The Criterion Collection

[cgpublic]

While I didn't take notice when ordered, it's a manly box, filled with the sort of trouble an adventurous type of man will find in life, or finds him:

[sherlockjr]

Originally Posted by cgpublic

My daughter is president of the film club at her university (a very well-known school with many alumni working within industry), and she has a seat at the table for programming at the on-campus theater (a century-old gem).

To your point, the interest is high, and securing titles is not as simple as clicking a button. It requires a great deal of planning to secure the most wanted, i.e., the most likely to fill seats.

Back in the 20th century the non-theatrical distributors would literally have big thick catalogs of their available (mostly 16mm) titles and you could book them over the phone.

Non-theatrical pretty much disappeared with the explosion of home video, no idea of how they do it now. But if it's anything like booking rep cinemas then and now it takes a lot of interior knowledge, a lot of work, a lot of contacts and relationships, and a lot of negotiations.

Back in the day rep theaters could book the same titles much cheaper than non-theatrical colleges. Theatrical distributors made most of their money on first run, but they often had a lot of older 35mm prints sitting around the film exchanges (something that no longer exists) gathering dust and making them no money, so they'd let them go for a song. Especially if they'd built up a relationship with the theater to also book first run art and recent sub run titles.

Meanwhile the only revenue stream for non-theatrical was those non-theatrical prints. So their price for a single booking was often three times or more what the rep theaters I worked at would pay for a non-theatrical booking, especially weeknights.

I'm sure that's all change tremendously in the 21st century.

Absolutely. The college years are the most formative, and while it's true a majority of university students are perfectly happy streaming Netflix, there is a percentage that streams but also seeks something deeper, something beyond what is current and non-mass market...

Some of this is a retro culture thing, like vinyl records. And those younger people who want to experience things outside of the mainstream they grew up with. It sure won't be everyone, but if that minority audience is large enough,it can be sustainable.

That has definitely happened with 35mm screenings. The art/rep theaters near me kept at it, as much as anything else because there were and are still many titles that are only available on 35mm film. For a long time that wasn't a big deal, but they built awareness. Now 35/70mm film screenings around Boston outdraw DCPs of the same titles, even in the same theaters and even if the film tickets cost more (sometimes they do, sometimes they don't). Those venues really had to build that audience. The fact that the ones near me are almost all non-profits didn't hurt their openness to a slow audience build.

Like with LPs the audience appreciates how real physical media looks different and better, they embrace some print damage as part of what makes it look more "real", and the go out of their way to see it. It's the ultimate in physical media, though only crazy people literally collect it (especially 35mm).

But you really have to build that audience. You're right about A24 (who's done real film releases) have done that, and I hope some of their colleagues have been taking good notes!

[Shane Rollins]

Originally posted by DukeTogo84 in the Scream Factory thread:

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

It sounds like the first two Shout Golden Princess titles will be City Under Fire and Hardboiled. They are up for digital pre-order already. Also this...

Another Criterion DVD bites the dust.

[Taylor3978]

TCM this afternoon is showing 49th Parallel.



The beginning of the film is hard to watch. It belongs to a different era.

Please Criterion release this in a collection of Powell and Pressburger B&W films, before history leaves you behind.

[Shane Rollins]

Originally Posted by Taylor3978

TCM this afternoon is showing 49th Parallel.

[Show spoiler]

The beginning of the film is hard to watch. It belongs to a different era.

Please Criterion release this in a collection of Powell and Pressburger B&W films, before history leaves you behind.

We need - I repeat, we NEED - some P&P in the July slate.

[DimitriL]

Originally Posted by Taylor3978

TCM this afternoon is showing 49th Parallel.

The beginning of the film is hard to watch. It belongs to a different era.

Please Criterion release this in a collection of Powell and Pressburger B&W films, before history leaves you behind.

Seeing that it's one of the Archers films that made it to both Criterion LD and DVD, I feel pretty sure it will make its way to BD or even 4k after a proper restoration - but probably not until after Black Narcissus and Colonel Blimp, though, and certainly not before I Know Where I'm Going, the restoration of which Criterion recently co-presented. They're definitely inching their way through the noteworthy entries in their catalog - Peeping Tom was not that long ago.

