Criterion Additions

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

@

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

I think it's 'The Barry Jenkins Line'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7HLpe65fHY

fun videos!

MAY:

* 4K upgrades: Wings of Desire; Branded to Kill
* 4K new: Thelma and Louise
* BR new: Targets; Petit maman

(The Petit maman BR is shockingly un-stacked for a full-price offering.)

Criterion when are u gonna get your mitts on the 4K Lancelot du Lac

Branded to Kill is great and all, but hopefully this means Tokyo Drifter will get the upgrade to 4k soon, too, as that is just about at the top of my Criterion wants these days and the current Blu is pretty old.

Targets, nice.

(The Petit maman BR is shockingly un-stacked for a full-price offering.)

― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.), Wednesday, February 15, 2023 12:41 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I've seen a few examples of this... I do wonder what sort of background business decisions dictate that lower price point you see occasionally among their BR catalog. It's weird though, because in general the supplements component I'm pretty sure is cited as the reasoning for their premium pricing vs. "standard" versions of other BRs in market. From a consumer perspective this is a cash grab without anything except their collectible packaging design setting them apart.

well in some cases, including evidently this one, it's the difference between having it available on disc in the region and not having it

True! But because the supplements are so expected from Criterion this comes across as a very phoned in release on shelf.

I just checked and they did finally remove the tease of a forthcoming SE of Blue is the Warmest Color from the website. (And maybe they slightly bumped up the price? I seem to remember it being $20 for the BR, not $25.)

well in some cases, including evidently this one, it's the difference between having it available on disc in the region and not having it

Wonder how many ppl would find this enough to buy, considering the availability of multi region players and streaming, if it didn't say Criterion on the cover.

tbh i think the # of multi-region player owners (at least in the US) is lower than the # of casual Criterion fans