The Criterion Collection

[Rzzzz]

Originally Posted by BunyipPouch

If you're a huge fan of upgrades, sure, but when 5 out of 6 are already available on already-great, relatively-recent, reasonably-priced blurays (including 3 from Criterion themselves), then the slate is totally meh. I knew that'd be the case with the move to 4K though, that a significant number of releases would simply be upgrades of blurays we already have. Bummer. I have 728 Criterion titles, not gonna re-buy them all for a 5-10% upgrade in visuals or whatever, so upgrade announcements are totally a waste for me unless it's an all-time favorite or something.

In and very happy and 100% in for Paper Moon though, awesome release, but my blurays for the rest will do just fine.

Best post ever!

[Watershipdownisgood]

Originally Posted by Poya

I'd chose Get Out over The Shape of Water if we're going to have a 4K of a 2017 Best Picture nominee that's a racial allegory.

Although, Get Out already has a 4K so uh yeah still a great film I haven’t seen the Shape of Water yet so I need to pick it up.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

You sure? They look the same on my end.

I wasn't losing it!

[BrokenGlass41]

Scarface? Any time. Actually, any old gangster flick any time! I might have to return my recently purchased Seven Samurai Blu-ray and pick up the 4K in October’s flash sale.

[whiteberry]

Originally Posted by biglou114

After getting Barbra's participation on the Prince of Tides and now Funny Girl, I'm looking forward to Criterion getting their hands on Yentl.

I hope they can also twist Bob Iger's arm and get him to hand over the 4K restoration of Hello, Dolly! so they can do a 4K UHD

FotoKem completed the digital restoration of Hello, Dolly!, returning the 1969 film adaptation of the beloved musical, directed by Gene Kelly and starring Barbra Streisand and Walter Matthau, to its original glory. Under the supervision of 20th Century Fox’s Barbara Crandall, the movie was remastered in 4K for the April 2 Blu-ray release. FotoKem also created a new 70mm print and a new 65mm intermediate positive (IP) for the studio for archival purposes.

“We’re honored to have played a part in Fox’s efforts to restore this classic musical to its original luster for a new generation to enjoy; and we’re proud of the expertise, high quality tools and custom solutions that distinguish our ongoing efforts to preserve cinema’s heritage,” FotoKem’s VP of large format and restoration services, Andrew Oran said.

FotoKem began the restoration process with the creation of a new 70mm answer print and 65mm IP, followed by an 8K scan of the new IP using FotoKem’s large format Imagica scanners. Those files were imported into FotoKem’s digital restoration pipeline at 4K, where cleanup of artifacts – such as dirt, gate hairs, scratches and flicker – was performed.

When restoration was complete, the entire film went through a final grading pass at FotoKem, performed at 4K by colorist Walter Volpatto working in tandem with film colorist Kristen Zimmermann. Performing print and digital color timing of Hello Dolly! in sequence allowed FotoKem to deliver a pristine 4K master that closely matched the projected 70mm version of the classic film.

https://www.btlnews.com/crafts/post-...s-hello-dolly/

[dwk]

Originally Posted by Watershipdownisgood

Do you have the laserdisc list? Although most of the laserdisc list has already been upgraded to Blu-Ray minus a handful of titles.

As there’s some that still haven’t been upgraded to Blu-Ray yet including three Alfred Hitchcock titles, and Dead Presidents.

I don't but I think there is a complete list of Criterion laser discs on a wiki, if no one else does it, I'll try to find it and make a similar list for laserdiscs later today.

[OnlyJapantown]

Originally Posted by jw007

The Criterion November releases are pretty solid despite the two BD to 4k upgrades. For me the pick of the litter is Paper Moon.

Totally with you on that, what a movie. The more Bogdanovich we see in 4K the better. Saint Jack, What's Up Doc? and (if Criterion or someone else can figure it out) Squirrels to the Nuts are my most wanted.

[Ned Brainard]

If I didn't already have the Imprint edition of Scarface, I likely would have been happy over that film's announcement. Instead, I find myself thinking - if Criterion had to announce a 1930s Universal license, why couldn't it have been Trouble in Paradise? Alas, another underwhelming month for me as my wait for Captain Blood and The Wedding March persists.

[Quake1028]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

This it the most stacked month of releases I've ever seen.

Same here.

I'm day 1 for Seven Samurai 4K, Godzilla 4K, Paper Moon 4K and Scarface 4K. Will have to look more into Funny Girl. Amazing release schedule.

[DimitriL]

Originally Posted by StarDestroyer52

Hopefully, this includes plenty of Fox films. Wouldn't mind a 4K of Patton.

He says that the first ones will all be Fox films, and he doesn’t know how far it goes past that but it is ongoing. I would love a great 4k of Patton for sure.

[mande2013]

So a Tree of Life 4K is probably in the cards then. Likewise Notorious.

[dwk]

Originally Posted by Watershipdownisgood

Do you have the laserdisc list? Although most of the laserdisc list has already been upgraded to Blu-Ray minus a handful of titles.

As there’s some that still haven’t been upgraded to Blu-Ray yet including three Alfred Hitchcock titles, and Dead Presidents.

