all six of them coming March, in partnership with Janus Films.

Maybe the biggest obstacle for this is that her six films were produced by several different studios, so it might not be easy to gather them together. But then again, Janus already acquired four from three different studios, so I'll hold by breath and keep my fingers.

[Abdrewes]

e

Originally Posted by yoloswegmaster420

What Bunuel set are you talking about? The set they released in 2020 was the first time they had released and it always had 3 titles.

Maybe mmarczi meant the five Buñuel DVDs under the old "lined" logo? These are all of them lined up with their bd upgrades and counterparts (plus one Kino bd*):

Lined (2001-2006)







C'd (2007-present)

[Show spoiler] *

[tsetse27]

I am sorry if this has already been addressed before, pls dont mind me asking again:

has Criterion gave any hint they will release more big box collection based on director, similar like their Bergman and Agnes Box?

I am sure I am not the only one would like to have a boxset of Kurosawa and Truffaut.