[DimitriL]

Originally Posted by cgpublic

While I didn't take notice when ordered, it's a manly box, filled with the sort of trouble an adventurous type of man will find in life, or finds him:

Keep those discs sealed! You don't want them bronzed from all the testosterone leaking from them.

(Half of my sale order was manly men doing manly things in manly ways too. And, uh, Crossing Delancey. )

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by Taylor3978

TCM this afternoon is showing 49th Parallel.



The beginning of the film is hard to watch. It belongs to a different era.

Please Criterion release this in a collection of Powell and Pressburger B&W films, before history leaves you behind.

I did my part and bought the dvd not too long ago. Unfortunately, I have had no luck at all with that triggering an upgrade in doing so. Same result with purchasing Knife in the Water, Trouble in Paradise, and A Canterbury Tale. I just purchased Marie Antoinette, a WAC dvd, but I’m not expecting anything there either.

[Shane Rollins]

Originally Posted by hoytereden

I did my part and bought the dvd not too long ago. Unfortunately, I have had no luck at all with that triggering an upgrade in doing so. Same result with purchasing Knife in the Water, Trouble in Paradise, and A Canterbury Tale. I just purchased Marie Antoinette, a WAC dvd, but I’m not expecting anything there either.

I frequently get Trouble In Paradise and Stranger Than Paradise confused. Ironically, aside from their similar titles, they're both films that are long overdue for a Blu-ray/4K release.

TIP has had a restoration for years, from a nitrate studio print and an acetate dupe neg, which of course begs the question of where is it. SIP, however, has no restoration info out there, which makes me believe that that's nowhere near ready to make the jump.

KITW, they're waiting for Polanski to die, and ACT is merely a result of whoever owns the P&P films dragging their feet to the point that it counts as torture.

[Egbert Souse]

Wouldn't be a terrible idea to just do a box set of the first four P&P films - The Spy in Black, Contraband, 49th Parallel, and One of Our Aircraft is Missing. Except for the last one being Paramount worldwide, rest are iTV Studios.

Any P&P releases are an instant pre-order for me. I do feel that a lot of upgrades of iTV titles are on the way considering Imprint is putting out the Olivier Shakespeare trilogy from new 4K restorations of Henry V and Hamlet

[Doomhunter]

Could really use Ivan the Terrible on blu ray, or at least on UHD

[Shane Rollins]

Originally Posted by Egbert Souse

Wouldn't be a terrible idea to just do a box set of the first four P&P films - The Spy in Black, Contraband, 49th Parallel, and One of Our Aircraft is Missing. Except for the last one being Paramount worldwide, rest are iTV Studios.

Any P&P releases are an instant pre-order for me. I do feel that a lot of upgrades of iTV titles are on the way considering Imprint is putting out the Olivier Shakespeare trilogy from new 4K restorations of Henry V and Hamlet

Wasn't ITV exclusively with Shout, or do I have ITV mixed up with someone else?

[Rayjg]

Originally Posted by DimitriL

Keep those discs sealed! You don't want them bronzed from all the testosterone leaking from them.

(Half of my sale order was manly men doing manly things in manly ways too. And, uh, Crossing Delancey. )

There is nothing more beautiful than a Criterion in a Scanavo case wrapped in cellophane (has to be cellophane). It honestly saddens me to open them.

[BoydR12]

Originally Posted by Shane Rollins

Originally posted by DukeTogo84 in the Scream Factory thread:



Another Criterion DVD bites the dust.

Looking forward to those shout releases! That being said, I think Criterion will be just fine.

[Egbert Souse]

Originally Posted by Shane Rollins

Wasn't ITV exclusively with Shout, or do I have ITV mixed up with someone else?

Shout does have an iTV deal, but I think they've only released stuff from the ITC portion of the catalog. Criterion hasn't licensed anything new from them since The Lodger, though. And I think the only upgrade was The Red Shoes.

Meanwhile, Imprint has been releasing quite a lot of the Rank/Gaumont-British portion lately with a lot of long-overdue DVD to Blu-ray upgrades needed from Criterion.

Originally Posted by Doomhunter

Could really use Ivan the Terrible on blu ray, or at least on UHD

There's been new restorations of Alexander Nevsky, as well as both Ivans... but there's no chance of new deals with Mosfilm for a while. Deaf Crocodile has been getting by with Russian-owned films because the licensing was done long enough ago and through other entities.

