Questions for Criterion: 2007 Edition

News on Criterion and Janus Films.
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Awesome Welles
Joined: Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:02 am
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#26 Post by Awesome Welles » Sun May 20, 2007 4:29 pm

Darth Lavender wrote:My question, though, is how strongly does the presence of a Region 2 (or 4, or 5, etc.) release figure into Criterion's decision to produce a DVD?Is it completely unimportant (given the strong US-based rental-market, etc.) Does Criterion only 'double up' on Special Editions when you feel there's opportunity for improvement? (as in the case of Ivan's Childhood which, I understand, will be the first DVD release to use the original Mono soundtrack, or Vengeance Is Mine which uses a significantly different (more accurate?) transfer to the Region 2 release).

On a related note, can we look forward to any improvements in Criterion's upcoming Pitfall and Face Of Another? (Superior elements, etc.?)
Question: With the new Eclipse line providing the option of releasing a number of previously unavailable titles simultaneously, a number of the recent releases have taken the form of single releases by directors who might not have numerous other titles available to Criterion for release. How is the decision made to release multiple related titles via an Eclipse box vs. separate Criterion releases? For example, the two Ermanno Olmi titles (Il Posto and I Fidanzati) or Milos Forman titles (Loves of a Blonde and The Firemen's Ball) were separate Criterion releases; would they have been paired as an Eclipse boxset if they were released today?
If I were a DVD boutique such as MoC or Criterion I would try and do things that are ultimtely going to sell well and be of the best possible quality. In the case of the Criterion and MoC F For Fake DVDs I own the Criterion, this is not because it came out first, it is simply because I found the features on the DVD to be more suited to my own preferences. In this case, Internationally (I am from the UK) Criterion have gained custom and MoC lost it.

As a lover of cinema I agree that it would be wonderful if the world's leading distributors worked together to achieve a definitive release of films within each region, it is sort of happening, Nick at MoC has said that they licenced Criterion's master of FFF for their release, I've not seen it but I am sure it's great, but the idea of labels splitting the cost on licensing and development, I seriously doubt it. In the case above of Criterion winning me as a customer, of course MoC wouldn't want tp have subsidised Criterion's DVD if they were only going to run the risk of having their core market buy outside of it. I think this can only mean increased quality in DVD production from the major markets. As non-English speaking regions gradually realise that it is a world market and subtitles begin to appear more frequently selling DVDs is going to become more difficult, it is going to be up to the labels to become more inventive and more specialised in their release material. I think MoC are the leaders at the moment for their selection of releases, Criterion seem to be a few months behind and are now releasing films which we have already seen. However another factor comes into play here. I had been waiting to purchase the MoC Teshigahara titles (I can't buy everything at once, so I rented first) but once I saw that Criterion were releasing their Teshigahara boxset I snapped it up with the insane exchange rate I was able to pick up three Teshigahara films plus shorts for the price of two MoC's. With the UK experiencing some chronic price erosion on DVDs anyway this surely doesn't bode well for the UK labels. I wish I could do more to help maintain the UK solidarity but after all it is a buyers market and I have to watch my own pocket as well. I hope that we will see more variety in the release schedules of the labels in the future, this is surely the only way forward.

Narshty
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#27 Post by Narshty » Sun May 20, 2007 4:37 pm

Bill Lustig of Blue Underground recently said in an interview that many of the niche titles that were once profitable no longer are amongst the sheer quantity of DVD releases now available. Following on from this, do you think with the now ultra-mainstream saturation of DVD, it has encouraged studios to focus their in-house efforts more on the "A-list" catalogue titles and licence more "B-list" favourites (Robinson Crusoe on Mars, House of Games, Kicking and Screaming, etc.) to Criterion?

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jt
Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 9:47 am
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#28 Post by jt » Mon May 21, 2007 3:02 am

Darth Lavender wrote:I've noticed an increasing trend towards Criterion releasing titles already available in high-quality releases from other regions (eg. Pitfall, Face of Another, Vengeance Is Mine, Ivan's Childhood, etc.) (Perhaps this overlap is inevitable simply because there are more frequent high-quality releases of classics now with MoC, etc. than there were five years ago.)
My question, though, is how strongly does the presence of a Region 2 (or 4, or 5, etc.) release figure into Criterion's decision to produce a DVD?Is it completely unimportant (given the strong US-based rental-market, etc.) Does Criterion only 'double up' on Special Editions when you feel there's opportunity for improvement? (as in the case of Ivan's Childhood which, I understand, will be the first DVD release to use the original Mono soundtrack, or Vengeance Is Mine which uses a significantly different (more accurate?) transfer to the Region 2 release).
My question is very similar but I'll write it out anyway:

Can you give us a rough idea what percentage of your sales is attributable to the domestic US market and what percentage to the international multi-region crowd, either directly through foreign bricks-and-mortar stores or through international online retailers?

