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

Blu-Ray.com has some screenshots from the UK version, while the Beav has you covered on the Japanese Blu-Ray.

I have the UK version and I think it looks pretty good; no, it's not a night-and-day difference compared to the DVD, and I'm sure when Criterion's version comes out in 2016, it'll look spectacular compared to the UK Blu, but for now it's a solid transfer. It's about $14 shipped right now on Amazon UK and as mentioned above, region-free.

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

Just a heads up, B&N has a 2 for 1 sale on Criterions until December 16.

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

Admittedly, I just box up my cases anymore (don't have the display space since I moved overseas), but I'd agree with everyone else that it'd be nice to have Cronenberg box art that was a bit more eye-catching.

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

It's not final artwork. Criterion has basic art, usually just a screencap, for all their digital only titles.

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

The UK Blu-ray of Eraserhead is Region B locked. It is not region-free. The Japanese Blu-ray is Region A, except for the extras disc, which is a Region 2 DVD.

UK Blu-ray review
Japanese Blu-ray review

The UK and Japanese discs feature the same video transfer. In fact, it appears to be the exact same encode. They're both sourced from a David Lynch approved master, but they have different supplements.

I would expect any potential Criterion Blu-ray to also come from the same master.

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

Ah, thanks for the info

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

Does anyone know if Criterion is planning to convert any of their Eclipse series to blu-ray? If so, new series only or old ones, too?

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

I highly doubt it, maybe some Home Vision titles. They did this will Pale Flower

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclipse_(DVD)

In order to keep prices low, the films do not receive the same degree of remastering nor any of the special features generally associated with Criterion Collection titles.

"...There will be no supplements and the master materials will be the best we can find, but they won’t be full Criterion restorations." --- Peter Becker

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

Still, in typical Criterion fashion, the Eclipse stuff does give access to some things which are pretty hard to find.

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

If they want to keep in line with the Eclipse mantra of just getting the titles out there, then it would be interesting if they put like 8 hours of the SD content on a BD, releasing entire sets on one disc. Though there are plenty of logistic reasons why they probably won't (cost, potential customer confusion even among Criterion fans, not in line with their "dual packaging" policy).

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

http://www.criterion.com/current/pos...hy-dual-format

"All special features on Criterion discs will appear on both formats, but Eclipse will remain a DVD-only line, in keeping with its original goals and identity."

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

I think there might be some regulations against that, or am I thinking of something else.

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

is today announcement day?

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

Covers aren't up but here is the list:

The Great Beauty
Persona
A Brief History of Time
The Freshman
The Hidden Fortress
George Washington

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

george washington! persona!

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

Damn, I should have held out for George Washington...

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

Here's the artwork:

#116
http://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-pr...0_original.jpg

#152
http://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-pr...0_original.jpg

#699
http://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-pr...0_original.jpg

#701
http://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-pr...0_original.jpg

#702
http://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-pr...r_original.jpg

#703
http://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-pr...0_original.jpg

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

I hope they release another New Years clue drawing that just has the guy from Scanners shrugging confused.

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

Of that list, I'm in for Persona, and maybe Fortress. It's a solid film, but I consider it lesser Kurosawa.

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

Hidden Fortress is a must buy, despite the annoying as fuck lead actress.

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

You can say that again. It's a pass for me anyway.

I'm in for Persona.

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

GEORGE WASHINGTON:

Over the course of one hot summer, a group of children in the decaying rural South must confront a tangle of difficult choices. An ambitiously constructed, elegantly photographed meditation on adolescence, the first full-length film by director David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express) features remarkable performances from an award-winning ensemble cast. George Washington is a startling and distinct work of contemporary American independent cinema.

2000 • 90 minutes • Color • 2.0 surround • 2.35:1 aspect ratio

DIRECTOR-APPROVED DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• Restored high-definition digital transfer, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Commentary by director David Gordon Green, cinematographer Tim Orr, and actor Paul Schneider
• Deleted scene, with commentary by Green, Orr, and Schneider
• Two student shorts by Green: Pleasant Grove (1997), with commentary by Green, Orr, and Schneider; and Physical Pinball (1998)
• Charlie Rose interview with Green from 2001
• Interviews with cast members
• Clu Gulager’s 1969 short film A Day with the Boys, an influence on George Washington
• Trailer
• One Blu-ray and one DVD, with all content available in both formats
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Armond White and a director’s statement

