Criterion Additions

I would love to see a collection of Jem Cohen's films released by Criterion, but I'm certainly not holding my breath.

Once again, I refer you all to the wonderfully great Criterion messageboard of http://pub125.ezboard.com/bcriterioncollectionforum/

Try that...

I just ordered my copy - $18. on DVD-R. Natch. - along with a copy of <em> F is for Fake </em> from
www.pimpadelicwonderland.com

Weekend is owned by New Yorker films but no plans for a DVD have been made. It may come on Region 2 at some point.

And because they can - they've got the name and the identity to hook in film geeks, where else are you going to turn, New Yorker?

I haven't seen it, but supposedly it was aimed at the special effects mavens out there. Also I recall reading an interview with one of the Criterion folks who said that the revenues from the Armageddon allowed them to fund a lot of other less-popular titles.

Here's just the start of the relevant section:

Specifically, with "Armageddon": You'd be silly to overlook blockbusters as a genre and leave them out of a film library. They drive so much. They drive tastes and shooting styles and visual references that appear all over the world in commercials and on TV as well as on movie screens. They're part of a huge cultural cross-pollination. And special effects are one of the most important aspects of a certain kind of contemporary filmmaking.

Is The Rock Criterion still in print? I'd much rather have that than Armageddon.

Those were the days when you actually got your $140 million dollars worth out of your production budget.

I miss the days when a budget topping $80mln was big news and a reason to go see the film. Now that barely buys you a romantic comedy.

it depends on how you look at it. it my mind, there's no need for it to necessarily become somethi@5{te the suggestion that short films/music videos/avant-garde & experimental work are just a "warm-up" for a feature length narrative. it's kind of absurd to but a limitation of film that it has to be 90-180 minutes long with actors, dialogue & a plot. at least 50% of my favorite cinematic works don't fit into the categorization, and whenever i hear about people complaining about a lack of innovation in film, it's usually because all they watch are feature length narratives.

but as for the idea of the innovation in these works not "catching on" in the mainstream, you simply have to look around you to see their influence: magazines, billboards, popular films and music, even architecture. it's everywhere, and most of the good, innovative feature filmmakers will be the first to admit that they've been influenced by someone like michel gondry, spike jonze, jem cohen, etc.

two words: HOLY SHIT.

so rejoice, damn you.

Zeman set is so much fun on many levels. Great choice.

Pulled trigger on:

Buñuel box set
Parallax View
Mandabi
Lost in America

fuck I should've waited for this one instead of the one in December

oh shit do I splurge on the WKW or do I wait????? or do I splurge????????????????

oh yeah now i remember, i did the december sale because it applied to preorders. still. i'm an idiot

then again, the silent von Sternberg set...

Site so slammed/sluggish I stopped with 1 disc, Cronenberg's Crash. Used my $10 Criterion Channel coupon so it was even cheaper.

oh i forgot i have a coupon too

I went back and forth but I think I need to skip this one. WB Shop is having what sounds like their final 4 for $44 Warner Archives sale in a couple weeks and I need to save enough money to go properly apeshit with that.

i noticed that amazon has matched the sale prices of everything ive looked up so far, i assume for today only - do they normally do that? i wonder if thats why criterion sent out that $10 coupon, to keep people on the site.

WB Shop is having what sounds like their final 4 for $44 Warner Archives sale in a couple weeks

Does ILX have a catch-all "boutique home video" thread somewhere? I'd find that pretty useful now that I have a region-free 4K player and am finally digging into more Arrow/Indicator/etc.

finally own a DVD copy of Notorious.

just went to the website for the Canadian CC distributor to see if anything was happening today and now I'm...#753 in line

I did that earlier, then found the few things I was after were either pre-orders or out of stock :/

I suspect I'm in the same boat (Touki Bouki is the only thing I can immediately think of that I want), though maybe I'll see how much upgrading my Sturges dvds would cost

that said I am very pleased that Unobstructed View exists and I don't have to use amazon

xposts All right, I finally pulled the trigger: Non-Criterion Boutique Home Video Discussion (Kino, Warner Archive, Arrow, Indicator, Vinegar Syndrome, Code Red, etc.)

Ok, splurged on that Bruce Lee box set. Couldn't resist this time.

the art on that put me off even considering it. Ugly ass cover. Don't get me started on Godzilla.

Going through the third Scorsese World Film Foundation box and those things are the best case for the continued existence of the label imo: so far I've seen Dos Monjes (Mexico, campy 30's melodrama bathed in expressionism with a truly bonkers ending), After The Curfew (Indonesia, amazing film about post-war malaise and PTSD that any noir fan should enjoy) and Pixote (Brazil, probably the roughest social realist film I've seen from the modern era; Brazilian music geeks take note that Toni Tornado has a cameo).

umm Paramount is pulling their Criterion shit w/o warning to take to Paramount+

first on the chopping block:

Harold & Maude
Nashville
La Dolce Vita
Rosemary's Baby
Days Of Heaven

and something else awesome that I forget

grab the discs now if you want 'em

The Friends of Eddie Coyle, and Don't Look Now. Bad news

wait, like pulling them from Criterion Channel, or pulling the rights for Criterion to sell discs????