With regard to overlaps between CC releases and those also available in strong region 2 or 4 editions from companies such as MoC, is this an issue that has any influence on what films you license?
i.e. Do you notice any significant drop in sales when releasing a film such as Vengeance is Mine that was already available in the UK?

Cheers,
john

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What A Disgrace
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#29 Post by What A Disgrace » Mon May 21, 2007 10:07 am

A friend of mine (we'll call him Ben K.) would like to ask a question, though he's a bit too busy to take the time to post here. The man is responsible for my own interest in films, and if nobody has any complaints, I have asked him with regards to this thread, and he has his own question for Criterion. Note that I haven't, myself, seen this film. Also note that I had to tell him many times not to ask about Berlin Alexanderplatz! I'll paraphrase him:

Being a fan of Ingmar Bergman's films; particularly of Fanny and Alexander (my favorite film of all time), I have noticed that Criterion has been reluctant to address Bergman in his post-Fanny years; particularly as a screen writer. If I had to inquire about one film, I would have to ask if Criterion has any plans to release Billie August's Best Intentions; preferably in the five-hour miniseries version, nigh-impossible though it is to acquire.

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Buttery Jeb
Just in it for the game.
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:55 pm

#30 Post by Buttery Jeb » Wed May 23, 2007 12:06 pm

The one question I can think of is asking what happened to the rumored cult line, and whether we can expect some of the titles acquired for that to trickle out as Criterion or Eclipse sets. A firm answer after a couple years worth of innuendo and speculation shouldn't be too much to ask.

Also, with more studios giving Criterion access to their libraries, has there been any discussions about handling more recent Hollywood titles, a la the Wes Anderson films and Soderbergh's "Traffic." Obviously things would never go so far as back in the laserdisc days, but I could see one or two from director's with past relationships with the Collection (Fincher's "Zodiac" springs to mind, as do future films from P.T. Anderson and Cronenberg), or directors who'd like Criterion's touch on particular titles.

Oh, and "by Brakhage" Vol. 2 and the Eisenstein Silents... any updates?

-BJ

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shakes428isdead
Joined: Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:39 pm

#31 Post by shakes428isdead » Thu May 24, 2007 2:37 am

Though I've twice sent this concern to Jon Mulvaney without a response, I feel the matter too great not to include in this forum thread on important and noteworthy queries for Criterion. I have been an avid Criterion aficionado since my stumbling upon it as a high school student about to graduate. I purchased John Lurie's Fishing with John and, wondering what a Criterion Collection could possibly include, soon found myself wading through the aisles of Barnes and Noble to spot other selections in this peculiar assemblage. Admittedly deficient at the time in my knowledge concerning international and art-house cinema, I am a novice no longer, thanks mainly to the kick-start provided by Criterion. It is this newfound familiarity with and passion for international cinema that pushes me to address what I find to be a glaring omission in the Criterion Collection: the absence of African cinema in its canon.

Now spanning over four hundred titles (something to be lauded and admired), Criterion is the company par excellence for the film lover searching for his own cinematic feast, and it offers portions of Sweden and Japan, France and Poland, Germany and the UK alike. I recall my first Bergman (Wild Strawberries on a rainy early afternoon in April). My first Lang (M at twilight in midsummer). My first Kurosawa (Ran in a friend's apartment through wisps of his pot exhalations). My first Fellini (8 1/2 at midnight by myself). All of these wonderful filmic experiences were prompted by my poking about in Criterion's waters.

Sadly, I can not recall my first Sembene Ousmane film courtesy of the Criterion Collection. Or my first Merzak Allouache. Or my Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina. Or Mehdi Charef. Abderrahmame Sissako. Fanta Régina Nacro.

As I wrote earlier, four hundred titles is quite an achievement, but this achievement makes the absence of an entire continent's cinema doubly more apparent. Despite its size, Africa is a missing continent, and so too is its rich and varied cinematic history. Africa's film archive is one that betrays a history of outside influence and inside resistance, of coloniality and postcoloniality, of empire and nationalism, of ritual and war and love; it is a canon replete with sacrifice and beauty and is too important to be ignored.

The Criterion Collection has done much to illuminate the lives of those seeking a more worldly approach to cinema, but its mission to gather the "greatest films from around the world" and to "represent cinema at its finest" rings somewhat hollow in my ears if the films of an entire continent can not be culled from its four hundred titles.

