I am trying to think a set of films that could top this month.
Dekalog Andrei Rublev The Faith trilogy by Bergman Au Hasard Balthazar Any Buñuel Film
Maybe this set would top the month of October, if the stars are correctly aligned with a solar eclipse.
What set of blu-ray releases would top this month for you?
If they released Dekalog I would be ecstatic. AE is releasing Balthazar but they keep pushing the damn thing back. Their Mouchette blu is very nice although it has forced English subs.
Ok, cancel all Criterions that already have a Blu release elsewhere
Yes, please.
One can make can make a case for region-A releases of things already released (though honestly not a hugely strong case...region-free players aren't that hard to get and BFI and Arrow and Eureka put out awfully good products) and one can make a case for rereleasing something that's gotten a substandard release by another company (Spartacus comes to mind here).
But really, for the most part most of the already released BDs that show up on various CC wishlists (including mine - The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance says hi from Germany or where ever the hell it is) are pretty decent if not very good. Dazed and Confused, Traffic, Fear and Loathing...far be it from me to second guess how they prioritize things but for my money that wasn't exactly time or effort well spent.
And don't even get me started on The Fantastic Mr Fox.
You know what we'll never get to see? A Stanley Kubrick Criterion signature sticker!
When I worked at Borders a billion years ago, we had 'autographed by the author' stickers designed to be put on books signed in-store. I stuck one of them on a copy of The Bible and added it to the display. It received quite a few double-takes!
I get to scratch another off my sig, need to think of a replacement.
US/UK films that need to be on blu-ray:My Darling Clementine (1946, Ford), Out of the Past (1947, Tourneur), Thunderheart (1992, Apted) , Lone Star (1996, Sayles)
Foreign films that need to be on blu-ray:
Raise The Red Lantern (1991, Zhang), The Best of Youth (2003, Giordana), Still Life (2006, Jia), 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007, Mungiu)
Actually, there's two you need to scratch off the list. I'm guessing you haven't heard that Out of the Past is being released on Blu-ray by Warner Archive Collection.
When I worked at Borders a billion years ago, we had 'autographed by the author' stickers designed to be put on books signed in-store. I stuck one of them on a copy of The Bible and added it to the display. It received quite a few double-takes!
Whose signature did you stick on The Bible? It couldn't have possibly been God himself, right? lol.
One can make can make a case for region-A releases of things already released (though honestly not a hugely strong case...region-free players aren't that hard to get and BFI and Arrow and Eureka put out awfully good products) and one can make a case for rereleasing something that's gotten a substandard release by another company (Spartacus comes to mind here).
But really, for the most part most of the already released BDs that show up on various CC wishlists (including mine - The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance says hi from Germany or where ever the hell it is) are pretty decent if not very good. Dazed and Confused, Traffic, Fear and Loathing...far be it from me to second guess how they prioritize things but for my money that wasn't exactly time or effort well spent.
And don't even get me started on The Fantastic Mr Fox.
I went Region Free in May as there are too many films out there that I want and in an effort to save money (unemployed) I've gone for the Arrow / MoC etc instead of Criterion a few times due to their Extras.
Going back to Midnight Cowboy, yes the Blu out there looks good but for me a film of this standing and acclaim should have the greatest love and affection lavished on it by Criterion
La Dolce Vita on Criterion finally! The Tati box is going to be great. I almost feel bad for the guy that bought my copy of Playtime last week for $50 on eBay.
If it's not the best month yet, it's in the running...
My favorite John Ford film, and favorite Western of all time.
My second favorite Fellini film (a close second behind La Strada)
The Tati boxed set.
The Vanishing and F for Fake are good selections, too, but I'm not quite as excited by them.
If they released Dekalog I would be ecstatic. AE is releasing Balthazar but they keep pushing the damn thing back. Their Mouchette blu is very nice although it has forced English subs.
Thank you for your view on AE releases of Bresson's Mouchette. I was looking into these blu-rays. With the forced subtitles I will have to wait for criterion to release them.
Now if criterion could release L'Argent, that would be great. Olive film released The Devil, Probably on DVD about two years ago. It would not bother me at all if they release the later Bresson films.