Probably yes(?) and the corresponding discs are now OOP.

A poster on Criterion Forum emailed the company, and they confirmed the five titles sleeve listed plus Don't Look Now are going OOP. However, the CC La dolce vita will remain available as part of the Fellini box.

They also said there weren't any plans for other Paramount titles to go OOP right now.

I think part of this is happening because Paramount is playing their own new editions of a few of those titles, and probably angling to add all six to Paramount+.

PLANNING

FWIW, I don't see Paramount making a move on more esoteric titles like Eddie Coyle or, say, If.... or Downhill Racer or Ace In The Hole.

Eddie Coyle is currently listed as unavailable in both DVD and Blu-ray form on the Criterion site, which differs from Nashville, Harold & Maude, et al, which are all now listed as Out of Print. So maybe they are just out of stock on it. the other three you listed all seem to be unaffected though.

Probably just a coincidence exacerbated by rumors going around that it too was also going OOP, and collectors and/or speculators snatching up copies.

yeah I just grabbed one for "normal price," seems like it is. then again it was worth waiting for Salo to come back into print this year

I've been hearing rumors about Medium Cool and (from an unrelated rights owner) Belle de Jour as well, but idk how seriously to take them. Sucks either way if you care about the physical presentation of the film, which Paramount very obviously do not:

https://mediacdn.aent-m.com/prod-img/500/54/3946454-2680732.jpg?ae=1655788141

wow. that is not a good cover.

a wacky comedy about two giant people who have to learn to live in a normal sized house

DAMN

I was curious about Medium Cool. it's been unavailable on Blu Ray for a while, maybe even over a year?

So not "out of print" like Nashville et al. but "CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE" like Eddie Coyle

I can't find the post now, but there was another CriterionForum user reckoning that "Currently Unavailable" just means between pressings, and it's happening with more titles because of Covid-related issues at pressing plants, where priority is given to new titles and repressing for the time being is reserved for faster sellers. A relatively obscure title like Medium Cool just isn't a priority for them right now.

JUNE: Pariah; Streetwise/Tiny: The Life of Erin Blackwell; The Signifyin' Works of Marlon Riggs; Visions of Eight; and upgrades of Pickup On South Street and The Human Condition Trilogy.

Good news about Streetwise. I remember renting a creaky VHS copy for the ILX '80s filmpoll back in the day.

Yeah I caught that at a rep screening in September 2019. Great, great movie. Excited to see the follow-up.

You can get the Medium Cool blu-ray at Barnes and Noble if you don't mind paying MSRP. I'm going to email Criterion and ask what's up with that title in particular; they're usually pretty forthcoming when asked.

Also, it's happening less now since they're mostly finished, but if a title was released during the period when blu-rays were released in dual format (bundled with a DVD), they would go temporarily OOP while they were repackaged as blu-ray only.

That's exciting news about Streetwise, I've been wanting to see that for decades.

I'd never heard of Pariah but the clip on the Criterion site looks gorgeous

"Hi Ryan,
Thank you for writing to us!

MEDIUM COOL Blu-rays are due to be available again on our site the mid April:
https://www.criterion.com/films/28426-medium-cool
The title is not due to be out of print.

As a note, any time that we sell out of a film and we still have the distribution rights for it, we will always produce more inventory. You'll know a title is due to be restocked in the future when you see "Currently Unavailable" or "On Back-order" on the film's page. Titles that have sold out and for which we no longer hold the rights will be designated as "Out of Print" (OOP).

As I think you're aware, the following titles recently went out of print for us due to licensing:
DAYS OF HEAVEN
DON'T LOOK NOW
HAROLD AND MAUDE
LA DOLCE VITA
NASHVILLE
ROSEMARY'S BABY

As usual, if we should ever recover the rights to any of our out-of-print titles, we will happily re-release them.
We do not typically disclose things that are about to go out of print, but I can assure you that there is nothing else in our catalog that is due to be OOP in the near future.

That said, obviously if there's something you've had an eye on, it's always a good idea to purchase it sooner than later, as we do not announce upcoming OOP status or packaging changes.

Hope this puts your mind at ease but please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns.

Best,
Kseniya

really glad I snagged a Harold & Maude from B&N right after this went down

oh hell yeah

https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/4430-streetwise-tiny-the-life-of-erin-blackwell

I don't know if I'm ever going to stop kicking myself for selling my Chungking Express disc right before the particulars of the Wong Kar-Wai box set were announced >_<

Stopped at the Tupelo B&N today while running errands and snagged their last (only) La Dolce Vita blu. I don't even like Fellini -- I may leave it sealed and try to flip it for $$$ at some point.

WKW thing comes out today !

caught streetwise / tiny double feature early last year and I think of different things from streetwise all the time

like the prisoner dad at his son's open casket funeral and in that moment he mainly just wants to drink soda