Upcoming Criterion titles confirmed
 

found it here:
http://hometheaterforum.com/htforum/...hreadid=217126

The American Museum of the Moving Image recently hosted a panel dicussion with Criterion president Peter Becker and Criterion Tech Director Lee Kline on November 14th. During their chat, they happened to spill the beans on a number of upcoming titles.

Jean Renoir's THE RIVER is forthcoming. The transfer of this title will be done by digitally re-compositing
the original 3-strip Technicolor negative, which currently has some shrinkage problems. This project is being co-financed by the British Film Institute.

Kurosawa's SEVEN SAMURAI is being re-released from a new High Definition transfer. Peter Becker noted that a number of early non-anamorphic Criterion titles (some additional Kurosawa possibly among them) will likely be re-released with new transfers.

Michael Powell's 49TH PARALLEL and A CANTERBURY TALE are in the works. Antonioni's THE ECLIPSE (seen to great effect in Scorsese's MY VOYAGE TO ITALY doco) is also on the way. The forthcoming MGM RAGING BULL DVD will feature the original Criterion commentary, and Criterion indicate they are open to considering future licensing of their earlier commentary tracks on a case by case basis.


I already have the region-2 versions of the Powell films (I'm a HUGE fan) - and I'll get these too. But still no word on Powell/Pressburger's Tales of Hoffman - Criterion has been working on that for over 5 years now...

It's good to know that Raging Bull will have the Criterion commentary - it's one of the greatest film commentaries ever recorded.

The only bummer is no announcement of any more Bunuel. Last year, their marketing guy said that there'd be at least 2 more Bunuel titles by the end of 2004 - yet there's been nothing, and still nothing so far for 2005.

Yeah I heard they are also looking to re-release High and Low as well. Good stuff, I've enjoyed the Renoir Criterions so far.

I just ordered Seven Samurai as part of the DDD sale. I guess I can toss that one in the Ebay pile.

I wouldn't worry about it. Its probably still about a year aways.

Re: Upcoming Criterion titles confirmed
 

Sweet. I hope this includes <i>High and Low</i>...along with a few bonus features, of course...

if Antonioni's ECLIPSE really comes out then this would be an event :up::up:

Pro-b

Where is my Armageddon 16x9? ;)

I will take Seven Samurai!

They need to hurry up and re-release Sanjuro and Yojimbo before I buy the anamorphic versions from England or Australia.

Not the greatest movie in the world, but i would like to have an anamorphic version of Armageddon

Re: Upcoming Criterion titles confirmed
 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Seven Samurai full frame? How would it benefit from an anamorphic transfer? (I can understand if they're using a better transfer, but don't understand the anamorphic part at all...)

Re: Re: Upcoming Criterion titles confirmed
 

It's a bit confusing because it's in the same paragraph, but I think they're saying that early non-anamorphic discs will likely be re-released with new transfers, IN ADDITION to a new transfer of SEVEN SAMURAI.

Anyway, great news about SEVEN SAMURAI, and hopefully YOJIMBO and SANJURO will get new transfers too (in their case, anamorphic)

The transfers for Yojimbo and Sanjuro are pretty bad, especially the overscan issue. I hope they redo them.

dd on Criterions...that is just horrible!! how can they do this? how can we afford this? anyone know if they are going to re-release the long OOP ones, like "The Killer"?..egads!!

Do what? You know how much I'll be able to sell Seven Samurai for when it officially goes OOP? Quite a bit more than what the new version will cost.

Thank god I waited on on buying Seven Samurai, I always assumed they'd rerelease it in the future.

No mention was made of this... but the Seven Samurai disk will likely have the new subtitle translations. :thumbsup:

I agree 100%. Compared to the Japanese R2 discs, the Criterion ones pale so much in comparison, I could never bring myself to buy these two titles. If the new versions look at least as good as the Japanese discs though, I'll get them in a heartbeat.

If the Japanese R2 releases had English subtitles, Criterion would lose alot of money from me. Since they don't, I'll have to hold out for the eventual Criterion releases.

Good point...Now I dont feel so bad that I just got this for my bday last week.

This is truly good news... :up:

Nice. I rented L'Avventura a few months ago and really enjoyed it. I'll probably buy it along with La Notte and L'Eclisse when it's released.

But, is there any chance Criterion could also pick up La Notte? A box set would be nice. I'm not sure how good the current release is.

I think I'll keep waiting in case they rerelease it again.

I don't mind it too. It's a good mindless popcorn flick.

England. Same place mine was.