I went Region Free in May as there are too many films out there that I want and in an effort to save money (unemployed) I've gone for the Arrow / MoC etc instead of Criterion a few times due to their Extras.
Going back to Midnight Cowboy, yes the Blu out there looks good but for me a film of this standing and acclaim should have the greatest love and affection lavished on it by Criterion
Midnight Cowboy is definitely borderline. I wouldn't ask that they put in their queue but if they ever release I'll definitely buy it.
That's why I wanted to be clear about only being a little snarky with that. It's certainly not a ridiculous request.
It's an odd double standard. People are allowed to say I LOVE IT OMG! But when someone says "Meh, nothing for me" people act surprised. With such a diverse catalog it's to be expected that not every month holds something for everyone.
Hunh? I would say "with such a diverse catalog it's to be expected that every month holds something for every someone".
The "surprise" you refer to is, in most respects, an actual surprise. I think we all acknowledge that different people have different tastes, and not everyone is going to like the same things we do. But why is it bad to express surprise that films we love seem not to get other people excited?
Sure, I understand that there are people who aren't interested in My Darling Clementine, but that doesn't stop me from saying "What? Are you insane?!" when someone expresses that lack of interest.
Sure, I understand that there are people who aren't interested in My Darling Clementine, but that doesn't stop me from saying "What? Are you insane?!" when someone expresses that lack of interest.
This October, Criterion will present a dazzling roster of titles, starting with the bursting-at-the-seams collector’s set The Complete Jacques Tati, which contains all the features and shorts made by the internationally beloved French comic genius, plus a vast array of in-depth supplements. Then from classic comedy to iconic western: John Ford’s My Darling Clementine, the greatest cinematic treatment of the Wyatt Earp legend, starring Henry Fonda, rides into the collection. October will also bring the forever dazzling La dolce vita, Federico Fellini’s 1960 masterpiece about the decadent life of a celebrity journalist, played by Marcello Mastroianni. And just in time for Halloween, brand-new editions of the haunting Dutch thriller The Vanishing. That’s a lot of treats, but there’s also a trick: Orson Welles’s clever and wildly entertaining film about forgers and charlatans, F for Fake, for the first time in a Blu-ray edition.
Please note that FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (recently released in a dual-format edition) will be released in stand alone Blu-ray and DVD editions on 10/7/14.
MY DARLING CLEMENTINE - Blu–ray
John Ford (Stagecoach) takes on the legend of the O.K. Corral shoot-out in this multilayered, exceptionally well-constructed western, one of the director’s very best films. Henry Fonda (Young Mr. Lincoln) cuts an iconic figure as Wyatt Earp, the sturdy lawman who sets about the task of shaping up the disorderly Arizona town of Tombstone, and Victor Mature (Violent Saturday) gives the performance of his career as the boozy, tubercular gambler and gunman Doc Holliday. Though initially at cross-purposes, the pair ultimately team up to confront the violent Clanton gang. Affecting and stunningly photographed, My Darling Clementine is a story of the triumph of civilization over the Wild West from American cinema’s consummate mythmaker.
1946 • 97 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • 1.33:1 aspect ratio
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 4K digital restoration of the theatrical release version of the film, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• High-definition presentation of the 103-minute prerelease version of the film
• New audio commentary featuring John Ford biographer Joseph McBride
• New interview with western historian Andrew C. Isenberg about the real Wyatt Earp
• Comparison of the two versions by the UCLA Film & Television Archive’s Robert Gitt
• New video essay by Ford scholar Tag Gallagher
• A Bandit’s Wager, a 1916 short costarring Ford and directed by his brother, Francis Ford, featuring new music composed and performed by Donald Sosin
• NBC broadcast reports from 1963 and 1975 about the history of Tombstone and Monument Valley
• Lux Radio Theatre adaptation from 1947 starring Henry Fonda and Cathy Downs
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by critic David Jenkins
The biggest hit from the most popular Italian filmmaker of all time, La dolce vita rocketed Federico Fellini (81Ž2) to international mainstream success—ironically, by offering a damning critique of the culture of stardom. A look at the darkness beneath the seductive lifestyles of Rome’s rich and glamorous, the film follows a notorious celebrity journalist—played by a sublimely cool Marcello Mastroianni (81Ž2)—during a hectic week spent on the peripheries of the spotlight. This mordant picture was an incisive commentary on the deepening decadence of the European 1960s, and it provided a prescient glimpse of just how gossip- and fame-obsessed our society would become.
