Criterion Additions

xp It isn't, never has, biggest misconception and someone always brings up Armageddon whenever the Criterion Collection comes up. as the NYT piece points out, they're just one private company with an outsized influence on influencing what enters the cinematic "canon," whether the films are by "auteurs" or not. I don't even know what that means, it's like talking about the "golden age of Hollywood." which one? are all independent filmmakers "auteurs" by definition? it's a useless phrase to categorize film even if it still has use in acknowledging that directors--even within studio constraints--exhibit recurring themes/motifs (is Michael Curtiz an auteur because of his consistent use of shadows and introductory crane/tracking shots? sure). like any business curator it's a largely arbitrary process based on pop culture, personal taste of the owners and their friends (the piece certainly explained the mystery of why every fucking Wes Anderson movie is in the CC).

there is a difference between gatekeeping and curation, and CC has much more of an influence on contemporary film culture than Kino or Arrow or Twilight (rip)

In general I like their approach, because ultimately all movies are equal. Gen X taste bullshit is over, thank god--people can enjoy Moonstruck and The Battle of Algiers without neurosis. all movies are equal

But there are massive holes in all of those labels catalogues, particularly african films and black american filmmaking post-Super Fly

(the first mainstream film shot with an all black crew)

thx flappy bird that's sort of what i wanted to say but couldn't think of the words

Vinegar Syndrome is a boutique label largely devoted to lovable garbage but they've also kinda cornered the market on '70s black cinema (Melvin van Peebles, Rudy Ray Moore, Jamaa Fanaka, etc.).

This particular topic makes me wonder how, for instance, Criterion got the streaming rights for Bill Gunn's films after they've been released on blu-ray by Kino.

Yeah Vinegar Syndrome has put out a ton of great stuff, I was going thru an old DVD comp and was wondering if they'd done any Oscar Williams or Fred Williamson movies

OL I've been wondering the same thing w/r/t rights and what's potentially available on the Channel. I have no idea. they have like half a dozen Fassbinder movies that haven't had a physical release beyond shitty DVD, and tons more obscure stuff with overlap with Kino and others.

the only thing i'm saying wrt criterion being "auteur" driven is that they pick their films by Director and that seems to be their only (wait for it) criterion. Milestone and Kino do the work surrounding restoring films of historical significance, that's not Criterion's thing. And that's fine!

i'm not really interested in quibbling about the distinction between auteur and director.

they don't pick films by director, it's a totally mixed bag. just one example, they put out Destry Rides Again a couple months ago, one of Marlene Dietrich's most famous movies (and the debut of "See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have")

They used to put "a (director) film" prominently on covers even when the director didn't mean much, but I see the Destry disc doesn't do that.

the piece certainly explained the mystery of why every fucking Wes Anderson movie is in the CC

never thought this was a mystery, assumed the obvious answer was $$$$$, and accepted that every Wes Anderson being in there was the price to pay for Criterion to feature some non-lucrative projects

Anecdotally speaking, people who only own like one Criterion release own an Anderson Criterion release.

Okay, i'll retract my "only" from my earlier statement as there are "cinema gems" or specific collections where they can apparently get the license - godzilla and zatoichi come to mind - but come on flappy: surely it hasn't escaped your attention that criterion's publishing focus is dominated by director driven releases?

The director focus is a strong marketing strategy as much as it is of legitimate importance to understanding the context of the work.

xp Directors, sure--but your point was that the CC is "mostly restricted to auteurs," which isn't true.

Lady Sings the Blues is not good

This line in the NYT story is funny

"If there is a cinematic canon even more highbrow than the Oscars, it’s the Criterion Collection,"

the directors they choose are almost exclusively auteurs! don't know why you wanna die on this hill.

they really aren't, look at anything they put out before 1960

Really depends on whether you're talking about their very recent output or the collection as a whole, imo, but there's way more bu auteurs than non-auteurs either way. Pre-1960 gets you films by Renoir, Kurosawa, Fellini, Lang, Ophuls, Leo McCarey, Nicholas Ray, Charles Vidor, Ozu, Rossellini...

More recently they've started to dig into Japanese franchises that aren't auteur-driven, as forks has pointed out, and that's spreading to other stuff like the Bruce Lee box.

They've also only semi-recently gotten the opportunity to do way more classic Hollywood than they used to, and that's brought out a lot of non-auteur stuff, too - tho frankly at this rate there's very few classic Hollywood directors that aren't considered auteurs.

all that, but if that still doesn't convince you, it would take going through the full list and presenting stats on director-driven vs non-director driven and it's not that important to me.

