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Arrow Academy has really scaled back their releases

How on earth was that hat clue relevant?

swo17 wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 12, 2019 10:21 am

How on earth was that hat clue relevant?

You wear a hat on your head - and a face is part of a head?

I guess it’s this. But seriously, I’d have preferred Blackhat to either of these. I mean, Bells of St Mary’s?

Is Arrow licencing from Paramount now?

I believe they've released a couple other Republic titles and/or Paramount titles that they've been willing to license to Kino/Olive in the US, but nothing along the lines of the stuff they've licensed to Criterion or, in the past, Eureka/MoC.

It feels like forever since Arrow announced something worthwhile to be honest. Where are the days of Yoshida, Godard in the 60s, Rivette and Rohmer? Or at the very least Irma Vep...

Khrustalyov, My Car!, demonlover, Phantom Lady, and the Jissoji set (which, granted, is a holdover from last year) are all exciting releases this year

That's true, but again, I remember when every month I was more excited for Arrow than Criterion. Seems less so nowadays

I could be wrong, but it seems a lot of the people that did work on BFI/MOC releases until 2013 or so then focused on Arrow releases and are now focused on Indicator...Quality of people more than quality of the label itself has always been my thinking...

I was always under the impression that the producers didn't/don't have much influence over acquisitions and Fran Simeoni is still label director. It certainly feels like the label has become less adventurous since 2015/16 though - I think Mélo is the only foreign-language title that has been announced this year, with the exception of the delayed Jissoji set?

You are forgetting Khrustalyov, My Car! And demonlover

You're right, I did forget demonlover; Khrustalyov was announced last year however.

Melo was announced at the same time. I thought you were talking about 2019 releases.

Glowingwabbit wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 12, 2019 2:09 pm

Melo was announced at the same time. I thought you were talking about 2019 releases.

Apologies, you're entirely right. I think I got mixed up due to Khrustalyov's theatrical re-release. Either way, if we do look at 2019's foreign language output so far it is definitely a decrease on previous years.

Agreed. I'm wondering if the budgets on the Academy side have been slashed. Arrow Video is still doing plenty of releases (non-english titles as well)

These two films are among the worst movies to ever come out of studio era Hollywood. Who the hell is making these acquisition decisions?

swo17 wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 12, 2019 10:21 am

How on earth was that hat clue relevant?

Look what we pulled out of the hat

It’s a hat you wear on your ass, because only an asshat would pick these movies.

What's odd to me is that Arrow probably licensed Man with a Thousand Faces because they have an interest in Lon Chaney. Universal has many of the major Lon Chaney films in their library, so why not put the effort into a legit classic? It's not like Kino or Criterion are releasing these (or any other Universal silent films). There was legit opportunity to do something major.

I doubt Universal has elements for any of their Cheney films, major or minor. Man of a Thousand Faces probably has an existing HD-ready master and could be accessed through an ongoing licensing deal, so it's a simpler proposition than trying to obtain something like Hunchback from Film Preservation Associates or whoever.

Drucker wrote:I could be wrong, but it seems a lot of the people that did work on BFI/MOC releases until 2013 or so then focused on Arrow releases and are now focused on Indicator...Quality of people more than quality of the label itself has always been my thinking...

But Indicator doesn't even do non-English release and only deals with a couple of Studios. It cannot cover MoC/BFI/Arrow's ground.

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 12, 2019 8:02 pm

I doubt Universal has elements for any of their Cheney films, major or minor. Man of a Thousand Faces probably has an existing HD-ready master and could be accessed through an ongoing licensing deal, so it's a simpler proposition than trying to obtain something like Hunchback from Film Preservation Associates or whoever.

The specs indicate an Arrow in house restoration though. So it’s not going to be using any existing HD master.

Apart from the choices becoming pretty generic, the overall Academy output has decreased significantly which is weird because when they expanded the Academy range into the US, Fran Simeoni had said they would be increasing the Academy output.

I think the grim truth is, as shown by the countless boutique labels putting out similar releases, the junk on the Video label outsells the Academy titles so they allocate more resources there

Don’t doubt that, that has been the case for years (as you say look at the output of countless other boutique labels), just find it odd that it has happened not long after the Academy expansion into the US.