The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
07-16-14 | 04:17 PM
#6852
DVD Talk Legend
re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
Last November, when we announced that we would start releasing dual-format editions, we hoped that we had found an alternative that would address our concerns about packaging costs across two formats, while guaranteeing that both DVD and Blu-ray customers would still have access to an identical product. While we did solve that problem, no one seemed particularly happy with the solution. Blu-ray customers didn’t like making room for DVDs they didn’t want, and DVD customers didn’t like paying more to get a Blu-ray they couldn’t play. We soon found that we had to start releasing stand-alone DVD editions alongside the dual-format ones because a fairly large proportion of our audience has not made the leap to Blu-ray yet. And once we had separate DVD editions, what was the point of putting DVDs in with the Blu-rays? A good question.
With that in mind, when we announce our September titles at the beginning of next week, we'll be going back to releasing separate DVD and Blu-ray editions. In most cases, the contents of the releases will be the same in both formats. This may come as welcome news to many of you and perhaps as a disappointment to some, but please know that we’ll keep thinking and listening, experimenting and exploring, so do let us know your thoughts and preferences.
With that in mind, when we announce our September titles at the beginning of next week, we'll be going back to releasing separate DVD and Blu-ray editions. In most cases, the contents of the releases will be the same in both formats. This may come as welcome news to many of you and perhaps as a disappointment to some, but please know that we’ll keep thinking and listening, experimenting and exploring, so do let us know your thoughts and preferences.
07-16-14 | 04:21 PM
#6853
DVD Talk Special Edition
re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
Blu-ray customers didn’t like making room for DVDs they didn’t want
07-16-14 | 04:24 PM
#6854
DVD Talk Hero
re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
must be.I think it was a case of Criterion giving in to the vocal minority. If anything, they should just dump DVD at this point entirely. People can buy Blu-ray players for under $100 now.
07-16-14 | 04:26 PM
#6855
DVD Talk Legend
re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
Yeah I think it's an issue with the digipacks, some of them have been pretty thick, especially those that contains books as well.
07-16-14 | 04:30 PM
#6856
DVD Talk Gold Edition
re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
A small number of releases could have been released in standard cases instead of the thicker digipacks if they had dropped the dvds. Releases with thicker books would still need digipacks.
07-16-14 | 05:00 PM
#6857
DVD Talk Hero
re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
It's not the books as much as it is needing two DVDs (one for the extras) instead of just one (a single blu disc is enough for everything), so you have three discs which necessitates a digipack over the regular clamshells which can have two hubs for two discs, but not three.
07-16-14 | 05:03 PM
#6858
DVD Talk Legend
re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
It's not the books as much as it is needing two DVDs (one for the extras) instead of just one (a single blu disc is enough for everything), so you have three discs which necessitates a digipack over the regular clamshells which can have two hubs for two discs, but not three.
07-16-14 | 05:06 PM
#6860
DVD Talk Legend
re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
Yeah.
07-16-14 | 05:42 PM
#6861
Moderator
re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
here's more details of the Tati box:
THE COMPLETE JACQUES TATI - Blu–ray & DVD Editions
Though he made only a handful of films, director, writer, and actor Jacques Tati ranks among the most beloved of all cinematic geniuses. With a background in music hall and mime performance, Tati steadily built an ever more ambitious movie career that ultimately raised sight-gag comedy to the level of high art. In the surrogate character of the sweet and bumbling, eternally umbrella-toting and pipe-smoking Monsieur Hulot, Tati invented a charming symbol of humanity lost in a constantly modernizing modern age. This set gathers his six hilarious features—Jour de fête, Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, Mon oncle, PlayTime, Trafic, and Parade—along with seven delightful Tati-related short films.
JOUR DE FÊTE
In his enchanting debut feature, Jacques Tati stars as a fussbudget of a postman who is thrown for a loop when a traveling fair comes to his village. Even in this early work, Tati was brilliantly toying with the devices (silent visual gags, minimal yet deftly deployed sound effects) and exploring the theme (the absurdity of our increasing reliance on technology) that would define his cinema. Here, Jour de fête is presented in three versions: the original 1949 black-and-white release, a 1964 version featuring hand-painted color sequences and newly incorporated footage, and the full-color 1994 rerelease, which finally realized Tati’s original vision for the film.
