Criterion Additions

Is this an actuality?

dunno about chimes, but on the a_film_by list a couple of weeks ago, j. rosenbaum mentioned he was recording a commentary track for a criterion version of mr. arkadin/confidential report, so that one's in the pipeline...

i would also love to hear more about a potential brakhage 2 - know anything else, jay? if it does come to pass, i really, really hope to see anticipation of the night on there (my fave brakhage).

The following, which was originally posted on Frameworks a couple months back, is some interesting news for Brakhage fans--

Howdy folks,

A number of you already know that I do film
preservation work at the Academy Film Archive in L.A.
I have an announcement.

Especially in light of all the Brakhage-related
discussion on the list lately, it seemed incredibly
silly and artificial for me to wait any longer to
bring this up. I’ve been waiting for what was
intended to be an official press release, but in the
process of the publicity department and the Archive
creating one that would be comprehensive enough to
answer the many possible questions, it has gotten
dangerously close now to the “blackout period” during
which the Academy prefers to limit press releases to
issues relating to the Oscars ceremony in February. I
enjoy and respect this important community (with
Frameworks as its inclusive, de facto
gathering-place), and don’t see the point in
withholding this information any longer, especially if
it means waiting until March.

I’d like to informally announce that a few months ago,
56 boxes containing Stan Brakhage’s original film
materials were transported from a commercial storage
facility in Kansas to the Academy Film Archive in Los
Angeles. The intention is to conserve and
preserve/restore all of Stan’s films.

This collection was deposited at Academy by Marilyn
Brakhage. The collection basically comprises the
edited originals for nearly all of Stan’s work.

It would be ridiculous for me to try to describe the
honor with which we’ll be overseeing this collection
and the inventory, inspection, care and preservation
of these films. I have already begun this work (about
a month ago), and have closely inspected and
catalogued the originals for about 25 films, including
The Wonder Ring, Black Vision, “He was born, he
suffered, he died.”, Thigh Line Lyre Triangular,
Anticipation of the Night, The Weir-Falcon Saga, Agnus
Dei Kinder Synapse, Fox Fire Child Watch, Window Water
Baby Moving... There is an enormous amount of
material to go through. Additionally, some
interesting discoveries have already been made, and
with Marilyn’s blessings, I eagerly look forward to
sharing this information with everyone, and hope that
disseminating it periodically through Frameworks won’t
be an annoyance to folks on the list.

The reasons I am announcing this informally to this
list... As I said, I enjoy and respect the community
represented here, and I know many of you are intensely
passionate about and interested in Stan’s work. Many
of you were students, admirers, friends, loved ones of
Stan, and care dearly about him, his films, and his
legacy.

Another reason is that I look forward to the potential
assistance from folks in this community who I am sure
will prove a caring and valuable resource in this
endeavor. Having already begun work, it’s important
for me to know that there’s a channel of communication
open. For instance, I hope we can count on folks out
there who may oversee personal or public collections
including prints of Stan’s work to potentially be able
to provide loan access to original reversal prints of
Stan’s work of the 1980s and earlier, where available.
These reversal prints will prove invaluable to the
faithful preservation of these films... Anecdotal
information and stories about the making or showing of
these films will also be requested and appreciated,
and will prove a valuable contribution to this
project.

I can’t think of anything further to specifically
mention right now, other than to welcome anybody’s
thoughts, questions, suggestions, ideas, concerns,
etc. about what I’ve written here. You can reach me
at either fiddybop@yahoo.com (personal) or
mtoscano@oscars.org (work).

Mark Toscano

p.s. the restoration/preservation route taken with
Stan’s films will be a photochemical one, not a
digital one, in case some of you were wondering.

p.p.s.
1. Window Water Baby Moving was shot on Ansco reversal
film
2. Black Vision is a radical revision of a film Stan
made for KRMA-TV around 1962 called ‘Sartre’s Nausea’,
the originals for which exist intact.
3. A large number of the cuts in The Act of Seeing
With One’s Own Eyes are actually in-camera edits.
4. The *original* 35mm source rolls for Garden of
Earthly Delights still exist, and they smell amazing.

As for Chimes : my boot is an Ebay purchase from a Japanese laserdisc. Gorgeous print but marred by vertical Japanese subtitles on the righthand side of the picture. Who owns the rights to Chimes ?

i haven't seen it yet, but i'm going to go ahead and agree here.

I really don't understand the Wes Anderson backlash. If you don't try to get too much out of his films, they're cute & fun and the cinematography is always fantastic. And how can you not like the roles he writes for Bill Murray?

That said, I'm pretty sure I'll be slightly annoyed by TLA because it seems to be just pushing the profitable Wes formula of hip 70's soundtrack & kitschy sets.

... but ultimately it's not that big a deal, and i wish that criterion had a few more rivals at their particular level of their niche so that people (i include myself) wouldn't pore over their choices all the time.

and that said, i think warner's been kicking everybody's ass the last few months with their box sets.

I assume that Criterion would like to put out more new films, but can't get companies to license them out. Better to make your own $10 on a barebones release than split that with Criterion, I suppose.

http://www.wellesnet.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?s=422d15fb2793ffff;act=ST;f=1;t=84;st=40

I'm eagerly awaiting the Peckinpah box, and I've got my fingers crossed for a Bonnie & Clyde 2-disc.

**grumble**

An Angel at My Table really could not be further from this. really!

where the fuck are the eisenstein silents?!?

The newsletter does reveal that Metropolitan and Playtime + A Tati box will be out next year, along with some Louis Malle stuff, including Murmur of The Heart.

What does this mean? Like you have to buy the box to get Playtime? That'll either suck if the other titles in the box are M. Hulot's Holiday and Mon Oncle, but would be effing fantastic if the other titles are Jour De Fete, Parade and Trafic.

"We’ve received many such e-mails from fans wondering about the status of Tati’s astounding 1967 comedy, and we are happy to report that we are indeed planning to release a new edition of Playtime—either individually or as part of a Jacques Tati box set—sometime in 2006. Watch the Criterion website for details."