These announcements just gave me a huge Bonheur.

Too bad none of the Varda titles have commentaries.

I think Salo is such an anticipated release because (a) its unavailability in R1 has prevented people from seeing it, at all, period, and (b) for those who have seen it, the 2-disc treatment it is expected to receive will shed some much-needed light on the film.

I myself have endured the film twice... I can't say I look forward to the prospect of ever viewing it again, but I am very, very interested to see whatever bonus features Criterion puts together. This is sort of one of those films that isn't necessarily "good" in the traditional sense, but has significant artistic/historic importance to it.

Sporting Life looks to be my pick. I was expecting The Last Emperor and Salo this January. Guess not.

Possibly in Febuary along with Pierrot Le Fou?

Very interest in The Naked Prey and The Sporting Life. Two very good titles from Criterion for the month. I'll have to look into the Varda set as well. Hopefully these will be in time for the April or so Criterion sales that Amazon and DDD/DVDPlanet usually have (at least I think that's the month that they do them).

Still, I'm also interested in Salo and was wondering about its where abouts as other have mentioned. I actually looked for it at a BB today to no avail. I was under the impression it had already came out and was worried I had missed it.

Looks like we'll get Ang Lee's The Ice Storm in February based on the newsletter clue. (Party at our place. Bundle up and bring your keys.)

This would be my guess as well and my favorite Ang Lee film to date.

No obligatory "I've never heard of any of these films" post yet? DVD Talk's Criterion-haters are slipping.

WOW!

I've never guessed a Criterion title before...ever.

And yet, I also thought it was the Ice Storm.

Which is fantastic news. Best film Lee has made and is one of my 30 favorite films ever. Hooray!

I have never seen this before....

Seriously though, it looks like Criterion is re-releasing some old non-anamorphic titles in anamorphic this time. That is OK by me. I would like to see some more redos.

I'm getting naked in January! :)

I'm just happy to see it on DVD at all! Did Criterion already do Vagabond a while back?

Yes, they released in May 2000 as a bare-bones disc.

I have seen it and I am still waiting for the new Criterion release. Have you seen it?

I don't get this reaction to "Salo" either. Yes, it depicts horribly degrading acts, but nothing that comes anywhere close to the type of fare commonly considered "entertainment" in these parts. Moreover, those depictions are in the service of a critique of fascism/authoritarianism in 30s-40s Italy, utilizing a famous work by de Sade as a source, albeit reconfigured and repurposed.

In short, it's neither wholly debased (like a lot of crap that gets praised around here) and more than a little high-minded, requiring at the least some basic knowledge of history, both political and literary (unlike a lot of crap that gets praised around here).

In short, if you haven't seen it - and so long as you're not absolutely predisposed against, shall we say, some rather difficult fare - then you should see it. And when you watch it, you might even consider some modern parallels to what went on in that quasi-fictional compound - the corruption, degradation, torture and sexual humiliation we witness therein.

Criterion are redoing Salo, huh?

I wish that I was. For any reason.

Criterion haters? On a website devoted to DVD ;)? GASP!

Maybe I'll finally get to see that after searching for god-knows how long.

I wonder if there's any chance of getting Picnic at Hanging Rock in February or anytime in 2008 for that matter?

Of course I've seen it; do you think I would say something like that if I hadn't?

To be honest, I think the movie is fairly boring, but even if I did like/admire Salo, I can't imagine it'd be something I would watch more than once.

I'm down for the Varda Set and probably Naked Prey. I'll probably just stick with my Sporting Life LD for now.

The Criterion site doesn't mention a new release of Salo; where does this news come from? I saw Salo back in 1990, when my only source for Criterion-type films was using a VHS-rental-by-mail service. It's a deeply disturbing film, but then, it is an adaptation of The 100 Days of Sodom by the Marquis de Sade. Anyone who's read de Sade's work can't be too shocked by Pasolini's film.

I'm down for The Naked Prey and This Sporting Life. I also have a suggestion; if Warner continues to drag its feet on releasing The Devils, perhaps they could license it to Criterion? Perhaps Criterion could package it with a copy of the source book, Aldous Huxley's The Devils of Loudoun, as they did with The Man Who Fell to Earth.

From criterionforum.org:

SALÒ (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975) - Mentioned by Peter Becker in a interview: "We hope to remedy that in the near future". According to a Criterion producer, this is coming "soon". UPDATE 11/22/06 - "We’re working on a brand new HD transfer now. It’ll be a totally new release and be out in 2007"

This is one of the problems of them giving us info on stuff they are working on, which we all want but complain about when something winds up taking longer than expected.