Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

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movielocke
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2876 Post by movielocke » Tue Apr 16, 2019 6:05 pm

If anniversaries are important to them as stated in the locked thread (definitely not important), that bodes well for either Dreyer, Renoir, Rohmer or Sternberg getting an August anniversary upgrade next month.

With 17 DVD box sets not upgraded, they could keep doing one a month for a few months to tide us over during the long dark teatime of the pre spine 1000 new box set drought. :-p

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HitchcockLang
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2877 Post by HitchcockLang » Tue Apr 16, 2019 6:15 pm

Seems like they’ve been churning out some Fassbinder lately kinda like they started doing with Bergman right before that big box.

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DRW.mov
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2878 Post by DRW.mov » Tue Apr 16, 2019 6:46 pm

I would lose my MIND if they did a Bergman level Fassbinder box. Considering how many Fassbinder titles they’re sitting on, its not out of the realm of possibilties.

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DRW.mov
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2879 Post by DRW.mov » Tue Apr 16, 2019 6:50 pm

If we’re pulling at anniversary straws, 2020 would have been his 75th year.

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NABOB OF NOWHERE
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2880 Post by NABOB OF NOWHERE » Wed Apr 17, 2019 5:36 am

DRW.mov wrote:
Tue Apr 16, 2019 6:46 pm
I would lose my MIND if they did a Bergman level Fassbinder box. Considering how many Fassbinder titles they’re sitting on, its not out of the realm of possibilties.
Twice bitten once shy after Bergman having bought everything up to date just before the BIG BOX announcement including Virgin Spring.

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MichaelB
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Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2881 Post by MichaelB » Wed Apr 17, 2019 11:08 am

DRW.mov wrote:I would lose my MIND if they did a Bergman level Fassbinder box. Considering how many Fassbinder titles they’re sitting on, its not out of the realm of possibilties.
And unlike some of the wilder suggestions like a Welles box, this is entirely feasible rightswise.

(I don’t own any Criterion Fassbinders, but I do have all the Arrows.)

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domino harvey
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2882 Post by domino harvey » Wed Apr 17, 2019 11:21 am

Olive still has a couple, though

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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2883 Post by swo17 » Wed Apr 17, 2019 11:24 am

The same was true for Bergman!

*replace "couple" with "one"

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domino harvey
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2884 Post by domino harvey » Wed Apr 17, 2019 11:25 am

Oh yeah haha I always forget about that release because I never bothered since I already have the longer TV version

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DRW.mov
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2885 Post by DRW.mov » Wed Apr 17, 2019 11:30 am

Olive still has a couple of Bergman titles too that didn’t make Criterion’s box. Olive has I Only Want You to Love Me and Despair, which despite being great films (especially Despair) their absense wouldn’t be a huge loss. Especially if, like the Bergmans, the Eclipse titles finally make it to Blu-ray. Criterion currently has 15 Fassbinder titles on disc, at least 7 more confirmed waiting in the wings (Fear of Fear, Satan’s Brew, Querelle, etc) and about 8 more big titles that currently aren’t spoken for/presumably with the RWF Foundation (Martha, 13 Moons, Whity, etc).

A 30 film box set would be astounding, and absolutely possible. Hell, even a 25 film box would be amazing considering that one is eight hours and another is 16.

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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2886 Post by NABOB OF NOWHERE » Wed Apr 17, 2019 12:51 pm

If only we could be speculating about a Chabrol box in these terms

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domino harvey
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2887 Post by domino harvey » Wed Apr 17, 2019 1:06 pm

Seriously. If we’re rescuing Pathfinder/Wellspring titles, these should be top priority

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yoloswegmaster
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2888 Post by yoloswegmaster » Wed Apr 17, 2019 1:28 pm

DRW.mov wrote:
Wed Apr 17, 2019 11:30 am
Olive still has a couple of Bergman titles too that didn’t make Criterion’s box. Olive has I Only Want You to Love Me and Despair, which despite being great films (especially Despair) their absense wouldn’t be a huge loss. Especially if, like the Bergmans, the Eclipse titles finally make it to Blu-ray. Criterion currently has 15 Fassbinder titles on disc, at least 7 more confirmed waiting in the wings (Fear of Fear, Satan’s Brew, Querelle, etc) and about 8 more big titles that currently aren’t spoken for/presumably with the RWF Foundation (Martha, 13 Moons, Whity, etc).

