Criterion in March
 

Just one so far. Straight from the horse's mouth...

Criterion to Release Antonioni's L'eclisse

Michelangelo Antonioni's classic examination of modern alienation, L'eclisse, will be released by Criterion in early 2005. The two-disc special edition will feature a new transfer from restored film elements, as well as a number of supplemental features, including audio commentary by film scholar Richard Peña, a 56-minute documentary exploring the director’s life and career, an exclusive new video piece featuring Italian film critic Adriano Apra and longtime Antonioni friend Carlo di Carlo, and more. Look for L’eclisse this March!

Great news .... too bad Criterion can't get their hands on <i>La Notte</i>!

Antonioni is great.... but where is Bottle Rocket? :lol:

They will probally release Bottle Rocket the same day they relaese The Life Aquatic with steve zissou. Would make sense to cross-promote them.

Now if Criterion would release Con Air I would be happy

wish they would do the original ten commandments

Sounds like Hoop Dreams will be out in March also. The River is a sure March release.

They were supposed to have a three picture deal with Michael Bay, and they've only put out two films so far. I'm still wondering what the third is going to be.

Pearl Harbor :Criterion 8 dvd edition! cannot wait!

its as likley as all his other films thst for sure.

Antonioni just makes my mouth water. Now other than Bottle Rocket, The Game, Dazed and Confused and all those other semi-rumoured, titles, can we go ahead and get Crash or some Ford, eh?

Also from digitalbits.com:

I wish they would do a few more more mainstream films :( most the films they seem to get I just cannot like much if I try.

2005 has not even started and i am already out hundreds of dollars on Criterion titles alone. They all sound great.

Why would Criterion do more mainstream films?

Excellent news, more European cinema is always welcomed by me :up:

Please update this thread with the covers when they become available.

Pro-B

Well they would make more cash! and they wouldnt seem so up themselves picking films like they do, which on the whole are just not normal films for everyday people that why, I like some films they pick, but on the whole they are far too up the artsy films asses for me, and there prices are a total joke!

I read Criterion is increasing their output of DVDs per year. I'd also prefer if Criterion didn't do mainstream releases. I think the major studios do a fine job of releasing movies at decent prices. But if you want rare movies with tons of features you're gonna have to pay for it. The masses have their movies and now the movie buffs have theres too.

Other studios do far superior dvd of films like these and dont charge insane ammounts :) Criterion are a joke a lot of the time for pricing dvds and people still buy them, go figure!

The thing is many of the films are not even rare, they just dont seem to have good dvds for some reason. But many do and are far superior to the Criterion versions and cost a lot less.

I will say what have Criterion got for future release? as they do seem to keep quite latley and only announce a few months before they release them, surley they should announce as soon as they can? more people that know the better if you ask me, esspecially the Kurasawa films :)

Criterion no longer makes early announcements becasue of some of the shit consumers would give them if a rumored title never showed up.

They would periodically get stuck when they a deal in pricipal, but the rights holder will pull the plug on them.

Examples: The original Gojira and other Godzilla films (Advertised on LD back in 1999 or so...), Gone with the Wind (WAAAY back in the late 80's early 90's) and Glory (Same as Gone with the Wind).

Then there's the titles that are officially announced, and don't show up for a year or two due to technical delays, can you say The Killer and Hard Boiled on LD?

fitprod

Criterion is not your "normal" company for everyday people....

Pro-B

Criterion releases films for a niche market, and collectors celebrate these releases because they are for films which would get no release otherwise, or only a very bare-bones one. There are exceptions to the 'niche market' thing, but for the most part, it's true. This is the reason they have to charge more, because the films have less inherent mass appeal than, say, the average Michael Bay film. ;)

I celebrate the lack of thought you've put into this, it makes my post so much easier. Criterion releases are not getting released on DVDs by their original distributors for one simple reason -- the distributors don't see it as potentially profitable. This is why, if the distributors *do* release the film, they do it barebones, rather than putting money into the effort. This, in turn, is why collectors celebrate Criterion releases.

Really? How many is many? I know of about five or ten which could be argued as superior, out of two-hundred and how many? Which titles were you thinking of? I mean, you're obviously the expert on Criterion, so I figure you've got specific titles in mind.

At least now I understand why somebody who seems anti-Criterion clicked a thread which said "Criterion in March". Because I was wondering why you'd bothered.

Just so you know, I'm no huge Criterion buff. I love Gilliam, Altman, and Hitchcock, so for that, if no other reason (and there are other reasons), I'm glad they're around. Nobody else is rushing out special editions of Gilliam, or 'Short Cuts', or ... well, actually, some of those Hitchcocks are rumored to be re-released. But nobody *was* interested, it took Criterion showing how it could be profitable.

