The Criterion Collection

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by belcherman

Somebody needs to release Call Northside 777 and Nightmare Alley, I don’t care who.

Agreed about those two. At this moment, I think our only hope for any Fox films is through Criterion who seem to have a very good relationship with Disney. The KL Insider in the KLSC thread today didn't seem too enthusiastic about a new deal with Disney or least that's the way I read it.

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by MrSillywalks

What are the chances of Amazon price-matching Criterion's own 174,96 for the Varda set, for us poor international customers?

They never have price matched Criterion as far as I'm aware. It will surely be price matched in November during the B&N 50% sale

[Juma83]

I see that Criterion has released Kurosawas Yojimbo och Sanjuro both as independent movies and in a pack with both blurays. What is the meaning of this? which version is the best? Each movie in separate blu-rays or both in one package?

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by Juma83

I see that Criterion has released Kurosawas Yojimbo och Sanjuro both as independent movies and in a pack with both blurays. What is the meaning of this? which version is the best? Each movie in separate blu-rays or both in one package?

There is no difference except the Yojimbo+Sanjuro set has both films on one set, two discs. If you only want one of the two then individually is what you want, if want to own them both then this set is for you.

[StarDestroyer52]

Looks like, California Split, is available on Amazon Prime in its original form with all the music intact and the OAR. Hopefully since it seems like they got the music rights settled and its in the OAR, we won't have to wait much longer for California Split on BluRay from Criterion.

Source

[tisdivine]

Guess what The Criterion Channel lets you pause your subscription for up to three months. I wont lose charter member rates. Yessssssss! I had no idea that option even existed.

Ohhh I love this company.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by Juma83

I see that Criterion has released Kurosawas Yojimbo och Sanjuro both as independent movies and in a pack with both blurays. What is the meaning of this? which version is the best? Each movie in separate blu-rays or both in one package?

The discs and packaging are identical. In fact even in the pack they are provided in separate cases with an outer hard slipcase.

[jw007]

Wow, I just found out Twilight Time is going out of business. What terrible news. I know everyone here already found out about this a few days ago but i'm still quite saddened by their termination.

I just hope Criterion stays in business.

[Reddington]

Originally Posted by jw007

Wow, I just found out Twilight Time is going out of business. What terrible news. I know everyone here already found out about this a few days ago but i'm still quite saddened by their termination.

I just hope Criterion stays in business.

Very sad. If you haven't already seen it, the details are in this post by Aclea in the TT forum:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...ostcount=32736

Criterion are in a very different situation. As arguably the boutique label, I think they will be here for a long time to come.

[NeoNical]

Damn. Thanks for telling me. I don't have any outlets or way of following up with the news other than through Blu-ray forums so I'm very sad to see Twilight Time disappearing. They had some wonderful Blu-rays and it's sad to see them go. I feel like if the COVID-19 thing wasn't a thing, the company could've lasted a little longer but who knows? They were still fated to die anyways when they do limited releases only. But, they have done so much and it's a shame to see them go away.

[inconsistentluddite]

Originally Posted by NeoNical

Damn. Thanks for telling me. I don't have any outlets or way of following up with the news other than through Blu-ray forums so I'm very sad to see Twilight Time disappearing. They had some wonderful Blu-rays and it's sad to see them go. I feel like if the COVID-19 thing wasn't a thing, the company could've lasted a little longer but who knows? They were still fated to die anyways when they do limited releases only. But, they have done so much and it's a shame to see them go away.

Twilight Time's heartbreaking and slow demise began when the wonderful, much-missed, Nick Redman, co-founder of the label, passed away from cancer. Not too long after that, his wife, Julie Kirgo, who wrote the booklet notes for the discs, left the label. After those two body blows, it was only a matter of time before TT closed its doors. I write that with great sadness, but also, with a sober recognition of life's realities, as a longtime supporter/customer/fan of Twilight Time who had some very nice communications with Julie back in my active days on Facebook.

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by inconsistentluddite

Twilight Time's heartbreaking and slow demise began when the wonderful, much-missed, Nick Redman, co-founder of the label, passed away from cancer. Not too long after that, his wife, Julie Kirgo, who wrote the booklet notes for the discs, left the label. After those two body blows, it was only a matter of time before TT closed its doors. I write that with great sadness, but also, with a sober recognition of life's realities, as a longtime supporter/customer/fan of Twilight Time who had some very nice communications with Julie back in my active days on Facebook.

As many have said, Twilight Time was always meant to end after 10 years. Of course the death of Nick Redman and the loss of the Fox catalog accelerated the end where we didn't see any new titles throughout the end of 2019. Other boutique labels like Criterion, Kino, Arrow, Shout/Scream, etc are pretty safe I say. TT was never meant to be around forever.

[inconsistentluddite]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

I am, too. It does my heart good knowing her work will gain a new audience, myself included.