Here is the laserdisc list

22. Sabotage
23. Secret Agent
24. Young and Innocent
32. Scaramouche
47. Adam's rib
55. Darling
99. Burn!
112.The Lacemaker
137. Lady for A Day
140. Carnal Knowledge
182. Damage
187. Confidentially Yours
204. Evergreen
225. Two English Girls
229. She's Gotta Have it
236. The Woman Next door
256. Dersu Uzala
261. Three Cases for murder
286. Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East
300. Waltz of the Toreadors
301. Dead Presidents
304. El Cid
312. The Entertainer
315. The Return of Marin Guerre
317. Montenegro
326. A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies
335. Shine

Again anyone spot mistakes let me know.

[Areyakiddin]

Originally Posted by DimitriL

I really don’t understand this whole “unnecessary” BD argument I’m seeing here. At this point, almost every important marquee film has at least a serviceable, perfectly adequate BD that would’ve looked like a quantum leap from DVD. Unless you really care about color reproduction and film structure and cleanly rendered grain and motion fluidity and information density, ALL UHDS are “unnecessary.” Is this really how we should be thinking about all this? Or is this about owning a version of the film that comes as close as any of us will have to an archival print on physical media?

If that doesn’t matter, why keep buying physical media at all? Punch in a few last worthy and obscure films in the pipeline, get some of those Kurosawas finished up and whatever, but really, lock the barn doors bc we can just say, you know, what’s there is good enough, physical media had its moment, time to walk away, good enough.

I choose not to think that way.

Even ignoring movies that already have a non-Region A BD or from companies Criterion is unable to license from, there's plenty of good-excellent movies left from WB with no BD release worldwide (including a few Criterion released on laserdisc).

[DimitriL]

Originally Posted by Areyakiddin

Even ignoring movies that already have a non-Region A BD or from companies Criterion is unable to license from, there's plenty of good-excellent movies left from WB with no BD release worldwide (including a few Criterion released on laserdisc).

I mean, sure, but look - when Kino grabbed a 4k from one of Criterion’s MGM releases, most of which were excellent, no one went, oh, how redundant, how lazy. And I think that was right! We should applaud the best possible version of a film.

Look, I LOVE something relatively untapped and we got a TON of those this year. I think someone already posted the list. But there are people who seem to say that’s all Criterion should ever focus on. Which is maddening, since the commercial slam dunks are what fuel the less known ones.

I’m just thrilled when a great film gets the best possible rendering and that’s all I ever cared about. I don’t particularly care about Funny Girl or Shape of Water but I’m delighted they’re getting that treatment, just as I was thrilled when the 78 Invasion of the Body Snatchers got a 4k after, what, 2-3 BDs?

[javy]

Kino releases a lot of films though. So when they do upgrades there is still plenty of room for other titles.

Just saying

[DimitriL]

Originally Posted by javy

Kino releases a lot of films though. So when they do upgrades there is still plenty of room for other titles.

Just saying

Even so, no one says it’s “unnecessary.”

Now, if there’s already a 4K version with identical features? Absolutely. I would almost put Wall-E. there, except for the fantastic extras.but image upgrades aren’t redundant.

[Brad1963]

It cracks me up how much people ***** and moan about almost everything on this website. Not so long ago the main complaint about Criterion was the lack of UHD releases, then they started releasing them and it turned into the "what about...?" thread, now that they are steady in releasing and upgrading beloved titles everyone starts *****ing having them. I don't not know what every expects, but almost everything released this month was hinted at, and anticipated. For those indicating you have "Paper Moon" already from an import, well good for you, but us patient people waited for the anticipated Criterion release, and in 4k. If you have the Blu-ray already, well fine, but some of us are into UHD discs and welcome upgrades. Now get ready for the end of the month when Warner Archive announces a new batch, and let the complaining start all over again.

[Areyakiddin]

Originally Posted by DimitriL

Even so, no one says it’s “unnecessary.”

Now, if there’s already a 4K version with identical features? Absolutely. I would almost put Wall-E. there, except for the fantastic extras.but image upgrades aren’t redundant.

Shape of Water already has a 4k release and adds just a short interview I believe.

Just to clarify I'm not complaining, there's plenty of months where Criterion releases nothing of interest to me, I just think it's silly to suggest that there's no big titles left for them to release that doesn't already have a BD.

[Number_6]

I already preordered the BFI release of The Seven Samurai as I felt confident that it would be at least as good as the rumored Criterion release, if not just a tad bit better.

With Godzilla, I have it in the Showa Era set, but of all the Godzilla films, it's the one I would really want in 4K. For me, I'm comfortable with the other films as Blu-rays, they're not must-upgrades for me. But the fact this release is a 4K SDR makes me wonder how much of a bump up it will be. And part of me is tempted to see if maybe another label might release it in 4K. I'm going to have to wait for some comparisons before I commit to buy this.

Likewise, with Scarface there's some concern about who much it will benefit from 4K as the source isn't the best as others mentioned. But I don't own the film already and I'm not as sure another label might take a crack at it like with Godzilla so I probably will end up buying this version.

[Professor Echo]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

This it the most stacked month of releases I've ever seen.

And ALL 4Ks? I wasn’t expecting that. Do we dare hope this will be the new normal release strategy for Criterion now, bypassing the single film releases ONLY on Blu? It makes sense, I think. Didn’t expect it with a title like SCARFACE though.