re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

I enjoyed Down By Law, back in the day, but don't need to own it. *Meh* month for me.

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

Only one new mainline release - that's pretty unusual. Hopefully that means they're working on something big that had to be pushed back.

Anyway, a pretty underwhelming month, though the Gremillon set is really exciting (he's one of those somewhat forgotten major filmmakers whose work I've been wanting to explore.)

I really liked the Kaurismaki, but I don't know if I'll buy it.

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Has Criterion, in the Blu-ray era, ever had a month where they released only one new title like this?

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

Even 4 titles overall (excluding the Eclipse set) seems a little slim.

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That's how I feel about all Jarmusch movies - I've enjoyed them all, but I really don't ever feel like watching any of them again. And while the Stillman movies are way more re-watchable, since they're dialog-driven and don't really have much going on visually (Kate Beckinsale not withstanding), I don't really need to upgrade their DVDs to blu.

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

The Last Days of Disco is one of those titles that should have been released on Blu-ray to begin with, like Z. Speaking of the latter, as newer spine numbers seem to now be eligible for HD upgrades, perhaps we'll see it sooner rather than later. I vaguely recall some comments from Criterion themselves about a later Z Blu-ray, but I don't recall the specifics.

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I didn't expect a repeat in the quality of June's releases but July is pretty disappointing. I may pick up the Stillman films but am in no hurry.

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Very disappointing but I'm stoked for Last Days.

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As much as I like Stillman, I'm glad I didn't grab The Last Days Of Disco on DVD.

Hopefully, the two Stillman films and Down By Law will be included in the B&N sale...

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

^
Ah, how quickly I forget. Still, I can't think of a single previous month without any definite Blu-ray buys on my part, though I'll likely pick up the Gremillion Eclipse set.

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

So far, I feel that way about most of the year. It's exciting to see some contemporary films hit the collection (I'll definitely check out Le Havre), but it seems like it's been awhile since a MAJOR announcement. Even the recent Hitchcock I would argue are not the major Hitchcock titles (though I realize Criterion is unlikely to get, e.g. Vertigo). Ditto Bergman.

I don't mean to just bitch here, but I'm hoping to see one or several of these in the next couple of months: The River, Andrei Rublev, Brazil, In the Mood For Love, Le Samourai, Wild Strawberries, Hidden Fortress, Rashomon, Tokyo Story, Ikiru, Ugetsu, Spirit of the Beehive, etc.

I know there is no accounting for matters of taste, but ... how did Stillman get the upgrade?!

re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
 

yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes ... and yes

the July releases elicits a 'blah' from me. 'La Havre' was excellent, but I can't see myself watching it ad nauseum.

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This year has been middling - better than last year, so far, but still not great. My favorite releases of this year have been the barebones titles like Letter Never Sent, The Organizer, and The Moment of Truth - all three are fantastic films, in my opinion, and they were previously unavailable in English-friendly editions. Of course, there haven't been any titles like those in the last two months either.

I'm holding out hope that they have some major boxsets planned, and that's why the last few months have been so barren. One new release in the middle of the year is very unusual.

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Well, The 39 Steps is my second or third favorite Hitchcock - so while it may not have the reputation of some of his other films, I'm not going to complain about it getting an HD upgrade.I happen to enjoy Stillman's style of verbal comedy, but I also agree that there are a lot of other films that are screaming out for upgrades a heck of a lot more (I know I've said it before, but I can't even begin to say how excited I'll be when Andrei Rublev finally gets upgraded.) I imagine the main reason for these BD releases is because he's getting a new movie released and because they were easy to upgrade. The barrenness of the last two month's release schedule suggests that there may be something major in the pipeline that's taking up a lot of their resources, and the Stillman upgrades are titles that could be put out to fill in the gaps without too much effort.

Of course, this is just speculation - it could be that these types of months will be a lot more common in the future. I hope not, but the home video marketing does seem to be struggling a bit.

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When you guys say something big, do you have examples of things you'd consider to be 'big'?

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I think there's been some big announcements. Certified Copy was big to me, as was The Gold Rush. I hope Criterion gets more noteworthy releases though. When I see Masters of Cinema releasing stuff like The Lost Weekend and Double Indemnity, I hold out hope Criterion will get some huge movies too.

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I listed 12 examples of what I would consider "big" a couple of posts about your question.

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I've been waiting for Brazil since Gilliam said he was working on doing some stuff for the BD. I don't even remember when that was. Probably 2010. Also more Kurosawa.

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Well, of all our various wishes, I'd say THE GAME would be legitimately & universally considered a 'big' release.

