Criterion and StudioCanal

News on Criterion and Janus Films.
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Minkin
Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2009 11:13 pm

Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1026 Post by Minkin » Sat Mar 21, 2015 5:39 am

To add further fuel to this speculation, krnash has the following to report about Tales of Hoffman:
krnash wrote:I attended a screening of this in LA last weekend which was followed by a Skype Q&A with Thelma Schoonmaker. She spoke about working closely with Criterion for this new restoration multiple times. It didn't occur to me until I read your post that this went out of print with the other Studio Canal films way back when.

So according to Thelma, this will indeed be released by Criterion on blu, which is fabulous news on its own, but could be support for even bigger news- the recent Studio Canal rights battle going in Criterion's favor.
Something must clearly be up between Studio Canal and Criterion. (sorry to cross-post this).

To review / freshen people's memories (and start talk of which titles people are most hoping for returning / being upgraded), here are the OOP Studio Canal titles that Criterion released:

Alphaville
Army of Shadows (DVD + Blu)
Billy Liar
Bob le Flambeur
Carlos Saura's Flamenco Trilogy Eclipse
Le cercle rouge (DVD + Blu)
Chungking Express (DVD + Blu)
Contempt
Le corbeau
Coup de torchon
Diary of a Chambermaid
Diary of a Country Priest
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Le doulos
The Fallen Idol
Forbidden Games
Gervaise (Essential Art House)
Grand Illusion
Le jour se lève (Essential Art House)
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Last Holiday (Essential Art House)
Last Year at Marienbad (DVD + Blu)
Leon Morin, Priest (DVD + Blu)
Mafioso
The Man Who Fell to Earth (DVD + Blu)
Mayerling (Essential Art House)
The Milky Way
Murderous Maids (Rialto set)
Nights of Cabiria
The Orphic Trilogy (except Orpheus)
Peeping Tom
The Phantom of Liberty
Pierrot le fou (DVD + Blu)
Port of Shadows
Quai des Orfevres
Ran
The Small Back Room
The Tales of Hoffmann
That Obscure Object of Desire
The Third Man (DVD + Blu)
Touchez pas au grisbi
Le Trou
Variety Lights
The White Sheik
A Woman is a Woman

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Askew
Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2010 4:23 pm

Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1027 Post by Askew » Sat Mar 21, 2015 7:11 am

The Studio Canal film I liked to see upgraded the most is Nights of Cabiria. I don't think Chungking Express going out of print had anything to do with Studio Canal.

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ordinaryperson
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1028 Post by ordinaryperson » Sat Mar 21, 2015 12:40 pm

I'd love to see "Forbidden Games", "Grand Illusion", and the Orphic Trilogy (or more specifically "The Blood of a Poet") come back. Hell, I wonder what new films could come out of this.

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What A Disgrace
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1029 Post by What A Disgrace » Sat Mar 21, 2015 12:49 pm

A big ol' BBS style Ealing box would be amazing.

But not as amazing as like, two or three boxes.

MongooseCmr
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1030 Post by MongooseCmr » Sat Mar 21, 2015 12:59 pm

I'd die for a new Ran restoration. Was the Studiocanal version the same as the one Criterion planned to release

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Drucker
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1031 Post by Drucker » Sat Mar 21, 2015 2:44 pm

Isn't it much more likely that in exchange for assistance in helping to fund this new restoration, Criterion were granted North American BD/DVD rights? Like the Tati films, another one-off?

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sir_luke
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1032 Post by sir_luke » Sat Mar 21, 2015 5:09 pm

I think people were just trying to relate the Hoffman news to the larger mystery of the odd Amazon listings for Canal titles, etc.

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Minkin
Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2009 11:13 pm

Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1033 Post by Minkin » Sat Mar 21, 2015 6:43 pm

Askew wrote: I don't think Chungking Express going out of print had anything to do with Studio Canal.
Chungking Express = Miramax, which was bought by Studio Canal / Lionsgate.

I do hope this is more than a one-off situation as it is more than clear at this point that Lionsgate has no interest in releasing Studio Canal films in the US. So it doesn't make any sense for Studio Canal to just be sitting on these films, rather than exploiting their largest market. I suppose a lot of people would be pushing for a Criterion release, rather than nothing happening (or Lionsgate eventually putting out a $20 DVD-R).

