March 2007 Criterions & Eclipse
 

Criterion:

The Naked City (Jules Dassin)

Fires On The Plain (Kon Ichikawa)

The Burmese Harp (Kon Ichikawa)

Eclipse:

Early Bergman: Eclipse Series 1

5-Disc set includes: Torment, Crisis, Port Of Call, Thirst and To Joy

Yes!! Finally The Burmese Harp is coming from Criterion.

:banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:

Ah, good, I'd been waiting for Fires On the Plain to be announced for release outside the Janus box. Burmese Harp sounds quite interesting, so I'll have to give that a look.

Not quite the selection I expected for the Bergman set, but it's a much-buy either way. :)

The Naked City :up:

The Early Bergman box set has a SRP of $69.95 which isn't too bad considering it's five films...

I just forked over £173.20 ($226.47) for the thirty film UK box set I'm think I'm covered for the moment.

Great news, but could you provide the source of information?

Yet another month of Criterions in which i have no interest...
This is fine by me, I still need to pick up AMARCORD from a few months ago.....Also I can save more money for the next DDD sale...

Giles:

Would you please email me when you receive the set as I would like to know precisely how each disc is housed, how sturdy the box is, and how exactly this set is shipped by Amazon (box size, wrapping, etc). Thank's in advance!

Ciao,
Pro-B

Another month where every title interests me.

I'll certainly be picking up the Eclipse set - though the Bergman titles chosen are even more obscure than had been predicted, I guess that's the point of the line. It's releasing films that are unlikely to get any R1 release anytime soon - and these had even less of a chance than some of the titles we had predicted. Exciting news for Bergman fans who are short on money and can't afford to go multi-region (as a student I certainly include myself in that group.)

Criterion. As I'm staring at the sell sheets on my desk.

Do you mean $326.47?

According to xe.com (currency conversion), £173.20 is $337.35 (today). Unless I missed something, I don't think the pound to dollar rate has been anywhere near as favorable as you cite for quite sometime. Am I missing something?

Great news. Looks like a solid month for Criterion. I plan to pick up each of the March releases.

no I changed the euro price to US dollars - oops, oh ouch! I didn't realize it was that much - doh!

Covers are up:

http://www.criterionco.com/content/i...ox_348x490.jpg
http://www.criterionco.com/content/i...ox_348x490.jpg
http://www.criterionco.com/content/i...ox_348x490.jpg

I just picked up the other Dassin Criterions in the DVDPlanet $10 off $30 sale. Enjoyed all of them and will definitely pick up Naked City.

Yes, I think you must be correct. Honestly, I'm not interested in owning any of the Eclipse Bergmans (though I've only actually seen two of them), but will Netflix all five.

And I really hope this means we'll see "Monika" and "Sawdust" on the Criterion line this year. And let's not forget "The Magician", which has been rumored about for some time.

EDIT: and great news about the Ichikawas! I hope this is merely a start, as I'm dying to get some great transfers of "An Actor's Revenge", "Odd Obsession/The Key", and "The Makioka Sisters". Among many others!

given the popularity of the 'The Makioka Sisters' I'm surprised this wasn't even ever released on VHS here in the states.

Naked City
 

That cover for The Naked City is a thing of wonder.

The promised extras are also quite enticing (from the Criterion website):-




Special Features


New, restored high-definition digital transfer

Audio commentary by screenwriter Malvin Wald

An analysis of the film’s New York locations by Celluloid Skyline author James Sanders

A new video interview with NYU film professor Dana Polan

Footage of Jules Dassin from his 2003 appearance at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Theatrical trailer

Stills gallery

PLUS: A new essay by Luc Sante


How many films from as long ago as 1948 have been released with a commentary from the original script writer? Very few I think.

Also good to see the long lived Jules Dassin represented in the extras, even if only in archive material.

This will be the release of 2007 for me.

Nice looking extras, Celluloid Skyline is a great book, I highly recommend it, definately interested to see that piece.

A big :up: for <b>THE NAKED CITY</b> !

Feel free to post the info :)
I'd be interested to know as well (not sure about ordering it from overseas if the
discs aren't housed in cases... Too easy for them to become scuffed if they're
in folders or paper jackets)

RE: Bergman Box and Amazon.co.uk
 

okay, this is the third request for my experience receiving the box set in the mail:

here's my general response to this:

...the only thing I found appalling was how the box looked on the receiving end. Surprisingly, the actual DVD box set was not damaged, but the package that it was sent in, looked like it fell off of a mountain, battered, torn, dented, ripped. (So essentially, you're at the mercy of the post office when you're ordering this) For a P&H for a mere 4GBP this is a steal - I bought it from Amazon.co.uk. The discs are also PAL encoded Region 0, which surprise surprise can be played on my unmodified Philips (American) DVD player - who knew?? Lastly because the size, weight and shape of the shipping box Amazon sent, this required a signature from my post office - it was too large to have been left on my home porch.

so, to reparaphrase, the box the discs are stored in is sturdy and the way Amazon packed this, it was really amazing that the Box set didn't look anything like the box it was sent in - which was the fault of the post office - I would assume the US post office handling was the culprit here. At 9 inches wide 7.5 inches tall and 5 and 3/4 deep (for the actual DVD 'box') the shipment box Amazon put and sent this in was 'large' to say the least. Amazon's bundled this as they usually do, with tight plastic wrapped tightly to the bottom board of the box - it could not shift within the shipment box. The individual discs are housed in paper/inner plastic cases with snug disc hubs - 30 discs not one was a floater.

sorry to hijack but since everyone is asking here are pics of the UK bergman set:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ingmar-Bergm...?ie=UTF8&s=dvd

yay for Naked City