1960 • 174 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In Italian with English subtitles • 2.35:1 aspect ratio
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 4K digital restoration by the Film Foundation, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New visual essay by : : kogonada
• New interview with filmmaker Lina Wertmüller, who worked as assistant director on the film
• Scholar David Forgacs discusses the period in Italy’s history when the film was made
• New interview with Italian film journalist Antonello Sarno about the outlandish fashions seen in the film
• Audio interview with Mastroianni from the early 1960s, conducted by film historian Gideon Bachmann
• Felliniana, a presentation of ephemera related to La dolce vita from the collection of Don Young
• PLUS: An essay by critic Gary Giddins
TITLE: LA DOLCE VITA (BLU-RAY EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2407BD
UPC: 7-15515-12891-9
ISBN: 978-1-60465-922-1
SRP: $39.95
STREET: 10/21/14
F FOR FAKE - Blu–ray
Trickery. Deceit. Magic. In F for Fake, a free-form documentary by Orson Welles (Citizen Kane), the legendary filmmaker (and self-described charlatan) gleefully reengages with the central preoccupation of his career: the tenuous line between illusion and truth, art and lies. Beginning with portraits of the world-renowned art forger Elmyr de Hory and his equally devious biographer, Clifford Irving, Welles embarks on a dizzying journey that simultaneously exposes and revels in fakery and fakers of all stripes—not the least of whom is Welles himself. Charming and inventive, F for Fake is an inspired prank and a clever examination of the essential duplicity of cinema.
1975 • 87 minutes • Color • Monaural • 1.66:1 aspect ratio
BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New, restored digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• Audio commentary from 2005 by cowriter and star Oja Kodar and director of photography Gary Graver
• Introduction from 2005 by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich
• Orson Welles: One-Man Band, a documentary from 1995 about Welles’s unfinished projects
• Almost True: The Noble Art of Forgery, a fifty-two-minute documentary from 1997 about art forger Elmyr de Hory
• 60 Minutes interview from 2000 with Clifford Irving about his Howard Hughes autobiography hoax
• Hughes’s 1972 press conference exposing Irving’s hoax
• Extended, nine-minute trailer
• PLUS: An essay by critic Jonathan Rosenbaum
TITLE: F FOR FAKE (BLU-RAY EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2409BD
UPC: 7-15515-12911-4
ISBN: 978-1-60465-924-5
SRP: $39.95
STREET: 10/21/14
THE COMPLETE JACQUES TATI - Blu–ray
Though he made only a handful of films, director, writer, and actor Jacques Tati ranks among the most beloved of all cinematic geniuses. With a background in music hall and mime performance, Tati steadily built an ever more ambitious movie career that ultimately raised sight-gag comedy to the level of high art. In the surrogate character of the sweet and bumbling, eternally umbrella-toting and pipe-smoking Monsieur Hulot, Tati invented a charming symbol of humanity lost in a constantly modernizing modern age. This set gathers his six hilarious features—Jour de fête, Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, Mon oncle, PlayTime, Trafic, and Parade—along with seven delightful Tati-related short films.
JOUR DE FÊTE
In his enchanting debut feature, Jacques Tati stars as a fussbudget of a postman who is thrown for a loop when a traveling fair comes to his village. Even in this early work, Tati was brilliantly toying with the devices (silent visual gags, minimal yet deftly deployed sound effects) and exploring the theme (the absurdity of our increasing reliance on technology) that would define his cinema. Here, Jour de fête is presented in three versions: the original 1949 black-and-white release, a 1964 version featuring hand-painted color sequences and newly incorporated footage, and the full-color 1994 rerelease, which finally realized Tati’s original vision for the film.