Also, 'Tunes of Glory' is pretty much my favorite movie, and Criterion has released it every step of the way, way back to VHS when it was a "Janus" release. So if you don't like the movies they release, that's cool. But every release they have, a lot of people do like, and that following is always pleased to hear that the film they love is being released by Criterion.

No need to be taking a tone like that really. :)

Never said I was aniti Criterion either, I just get sick of all the praise sometimes on certain films which dont deserve it and dvds which are not worth that much cash, early dvd releases esspecialy and the way there prices shoot up.
I do own many Criterion dvds and some are worth it, but I just cannot get it out of my head they out price themselves sometimes for more normal people and I end up getting other versions from somewhere else in the world which are as good and far cheaper (no need to list whats better than The Criterion version, as the thread would be filed up with people saying no its not as good ,yes it is ).

I do look forward to criterion releases of films I love, but the problem is there's not that many I feel are worth the cash :( esspecially if I havent seen a film.

I watched Spartacus last night and well that Criterion dvd was worth getting and more films like this would please me, Big films, but not exactly what I call mainstream really.

Saying that, non english language films are not mainstream for average joes. :)

I envy your confidence in making broad sweeping generalizations. I personally feel pretty dumb when I do it.

You don't like foreign films. We get it.

First of all, the praise on most Criterion films is to be expected. For the most part they release critically-acclaimed films. Second, the DVDs they release are top-notch. Right now is a bad time for DVDs as most studios are only thinking about how many times they can release the same movie and convince people to buy each one. While Criterion strives to get it right the first time around. Yes, Criterion's prices are high, they are not getting higher like you say. In fact their pricing is a bit more acceptable now because they include so many features on their releases now. I wish every studio treated their movies like Criterion does.

I hope Criterion cares about more than cash. Their catalogue certainly indicates as such.

What do you mean "like they do"? Criterion's catalogue is too diverse to be categorized, unless you're using childish umbrella terms like "artsy". All that shows is your own ignorance towards the company.

So they don't release films for normal, everyday people. Nuts to them. "Everyday people" aren't interested in Criterion's catalogue. That's a problem for them to sort out, not Criterion. The average McJoe is the one on the losing team, because they aren't interested in movies.

Criterion discs have such high prices for a few very good reasons.

For one, Criterion, as a company, is very small. And for a small company, Criterion has a very large output...I count about three dozen releases this year, including two re-masters and two boxed sets; one small and one gigantic (nine films between the two boxes), and not even counting the Jacques Tati re-issues. This is where they differ from Synapse, Fantoma and Milestone, smaller companies who have somewhat more acceptable prices because they release, and work on, roughly a third of what Criterion releases.

Finding and securing the rights to many of these films is an expensive endeavor. Big US-based studios own their own films, and have video distribution departments. Criterion needs to pay for the use of top-quality negatives and fine grains that are often owned by other companies, be it Fox or Toho, and there's no telling what efforts Criterion must go through to get these films released. And that isn't even counting the supplements, which are often owned by DIFFERENT distributors from the films themselves. It also costs money to make sure the transfers are top-notch...the big studios are often reluctant to do this. Only Fox and Warner seem genuinely dedicated to treating all of their classic library with Criterion quality attention (and Warner screw-ups aren't unheard of). Even other indie companies are simply unable to ensure that level of perfection.

Neither last nor least, Criterion is only a DVD company. They only get revenue from their DVDs, unlike Kino, Milestone, Wellspring, New Yorker, Zeitgeist and many others, who have theatrical divisions. If they want to release more DVDs, they need to score a profit. To do that, the discs must be rather expensive.

Hmmm....another Criterion thread, another heated debate about Criterion.

Nothing new to see here folks. Move along.

Nope, I buy more films from across the world (as long as the films good) than english langauage ones :)



and I will just keep quiet now, as I think I have kind of started a thread into oblivion :) sorry for that everyone.

I type what I think, without thinking before I type (if a mod wants me to delete my posts I will as I guess they are not very on topic, well kind of)

I believe they actually make not too much money. On another mesage board I was dabbling around on, someone was talking about a New Line person (re some Fine Line films going to Criterion) and the New Line guy basically said part of the reason they sold Criterion the rights was because in general, they weren't profitable, so it was kind of a pity sell (not sure if I buy that anyone in Hollywood has pity...). In any case, they've been known to pay for commentary in DVDs and such like that. They certainly aren't making the big bucks, heh, but thank the gods that they're around.

That's good news!

It seems Criterion has delayed the Andrzej Wajda boxset, as they no longer list it on the website.

That sucks. That really sucks that it just disappeared.