At present, Africa's presence within the Criterion Collection is either through European eyes or surfaces obliquely in a film's narrative. In Duvivier's Pepe le Moko, the Algerian casbah is spotlighted as a haven for smugglers and rogues, a burning white light whose brightness attracts the insects of society. The film's protagonist is not an African at all, but a European criminal seeking hiding. In General Idi Ami Dada, director Barbet Schroeder places the murderous albeit seemingly charming dictator on display, allowing the camera to capture at once Amin's gentlemanly charms as tour guide and his pathetic posturing for supremacy and foreign political acceptance. Furthermore, Algeria is alluded to several times in Malle's Ascenseur pour l'échafaud and North Africa is showcased and exoticized (adeptly) in Cronenberg's Naked Lunch. Perhaps two highlights in the collection as it stands are The Battle of Algiers and La haine, notably directed by two European products of empire. In the former, Pontecorvo crafts one of the finest anti-colonial films and a masterful (re)construction of Algeria's War of Indepenence. Whereas Pontecorvo's film deals with the bloody rending apart of Africa and Europe, Kassovitz's La haine focuses on their haphazard reincorporation in the form of his banlieue protagonists (one of whom is an Arab of North African descent). Kassovitz reveals the lives of these youths in a country whose national identity does not include them save in the margins.

Criterion, you have amassed so many treasures from around the globe. You have breathed new life into obscured and neglected titles (and directors) with pristine transfers and such intimate and scholarly treatments. Why not uncover those remaining African treasures? Why not shake the cobwebs from their place on cinema's shelves and allow our curious minds to benefit from them?

I can imagine a three-disc treatment of Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina's three-hour masterpiece, Chronicle of the Years of Embers. I would love to see a release of Merzak Allouache's satire, Omar Gatlato, or Sembene's Camp de Thiaroye. These films are more than deserving of your treatment.

N.B. I understand fully one's frustration due to the absence of Indian films and many Asian (Vietnam, Taiwan) films from our esteemed Criterion label, but I feel the exclusion of African cinema in toto is too pressing to ignore.

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ellipsis7
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#32 Post by ellipsis7 » Thu May 24, 2007 4:11 am

I would second the Rossellini question - War Trilogy and/or Bergman/Rossellini set?... There's restored prints in the James Quandt assembled recent Cinematheque Ontario retro which has toured MOMA/NYC and is currently @ NFT London...

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FilmFanSea
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:37 pm
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#33 Post by FilmFanSea » Sun May 27, 2007 3:33 pm

A question both perennial and topical:

The multi-region DVD player has allowed cinephiles to purchase and watch DVD releases from all over the world. Many devotees of a certain director may have purchased multiple releases of a single film. This leads to inevitable comparisons between Criterion releases and those from other countries. (In addition, the DVDBeaver website has been at the forefront of comparing screenshots from multiple DVD releases.) Criterion releases generally fare very well in these comparisons, being at or near the top with respect to A/V quality. There has been one area of consistent scrutiny, debate, and criticism: Criterion's color choices on the later films of Yasujiro Ozu.

The last six films of Ozu's career were shot in color, specifically using the Agfa color process (according to David Bordwell's seminal book, Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema). Including the upcoming Eclipse set, Criterion has now released five of the six films on DVD (the unreleased film is Ozu's last, An Autumn Afternoon).

Good Morning (Ohayo/1959) was released by the CC in 2000. DVDBeaver comparisons here and here show Criterion to be the 'odd man out' with respect to color choice. The Hong Kong, Japanese, and UK releases have a decided greenish hue, while Criterion emphasizes the blue and red.

Floating Weeds (Ukigusa/1959) was released by CC in 2004. A single frame comparison with the Artificial Eye (UK) release shows that CC has a much sharper image, but there is a stark contrast in the color of the sky (the CC chose a strange shade of violet/periwinkle blue).

With the soon-to-be-released Eclipse Series 3: Late Ozu box set, two of the three color films (Equinox Flower/Higanbana and The End of Summer/Kohayakawake no aki) again show marked color divergence from corresponding releases from Hong Kong, Japan, and the UK. As before, the CC seems to choose a warmer color temperature (emphasizing red over green) than the other releases, which are notably cooler (greener). [Interestingly, the colors on the Eclipse release of Late Autumn appear to diverge little from those found on the Panorama (Hong Kong) DVD.]

Critics from this forum and elsewhere have argued that Criterion's color choices are in error for the following reasons:
  • Criterion's colors are “garishâ€

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Scharphedin2
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#34 Post by Scharphedin2 » Mon May 28, 2007 10:45 am

Would it be too opportunist to invite someone from Criterion to be represented in the forum? (cite our friends from Second Run and Masters of Cinema as examples of label officials who are members here, and use the forum as a channel of communication with their "fans").

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backstreetsbackalright
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#35 Post by backstreetsbackalright » Mon May 28, 2007 4:55 pm

Scharphedin2 wrote:Would it be too opportunist to invite someone from Criterion to be represented in the forum? (cite our friends from Second Run and Masters of Cinema as examples of label officials who are members here, and use the forum as a channel of communication with their "fans").
A great idea, but I suspect they know that they'd be mauled with nonstop questions. We'd all have to show astonishing restraint, and hope that not too many overeager newbies pounce on them.