In many cases, "fertile" would be a better word. I thought ISLAND OF LOST SOULS was a fertile release. A lot of people complained about the transfer, but I think it's pretty 'big' when they unearth a film that's taken ages to debut on DVD/BD. I also wish they'd do more cult/horror/genre films. I wish they'd do more Cronenberg (Shivers! That would be BIG, imo.) Ironically a lot of my favorite titles are OOP ones they lost the rights to. Dead Ringers, Blood For Dracula, Straw Dogs, Peeping Tom. Or simply older titles that haven't been and might not be upgraded to BD, such as Insomnia (1997); A little bit of Criterion trivia, Insomnia was Criterion's first anamorphic widescreen transfer. That must've been considered pretty big in 1999!

But setting my personal preferences & idiosyncracies aside, I'll vouch for a hypothetical release of THE GAME as ****BIG*****.

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Dead Ringers and Straw Dogs would be a big as fucking deal for me. The Game for sure would be big as fuck as well.

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He's got a new movie out, so the only thing I can guess is that CC thought they could capitalize on it with his older films.

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I was more curious to know if by 'big' you meant some sort of humongous boxset, or just generally sough-after titles.

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True. Plus, in the case of Last Days of Disco, I'm sure it helps that there are some famous faces in the cast. That can't be said for many of Criterion's releases. Plus, the movies are in English. I would think that would help, though I'd be interested in knowing how sales compare between Criterion's foreign versus English speaking releases. Yes, I realize it depends on the title, but you know what I mean.

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Yeah, interesting thought. Most of us are at least peripherally interested in most or all titles that Criterion puts out. But for people with no familiarity with the label, I wonder which films bring people in. I would have guessed (and I think it's a pretty safe guess) Brazil, Fear and Loathing, Traffic, Armageddon, and some of the huge international greats like Seven Samurai.

I do note that most of those are English speaking, so you may be right that putting Stillman on shelves will sell more than putting out something like Spirit of the Beehive.

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https://i8.createsend1.com/ei/r/6F/0...y_rosemary.jpg
The image name says this is rosemary.

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Rosemary's Baby for sure

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Good call! Possibly an October (Halloween) release?

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That made my day!!!

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Wow! Rosemary's Baby is indeed fantastic news! I think this qualifies as a big announcement. :thumbsup:

Any chance that Criterion is going to release the last film in Polanski's apartment series as well?

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So Maude was wearing a tannis necklace.

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Well, I think I talked about this a few pages back (maybe), but it is fairly certain that they are working on quite a few boxsets: Kiarostami's Koker trilogy, Roberto Rossellini/Ingrid Bergman set, Wim Wenders' Road trilogy, the Apu trilogy, The Decalogue, etc. I have no idea if any of those are coming this year, but they are all coming, according to statements from Criterion and other reliable sources.

They've also apparently been working on what might be a really big boxset of films from Scorsese's World Cinema Foundation film restoration project.

Those would all be big releases to me, and ones that would probably take up a lot of resources.

There are also films like Y Tu Mama Tambien, Following, and The Game in the pipeline - though those aren't as exciting to me simply because they already have decent DVD releases.

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I don't know if they can get them, but a couple of "big" titles I'd love to see are Quiz Show and 25th Hour. Disney doesn't seem to be interested in releasing them themselves.

BTW, are you sure about The Game having a decent DVD release? That was one of the earliest titles in the format's history by Polygram. The transfer is non-anamorphic and awful, especially by today's standards, and there are barely any extras. Universal just repackaged it with their logo when they released it. Did another region ever get a better version (other than the Region B BD)?

I thought the HD DVD wasn't that bad, despite the criticism, but it too was barebones.

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Actually, I'm not sure about The Game. I watched the other two fairly recently, but I haven't seen the Fincher in ages.

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Yeah, I have a region-3 DVD of The Game (put out by Universal) that's anamorphic, has a bunch of extras (including a good Fincher commentary) from a while back.

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As excited as I am for Rosemary's Baby, a Criterion Blu-Ray of The Tenant would make my year. That movie is bonkers. Also, I think the DVD is currently out of print.

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With both of them being Paramount titles and both being OOP, maybe there's a chance they secured the rights to both and will release them in the same month, like they seem to like doing?

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I'm thrilled if it's Rosemary's Baby. I'm sure it'll see an October release, meaning I'll have to grab it for the Horror Challenge...

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I would be really love to see Quiz Show released on Blu-ray. Great movie.

I had no idea that The Tenant was OOP. It seems like that might bode well for an eventual Criterion Blu-ray release. Of the three apartment movies, Rosemary's Baby actually seems the least Criterion to me, if that makes any sense.

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Unfortunately, The Tenant is just one of several hundred Paramount catalog titles that have gone out of print in the past few years (including quite a few major ones, like Nashville, The Elephant Man, Paper Moon, The Conformist), so the fact that it's OOP, by itself, doesn't mean much.

However, Criterion does seem to like Polanski, and it would be awesome to have the entire "Apartment Trilogy" in the collection.

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I'm excited about the Whit Stillman films, but while they were at it, why couldn't they get the rights to Barcelona and do a Stillman Trilogy box set? It's OOP on DVD and right up Criterion's alley...