~~

A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME:

Errol Morris (The Fog of War) turns his camera on one of the most fascinating men in the world: the pioneering astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, afflicted by a debilitating motor neuron disease that has left him without a voice or the use of his limbs. An adroitly crafted tale of personal adversity, professional triumph, and cosmological inquiry, Morris’s documentary examines the way the collapse of Hawking’s body has been accompanied by the untrammeled broadening of his imagination. Telling the man’s incredible story through the voices of his colleagues and loved ones, while making dynamically accessible some of the theories in Hawking’s best-selling book of the same name, A Brief History of Time is at once as small as a single life and as big as the ever-expanding universe.

1991 • 84 minutes • Color • 5.1 surround • 1.85:1 aspect ratio

DIRECTOR-APPROVED DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New, restored 4K digital film transfer, supervised by director of photography John Bailey and approved by director Errol Morris, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New interview with Morris
• New interview with Bailey
• One Blu-ray and one DVD, with all content available in both formats
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic David Sterritt, a chapter from Stephen Hawking’s 2013 memoir My Brief History, and a short excerpt from Hawking’s 1988 book A Brief History of Time

~~

THE HIDDEN FORTRESS:

A grand-scale adventure as only Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai) could make one, The Hidden Fortress stars the inimitable Toshiro Mifune (Yojimbo) as a general charged with guarding his defeated clan’s princess (a fierce Misa Uehara) as the two smuggle royal treasure across hostile territory. Accompanying them are a pair of bumbling, conniving peasants who may or may not be their friends. This rip-roaring ride is among the director’s most beloved films and was a primary influence on George Lucas’s Star Wars. The Hidden Fortress delivers Kurosawa’s trademark deft blend of wry humor, breathtaking action, and compassionate humanity.

1958 • 139 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In Japanese with English subtitles • 2.35:1 aspect ratio

DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Alternate 5.1 surround soundtrack preserving the original Perspecta simulated stereo effects, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray
• New audio commentary by film historian Stephen Prince, author of The Warrior’s Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa
• Documentary from 2003 on the making of the film, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
• Interview from 2001 with filmmaker George Lucas about Kurosawa
• Trailer
• New English subtitle translation
• One Blu-ray and one DVD, with all content available in both formats
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Catherine Russell

~~

THE FRESHMAN:

Harold Lloyd’s biggest box-office hit was this silent comedy gem, featuring the befuddled everyman at his eager best as a new college student. Though he dreams of being a big man on campus, the freshman’s careful plans inevitably go hilariously awry, be it on the football field or at the Fall Frolic. But he gets a climactic chance to prove his mettle—and impress the sweet girl he loves—in one of the most famous sports sequences ever filmed. This crowd-pleaser is a gleeful showcase for Lloyd’s slapstick brilliance and incandescent charm, and it’s accompanied here by a new orchestral score by Carl Davis (Napoleon).

1925 • 76 minutes • Black & White • Silent • 1.33:1 aspect ratio

DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 4K digital transfer from a restoration by the UCLA Film and Television Archive
• New orchestral score, composed and conducted by Carl Davis, presented in uncompressed stereo on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary featuring director and Harold Lloyd archivist Richard Correll, film historian Richard Bann, and film critic and historian Leonard Maltin
• Lloyd’s prologue to the film, created for the 1966 rerelease
• Three newly restored Lloyd shorts: The Marathon (1919), with a new score by Gabriel Thibaudeau, and An Eastern Westerner and High and Dizzy (both 1920), with new scores composed and conducted by Davis
• Big Man on Campus, a new visual essay on the film’s locations by silent-film historian John Bengtson
• Conversation between Correll and film historian Kevin Brownlow
• Footage from a 1963 Delta Kappa Alpha tribute to Lloyd, featuring comedian Steve Allen, director Delmer Daves, and actor Jack Lemmon
• Lloyd’s 1953 appearance on the television show What’s My Line?
• One Blu-ray and two DVDs, with all content available in both formats
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Stephen Winer

~~

THE GREAT BEAUTY:

For decades, journalist Jep Gambardella has charmed and seduced his way through the glittering nightlife of Rome. Since the legendary success of his only novel, he has been a permanent fixture in the city’s literary and elite social circles. But on his sixty-fifth birthday, Jep unexpectedly finds himself taking stock of his life, turning his cutting wit on himself and his contemporaries, and looking past the lavish nightclubs, parties, and cafés to find Rome itself, in all its monumental glory: a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty. Featuring sensuous cinematography, a lush score, and an award-winning central performance by the great Toni Servillo (Gomorrah), this transporting experience from the brilliant Italian director Paolo Sorrentino (Il divo) is a breathtaking Fellini-esque tale of decadence and lost love.

