Criterion Additions

March: Mafioso, Antonio Gaudí, & The Ice Storm

The Furies confirmed in the newsletter.

I appreciate these posts since I don't like newsletters.

April: Death of a Cyclist, Blast of Silence & from Eclipse, "The Delirious Fictions of William Klein"(The Model Couple, Mr. Freedom, Who Are You, Polly Magoo?)

Looking forward to the Lubitsch.

Cryptic confirmation of Tati's Trafic for this summer in the newsletter. Adding to the intrigue, DVDBeaver is reporting that in April, Criterion will also drop discs of The Red Balloon, White Mane, and Paddle To The Sea, plus an "Silent Ozu" set from Eclipse.

It's sort of like Criterion and Eclipse have switched places.

May: The Lovers, The Fire Within, and The Thief of Bagdad.

Mon Oncle Antoine confirmed in the newsletter.

Old news by now, but: JUNE- Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, Patriotism, Classe tous risques, The Furies & Before the Rain.

More old news: A so far unknown Guy Maddin title was confirmed in the latest newsletter.

"a real blast of silence"

MY WINNIPEG was really, really, really great

Xpost: "A so far unknown Guy Maddin title" - which is?

He's done about a zillion shorts, most with outrageous titles. I'd like to see those compiled.

many of them have appeared on the discs of his features.

DVDbeaver is reporting that July will be: Mon oncle Antoine (Claude Jutra, 1971), Trafic (Jacques Tati, 1971), Vampyr (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1932) and a reissue of High and Low (Kurosawa, 1963).

I've wanted to see the first two for awhile. The Vampyr DVD on the market is really poor, glad they're doing a better version.

Trafic is only Tati feature I havent seen.

According to the Tribeca note on the Criterion homepage, the Guy Maddin title will be Brand Upon The Brain!. In other old news, the latest newsletter hint regards a Late Rossellini set (probably from Eclipse).

I haven't actually got the new newsletter yet, but I've come across the text, and boy o boy have they got a bombshell to drop:

Dear Criterion Collection Newsletter subscriber,

We’ve got some exciting news for this fall, and we wanted you to hear it first.

Our first Blu-ray discs are coming! We’ve picked a little over a dozen titles from the collection for Blu-ray treatment, and we’ll begin rolling them out in October. These new editions will feature glorious high-definition picture and sound, all the supplemental content of the DVD releases, and they will be priced to match our standard-def editions.

Here’s what’s in the pipeline:

The Third Man
Bottle Rocket
Chungking Express
The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Last Emperor
El Norte
The 400 Blows
Gimme Shelter
The Complete Monterey Pop
Contempt
Walkabout
For All Mankind
The Wages of Fear

Alongside our DVD and Blu-ray box sets of The Last Emperor, we’ll also be putting out the theatrical version as a stand-alone release in both formats, priced at $39.95. Our Blu-ray release of Walkabout will be an all-new edition, featuring new supplements as well as a new transfer; we will also release an updated anamorphic DVD of Nicolas Roeg’s outback masterpiece at the same time.

August: Brand Upon The Brain!, Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom, The Small Back Room, & Twenty-Four Eyes.

...and Eclipse Series 11 will be two films by Larisa Shepitko: The Ascent & Wings.

Salo reish will probably piss off collector scum

The Max Ophuls box confirmed for this fall in the newsletter.

Ophuls September: La Ronde, Le Plasir, & The Earrings of Madame de . . .. All three available individually, not in a box.

Oh, and coming from Eclipse in September: Aki Kaurismäki's Proletariat Trilogy (Shadows in Paradise, Ariel, & The Match Factory Girl).

One more thing--September will also bring a budget line of "Essential Arthouse" titles. In another words, bare bones editions of:
Grand Illusion
Beauty & The Beast
Rashomon
Wild Strawberries
Knife In The Water
Lord of The Flies

will hit the streets with a list price of 20 bucks each (or all six in a box for a cool 100).

Well, one more (for real this time): Ozu's An Autumn Afternoon will also be out in September, it just isn't on the "coming soon" page yet.

"Essential"? Are they chosen by Robert Osborne?

somewhat arbitrary selection to qualify for a box.

"Essential"? Are they chosen by Robert Osborne?

I think what they are doing is reissuing the stripo titles from the Janus 50 films box (which was titled "Essential Arthouse") so somebody that wanted, say Knife In The Water, but figured they didn't want to shell out the extra 20 bucks for bonus features that they'd watch once (if at all), could have an option to get a cheaper edition. So perhaps every few months, more of those films (like The Rules of The Game and L'Avventura) will get a similar treatment. I do imagine though that the folks at criterion arived at their selection for this line by drawing titles for the set out of a hat.

Confirmation of The Spy Who Came In From The Cold in the latest newsletter.

That essential arthouse line is the dumbest thing they've done in awhile.

October: Le Doulos, Le deuxieme souffle, Missing, plus standalone editions of A Woman Under The Influence & The Killing of A Chinese Bookie, and a cheaper version of Short Cuts*.

Meanwhile over at Eclipse, Series 13 will be "Kenji Mizoguchi's Fallen Women" (Naniwa erejî, Gion no shimai, Akasen chitai& Yoru no onnatachi)

*Which looks like the old version sans the paperback book.

...or we could use the English titles for the Mizoguchi films-Osaka Elegy, Sisters of The Gion, Women of The Night & Street of Shame

the CC Mishima is GORRRRRRRRRRRRRRGEOUS

Fanfan La Tulipe confirmed for November in latest newsletter

Magnificent Obsession confirmed in the latest newsletter.

November: Fanfan le Tulipe, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, Bottle Rocket, Chungking Express.

We also get the initial wave of BluRays (Bottle Rocket, Chungking, Third Man, Man Who Fell From Earth, and The Last Emperor) in November. There was no Eclipse announcement.

what is the msrp of the blurays?

$39.95 each on the Blurays (or $31.96 if you buy direct)

Chungking is sooorely lacking in extras, especially one commanding a $39.99 MSRP.

Chungking is sooorely lacking in extras, especially one commanding a $39.99 MSRP. (actually, it's been a few years)

(old news)December:White Dog & Europa.
It also looks like The Exterminating Angel & Last Year At Marienbad are confirmed for Feb. in the latest newsletter.

Man, it seems like it's taken them forever to get out White Dog.

Marienbad! I just saw this again on the big screen and wondered why it was still out of print.

Damnit; I just bought the UK DVD a few months ago. I figured it'd be Criterion'd eventually since Rialto just distributed a print of it.

uk one is pretty dece though, nice extras.

One of the fanboys over at the criterion forum wrote the company and got a response confirming a box set of Rossellini's "War Trilogy" for next year.

January: The Taking of Power by Louis XIV, Magnificent Obsession, & El Norte (the latter in both standard and Blu-Ray editions). Also out-Eclipse Series #14: ROSSELLINI’S HISTORY FILMS
RENAISSANCE AND ENLIGHTENMENT

More fanboy news: Some reps @ Paramount have gone on record that Criterion will be handling The Confession and Wings.