Criterion Additions

September: La Cage Aux Folles, Bergman/Rossellini box (Stomboli, Europa '51 & Journey To Italy; 5 dvds/4 blurays total), and blu upgrades for Autumn Sonata, Slaker & The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.

God, that's one schizo slate. Still, that box might be the first thing I actually spring to buy from them in nearly a year.

cowabunga on B/R

schizo? well rounded?

Just talking about the two new titles.

Covers have leaked for OCTOBER: I Married A Witch, The Uninvited, LA Notte, and blue upgrades for the Cassavettes box & Eyes Without A Face.

Nashville confirmed in latest newsletter.

Too bad it looks like they're just releasing Scanners and The Brood digitally...

Trust me, those are coming. CC Cronenbergs=$$$$££££ for the company.

Just looked at the "recently added" group in Hulu and it includes Gimme Shelter.

November: City Lights, Zatoichi, Frances Ha

And a Tokyo Story remaster-and all of these new titles are DUAL-FORMAT editions.

Persona confirmed in latest newsletter.

December: Investigation of A Citizen Above Suspicion, Nashville & Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project Box Set, plus Grey Gardens on Blu.

SO. F'N. PUMPED. for that Nashville set!

didn't know the Keith Carradine demos would have that effect on you.

Fully remastered image/sound + new interviews, et al.

You moron.

I hear that if you play the demo for "I'm Easy" backwards, you can hear Martha Plimpton being conceived.

ah, I can never tell from improved image/sound, you cretin.

That's because you're blind, you relic.

And deaf, you suddenly much hotter guy you.

what was that?

(I almost went with "Come louder?")

*pounce*

more like 'Would Smashville" amirite?

In unrelated news, A Brief History of Time confirmed in latest CC newsletter.

January: Thief, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World La vie de boheme, The Long Day Closes and what I assume to be blu upgrades for Throne of Blood and Rififi plus a "Late (Satyagit) Ray" Eclipse set.

An awfully full month!

Is MMMM World worth a blind buy?

As it's the culminative all-star ripoff of 50 years of movie comedy... no, still too funny for you.

Perfect!

Admittedly wouldn't be interested it if hadn't been rabidly name-checked on all those commentary tracks on golden-era Simpsons DVD sets.

sat ya git

SatyaJit even. My bad.

The MMMMW set sounds p mouthwatering:

Stanley Kramer followed his Oscar-winning Judgment at Nuremberg with this sobering investigation of American greed. Ah, who are we kidding? It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, about a group of strangers fighting tooth and nail over buried treasure, is the most grandly harebrained movie ever made, a pileup of slapstick and borscht-belt-y one-liners performed by a nonpareil cast, including Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, Spencer Tracy, Jonathan Winters, and a boatload of other playing-to-the-rafters comedy legends. For sheer scale of silliness, Kramer’s wildly uncharacteristic film is unlike any other, an exhilarating epic of tomfoolery.

Restored 4K digital film transfer of the general release version of the film, with 5.1 surround Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
New high-definition digital transfer of a 197-minute extended version of the film, reconstructed and restored by Robert A. Harris using visual and audio material from the longer original road-show version—including some scenes that have been returned to the film here for the first time—with 5.1 surround Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
New audio commentary featuring It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World aficionados Mark Evanier, Michael Schlesinger, and Paul Scrabo
New documentary on the film’s visual and sound effects, featuring rare behind-the-scenes footage of the crew at work and interviews with visual-effects specialist Craig Barron and sound designer Ben Burtt
Talk show from 1974 hosted by director Stanley Kramer and featuring Mad World actors Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, and Jonathan Winters
Press interview from 1963 featuring Kramer and members of the film’s cast
Interviews recorded for the 2000 AFI program 100 Years…100 Laughs, featuring comedians and actors discussing the influence of the film
Two-part 1963 episode of the CBC television program Telescope that follows the film’s press junket and premiere
The Last 70mm Film Festival, a program from 2012 featuring cast and crew members from Mad World at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, hosted by Billy Crystal
Selection of humorist and voice-over artist Stan Freberg’s original TV and radio advertisements for the film, with a new introduction by Freberg
Original and rerelease trailers, and rerelease radio spots
Two Blu-rays and three DVDs, with all content available in both formats
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Lou Lumenick

god we need those late Satyajit Ray pics.

no Keaton-Tracy scene, no cred

xp

oh okay i think i need that MMMMMMMW

La Vie de Boheme is funnier.

I'm holding out for the Rat Race Criterion

also just as funny! and an hour shorter.

Lloyd's The Freshman confirmed in latest newsletter.

Guess that is why they will be showing it at the Film Forum soon.

This kind of an anticlimactic announcement 'cause it's no secret that the Lloyd estate is now in cahoots with Janus/Criterion. But I guess now we know it's the next one, and it will be out soon-ish.

should be double-released w/ Harold Diddlebock

(Lloyd & Sturges fought like dogs; still splendid in its full version)

http://www.criterion.com/explore/209-kim-newman-s-top-10

The colors in All That Heaven Allows look like crap. Whoever it was who fixed it up for DVD has no taste or subtlety. Watched a print of Written on the Wind on Friday and it was a revelation to look at - also Russell Metty and Sirk. Maybe the reds or other colors fade over time, but I think it looked more like it was supposed to than the garish thing criterion put out.

I remember watching the restoration doc on the HVE (?) Mikey and Nicky, and hearing the technician doing the restoration talk about his work and comparing the old print with the restoration made me not trust people in his profession; for Mikey and Nicky, this was especially true re the morning sun shot at the end and re May's intentions. I've seen other restoration docs since then and it seems like a lot of the restoration people don't choose to err on the side of not "restoring" enough.

Maybe if I saw their Written on the Wind and it looked exactly as I imagine it should, considering the print I saw, or if I saw a print of All That Heaven Allows and it looked just like the dvd, then Criterion would be vindicated.

my favorite restoration travesty

http://youtu.be/XXnu58AwvME?t=2m33s

Universal didn't like fake zooms, so they DNRed the fuck out of everything then put fake grain over it.

Maybe if I saw their Written on the Wind and it looked exactly as I imagine it should, considering the print I saw, or if I saw a print of All That Heaven Allows and it looked just like the dvd, then Criterion would be vindicated.

Not to mention Sirk, right?

Also, I guess another month long 50% off sale is starting tomorrow at B&N. God help us all.

can I send you my list?

Like you weren't the trigger-happy one when we were using the registry gun there.