A 30 film box set would be astounding, and absolutely possible. Hell, even a 25 film box would be amazing considering that one is eight hours and another is 16.
KL Insider also mentioned that StudioCanal had the rights to a couple of the Fassbinder titles (probably 13 Moons, Whitty, etc.) and that they didn't get any of the titles from them. Wonder if Criterion was able to pick up the rights to them.

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movielocke
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Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2889 Post by movielocke » Wed Apr 17, 2019 2:06 pm

DRW.mov wrote:If we’re pulling at anniversary straws, 2020 would have been his 75th year.
And 2020 is also a Kurosawa anniversary, but criterion did celebrate AK100 in December 2009. So maybe Kurosawa and fassbinder are the two on deck.

Signs could be pointing to fassbinder though, as they started doing out of the blu long delayed Bergman upgrades before the big box, but as yet with seven titles not upgraded, no out of the blue long delayed Kurosawa upgrades in 2019.

but we do have two such examples of out of the blue long delayed upgrades of fassbinder in 2019. making Fassbinder, like Bergman, 100% upgraded now. Hmmm...

Fassbinder is mostly evenly divided by Issa Clubb and Jason Altman, whilst Kurosawa has 10 Kim Hendrickson, and seven other titles handled by three other producers.

I’d hypothesize: Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Cinema is probably now the most likely candidate for a sequel set.

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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2890 Post by DRW.mov » Wed Apr 17, 2019 4:33 pm

Interesting. The only title that StudioCanal has in the UK is Lola which appears to be with RWF here in the US. Those old Fantomas titles (13 Moons, Martha, Whitty, etc) have been in limbo forever. If StudioCanal got them and Criterion used a few of their slots on them that would be amazing. They’re some of his best work and don’t get nearly enough attention due to their lack of availability. I wouldn’t be surprised if the forthcoming Lili Marleen is a SC title. Though, if Cohen or Arrow were one of the other labels in with StudioCanal I could easily see them going after Fassbinder too, especially with Arrow’s Fassbinder line.

The influx of Fassbinder lately has been surprising. Fox was the last standalone and it was almost three years ago. We knew we could expect Eight Hours following the restoration and UK release. But BA was a surprise, especially that close after. BRD following on its tails is even more surprising, especially considering its long overdue absense. We’ve known for a while that they’ve had the rights to reissue the BRD Trilogy but were waiting. They clearly weren’t waiting for new restorations, evidenced by the fact that Veronika Voss is just an HD transfer. But the big tip off is that after years of sitting on a mountain of Wellspring titles that they’re still working their way through, they pick up the rights to Querelle from Gaumont and it looks like Lili Marleen, possibly from RWF or StudioCanal. They clearly have their sights set on expanding their Fassbinder library and fast. We’ve all seen the Chaplin and Lloyd trickles. Three large releases, two of them boxsets, from one director this close together isn’t normal.

With the influx of queer themed films in the collection in the past few years (Desert Hearts, Hedwig, Female Trouble, the incoming Paris is Burning) it doesn’t surprise me that if they are selecting a director for their second retrosepctive box, on top of having easy access to a number of their films, picking an out director with overtly queer themes and subject matter is a great choice. Almodóvar would have been an equally great and easy choice. But as I mentioned above, Criterion might be able to get upwards of thirty Fassbinder titles, not counting his shorts that Arrow released, whereas Pedro only just finished his 21st film and the fact that he’s still working probably disqualifies him from getting a career spanning box as his career is still going.