1949 • 86 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In French with English subtitles • 1.37:1 aspect ratio
MONSIEUR HULOT’S HOLIDAY
Monsieur Hulot, Jacques Tati’s endearing clown, takes a holiday at a seaside resort, where his presence provokes one catastrophe after another. Tati’s masterpiece of gentle slapstick is a series of effortlessly well-choreographed sight gags involving dogs, boats, and firecrackers; it was the first entry in the Hulot series and the film that launched its maker to international stardom. We are presenting Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday in the 1978 rerelease version, reedited by Tati himself, along with the original 1953 theatrical version.
1953 • 88 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In French with English subtitles • 1.37:1 aspect ratio
MON ONCLE
Slapstick prevails again when Jacques Tati’s eccentric, old-fashioned hero, Monsieur Hulot, is set loose in Villa Arpel, the geometric, oppressively ultramodern home of his brother-in-law, and in the antiseptic plastic hose factory where he gets a job. The second Hulot movie and Tati’s first color film, Mon oncle is a supremely amusing satire of mechanized living and consumer society that earned the director the Academy Award for best foreign-language film. This edition features both the original French release and My Uncle, the version Tati created for English-speaking audiences.
1958 • 116 minutes • Color • Monaural• In French with English subtitles • 1.33:1 aspect ratio
PLAYTIME
Jacques Tati’s gloriously choreographed, nearly wordless comedies about confusion in an age of high technology reached their apotheosis with PlayTime. For this monumental achievement, a nearly three-year-long, bank-breaking production, Tati again thrust the loveably old-fashioned Monsieur Hulot, along with a host of other lost souls, into a bafflingly modern world, this time Paris. With every inch of its superwide frame crammed with hilarity and inventiveness, PlayTime is a lasting testament to a modern era tiptoeing on the edge of oblivion.
1967 • 124 minutes • Color • 5.1 surround • In French with English subtitles • 1.85:1 aspect ratio
TRAFIC
In Jacques Tati’s Trafic, the bumbling Monsieur Hulot, kitted out as always with tan raincoat, beaten brown hat, and umbrella, takes to Paris’s highways and byways. In this, his final outing, Hulot is employed as an auto company’s director of design, and accompanies his new product (a camper outfitted with absurd gadgetry) to an auto show in Amsterdam. Naturally, the road there is paved with modern-age mishaps. This late-career delight is a masterful demonstration of the comic genius’s expert timing and sidesplitting knack for visual gags, and a bemused last look at technology run amok.
1971 • 97 minutes • Color • Monaural• In French with English subtitles • 1.37:1 aspect ratio
PARADE
For his final film, Jacques Tati takes his camera to the circus, where the director himself serves as master of ceremonies. Though it features many spectacles, including clowns, jugglers, acrobats, contortionists, and more, Parade also focuses on the spectators, making this stripped-down work a testament to the communion between audience and entertainment. Made for Swedish television (with Ingmar Bergman’s legendary director of photography Gunnar Fischer serving as one of its cinematographers), Parade is a touching career send-off that recalls its maker’s origins as a mime and theater performer.
1974 • 89 minutes • Color • Monaural • In French with English subtitles • 1.37:1 aspect ratio
TATI SHORTS
Jacques Tati’s career, which stretched from the mid-thirties to the late seventies, encompasses more than just the six features for which he’s best known. The charming short films he wrote or directed are essential parts of his filmography as well. Collected here, they include three wacky 1930s comedies he wrote and starred in—On demande une brute (1934), Gai dimanche (1935), Soigne ton gauche (1936)—and the two later films he directed and starred in: L’école des facteurs (1946), which introduces the postman character reprised in Jour de fête, and Cours du soir (1967), made during the filming of PlayTime. We’re also pleased to present Forza Bastia (1978), a soccer documentary begun by Tati and completed by his daughter Sophie Tatischeff after his death, and Dégustation maison (1978), Tatischeff’s César-winning short, shot in the town from Jour de fête.
