Criterion Additions

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.

http://sharetv.org/images/wings-show.jpg

When is Sextette coming out on Criterion? I'm available for commentary.

Finally, Simon of the Desert! (Plus The Exterminating Angel)

...and Hobson's Choice, altough I doubt anyone (Lean/Laughton devotees aside) was waiting for that. Also more ala carte Cassavetes (Faces & Shadows) and no Eclipse WTF?

The Friends of Eddie Coyle confirmed in the latest newsletter.

gr8

http://www.criterion.com/

i just wasted 5 minutes watching that intro movie. all it says: they have some full movies up on a partnered site called The Auteurs, which i can't use because i'm not in the us.

Pigs and Battleships confirmed for May in the latest newsletter.

Why the hell does anyone think 'Eyes Without a Face' is a good movie? Could someone explain to me why it is supposed to be decent?

It doesn't sound like you will agree with this, but it's a remarkably effective horror film in tone and very unique, influential, and forward-thinking for 1960 - it invented the bizarre genre of surgical horror, and the combination of ideas (serial killing of women supported by a murderous, but well-intentioned family to prop up their upper class family ideal, which is a weird farce of doctor/assistant/mutilated daughter) is pretty striking. But I can easily see the movie not working for everybody, especially without a certain historical interest in the genre and a kind of patience for it.

Really my problem was the pacing, which was painfully slow. The face removal sequence did make me really squeamish in a way unique to any movie I've seen. But if that's the best thing I can say about the movie ("part of it made me nauseous")...then...

Also I had a problem telling apart the doctor (Jacques) and the detective, and keeping track of things in general (ie I thought the head-bandaged girl trying to escape the house was his daughter – "but she just got a new face! Why did she kill herself?"). This made the movie unwatchable. I didn't finish it.

Also the director seems unaware of the establishing shot – he'd show entire uneventful car drives, everyone ascending or descending the entire staircase and hallway, the entire walk from the back of the property to the house, etc., every time. I could see this with the scenes of the daughter in the house – her shy, embarrassed lurking through her own house – but sheesh, do we need to see the doctor walk up the entire staircase every time? Do I need to see each car drive uphill and park in a garage every time? It became maddening!

March: lI Generale della Rovere (Roberto Rossellini, 1959), Dodesukaden (Akira Kurosawa, 1970), The Last Metro (François Truffaut, 1980), The Last Metro [Blu-ray] (François Truffaut, 1980), Danton (Andrzej Wajda, 1983), Eclipse Series 15 - Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu

Very happy we're finally getting a good dvd of Dodesukaden
Totally shocked at the Shimizu set - super glad I'd yet to pick up the 130 dollar Japanese version

It became maddening!

So it worked, eh?

Old news, but APRIL: The Hit, In the Realm of the Senses (also due on BluRay), Empire of Passion, & Science Is Fiction: 23 Films by Jean Painlevé--plus a BluRay of Wages of Fear. No news from Eclipse.

Wings of Desire confirmed in the latest newsletter.

MAY: WISE BLOOD, THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE & "PIGS, PIMPS & PROSTITUTES:
3 FILMS BY SHOHEI IMAMURA" (PIGS AND BATTLESHIPS, THE INSECT WOMAN & INTENTIONS OF MURDER all exclusive to the box).

Also, Ran on Blu-Ray. No news from Eclipse.

Better late than never, the May release from Eclipse will be "Eclipse Series 16:
Alexander Korda's Private Lives" featuring The Private Life of Henry VIII, The Rise of Catherine the Great, The Private Life of Don Juan & Rembrandt.

Think I just might have to get that one.

http://criterion_images.s3.amazonaws.com/Other/ImagesneedingURLs/wackydinner1.jpg

I sure wish this was a confirmation of a deluxe Waiting For Guffman featuring hours and hours of outtakes instead of what it's really confirming ...

endless hours of improvisation, doesn't get funnier than that

"Not Guffman" confirmed for June, along with Marienbad, Seventh Seal remaster (both also in Blu-Ray) and Bergman Island.

Sort of brilliant cover for Marienbad, btw:

http://criterion_production.s3.amazonaws.com/release_images/2125/478_box_348x490.jpg

Would I be wrong to suspect that they might release Huston's "The Dead"?

Or hope so, at least.

lol can't think of my dinner with andre w/o thinking of action figures

i thought the cover of marienbad wasn't even up on the site yet until i squinted a little - pretty sure i love it now as a result

Ingmar is kinda surprising in Bergman Island.

They've also got another round of "Essential Art House" titles coming, including a vanilla Ashes & Diamonds, the back in print Variety Lights, and the original Last Holiday.

Zzzzzzzzzzz

http://www.hollywoodchicago.com/news/7249/release-date-cover-art-for-criterion-the-curious-case-of-benjamin-button

better than Army of Shadows (maybe -- close call, actually)

you were expecting Bruce LaBruce?

Looks like a confirmation for del toro's Cronos in the latest newsletter.

Looks like a confirmation for Monsoon Wedding in the latest newsletter. Criterion be digging (reasonably) late-model stuff.

Holy Shit July: Replusion (standard & Blu), The Human Condition & Made In The USA (the Godard one) plus For All Mankind on Blu (plus a standard reish). No Eclipse announcement (yet?)

man, i know dudes have to make a buck, but Benjamin Button is a huge crock of shit. worse than chasing amy or armageddon or any of the other big movies they sometimes work

Old news, but July also brings a Criterion edition of Two or Three Things I know About Her.

And another Godard, Made in USA, as well as Polanski's Repulsion on DVD and Blu-Ray.

...Which I would've seen just a few posts above me had I read a bit further back. WHY YUO SABOTAGE ME TINY BLACKBERRY SCRN

nothing CC could do is worse than Chasing Amy

ok, remembering now to take this board off my Site New Answers list

So after reading the list of Criterion LDs upthread, I just realized: they don't have a single animated film out on DVD, do they? Unless you REALLY want to stretch and count some of the Brakhage shorts.

Confirmation for a fall release of the Rossellini "War Trilogy" box in the latest newsletter.

August: Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles & The Last Days of Disco

Plus Eclipse Series 17: Nikkatsu Noir Featuring: I Am Waiting, Rusty Knife, Take Aim At The Police Van, Cruel Gun Story & A Colt Is My Passport.

No new Blu-ray news.

Actually, scratch that last statement, there are two new blu-rays for August: Playtime & Kagemusha.

they don't have a single animated film out on DVD, do they?

Not that I'm aware of. Really annoying as there are so many brilliant, unfortunately obscure animated films that are almost impossible to get. I just watched Bartosch's L'Idée (fantastic) on the internets and I'm kind of perplexed why this isn't easily available.

link for the curious: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xevud_lidee-1932