1949 • 86 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In French with English subtitles • 1.37:1 aspect ratio
MONSIEUR HULOT’S HOLIDAY
Monsieur Hulot, Jacques Tati’s endearing clown, takes a holiday at a seaside resort, where his presence provokes one catastrophe after another. Tati’s masterpiece of gentle slapstick is a series of effortlessly well-choreographed sight gags involving dogs, boats, and firecrackers; it was the first entry in the Hulot series and the film that launched its maker to international stardom. We are presenting Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday in the 1978 rerelease version, reedited by Tati himself, along with the original 1953 theatrical version.
1953 • 88 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In French with English subtitles • 1.37:1 aspect ratio
MON ONCLE
Slapstick prevails again when Jacques Tati’s eccentric, old-fashioned hero, Monsieur Hulot, is set loose in Villa Arpel, the geometric, oppressively ultramodern home of his brother-in-law, and in the antiseptic plastic hose factory where he gets a job. The second Hulot movie and Tati’s first color film, Mon oncle is a supremely amusing satire of mechanized living and consumer society that earned the director the Academy Award for best foreign-language film. This edition features both the original French release and My Uncle, the version Tati created for English-speaking audiences.
1958 • 116 minutes • Color • Monaural• In French with English subtitles • 1.33:1 aspect ratio
PLAYTIME
Jacques Tati’s gloriously choreographed, nearly wordless comedies about confusion in an age of high technology reached their apotheosis with PlayTime. For this monumental achievement, a nearly three-year-long, bank-breaking production, Tati again thrust the loveably old-fashioned Monsieur Hulot, along with a host of other lost souls, into a bafflingly modern world, this time Paris. With every inch of its superwide frame crammed with hilarity and inventiveness, PlayTime is a lasting testament to a modern era tiptoeing on the edge of oblivion.
1967 • 124 minutes • Color • 5.1 surround • In French with English subtitles • 1.85:1 aspect ratio
TRAFIC
In Jacques Tati’s Trafic, the bumbling Monsieur Hulot, kitted out as always with tan raincoat, beaten brown hat, and umbrella, takes to Paris’s highways and byways. In this, his final outing, Hulot is employed as an auto company’s director of design, and accompanies his new product (a camper outfitted with absurd gadgetry) to an auto show in Amsterdam. Naturally, the road there is paved with modern-age mishaps. This late-career delight is a masterful demonstration of the comic genius’s expert timing and sidesplitting knack for visual gags, and a bemused last look at technology run amok.
1971 • 97 minutes • Color • Monaural• In French with English subtitles • 1.37:1 aspect ratio
PARADE
For his final film, Jacques Tati takes his camera to the circus, where the director himself serves as master of ceremonies. Though it features many spectacles, including clowns, jugglers, acrobats, contortionists, and more, Parade also focuses on the spectators, making this stripped-down work a testament to the communion between audience and entertainment. Made for Swedish television (with Ingmar Bergman’s legendary director of photography Gunnar Fischer serving as one of its cinematographers), Parade is a touching career send-off that recalls its maker’s origins as a mime and theater performer.
1974 • 89 minutes • Color • Monaural • In French with English subtitles • 1.37:1 aspect ratio
TATI SHORTS
Jacques Tati’s career, which stretched from the mid-thirties to the late seventies, encompasses more than just the six features for which he’s best known. The charming short films he wrote or directed are essential parts of his filmography as well. Collected here, they include three wacky 1930s comedies he wrote and starred in—On demande une brute (1934), Gai dimanche (1935), Soigne ton gauche (1936)—and the two later films he directed and starred in: L’école des facteurs (1946), which introduces the postman character reprised in Jour de fête, and Cours du soir (1967), made during the filming of PlayTime. We’re also pleased to present Forza Bastia (1978), a soccer documentary begun by Tati and completed by his daughter Sophie Tatischeff after his death, and Dégustation maison (1978), Tatischeff’s César-winning short, shot in the town from Jour de fête.