SPECIAL EDITION COLLECTOR’S SET FEATURES
• New digital restorations of all six feature films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-rays of Jour de fête, Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, Mon oncle, Trafic, and Parade and uncompressed stereo soundtrack on the Blu-ray of PlayTime
• New digital restorations of all seven short films
• Two alternate versions of Jour de fête, a partly colorized 1964 version and the full-color 1994 rerelease version
• Original 1953 theatrical release version of Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday
• My Uncle, the version of Mon oncle that director Jacques Tati created for English-language audiences
• Introductions by actor and comedian Terry Jones to Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, Mon oncle, and PlayTime
• Archival interviews with Tati
• In the Footsteps of Monsieur Hulot, a 1989 documentary about Tati’s beloved alter ego
• Five visual essays by Tati expert Stéphane Goudet
• New interview with film scholar Michel Chion on the sound design of Tati’s films
• “Jour de fête”: In Search of the Lost Color, a 1988 documentary on the process of realizing Tati’s original color vision for that film
• Once Upon a Time . . . “Mon oncle,” a 2008 documentary about the making of that film
• Everything Is Beautiful, a 2005 piece on the fashion, furniture, and architecture of Mon oncle
• Selected-scene commentaries on PlayTime by Goudet, theater director Jérôme Deschamps, and critic Philip Kemp
• Tativille, a documentary shot on the set of PlayTime
• Beyond “PlayTime,” a short 2002 documentary featuring on-set footage
• An Homage to Jacques Tati, a 1982 French TV program featuring Tati friend and set designer Jacques Lagrange
• Audio interview with Tati from the U.S. premiere of PlayTime at the 1972 San Francisco International Film Festival
• Interview with PlayTime script supervisor Sylvette Baudrot from 2006
• Tati Story, a short biographical film from 2002
• Professor Goudet’s Lessons, a 2013 classroom lecture by Goudet on Tati’s films
• Alternate English-language soundtracks for Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday and PlayTime
• New English subtitle translations
• PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critics David Cairns, James Quandt, Jonathan Rosenbaum, and Kristin Ross
TITLE: THE COMPLETE JACQUES TATI (7-BLU-RAY EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2401BD
UPC: 7-15515-12831-5
ISBN: 978-1-60465-904-7
SRP: $124.95
PREBOOK: 9/30/14
STREET: 10/28/14
THE COMPLETE JACQUES TATI - Blu–ray & DVD Editions
Though he made only a handful of films, director, writer, and actor Jacques Tati ranks among the most beloved of all cinematic geniuses. With a background in music hall and mime performance, Tati steadily built an ever more ambitious movie career that ultimately raised sight-gag comedy to the level of high art. In the surrogate character of the sweet and bumbling, eternally umbrella-toting and pipe-smoking Monsieur Hulot, Tati invented a charming symbol of humanity lost in a constantly modernizing modern age. This set gathers his six hilarious features—Jour de fête, Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, Mon oncle, PlayTime, Trafic, and Parade—along with seven delightful Tati-related short films.
JOUR DE FÊTE
In his enchanting debut feature, Jacques Tati stars as a fussbudget of a postman who is thrown for a loop when a traveling fair comes to his village. Even in this early work, Tati was brilliantly toying with the devices (silent visual gags, minimal yet deftly deployed sound effects) and exploring the theme (the absurdity of our increasing reliance on technology) that would define his cinema. Here, Jour de fête is presented in three versions: the original 1949 black-and-white release, a 1964 version featuring hand-painted color sequences and newly incorporated footage, and the full-color 1994 rerelease, which finally realized Tati’s original vision for the film.
1949 • 86 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In French with English subtitles • 1.37:1 aspect ratio
MONSIEUR HULOT’S HOLIDAY
Monsieur Hulot, Jacques Tati’s endearing clown, takes a holiday at a seaside resort, where his presence provokes one catastrophe after another. Tati’s masterpiece of gentle slapstick is a series of effortlessly well-choreographed sight gags involving dogs, boats, and firecrackers; it was the first entry in the Hulot series and the film that launched its maker to international stardom. We are presenting Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday in the 1978 rerelease version, reedited by Tati himself, along with the original 1953 theatrical version.
