The budget line sounds great, as long as they can maintain something close to the quality of restoration that Criterion puts out. I'll certainly miss extras, but if the films look good and are readily affordable, I won't complain. I'll probably even buy more of them.

Early Bergman it is...

http://www.criterionco.com/blog/index.html

A lot of months of random speculation gets answered here, and it looks like we'll be getting even more details tomorrow.

YES!

The titles in the Eclipse line will not be restored to the same level as Criterion titles. That seems to be part of the impetus for the new line. In many cases, the elements simply do not permit "full Criterion restorations," as they note in the blog.

I would like to applaud myself for speculating days ago that the "single release per month" could easily start off as a box set of early Bergman works. That's all.

We've got a fucking latter-day Nostradamus here, I tell ya.

-JP

Once in a while, ya just gotta be happy when you make a prediction and it actually comes true, because you know everyone on here makes them, so let a man be happy when he makes a good guess.

The blog states that they are going to release 3-5 films per month, so you were only half right.

I would imagine that the Eclipse titles will be similar in quality to the old Home Vision releases (Yakuza Papers, Louisiana Story, M. Klein, etc.). Many of those were quite good, even though they had not received the same digital restoration that the Criterion titles did. Fortunately, it sounds like the Eclipse DVDs are going to retail for a lot lower than Home Vision's originally did.

Ozu...very nice

Exactly, that is a great way to describe the line.

Sounds a lot like Fox Studio Classics except with Criterion movies. So, in other words, I'm on cloud nine. I've wanted this to happen for a very long time.

The only difference it that the studio classics carry a variety of extras and a good transfer for an incredible low price, while the Eclipse line will be movie only editions, without supplements and very little restoration.

I with you on this feeling, as I will probably be able to pick up a lot of stuff that was previously only available for import (Tartan releases, etc.).