Criterion Additions

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.

Essential Fellini in November: https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/3626-essential-fellini

Learned League Criterion today!

god there are so many filmmakers I'd rather see get that treatment before fellini but I get it, $$$

I know Fellini (and Bergman) are what will hopefully bankroll Kiarostami at some point.

Akerman is the dream

Fellini Forever!

Was thinking about how both Fellini and Bergman feel a bit out of fashion, rarely hear anyone enthuse about them anymore. But I guess they're still huge in the ppl with vast disposable income demographic.

Feels like Bergman falls in and out of fashion every few years. Fellini otoh feels like he's been passe for a long time.

me rolling my eyes whenever I hear yet another interview about Fellini to the effect of "and there was no script, we just made it up!" well NO SHIT, that's exactly what the film looks like.

yet his films credit 14 screenwriters per flick

NOVEMBER: The Irishman; Ghost Dog: The Way of The Samurai; Moonstruck; and Girlfriends.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/08/20/movies/criterion-collection-african-americans.html

You always have the feeling that it's bad on that end, but the hard numbers examined here were not good.
Two things stood out for me: the bit about there being more directors named "Anderson" than African-Americans (sad lol)
And that at one time - the early '90s - they actually did put out more black films, but so many of them didn't make it past laserdisc or DVD.

On that note: https://letterboxd.com/jlalibs/list/1500-films-directed-by-black-american-filmmakers/

Tongues Untied definitely needs to be on Criterion.

Haha Moonstruck is such a weird weird film. Nicholas Cage's iron fist, why why why?

Man I really hate that "interactive" format. They've somehow managed to translate NPR cadence into text. Infuriating