2013 • 141 minutes • Color • 5.1 surround • In Italian with English subtitles • 2.35:1 aspect ratio

DIRECTOR-APPROVED DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 2K digital transfer, approved by director Paolo Sorrentino, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Conversation between Sorrentino and Italian cultural critic Antonio Monda
• New interview with actor Toni Servillo
• New interview with screenwriter Umberto Contarello
• Deleted scenes
• Trailer
• New English subtitle translation
• One Blu-ray and two DVDs, with all content available in both formats
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Philip Lopate

~~

PERSONA:

By the mid-sixties, Ingmar Bergman (The Seventh Seal) had already conjured many of the cinema’s most unforgettable images. But with the radical Persona, this supreme artist attained new levels of visual poetry. In the first of a series of legendary performances for Bergman, Liv Ullmann (Scenes from a Marriage) plays an actress who has inexplicably gone mute; an equally mesmerizing Bibi Andersson (Wild Strawberries) is the garrulous young nurse caring for her in a remote island cottage. While isolated together there, the women perform a mysterious spiritual and emotional transference that would prove to be one of cinema’s most influential ideas. Acted with astonishing nuance and shot in stark shadows and soft light by the great Sven Nykvist (Cries and Whispers), Persona is a penetrating, dreamlike work of profound psychological depth.

1966 • 83 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In Swedish with English subtitles • 1.37:1 aspect ratio

DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New, 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New visual essay on the film’s prologue by Ingmar Bergman scholar Peter Cowie
• New interviews with actor Liv Ullmann and filmmaker Paul Schrader
• Excerpted archival interviews with Bergman and actors Bibi Andersson and Ullmann
• On-set footage, with audio commentary by Bergman historian Birgitta Steene
• Liv & Ingmar, a 2012 feature documentary directed by Dheeraj Akolkar
• Trailer
• New English subtitle translation
• One Blu-ray and two DVDs, with all content available in both formats
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Thomas Elsaesser, an excerpted 1969 interview with Bergman, and an excerpted 1977 conversation with Andersson

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

Damn I thought it was The Freshman (1990). ;)

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

very solid month IMHO

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

An average Criterion month for me...will pick up 3 of the titles; Persona, George Washington & The Hidden Fortress.

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

Have any of you seem 'The Great Beauty'? It's one of the year's best films. I reviewed it upon it's release: http://indieethos.wordpress.com/2013...e-superficial/

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

I'll definitely pick up The Hidden Fortress and if George Washington is half as hilarious as Your Highness I'll pick it up too.

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

:lol:

Yep, I can honestly say that George Washington is half as hilarious as Your Highness.

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

Thief Review

Movie:.....http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/images/5.gif
Video:.....http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/images/5.gif
Audio:.....http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/images/5.gif
Extras:....http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/images/4.gif
Overall:...http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/images/5.gif

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

:up: As long as a giant black Minotaur cock makes an appearance at some point I'll be happy.



;)

To the Fuckening!

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

:drool:

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

and apparently not all are impressed with the recalibrated blue tinted look to the image.

Is this touted as "director-approved," or has the color tinting change been made at Criterion's discretion?

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

I think the former but nothing's been confirmed yet.

If it is the former, directors choosing to do this recoloring on home video releases is becoming a pretty serious issue with a number of releases lately.

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

Only the crazier directors. Mann is more known for re-editing stuff, like on the Last of the Mohicans release. I'm fairly optimistic this release will retain it's original color palate. A few months ago MGM-HD was showing Thief, and it looked damn good.

James Cameron seems to be making a habit of it too.

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

have you seen the screen captures in the blu-ray.com review - it's pretty extreme in the 'blue' color department. Someone noted it looks nothing like what was shown on MGM-HD.

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

Just did. Wow, those few screenshots look nothing like the MGM-HD showings. Damn, so now Mann seems to have jumped on board with fucking with the color palate.