1953 • 88 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In French with English subtitles • 1.37:1 aspect ratio
MON ONCLE
Slapstick prevails again when Jacques Tati’s eccentric, old-fashioned hero, Monsieur Hulot, is set loose in Villa Arpel, the geometric, oppressively ultramodern home of his brother-in-law, and in the antiseptic plastic hose factory where he gets a job. The second Hulot movie and Tati’s first color film, Mon oncle is a supremely amusing satire of mechanized living and consumer society that earned the director the Academy Award for best foreign-language film. This edition features both the original French release and My Uncle, the version Tati created for English-speaking audiences.
1958 • 116 minutes • Color • Monaural• In French with English subtitles • 1.33:1 aspect ratio
PLAYTIME
Jacques Tati’s gloriously choreographed, nearly wordless comedies about confusion in an age of high technology reached their apotheosis with PlayTime. For this monumental achievement, a nearly three-year-long, bank-breaking production, Tati again thrust the loveably old-fashioned Monsieur Hulot, along with a host of other lost souls, into a bafflingly modern world, this time Paris. With every inch of its superwide frame crammed with hilarity and inventiveness, PlayTime is a lasting testament to a modern era tiptoeing on the edge of oblivion.
1967 • 124 minutes • Color • 5.1 surround • In French with English subtitles • 1.85:1 aspect ratio
TRAFIC
In Jacques Tati’s Trafic, the bumbling Monsieur Hulot, kitted out as always with tan raincoat, beaten brown hat, and umbrella, takes to Paris’s highways and byways. In this, his final outing, Hulot is employed as an auto company’s director of design, and accompanies his new product (a camper outfitted with absurd gadgetry) to an auto show in Amsterdam. Naturally, the road there is paved with modern-age mishaps. This late-career delight is a masterful demonstration of the comic genius’s expert timing and sidesplitting knack for visual gags, and a bemused last look at technology run amok.
1971 • 97 minutes • Color • Monaural• In French with English subtitles • 1.37:1 aspect ratio
PARADE
For his final film, Jacques Tati takes his camera to the circus, where the director himself serves as master of ceremonies. Though it features many spectacles, including clowns, jugglers, acrobats, contortionists, and more, Parade also focuses on the spectators, making this stripped-down work a testament to the communion between audience and entertainment. Made for Swedish television (with Ingmar Bergman’s legendary director of photography Gunnar Fischer serving as one of its cinematographers), Parade is a touching career send-off that recalls its maker’s origins as a mime and theater performer.
1974 • 89 minutes • Color • Monaural • In French with English subtitles • 1.37:1 aspect ratio
TATI SHORTS
Jacques Tati’s career, which stretched from the mid-thirties to the late seventies, encompasses more than just the six features for which he’s best known. The charming short films he wrote or directed are essential parts of his filmography as well. Collected here, they include three wacky 1930s comedies he wrote and starred in—On demande une brute (1934), Gai dimanche (1935), Soigne ton gauche (1936)—and the two later films he directed and starred in: L’école des facteurs (1946), which introduces the postman character reprised in Jour de fête, and Cours du soir (1967), made during the filming of PlayTime. We’re also pleased to present Forza Bastia (1978), a soccer documentary begun by Tati and completed by his daughter Sophie Tatischeff after his death, and Dégustation maison (1978), Tatischeff’s César-winning short, shot in the town from Jour de fête.