My copy of Taste of Cherry arrived today

I watched it the other week, the restoration is just incredible

it's one of my favorite movies but I have to say that womp-womp-womp sad jazz at the end reallllllllllllllllly fuckin kills the mood

December: Crash (Cronenberg's), Amores Perros, Symbiopsychotaxiplasm, Mouchette. 3 out of 4 I'm interested in (sorry, Iñárritu)!

I really liked Amores Perros at the time, but that formula really got overdone in the 2000s (Babel didn't help!) so it might not hold up as well in 2020.

Sweet. I wish there was more stuff on the Symbiopsychotaxiplasm disc, the DVD they have out is fine

As with all of the DVD-only titles I want, I've been on the fence about buying it for a little while but kinda honestly didn't expect to see a blu-ray release. Their upgrade priorities are a mystery (to me, at least).

Man, Crash has been in the pipeline since the mid-aughts.

It's weird, Arrow already do a Region 2 Crash 2 Blu with different extras:

https://arrowfilms.com/product-detail/crash-limited-edition-blu-ray/FCD2073

I saw that elsewhere, along with a third Canadian (?) release.

Criterion was all but confirmed to have it as part of their Fine Line deal in the mid-'00s, which brought Short Cuts, My Own Private Idaho, and Naked into the collection (plus Simple Men & Spanking The Monkey over at Home Vision), but it gradually fell off the radar.

Normally it's the commentary track that decides which disc version I buy, but in this case I'm torn as both Cronenberg and Adrian Martin give good chat and would perfectly compliment each other. Funnily enough one of the few movies I've double dipped on is Videodrome - Criterion DVD for the Cronenberg commentary, Arrow Blu Ray for the Tim Lucas commentary - again, they compliment one another.

In the UK you can also get Stalker and Solaris from both Criterion and Artifical Eye, but in this case the Criterion releases are superior in every way.

Movie rights are the zone of confusion.

Amores Perros can't have aged well.

As with all of the DVD-only titles I want, I've been on the fence about buying it for a little while but kinda honestly didn't expect to see a blu-ray release. Their upgrade priorities are a mystery (to me, at least).

― Don't be such an idot. (Old Lunch), Tuesday, September 15, 2020 2:41 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah only thing I can think of is the movie and Greaves are mentioned frequently in Charlie Kaufman's new novel Antkind, oh and Greaves is only 1 of.....4? Black American filmmakers in the CC?

But the DVD is fine and this has nothing new

xp: The best predictor of whether a title will get a Criterion blu-ray release is if one of the UK arthouse distributors (Arrow, Artificial Eye, BFI, Eureka...) has already released a transfer. In some cases Criterion tweaks color balance, but in many its identical, just with a different set of licenced extras.

Yeah, I figured someone was going to issue Crash in the US after Arrow announced their UK-only release. I'm thinking more of the older Criterion DVD releases that they presumably still have the rights to. There's a slew of those (Trouble in Paradise, Jigoku, a couple Cocteaus, etc.) that I'd like to get but keep kicking down the road in hopes of a blu-ray release...sometime?

There is quite a lot of stuff on Criterion that has never been issued in the UK - Symbiopsychotaxiplasm, for example.

Yeah, I've been waiting on a blu-ray reissue of Written on the Wind for over a decade now, but the DVD version from 2001 remains stubbornly in-print. I thought this had to be the oldest one they hadn't upgraded yet but the one they did in 1998 for David Lean's Summertime (spine #22) is still in print, which means it's been available in four different decades at this point.

haha I had no idea Summertime was still in print, I thought I scored big when I found a copy at my parents' house early in quarantine.

Still haven't watched it, any thoughts?

I love it to pieces, and was thinking of showing it to our film club before pandemic and ill health busted that up. It's a great example of different acting styles conveying different meanings and emotional tones; Hepburn starts out all cornfed, corny and gosh-wow, but as the film goes on she and her character settle into a deeper, more naturalistic, more emotional groove. Weirdly, I think it would be a good double feature with Mulholland Dr.

Summertime might be my favourite Lean.

Hmm

WRITTEN ON THE WIND (1956) 🌹 pic.twitter.com/2vDaxtXfyf

— Criterion Collection (@Criterion) September 26, 2020

wow, great capture

FINALLY

A ton of Joan Crawford available on Criterion.

Also Marlon Riggs and Jenni Olson!

Even without all the '70s horror, maybe their gayest month ever.

I wonder if the flash sale is going to happen this fall

Usually happens this week

I have been wondering too. Doesn't it often correspond with the timing of a big release? If so, maybe October 27th (Parasite).

I wish Criterion would accept Paypal. I have a balance there I keep forgetting about, the very definition of fun money to buy blu-rays with.

January: Minding the Gap, The Ascent, Rolling Thunder Revue, Three Films by Buñuel set (Discreet Charm, Phantom of Liberty, That Obscure Object)