The timing alongside the potential Amazon Third Man return, and other odd Studio Canal appearances lately (Tati, Vanishing, Robeson set) - all seem to point to a thawing of relations between the two companies.

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cdnchris
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1034 Post by cdnchris » Sat Mar 21, 2015 8:27 pm

Chungking Express = Miramax, which was bought by Studio Canal / Lionsgate.
I think Studio Canal got the European distribution rights to the Miramax stuff through Lionsgate, but I don't believe they have anything to do with the U.S. rights as Lionsgate has them straight up. So even if Criterion got Studio Canal titles back I doubt that would include Chungking Express (though Lionsgate has licenced a couple of titles to them so anything is possible).

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Drucker
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1035 Post by Drucker » Sat Mar 21, 2015 10:05 pm

sir_luke wrote:I think people were just trying to relate the Hoffman news to the larger mystery of the odd Amazon listings for Canal titles, etc.
And I get that. But I honestly just don't understand why people don't go more than a week around here looking for signs out of print titles are coming back. They aren't. There is a legal agreement that they won't. Until that changes, nothing is going to change, short of these one-offs.

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1036 Post by FrauBlucher » Sun Mar 22, 2015 12:00 am

I thought Kim Hendrickson made it pretty clear at the Wexner talks that the studio canal films are not coming back anytime soon.

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Ribs
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1037 Post by Ribs » Sun Mar 22, 2015 12:25 am

Drucker wrote:And I get that. But I honestly just don't understand why people don't go more than a week around here looking for signs out of print titles are coming back. They aren't. There is a legal agreement that they won't. Until that changes, nothing is going to change, short of these one-offs.
As evidenced by the four month gap between posts above, I guess.

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RSTooley
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1038 Post by RSTooley » Sun Mar 22, 2015 11:34 pm

Ribs wrote:Not only is Third Man listed as available as temporarily out of stock as MSRP on Amazon, but also Army of Shadows (and Leon Morin, Priest) - these went up the same night as the June Criterion releases on Amazon. Could an announcement of stuff coming back be coming?
Leon Morin, Priest is actually in stock on Amazon. The DVD is going for $10.99 right now and the Blu-ray for $38.49. Both available via Amazon Prime.

I'm actually not surprised by this. I don't think the title has been in high demand since it went out of print (I could be wrong).

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Ribs
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1039 Post by Ribs » Mon Mar 23, 2015 12:00 am

RSTooley wrote:
Ribs wrote:Not only is Third Man listed as available as temporarily out of stock as MSRP on Amazon, but also Army of Shadows (and Leon Morin, Priest) - these went up the same night as the June Criterion releases on Amazon. Could an announcement of stuff coming back be coming?
Leon Morin, Priest is actually in stock on Amazon. The DVD is going for $10.99 right now and the Blu-ray for $38.49. Both available via Amazon Prime.

I'm actually not surprised by this. I don't think the title has been in high demand since it went out of print (I could be wrong).
Yeah, it's pretty steadily stayed at the MSRP mark, and Army of Shadows has never been that high either (around $50 last I looked seemed to be the average). It's not in stock via Amazon though; it's in stock at an Amazon-fulfilled provider, and the actual Amazon listing is the same as the other Canal titles.

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RSTooley
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1040 Post by RSTooley » Mon Mar 23, 2015 6:16 pm

Just a general update: The Third Man is no longer being displayed as being sold by Amazon. Who the hell knows what is going on over there at Amazon.com. Either way, I put in an order, so it will be interesting to see what happens from here.

criterion10

Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1041 Post by criterion10 » Mon Mar 23, 2015 8:17 pm

RSTooley wrote:Just a general update: The Third Man is no longer being displayed as being sold by Amazon. Who the hell knows what is going on over there at Amazon.com. Either way, I put in an order, so it will be interesting to see what happens from here.
The others (Army of Shadows, Flamenco Trilogy) are still being sold by Amazon. Interesting.

If this was some sort of major fuck-up on Amazon's part though that never gets fulfilled one way or another, they're sure going to hear from a lot of angry customers!