I'm not nearly as familiar with Agnes Varda's work as I am now realizing that I probably should be, and that realization is largely due to the announcement of this box set. With that said, I am, sadly, no longer very surprised when even major releases of career-defining masterpieces by great filmmakers don't receive anything close to the attention that they should, even on forums of dedicated film lovers.

For example, check out the dedicated threads on these forums for each of the great films of Michelangelo Antonioni. His best works genuinely changed the world of film, and were even commented on in mass, popular culture, when they were originally released. In some very real ways, they are still highly relevant today, on multiple levels, to contemporary Western societies at the very least. However, even on the threads dedicated to his films here, there are not nearly the number of responses that I thought there would be, before I recently signed up here and began to comment, ater years of lurking and reading.

Though he died many years ago now, Antonioni's films continue to be released in beautiful editions by Criterion and other great companies-- but from the relatively small number of responses to those films that I see, even here, I would think that even most serious film lovers today have little to no idea of the man and his work at all-- which may just be the case, but it is heartbreaking to me. One of the very best of his "classic period" films doesn't even have a dedicated thread here at all-- though I plan to correct that omission very soon!

Anyway, back to Agnes Varda and this box set! I am looking forward to seeing more of her work and learning more about her, as I likely should have done years ago!

[inconsistentluddite]

Originally Posted by StarDestroyer52

As many have said, Twilight Time was always meant to end after 10 years. Of course the death of Nick Redman and the loss of the Fox catalog accelerated the end where we didn't see any new titles throughout the end of 2019. Other boutique labels like Criterion, Kino, Arrow, Shout/Scream, etc are pretty safe I say. TT was never meant to be around forever.

Nick actually said that he never thought, at its founding, that TT would even be around for close to a decade. He named the company, thinking that physical media for movies was truly on its way out, and thinking that TT would not last more than four, five, or maybe, six years, at the most. I'm very glad, ultimately, that the label did last for nine years, and that physical media still continues to flourish, through Criterion, KinoLorber, Arrow, Shout/Scream Factory, and several other worthy labels/companies.

Twilight Time served so many film lovers well in its nine years, and while I'm very sad to see it go, I will never forget the wonderful people and films that I came to know through the label. Speaking of which, Julie Kirgo, on the off chance that you might be reading these comments on this thread, I miss reading your Twilight Time film notes so much! (I still enjoy going through the booklets sometimes!) I also miss reading your posts on Facebook, but I just finally had to choose to leave the site, for various reasons, but never, ever, because of you and your wonderful writings!

[jw007]

The one unique thing about TT was their inclusion of "isolated soundtracks".

I don't recall any other video distributor offering isolated soundtracks on every single catalog release like they did.

With that said, here's to Criterion living on for eternity!

[octagon]

They don't have to live forever just so long as they outlive me.

Sorry, kids

[Bn43]

After four years, I finally watched the longer version of Dekalog: Five, A Short Film About Killing. As I thought after I watched that version, it's a powerful indictment against capital punishment. I held off on watching it for so long partly because I found it so depressing the first time.

The compression artifacts frustrated, though. I saw a little too much color banding. I just don't understand Criterion's thinking. I'm also so confused that my re-encodes have less of these issues than professional ones done from the masters.

[jw007]

I went ahead and bought 4 titles from Twilight Time (via Screen Archives) just now:

Angel (1982) $4.95
Eureka (1983) $14.95
Moscow on the Hudson (1984) $8.95
Resurrected (1989) $4.95

They all happened to be from the 1980s too! (My favorite decade)

Okay, now back to our regularly scheduled Criterion programming.

[HipsterTrash]

I’m surprised the announced box sets are releasing so close to one another. Guess this means those Fellini and Kar Wai sets should get announced in a few months, for late this year possibly. Just a guess.

[The Great Owl]

Of interest to Criterion folks...

The best Japanese film of every year – from 1925 to now (BFI article)

A few thoughts...

- Everybody needs to see Yasujiro Ozu's Late Spring (1949) and Tokyo Story (1953).

- I once saw a 35mm print of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954) at a local theater. It's still one of the best films ever made.

- Harakiri (1962) is so good. It may be my favorite film on the list.

- They did not include Pale Flower (1964) on this list? For shame. It's a brilliant Japanese film noir.

- Branded to Kill (1967) is perfect. Think of what would happen if Quentin Tarantino had made a Japanese movie during the late 1960s.

- I recently bought Funeral Parade of Roses (1969) on Blu-ray, and am looking forward to immersing myself in that film.

- I love the Female Prisoner Scorpion film series. These are so sleazy, but wonderful as well.

- Battles Without Honour and Humanity... Sort of the Japanese equivalent of The Godfather movies.

- Akira (1988). Of course.

- Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) is twisted and amazing.

- Ring (1998). Of course.

- Audition (1999). Of course! When that bag moves... *shudders*

- I saw Nobody Knows (2004) at a local theater. This is a heartbreaking movie, but it's well worth seeing.