SPECIAL EDITION COLLECTOR’S SET FEATURES
• New digital restorations of all six feature films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-rays of Jour de fête, Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, Mon oncle, Trafic, and Parade and uncompressed stereo soundtrack on the Blu-ray of PlayTime
• New digital restorations of all seven short films
• Two alternate versions of Jour de fête, a partly colorized 1964 version and the full-color 1994 rerelease version
• Original 1953 theatrical release version of Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday
• My Uncle, the version of Mon oncle that director Jacques Tati created for English-language audiences
• Introductions by actor and comedian Terry Jones to Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, Mon oncle, and PlayTime
• Archival interviews with Tati
• In the Footsteps of Monsieur Hulot, a 1989 documentary about Tati’s beloved alter ego
• Five visual essays by Tati expert Stéphane Goudet
• New interview with film scholar Michel Chion on the sound design of Tati’s films
• “Jour de fête”: In Search of the Lost Color, a 1988 documentary on the process of realizing Tati’s original color vision for that film
• Once Upon a Time . . . “Mon oncle,” a 2008 documentary about the making of that film
• Everything Is Beautiful, a 2005 piece on the fashion, furniture, and architecture of Mon oncle
• Selected-scene commentaries on PlayTime by Goudet, theater director Jérôme Deschamps, and critic Philip Kemp
• Tativille, a documentary shot on the set of PlayTime
• Beyond “PlayTime,” a short 2002 documentary featuring on-set footage
• An Homage to Jacques Tati, a 1982 French TV program featuring Tati friend and set designer Jacques Lagrange
• Audio interview with Tati from the U.S. premiere of PlayTime at the 1972 San Francisco International Film Festival
• Interview with PlayTime script supervisor Sylvette Baudrot from 2006
• Tati Story, a short biographical film from 2002
• Professor Goudet’s Lessons, a 2013 classroom lecture by Goudet on Tati’s films
• Alternate English-language soundtracks for Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday and PlayTime
• New English subtitle translations
• PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critics David Cairns, James Quandt, Jonathan Rosenbaum, and Kristin Ross
TITLE: THE COMPLETE JACQUES TATI (7-BLU-RAY EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2401BD
UPC: 7-15515-12831-5
ISBN: 978-1-60465-904-7
SRP: $124.95
STREET: 10/28/14
THE VANISHING - Blu–ray
A young man embarks on an obsessive search for the girlfriend who mysteriously disappeared while the couple were taking a sunny vacation trip, and his three-year investigation draws the attention of her abductor, a mild-mannered professor with a diabolically clinical mind. An unorthodox love story and a truly unsettling thriller, Dutch filmmaker George Sluizer’s The Vanishing unfolds with meticulous intensity, leading to an unforgettable finale that has unnerved audiences around the world.
1988 • 106 minutes • Color • Monaural • In Dutch and French with English subtitles • 1.66:1 aspect ratio
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New interview with director George Sluizer
• New interview with actor Johanna ter Steege
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by critic Scott Foundas
Attention Canada: La Dolce Vita, F For Fake and My Darling Clementine are available in all Canada. The Tati set and The Vanishing are available in English-Speaking Canada only.
Going back to Midnight Cowboy, yes the Blu out there looks good but for me a film of this standing and acclaim should have the greatest love and affection lavished on it by Criterion
Quote:
Originally Posted by octagon
Midnight Cowboy is definitely borderline. I wouldn't ask that they put in their queue but if they ever release I'll definitely buy it.
That's why I wanted to be clear about only being a little snarky with that. It's certainly not a ridiculous request.
Midnight Cowboy was something they released on LD back in the day, so there's precedent.
Please note that FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (recently released in a dual-format edition) will be released in stand alone Blu-ray and DVD editions on 10/7/14.
Woah! This is just as exciting as the announcements (almost). Can we expect the other titles to follow? My shelf is weeping with joy.
Also I sort of miss the white and blue dual format stickers.
Please note that FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (recently released in a dual-format edition) will be released in stand alone Blu-ray and DVD editions on 10/7/14.
Well, that's interesting. I wonder if the BD-only edition will still be priced at $39.95.
I wonder if I should hold off buying the recent digipak dual-format releases during the current B and N sale then, in anticipation of regular cases down the road.
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