Just finished watching Ascent, and I was completely blown away. What a powerful film! It is a pity that only two Shepitko titles are included, as all of the previous Eclipse sets had at least three titles, save the Raymond Bernard set. At least in that case Les Miserables had a 281 minute run time.

Have the September Titles been announced yet?
I hope we get The Hit and Wise Blood soon. Ive always wanted to see these films.
My guess is we will get more John Huston films including Wise Blood and hopefully Prizzi's honor. That'd be cool
I'd also love to see Criterion editions of 1984 and She's Gotta Have it.
Hopefully we find out what the MGM titles are soon.

I could see She's Gotta Have It, since Criterion also put out Do The Right Thing. 1984 would be nice, since the current disc is OOP (although I could see Fox/MGM rereleasing it when the new movie comes out), but something tells me that it's unlikely.

Not yet, but they're generally announced (on a weekday) around the 15th of the month... So we can probably expect to see them on Monday or thereabouts.

I really want The Hit. It was one of those movies I caught late at night on TV without knowing anything about it prior, and fucking loved it.

She's Gotta Have It was just released a few months ago by MGM, so I doubt we'll be seeing a Criterion of that any time soon. The existing MGM disc of Prizzi's Honor is still in print, so that's probably out too. Criterion owns the rights to Huston's The Dead, so perhaps that will be on the way. I'm guessing The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and the Ophuls set for Sept.

What?

Salo went out of print because of an issue with Pasolini's estate. I sincerely doubt it had anything to do with MGM.

Source?

maybe those remaining three MGM films would be Pasolini's Trilogy of Life films: The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales, and Arabian Nights (the last one actually being shown in HiDef on MGM's cable channel) - I'm just speculating, and I'm probably wrong, but it's just a wish.

The information came from a person with contacts in the technical services department at MGM.

The back cover confirms it was licensed from MGM. It is difficult to read the licensing text in the picture, but you can make out "Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. All Rights Reserved." The United Artists logo is clearly visible at the bottom.

From what I heard it will be three David Lean films.

I would love to see good editions of oliver twist and great expectations.
It would make since since the Criterion editions of these currently out there are horrendous and obscenely priced considering there are no special features.

I saw it with the live band at the Egyptian theatre in Hollywood. Was absolutely fantastic, and I agree, part of the love of the movie was because of the live narration and band/foley and I'm not too sure I'd enjoy it as much at home.

Yeah, I've been holding off on both of these in anticipation of re-releases. I wonder what the third Lean film would be - Blithe Spirit?

Spiral Staircase, where did you get the back cover image of the new DVD? Also, what is that image of the man looking through the binoculars in the final scene?

I dunno. I've watched the laserdisc plenty of times over the years. I'm looking forward to buying the Criterion AND the import Blu-Ray edition. After that, I'm not sure I'd be willing to buy a domestic Criterion BR upgrade, should such an event come to pass.

It was pretty awful a few years back. I recall paying 124.99 for 'In The Mood For Love' and 89.99 for 'Naked Lunch' back when they first came out. Nowadays 69.99 is pretty much the highest price I see around and, in those cases, I just mailorder from amazon.com. That's only cheaper in the cases where I'm NOT charged an extra $50 in customs charges, though - it's always a crap shoot.

The image is from Barnes and Noble. They frequently post finalized artwork for many Criterion releases about a month before the street date. The picture of the man with binoculars is, most likely, from the inside of the slipcase, but it could be the back of the booklet. I will post the other two new pictures of the set below.

That cover is graphic...I wonder if there will be stickers loaded on top of it.

I wonder how many people will buy Salo only because it's so expensive as an OOP instead of geniune interest in the film. hmmm

The better question is - are people buying it for the notority or simply because they like the film ? (or have it in their collection as 'something to talk about')


Side note - whilst its getting a re-release in the US - the film is still 'banned' in Australia.

Wow! That is a great looking set. Thanks for the pictures!

I'm digging the artwork/packaging. I wasn't expecting it to be packaged like that, so I'm excited

To answer the questions above, I will be purchasing the film because I like/respect it. I never bought into the hype of buying the original R1 release for the insane amount of money it was going for originally.

Years ago when I was in Paris, I almost picked up the R2 release mostly because there wasn't a legitimate (affordable) release in the U.S.

Well, 90% of my Criterion purchases are blind buys...so I'm buying it because...I buy all of them.

FIrst review I've seen of Salo. Needless to say the reviewer didnt much like the film.:
http://www.dvdmoviecentral.com/ReviewsText/salo.htm

I didn't know "full length documentaries" were under forty minutes.

Actually, I don't think that there is much that needs to be said about the reviewer...as much as he/she demands recognition. The writings speak louder than any pseudo-moralistic disclaimer would.

Ciao,
Pro-B