The Criterion Collection

[DaveyJoe]

Originally Posted by MechaGodzilla

That kinda surprises me. At the same time though, I'm guessing the majority of those are Bergman.

10 of them are.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by joie

The thing is that Criterion claims to release "important" movies. Now, I know that they are as small as an ant and can't possibly release every important movie, but their description of their mission/purpose could be construed to mean that anything they don't release is unimportant.

I think the importance lies in the creative vision of directors from more than just the United States.

[Marten]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

Hausu is in 1800+ collections from members on this site. That wasn't a good example.

And you don't think Raise the Red Lantern or Ju Dou would sell 2000+ after a few years of being in release? Or any of Lee Chang Dong's movies for that matter?

My point is, the folks at Criterion probably think the only Asian cinema that matters is Japanese cinema. This is just my personal opinion/perception.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Infernal King

I'm not ignoring them (I've brought up the lack of titles from South Korea in the past), I just didn't expect someone to take my statement literally. I think you're missing the point: the number of films from all other Asian countries combined don't even come close to equaling half of the number of films from Japan.

And as I pointed out, the number of films from all other (Continental) European countries combined don't even come close to equaling half of the number of films from France and Italy. That doesn't even begin to suggest that they don't care about the rest of Europe.

No way do I believe it has to do with the inability to secure distribution rights or the inability to do a proper restoration: we're talking about hundreds of thousands of films to choose from. It has to do with a lack of interest.

How about the inability to release more than a handful of titles a month? That means that they have to ignore worthy films from Japan and France and Italy (or even the US) in order to make sure that they have all of the other countries represented?

Now, I don't necessarily think that the movies that they have released from Japan and France and Italy (or even the US) are more worthy than films from other countries that aren't represented in the Collection. But I don't think that trying to ensure that every country on Earth is represented is a workable solution.

And that's because no matter what they do, it won't be enough. People will still think they're giving short shrift to this country or that region.

[Infernal King]

Originally Posted by Bates_Motel

Did I say that? Nope, now you're just making up comments.

But Japan has - arguably, and collectively - more widely known directors out of those 3 countries, so it is simple math that their films would sell better because of that. Not to mention, Kurosawa and Ozu are regularly listed as 2 of the best directors EVER, so of course they will get more films released. There are other Swedish filmmakers other than Ingmar Bergman, but he's the most popular; hence, the most releases. See how that works?

I gave you several good excuses, you just chose to ignore them.

Of course, now we're assuming that Criterion puts commerce before all else when making their selections, which I guess isn't far off from the truth.

First of all, Sweden is one country. There are many Asian countries, so that analogy doesn't hold up.

I'm having trouble understanding what you're saying. You're focusing on other areas where we don't disagree but I have a singular objection:

There are popular filmmakers in China and Korea but they don't get releases while seemingly anything ever made by Kurosawa and Ozu do. Okay, fine, those two are probably big sellers. Although there are popular non-Japanese Asian filmmakers whose work could at least rival theirs in terms of how well they'd sell. Why aren't they also getting releases?

However, there are other Japanese films (some fairly obscure) released by Criterion which are not from any big-name filmmakers. And yet, all the other Asian cinema from the CC combined doesn't even equal them. Why is that?

Either it's true that literally anything from Japan would sell better than the biggest titles from other Asian countries OR Criterion is simply more interested in releasing Japanese cinema than the cinema of other Asian countries, even if individual titles are almost guaranteed to sell more.

[brandon_260]

Speaking of underrepresented directors, I'd like to throw Resnais out there. One on blu-ray (now OOP) and two on DVD. While Hiroshima, Mon Amour is probably my most desired upgrade in the whole collection, I think Je t'aime, je t'aime needs to make it's way into the collection. When I saw the new restoration last year (my first time seeing the film), it was an absolute revelation. I doubled featured it with a 35mm restoration of L'avventura, one of my top 5 films of all time, and Je t'aime, je t'aime may have even overshadowed that that night.

[MechaGodzilla]

Originally Posted by DaveyJoe

10 of them are.

Thought so. So, of the remaining three, I figure two must be Körkarlen and Häxan... what is the third one?