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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2891 Post by swo17 » Wed Apr 17, 2019 5:08 pm

Seven months of announcements into 2019 and unless I'm missing something there hasn't been a single new commentary put out this year

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movielocke
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2892 Post by movielocke » Wed Apr 17, 2019 5:16 pm

swo17 wrote:Seven months of announcements into 2019 and unless I'm missing something there hasn't been a single new commentary put out this year
Ah but the other supplements have been pretty superb, and I haven’t felt we were missing anything on any 19 title thus far.

Calvin
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2893 Post by Calvin » Wed Apr 17, 2019 7:19 pm

In addition to Lola, in the UK, Studio Canal has Veronika Voss, Martha, In a Year of 13 Moons, and The Third Generation.

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SpiderBaby
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2894 Post by SpiderBaby » Wed Apr 17, 2019 7:50 pm

RWF is my favorite filmmaker, so I would buy these over and over. A huge Bergman-like set would be my favorite release of all time.

Lili Marleen finally getting a US release would be great, but I'm wondering about the unreleased TV works of Fassbinder, held up by different rights issues, etc.

Jail Bait, I believe, was being held up by the author of the book it's based on, because he didn't like the film. I wonder when the last time someone poked the bear with that? People change.

Also Olive said about 8 or so years ago (time flies) they were going to release the TV version of Stationmaster's Wife, but never did. Wonder if Criterion can get that. I have quadruple dipped on Fassbinder releases, so this set is sold either way for me. But I just hope Criterion can reach for the most complete RWF set they can.

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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2895 Post by DRW.mov » Wed Apr 17, 2019 8:13 pm

It has been roughly 8 years since Olive released Despair and I Only Want You to Love Me as well as announced Stationmaster’s Wife. I wonder if it would be possible if Olive would let the rights lapse. Afterall, Despair is the only one that they put out on blu-ray, so technically Criterion might be able to secure blu-ray only rights for IOWYTLM at a minimum.

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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2896 Post by FrauBlucher » Fri Apr 19, 2019 6:52 am

Just noticed that we're at the halfway point for the year and not one Japanese film announced. The last release was last November, The Story of Chikamatsu. And November of 2016 was the last Kurosawa, Dreams. Still plenty of Kurosawa and Ozu upgrades needed as well. Plus, I would love to see a 4k restoration of The Burmese Harp

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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2897 Post by mteller » Fri Apr 19, 2019 10:48 am

The last Ray release was The Hero back in February 2018. We know they're sitting on a bunch more, I would love to get Devi or the Calcutta trilogy soon.

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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2898 Post by Noiradelic » Fri Apr 19, 2019 5:13 pm

FrauBlucher wrote:
Fri Apr 19, 2019 6:52 am
Just noticed that we're at the halfway point for the year and not one Japanese film announced. The last release was last November, The Story of Chikamatsu. And November of 2016 was the last Kurosawa, Dreams. Still plenty of Kurosawa and Ozu upgrades needed as well. Plus, I would love to see a 4k restoration of The Burmese Harp
To me the most glaring absence is Floating Clouds, or any Naruse on BD.

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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2899 Post by beamish14 » Fri Apr 19, 2019 5:22 pm

Could an Oshima Nagisa box be on the horizon? God knows they're sitting on an enormous cache of his films. Janus toured that incredible retrospective a number of years ago.

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dda1996a
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Re: Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

#2900 Post by dda1996a » Fri Apr 19, 2019 5:33 pm

I might be opening a Pandora box here, but other than the Bergman box and War & Peace, what other new release has been something special or really exciting? I love Blue Velvet and Do the Right Thing for example, but they weren't films that were dying for a Blu Ray release, no.matter how unsatisfactory previous releases were. (Checking, the Von Sternberg and Burnett do count. But I still feel a significant lack of major non American release, meaning something really out there like Parajanov or Brighter Summer Day)

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