L'Armée des Ombres (Army of Shadows) 4K UHD (1969)

[nicwood]

There’s always the possibility that Criterion took UK rights for their inevitable UHD á la Le cercle rouge. And in case SC hired their worst encoder, Criterion will be quite important once again.

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by nicwood

There’s always the possibility that Criterion took UK rights for their inevitable UHD á la Le cercle rouge. And in case SC hired their worst encoder, Criterion will be quite important once again.

StudioCanal released it in the UK, but it went OOP.

[nicwood]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

StudioCanal released it in the UK, but it went OOP.

That supports my Criterion theory. They’ve increased their UK UHD output in general, so maybe that’ll be one they’re doing soon.

[Yami]

Originally Posted by nicwood

That supports my Criterion theory. They’ve increased their UK UHD output in general, so maybe that’ll be one they’re doing soon.

Criterion have never licenced a title from Studio Canal in the UK and they've also never just taken UHD rights for any title in any territory.

The feeling I get is that Le cercle rouge was a poor seller on 4K (it was always hovering near the bottom of the sales lists in HMV) so they've decided not to go with this one. Which doesn't explain, as McCrutchy says, why they wouldn't just put English subtitles on their French release considering they own the film in both territories.

[nicwood]

Originally Posted by Yami

Criterion have never licenced a title from Studio Canal in the UK and they've also never just taken UHD rights for any title in any territory.

The feeling I get is that Le cercle rouge was a poor seller on 4K (it was always hovering near the bottom of the sales lists in HMV) so they've decided not to go with this one. Which doesn't explain, as McCrutchy says, why they wouldn't just put English subtitles on their French release considering they own the film in both territories.

I wouldn’t rule anything out when it comes to Criterion. They’ve given us quite some surprises this year alone with their deals with Milestone (I am Cuba), Film Movement (Farewell My Concubine) etc. SC stopped licensing to them for a while, forcing their old editions to go OOP but this is long past now. I’m sure they’re often, if not always asking for dual territory rights if they can. As we’re seeing with Risky Business, this now works even with a studio that’s proven difficult for labels to get into with Warner Bros. If one boutique can get this to work, meaning acquiring UK 4K rights for a SC title, it’s Criterion. There’s always a first for something. Should the SC UHD turn out poor, I hope Criterion come to the rescue again. I don’t know how well AoS sold during the BD era, it seems at least enough for them to warrant renewing the license and doing a nearly identical reprint of their first (OOP) BD. I’ll keep my fingers crossed and can very well imagine the UHD happening.

[McCrutchy]

The other knock against Criterion having this is that without an included Blu-ray, Criterion have none of their extras except for the audio commentary. On the other hand, if Canal was going to let Criterion put out a combo pack in the UK, then releasing their own UK Blu-ray is a waste of money.