[batmanofbaylor]

wishlist:

the before trilogy
moonrise kingdom
mulholland dr.
inside llewyn davis
the new world
vampyr

i'd be happy with any of those

[adamhopelies]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

can either yourself or Yami recommend something to a lover of the French New Wave is familiar with his name and nothing more?

I'd start with Celine and Julie Go Boating, which is the likeliest Criterion candidate. Le Pont du Nord is probably my favourite tho, which is handy as it's available in both the UK and US on Blu-ray. Paris Nous Appartient is quite different to his later films, but is an important part of the fabric of the Nouvelle Vague (it's the film the Doinel family go to see in The 400 Blows, despite the fact that the film wasnt released for a good three years after the Truffaut movie!).

The truth is, you can't really go wrong with any of his work.

Originally Posted by Bates_Motel

Rivette? La Belle Noiseuse, one of the greatest films ever made. But long and impossible to find a good-looking edition (even the Japanese blu advertising an HD remaster looks like an upscale of the Japanese DVD I have).

The second UK DVD set is alright. It's a nice box-set too, including both versions of the film.

[Darth Marcus]

Five Easy Pieces - June 30

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by Marten

And you don't think Raise the Red Lantern or Ju Dou would sell 2000+ after a few years of being in release? Or any of Lee Chang Dong's movies for that matter?

My point is, the folks at Criterion probably think the only Asian cinema that matters is Japanese cinema. This is just my personal opinion/perception.

you might have missed the second part of my post.

[Infernal King]

Originally Posted by DaveyJoe

To be fair, your argument changed from "Kurosawa is over-represented" to "Criterion only releases Japanese films from Asia."

Originally Posted by octagon

There has been absolutely NO pushback to the idea of Criterion releasing more films from Asian countries other than Japan. In fact, that idea was fairly warmly welcomed when you brought it up yesterday, wasn't it?

The pushback, as you call it, is to the idea that Kurosawa is overrepresented and Criterion should take a year or two off from releasing his films.

And understandably so. He's a popular fella in these parts.

Yeah, I jumped back to my original argument without mentioning that it was separate (but still related) to the Kurosawa is overrepresented thing. Sorry for the confusion. I'm trying to straighten this out.

[Infernal King]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

you might have missed the second part of my post.

Raise the Red Lantern is more popular than both Yi Yi and Secret Sunshine combined, though.

[Snicket]

Originally Posted by darth marcus

five easy pieces - june 30

its starting!!!

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by bhampton

A film student decided to change major and dumped his Criterion collection at my Newbury comics for about $4 each buy back.

Which Newbury? (Not that I have the money to go splurge...)

I noticed the Third Man had a slip ... I didn't know that one came with a slip... maybe it was the DVD I dunno... I have that one so I didn't pay so much attention.

The Third Man was one of the initial nine Blu-ray releases that came in a thin digipak within a sleeve. The others were Chungking Express, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Last Year at Marienbad, Bottle Rocket, The Last Emperor, El Norte, The 400 Blows, and The Last Metro.

[DaveyJoe]

Originally Posted by MechaGodzilla

Thought so. So, of the remaining three, I figure two must be Körkarlen and Häxan... what is the third one?

The non-Bergman Swedish releases are: Everlasting Moments by Jan Troell, My Life as a Dog by Lasse Hollstrom, and The Phantom Carriage by Victor Sjostrom. I was just looking at BDs as we're discussing recent releases. I haven't see any of those three films, but I'm a big Bergman fan.

[Clare2904]

http://www.criterion.com/films/28022...q=autocomplete

Scroll down a bit, seems a BR box is coming in June but the page throws an error when you click the link

[Infernal King]

Originally Posted by Darth Marcus

Five Easy Pieces - June 30

So they're just re-releasing this separately from the boxset it was already included it in?

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by Darth Marcus

Five Easy Pieces - June 30

Seems to be the same from the BBS boxset, but they added an extra from the disc of Head.

[pedromvu]

Julie Hagerty was added to that page someone posted before, don't know her

Edit: is from A Master Builder