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Scharphedin2
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#36 Post by Scharphedin2 » Mon May 28, 2007 5:14 pm

backstreetsbackalright wrote:
Scharphedin2 wrote:Would it be too opportunist to invite someone from Criterion to be represented in the forum? (cite our friends from Second Run and Masters of Cinema as examples of label officials who are members here, and use the forum as a channel of communication with their "fans").
A great idea, but I suspect they know that they'd be mauled with nonstop questions. We'd all have to show astonishing restraint, and hope that not too many overeager newbies pounce on them.
I suppose it could be very slyly incorporated at the end of the mail:

"Our hundreds of dedicated forum members and Criterion fans thank you kindly for you time in answering these questions, Ms. Hendrickson. As a token of our appreciation, we would be honored, if you would accept an honorable membership of the forum. We have set up the membership for you; all you need to do is to follow the link below, and it will automatically log you into the forum (cdnchris will have created the account in advance, so no effort at all on Kim's part). Here you will be able to follow a great variety of film related discussions on old and new cinema, DVD releases throughout the world including all of Criterion's releases, as well as meet and correspond with colleagues of other DVD labels like MoC and Second Run. We look forward to seeing you in the forum."

How could such an invitation be refused, especially by the sweet and gentle Kim, who so often replies to all of our emails.

Narshty
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#37 Post by Narshty » Mon May 28, 2007 5:29 pm

Very, very easily. Honestly, the sheer conceit of sending them an "honorable membership" to this whinging rats' nest is so embarrassing my eyes are starting to water. Just be grateful they even throw the occasional glance in this direction.

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Scharphedin2
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#38 Post by Scharphedin2 » Mon May 28, 2007 5:45 pm

Narshty wrote:Very, very easily. Honestly, the sheer conceit of sending them an "honorable membership" to this whinging rats' nest is so embarrassing my eyes are starting to water. Just be grateful they even throw the occasional glance in this direction.
Narshty, your choice of words had me spitting with laughter all over the place. Do you really find the forum that reprehensible? There is a measure of whinging and whining, and a few rats in the batch, but as internet discussion fora go, do you not think things are fairly civilized around here, and that there is a good number of sincere and insightful posts?

The "honorable membership" part was tongue-in-cheek, but you know that.

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Matt
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#39 Post by Matt » Tue Sep 04, 2007 3:54 pm

Is this still happening, or did Criterion put this batch of questions in the same circular file they chucked the last questions into a few years ago?

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cdnchris
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#40 Post by cdnchris » Thu Sep 20, 2007 9:32 pm

They have written me a few times and told me they are working on them so at least I know they haven't forgotten.

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Matt
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm

#41 Post by Matt » Fri Dec 28, 2007 8:04 pm

Matt wrote:
Ashirg wrote:Are there links to the previous Q&A with them that was done a couple years ago? It would be interesting to see what was asked previously.
Amazingly, I still had the original e-mails. I don't have the list of questions from the final, unanswered 2004 interview though.
Hey, whaddya know! I found the old questions from June 2004 that they never answered:

Of all the questions you get asked every day, what is the one question you wish people would stop asking? If you could ask one question of the fans, what would it be?

Some of the titles in the collection seem very idiosyncratic (which is one of the things that make Criterion so interesting). How much freedom do Criterion's producers get in choosing titles to work on? With the titles licenses from Fox, for example, did the producers themselves select from Fox's library the titles they wanted to work on?

It's Criterion's 20th anniversary this year but we've
seen very little planned. Is Criterion too modest to celebrate this milestone, or just too busy?

In regards to the director-approved releases, what level of collaboration between the director and Criterion merits this stamp? Obviously, it varies (Cronenberg seems very involved in his releases, Bergman much less so), but some releases by living directors lack this stamp of approval.

Has Criterion considered the idea of making available somehow the audio commentaries from out-of-print laserdiscs and DVDs, perhaps as CDs or downloadable audio files? Assuming Criterion owns the rights to these commentaries, is there another legal or financial issue involved preventing the use of these commentaries? Having them available for download (even for a fee) would be a great way of adding content to the official Criterion site, as would expanding the available information for the laserdisc releases (all readily available on an archived version of the pre-DVD Criterion site at http://www.chaumurky.net/criterion/catalog.html) and offering short clips of or trailers for Criterion titles for download.

Concerning boxed sets, how does Criterion determine which titles should be packaged together and which should stand alone? Why are certain titles available only in boxed sets?

Finally, what does Criterion have up their voluminous sleeves in the way of releases for the rest of 2004?

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