Perkins Cobb
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1042 Post by Perkins Cobb » Thu Mar 26, 2015 12:28 pm

Man, I remember when the Flamenco Trilogy was going for a zillion bucks.

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Cinephrenic
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1043 Post by Cinephrenic » Thu Mar 26, 2015 8:49 pm

I wish we knew clearly what is being out of print, what is being upgraded, what is getting repackaged, what is being dvd/blu combo or not, book or no book..etc... It's frustrating to your customers, Criterion.

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Drucker
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1044 Post by Drucker » Thu Mar 26, 2015 9:17 pm

Uhm, with the exception of the Tati titles, everything is still out of print as it was formally announced. Everything else you read continues to be random speculation with no conflicting information coming from Criterion.

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Minkin
Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2009 11:13 pm

Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1045 Post by Minkin » Thu Mar 26, 2015 9:37 pm

Drucker wrote:Uhm, with the exception of the Tati titles, everything is still out of print as it was formally announced. Everything else you read continues to be random speculation with no conflicting information coming from Criterion.
Well, Criterion does seem to let things go or suddenly come back into print - without any warning. The Janus set, Paul Robeson set, etc rather came out of nowhere - as they contain Studio Canal films, and were OOP for more than a year(s).

I suppose a lot has been speculation - especially regarding Studio Canal, but when one source confirmed Tales of Hoffman was coming back (possibly refuted now), and things show up on Amazon without warning (much like the Robeson set), it isn't too difficult to start dreaming. I know Lionsgate has the contract with Studio Canal to distribute titles for the next however many years, but it is interesting when random one-offs start making appearances - which seem to indicate cracks/loopholes in the Lionsgate deal (when does that contract end btw?)

As to Cinephrenic's comments - it would be nice if Criterion has something similar to Arrow's blog post about OOP films, running-lows, etc - as things seem to be all over the place, what with random Dual Formats switching to separate editions, books/booklet content disappearing for some editions, repackagings, etc - it can give you a headache just trying to track down everything and figure out what's going on (I say as the person keeping track of these things in the OOP thread :P )

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Valin Kenobi
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1046 Post by Valin Kenobi » Fri Mar 27, 2015 2:14 am

For what it's worth, Hulu Plus has Le Cercle Rouge and Army of Shadows via Lionsgate but both expire in 5 days, e.g. the end of this month. :-k

Noiradelic
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1047 Post by Noiradelic » Fri Mar 27, 2015 7:56 am

Studio (and presumably licensed-to-studio) films don't seem to stay on Hulu long, so I doubt that's of significance.

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jwd5275
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1048 Post by jwd5275 » Fri Mar 27, 2015 10:28 am

Noiradelic wrote:Studio (and presumably licensed-to-studio) films don't seem to stay on Hulu long, so I doubt that's of significance.
Likely just the confluence of coincidentals, but those Melvilles have been up on Hulu for at least 2 years. Also when Miramax took The Young Girls of Rochefort down, the Demy set was released shortly afterward.

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captveg
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1049 Post by captveg » Fri Mar 27, 2015 2:05 pm

Minkin wrote:which seem to indicate cracks/loopholes in the Lionsgate deal (when does that contract end btw?)
Early 2010. I gotta think that SC cannot be happy with Lionsgate's handling of their US distribution. They released seven Blu-rays total in that time, with only two coming since 2011. The whole idea behind SC giving the licensing to LG was to create a consolidated brand recognition, so that has failed miserably. If LG isn't willing to give the effort to market their titles in the US, then why not go back to Criterion? Sure, they won't get the "StudioCanal Collection" branding on the packaging, but compared to LG's complete disregard for making these titles available to US consumers in the first place that in theory would matter far less to SC at this point then being to actually sell the films.

The sad thing is that we all saw LG's fumbling of the SC ball when it happened, having just witnessed how they sat on the majority of the Republic library for years after licensing it from Paramount.

So - here's hoping to common sense prevailing and Criterion getting these back. Start with returning the OOP titles, then continue upgrading more previously DVD only releases.

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gleemonex
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1050 Post by gleemonex » Fri Mar 27, 2015 9:00 pm

In a mildly interesting development, Pierrot le Fou is now available on Amazon, as The Third Man, Army of Shadows, etc. are.

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