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.

Finally!

The end-June B&N sale (and Come and See, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Roma, Cold War and Taste of Cherry) can't come soon enough for me.

This August, we're celebrating the boundless creative vision of Agnès Varda with a comprehensive collection of her genre-blurring, culture-shaping films, bringing together all thirty-nine of her features, shorts, and documentaries for the first time! 🧡💜💗https://t.co/qYMbWfwmus pic.twitter.com/7nMiXmPdqs

— Criterion Collection (@Criterion) May 11, 2020

Awesome news! (Cinévardaphoto appears to be missing tho?)

MORE AUGUST: Toni; The Comfort of Strangers; Town Bloody Hall; and a Blu upgrade of The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum.

If The Comfort of Strangers is the early 90s Canadian film, I've been wanting to see that one for a while.

...except that film is The Company of Strangers. This is the Paul Schrader movie (oddly enough, both are from 1990).

Vegemite Is My Grrl wrote: Cinévardaphoto appears to be missing tho?

It's there, just listed as the three individual films that comprise it.

like the Bergman set, it's "programmed" out of chronological order which is sort of annoying

I think it's neat tbh

tbf I haven't tried watching any of the films "as programmed" in the Bergman set, it's just a pain to find a certain movie in the thing all out of order, but I should try it, I haven't dug back into it for a few months. a theater here was supposed to show A Lesson in Love sometime in April, I'll watch whatever batch that's in soon.

30% off until May 31 on discs from the CC store

I only saw Schrader's The Comfort of Strangers once, probably around the the time it came out, I mostly remember being really impressed by the visuals of the lantern-lit scenes

I could be completely misremembering it, would like to see it again

30% off until May 31 on discs from the CC store

― flappy bird, Tuesday, May 26, 2020 10:09 PM

Extended to June 15th

Are they going under?

I haven't heard anything of the sort! Have you heard something we haven't?

Probably just residual speculation after Twilight Time folded. But they've never had such a prolonged sale as this that I can remember.

prob just taking advantage of people being stuck at home/stimulus money/the ongoing deterioration of worth assigned to physical media

Everybody who has anything to sell is desperate to move their product right now.

Twilight Time has surprisingly been the only boutique company to shut down (and they just got picked up for distribution by another company). Seems like a lot of them are doing gangbusters business just now (perhaps thanks to a multitude of quarantine sales sales).

I do want the Husbands disc. got any Oshima recs?

Twilight Time had already been winding down for awhile. Their last new product announcement was last summer (and even then that was stuff which had been delayed). Co-Owner Nick Redman died in early '19 as well. Not to mention that their stubbornly clung-to business model was outmoded and had been improved on by Arrow/Indicator/Kino Lorber etc.

Re: Twilight Time: limiting runs to 3000 ea of some 220 titles may have improved sales to speculative collectors, but it's a model which drove me to get imported UK blus of 1984, Sexy Beast, Richard III, and Wild at Heart. I've watched Titus ascend in price beyond my prudence, and it just made me view Twilight Time with some scorn.

Given that CC recently tweeted a still from In a Year with 13 Moons, and that 2020 happens to be a moon year with 13 new moons where inescapable personal (and global?) personal tragedies may, and already have, occurred—I predict they will announce its release on Monday. Or the next 15th. But it's coming out this year.

SEPTEMBER: The Elephant Man; Christ Stopped At Eboli; Beau Travail; Scorsese's World Cinema Project Box #3, featuring: Lucia, After The Curfew; Pixote; Dos Monjes; Soleil O; and Downpour; and upgrades of The Naked City & Brute Force.

Ooooh BRUTE FORCE

Surprised the Denis wasn't in there already

full-length Eboli had a very limited rep release last year; someone alert JCLC

It played here in early February, I skipped it--I like his film Three Brothers but it wasn't enough to get me out to see a 4 hour epic.

Glad Beau Travail is finally going to be available again. The Elephant Man too, that one hasn't been in print in America for a while.

Predicting 13 Moons for October

Vivid memories of seeing Elephant Man for the first time, on 35, in one of my film classes, and pretty much the whole room just fucking bawling by the end.

Just felt like reminding people that But I'm a Cheerleader is streaming until the end of July. Still love that movie! Here's an interview with the stars.
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6986-but-i-m-a-cheerleader-turns-twenty-natasha-lyonne-and-clea-duvall-reminisce-on-their-cult-classic

Haha whoa that's awesome, great movie, I have the DVD and had no idea it was on the CC.

such a great movie. i wrote about it a few years ago and essentially came out as nonbinary (without actually coming out) in the middle of the piece ;_;

this is it btw: https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2016/04/22/life-in-drag/

normally i hate sharing or even thinking about old work and on top of that i also hate displaying the self-consciousness i have over not wanting to share my work etc. etc. but i like this one. i think i've changed a lot since i wrote it but i also like revisiting the version of me that was getting very close to the truth about themselves even though they didn't know exactly what they were saying at the time

Heads up for the B&N 50% off sale, through 2 Aug.

everything I want is out of stock

Check often, I guess. The Bruce Lee box was out of stock Sunday but it's available today. I picked up a few things in the Tupelo store Sunday and have Matewan on the way.

I just want in the realm of the senses, and I thought taste of cherry had already come out

In the Realm of the Senses is showing as in stock to me, and Taste of Cherry comes out a week from today, still during the sale.

Lol after I read your post I went and checked, ordered, thank you!

I wound up making an eensy and mostly random but nonetheless dece order (Husbands, Face in the Crowd, Ace jn the Hole) cobbled together from what little was in stock online. Hopefully the next sale on the Criterion site will actually have some shit available to buy.

like the Varda box...

Kinda want to get the postwar Kurosawa Eclipse set but...there's gotta be an enormous Bergman-esque Kurosawa box just around the corner, surely?

Like this one? https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/678-ak-100-25-films-by-akira-kurosawa

Probably not reissuing that any time soon...

I went back to check on stuff that was listed as out of stock online and most of 'em got "restocked"

that kurosawa box is still missing a few things - Ran, Silent Duel, Dersu Ursula (spelling!), Rhapsody in August, Dreams...

(looks like criterion in the us has slightly more rights to things than bfi does in the uk (The Idiot, for instance), but still not everything)

October: Parasite, Claudine, The Gunfighter, Pierrot le Fou, The Hit

I had just been looking for Claudine recently! Lovely news.

That Pierrot le Fou cover is beautiful

Shoulda sold my old CC Pierrot when I had a chance.