[Shane Rollins]

Originally Posted by BoydR12

Looking forward to those shout releases! That being said, I think Criterion will be just fine.

Absolutely they will. I meant that I'm happy to retire a now ancient Criterion DVD. It was great for its time, but as the decades go on, it starts to show its age. Many releases do. By the time the Shout disc drops, the Criterion DVD will be 28 years old. This DVD is literally older than me. I love Criterion, I always will, I love at least 90% of their releases, but I have to call a spade a spade and say that disc's days are numbered.

I just hope the special features are all carried over, but even if they're not, relegating this to a special features disc would be awesome. I've done it with so many movies now, many of which are with Criterion or at least another boutique, and while it's annoying to keep juggling tapes and discs just to have everything, it's a small and acceptable price to pay for having the single best version of the film available.

[Show spoiler]

And besides, this picture transfer is just...dreadful. This was my only copy for years, so retiring this in favor of the Shout Blu-ray (even better if it's 4K) is one of the easiest Day Ones of my entire career.

Originally Posted by Egbert Souse

Shout does have an iTV deal, but I think they've only released stuff from the ITC portion of the catalog. Criterion hasn't licensed anything new from them since The Lodger, though. And I think the only upgrade was The Red Shoes.

Meanwhile, Imprint has been releasing quite a lot of the Rank/Gaumont-British portion lately with a lot of long-overdue DVD to Blu-ray upgrades needed from Criterion.

ITC, that's it. I had ITC and ITV confused.

So there's a lot of upgrades to hope for there, though I don't know who they'd come from, when they'd happen, or even if. The Lodger was eight years ago now, and The Red Shoes utilized a 2010 restoration instead of performing a new one, so either Criterion signed a rather quick deal on that one, or for some reason they didn't have to sign anything and just released the 4K (all depends on how the original contract was written).

Originally Posted by Egbert Souse

There's been new restorations of Alexander Nevsky, as well as both Ivans... but there's no chance of new deals with Mosfilm for a while. Deaf Crocodile has been getting by with Russian-owned films because the licensing was done long enough ago and through other entities.

Who has War And Peace? I get that film has genuine issues with poor elements (both poor quality film was used, and the film was then poorly handled), but it could still look somewhat better than the Criterion Blu-ray from six years ago.

[Taylor3978]

Originally Posted by Egbert Souse

Wouldn't be a terrible idea to just do a box set of the first four P&P films - The Spy in Black, Contraband, 49th Parallel, and One of Our Aircraft is Missing.

One of Our Aircraft is Missing had a release from Olive and there's still a release from BFI available.

StudioCanal has a release of The Small Back Room.

People seem confident that I Know Where I'm Going is coming. Eventually.

I worry that 49th Parallel and A Canterbury Tale (that inspired the most famous shot from 2001) will get overlooked. Maybe recent events will raise the profile of the former. Carpe diem, Criterion.

[Shane Rollins]

Originally Posted by Taylor3978

One of Our Aircraft is Missing had a release from Olive and there's still a release from BFI available.

StudioCanal has a release of The Small Back Room.

People seem confident that I Know Where I'm Going is coming. Eventually.

I worry that 49th Parallel and A Canterbury Tale (that inspired the most famous shot from 2001) will get overlooked. Maybe recent events will raise the profile of the former. Carpe diem, Criterion.

We know I Know Where I'm Going! has a 4K restoration, but do we have any leads on the rest of their films?

We should have one for July, but knowing Criterion they could wait several years like they always do.

[mande2013]

I'm not sure where else to ask this, but why hasn't there ever been any murmur about Pierrot Le Fou getting the 4K treatment. Given the sorts of titles StudioCanal has brought to 4K you'd expect it to be in the pipeline. Are there issues with the available elements perhaps?

[Egbert Souse]

Originally Posted by mande2013

I'm not sure where else to ask this, but why hasn't there ever been any murmur about Pierrot Le Fou getting the 4K treatment. Given the sorts of titles StudioCanal has brought to 4K you'd expect it to be in the pipeline. Are there issues with the available elements perhaps?

It's probably because it had a 2K restoration not that long ago and it's 2-perf Techniscope. My guess it'll eventually get a 4K treatment since A Woman is a Woman is the latest. I think so far they've also done Breathless, Alphaville, and Contempt.