Criterion Additions

the audience is left wondering about what exactly is the rumpus

Nice...perfect film; wouldn't cut anything.

MAY: Double Indemnity*; Chan Is Missing; Mississippi Masala; The Funeral; and Mr. Klein.

*4K available

only specific thing I know that got cut was Mike Starr saying "Jesus, Tom" after getting hit in the face with the chair, which is one of the biggest laugh lines in the movie for me.

After extensive thought and much prayer & somber reflection I have concluded that this scene is actually a little funnier without the line (much to my surprise.) With the line, Starr gets the laugh. Without the line, Byrne standing there alone holding the chair becomes funnier imho, with more emphasis on the perfect note of Keatonesque confusion in his performance as he looks down at the chair then back at the door. Still a deeply weird cut to decide to make, but I sign off on it.

Does anyone want my gift-card code for the forthcoming Criterion Store sale?

24 hour flash sale has begun.

OK, I have never done a haul haul in all these years of sales, but I came into an unexpected windfall recently and have a few coupons stored up, so I allowed myself to spend a few Bens this time around to fill in a bunch of gaps and titles I’ve hovered and passed over for years now:

The Emigrants/The New Land
Christ Stopped at Eboli
The Furies
Love Affair
L’humanité
Life During Wartime
Marketa Lazarová
The Ascent
The Honeymoon Killers
The Cremator
Throw Down
Punch-Drunk Love
One-Eyed Jacks
The Celebration
Revanche
The Lady Eve
The Night Porter

Looks like Fox borked the transfer provided for The Girl Can't Help It: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film10/blu-ray_review_157/the_girl_cant_help_it_blu-ray.htm

Too Much Darkness for a Tashlin Film

JUNE: Pink Flamingos; The Worst Person In The World; Shaft*; Rouge; Farewell Amor; and a remaster of Tales of Hoffman.

*4K Available

Shaft also includes the sequel, Shaft's Big Score!.

DRIVE MY CAR is officially joining the Criterion Collection in July. pic.twitter.com/hhVCcq5ahs

— Isaac Feldberg (@isaacfeldberg) March 22, 2022

JULY: Devil In A Blue Dress*; Drive My Car; Raging Bull*; Okja*; a Blu upgrade of Summertime; and a 4K upgrade of The Virgin Suicides.

*4K available.

AUGUST: Faya dayi; Buck and The Preacher; Hotel du Nord; Frownland; and Daddy Longlegs (Safdie Bros.)

SEPTEMBER: Sound of Metal*; Take Out; Exotica; Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 4; a Blu upgrade/reissue of Le Corbeau; and Blow-Out on 4K.

*4K available

Exotica also includes Egoyan's earlier feature Calendar, and three shorts from different parts of his career.

Missed the screening of Chess of the Wind a few months back, it sounds fascinating.

Barnes & Noble sale reportedly begins tomorrow. Walker, High Sierra and (eventually) Drive My Car are at the top of my shopping list.

Oh and the Tales of Hoffman remaster.

OCTOBER: Lost Highway*; Eve's Bayou (Theatrical & Director's Cuts); Cure; La Llorona; Arsenic and Old Lace; and Night of The Living Dead on 4K.

*4K available

Nice to see a good old fashioned macabre October lineup again

Cure! what a blinder, of course I only recently bought the Arrow blu.

NOVEMBER: Daises; Malcolm X*; The Infernal Affairs Trilogy; The Power of The Dog*; and a 4K of In The Mood For Love.

*4K Available

So I'm wondering if that 4K will be the controversial re-color graded version of ITMFL. Who am I kidding, of course it will be.

Excited for The Infernal Affairs Trilogy, just found out that Criterion tried to get a hold of the chronological supercut of the three films as a bonus feature, but to no avail. I'd love to watch that.

WALL-E coming on 4K in November!

o_O

Wow, nice! Now that the Disney ice is broken, imma start hollering for The Straight Story.

That is incredibly heartening news. Bob Chapek (current Disney CEO) got his start pushing hard for physical media releases of their stuff, so there's been speculation that they would eventually crank up the output on that front. Here's hoping that they recognize the plethora of boutique labels that are champing at the bit for those sweet sweet Blu-ray rights (particularly Fox movies that I figured would never see another physical release).

There's musing on the Criterion Forum that The Straight Story is only happening after the rights revert to Lynch, which should be soon.

DECEMBER: Cooley High; The Velvet Underground; Three Films By Mai Zetterling (The Girls, Loving Couples, and Night Games); and Michael Haneke: Trilogy (The Seventh Continent, Benny’s Video, and 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance)

JANUARY: Bergman Island (2021); This Is Not A Burial, It's A Resurrection; Lars von Trier’s Europe Trilogy (The Elements of Crime, Epidemic, and Europa); Imitation of Life (1934); and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen*.

*4K available

Bummed it's not the Sirk Imitation of Life, but still, good slate!

Imitation of Life (1934)

Hoping for more John M. Stahl....

Motherfuuuuuu

Literally just bought Munchausen. If I had a nickel for every time Criterion pulled this on me, well, I could probably afford to purchase one Criterion Blu-ray. That's a lotta nickels.

Bummed it's not the Sirk Imitation of Life, but still, good slate!

I guess Universal wanted to hold on to it? Kind of odd that they weren't bundled together like on the old 'Franchise Pack' DVD, or Criterion's editions of The Lower Depths or The Killers.

or the Criterion version of Magnificent Obsession, which had the John M. Stahl version as a bonus feature for the Sirk one for that matter.

Feb '23: new BR editions of Zeffirelli's Romeo & Juliet, Townsend's Hollywood Shuffle and two from Marguerette Duras, plus 4K upgrades for Dazed & Confused and the Three Colors trilogy

March '23 includes the one everyone's been waiting on ...

https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/films/f2dc5fca4bd25803ddbb306d472a92bf/IIOf9P08qJv4m2LTNgeVh6D7itPShZ_small.jpg https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/films/34e05df5a50f02bf1f38a3fe90b1f9b5/gNhfBPmpFx9yd1SPhNRMYXagYaoY6O_small.jpg https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/films/148b925d3efc30455d83320fd4816b9c/nLZ40dVTOWt4Css9IP3icTGkJQsDTw_small.jpg

Plus a moderately surprising 4K upgrade:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/films/92fe059f5008090433c98d5c2a743c03/kKv4Q7rP0MAkK33MQIydi5xjcCUKpT_small.jpg

Regarding "Inland Empire," I was wondering "How do you do a 4K remaster of a movie shot in standard def?" and found the answer here:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/janus_promo_packages/687-/InlandEmpire_RemasterNote_web_original.pdf

Hm feel like you might as well just watch it on DVD

Appreciate that they gave so much detail on the process though I have no idea what most of it means
The sound will probably be a lot better though?

Will this throw a wrench into the forthcoming CC release?

This is a troubling new chapter in a major piece of film history. https://t.co/sipRD6sVxq

— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) January 3, 2023

APRIL: Triangle of Sadness; Small Axe: Five Films By Steve McQueen box set; and 4K upgrades of Seventh Seal & The Fisher King

Quite a turnaround on Triangle of Sadness there (and a pretty bare bones disc)

i was gonna say, that's still in theaters! it's also not a very good film!

Sort of impressed how long they're making CC heads wait for After Hours.

!!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xngHLBEXnE

At what point would the Criterion staff step in and stop you from taking any more movies, I wonder?

Popping Salvatore Giuliano on my watchlist rn, thanks JD

xp I've seen people shown leaving with overflowing tote bags at the end (Safdies, I think?)

LOL, which I see now John pays reference to in the beginning