SPECIAL EDITION COLLECTOR’S SET FEATURES
• New digital restorations of all six feature films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-rays of Jour de fête, Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, Mon oncle, Trafic, and Parade and uncompressed stereo soundtrack on the Blu-ray of PlayTime
• New digital restorations of all seven short films
• Two alternate versions of Jour de fête, a partly colorized 1964 version and the full-color 1994 rerelease version
• Original 1953 theatrical release version of Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday
• My Uncle, the version of Mon oncle that director Jacques Tati created for English-language audiences
• Introductions by actor and comedian Terry Jones to Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, Mon oncle, and PlayTime
• Archival interviews with Tati
• In the Footsteps of Monsieur Hulot, a 1989 documentary about Tati’s beloved alter ego
• Five visual essays by Tati expert Stéphane Goudet
• New interview with film scholar Michel Chion on the sound design of Tati’s films
• “Jour de fête”: In Search of the Lost Color, a 1988 documentary on the process of realizing Tati’s original color vision for that film
• Once Upon a Time . . . “Mon oncle,” a 2008 documentary about the making of that film
• Everything Is Beautiful, a 2005 piece on the fashion, furniture, and architecture of Mon oncle
• Selected-scene commentaries on PlayTime by Goudet, theater director Jérôme Deschamps, and critic Philip Kemp
• Tativille, a documentary shot on the set of PlayTime
• Beyond “PlayTime,” a short 2002 documentary featuring on-set footage
• An Homage to Jacques Tati, a 1982 French TV program featuring Tati friend and set designer Jacques Lagrange
• Audio interview with Tati from the U.S. premiere of PlayTime at the 1972 San Francisco International Film Festival
• Interview with PlayTime script supervisor Sylvette Baudrot from 2006
• Tati Story, a short biographical film from 2002
• Professor Goudet’s Lessons, a 2013 classroom lecture by Goudet on Tati’s films
• Alternate English-language soundtracks for Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday and PlayTime
• New English subtitle translations
• PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critics David Cairns, James Quandt, Jonathan Rosenbaum, and Kristin Ross
TITLE: THE COMPLETE JACQUES TATI (7-BLU-RAY EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2401BD
UPC: 7-15515-12831-5
ISBN: 978-1-60465-904-7
SRP: $124.95
PREBOOK: 9/30/14
STREET: 10/28/14
07-16-14 | 05:51 PM
#6862
Banned by request
re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
Funny we're talking about Criterion's packaging. I just got my Barnes and Noble order, and out of five titles, four were damaged so that the discs don't sit securely in the hubs.
07-16-14 | 05:57 PM
#6863
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
That sucks. Usually you should be OK if you place an order for 4 or 5 titles at a time. Big reason I'm glad they are going back to single format (and more hard case) releases, otherwise I wouldn't care less.
07-16-14 | 08:22 PM
#6864
DVD Talk Hero
re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
You're in LA dude, I'm sure you have a B&N that sells Criterions. I'm in OC and there's one right by my work and they're very well stocked and every package is pristine.
07-16-14 | 09:18 PM
#6865
New Member
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 14
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From: Kansas City, MO
re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
Finally, a Tati box set! If you haven't given his films a shot yet, do yourselves a favor when this comes out. Timeless work!
07-16-14 | 09:28 PM
#6866
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 3,422
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From: The Pacific Northwest
re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
So when is Foreign Correspondent being re-released as a Blu-ray only edition? I just bought it and am wondering if maybe I shouldn't return it.
07-16-14 | 09:39 PM
#6867
DVD Talk Legend
re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
October 7th.
07-16-14 | 10:06 PM
#6868
re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
In for Ford and Fellini.
Man I tried HARD to get into Tati's stuff. I really wanted to get something out of Playtime and M Hulot's Holiday. But the tediousness of bth films was overwhelming. I found myself zoning out every few minutes.
Man I tried HARD to get into Tati's stuff. I really wanted to get something out of Playtime and M Hulot's Holiday. But the tediousness of bth films was overwhelming. I found myself zoning out every few minutes.
07-16-14 | 10:12 PM
#6869
DVD Talk Special Edition
re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
Collectors did threaten to boycott them over the dual-case millimeter issue. I recall seeing a few boycott threads in the comments section on Criterion's site. IMO, that's the most pathetic reason to boycott a video company. I haven't seen anyone threaten to boycott major studio BD's for their unstable recycled cases, but I suppose those don't impose upon anyone's precious millimeters.
"We soon found that we had to start releasing stand-alone DVD editions alongside the dual-format ones because a fairly large proportion of our audience has not made the leap to Blu-ray yet."
People can also buy shelves that can fit cases of varying millimeters.
To quote Brian of Nazareth: "There's no pleasing some people."
If anything, they should just dump DVD at this point entirely.
People can buy Blu-ray players for under $100 now.
To quote Brian of Nazareth: "There's no pleasing some people."
07-16-14 | 10:21 PM
#6870
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
My resistance up till now to even looking into his work is my antipathy towards most slapstick. Unless it's up to Buster Keaton level (which it sounds like Tati might be).
07-16-14 | 10:44 PM
#6871
re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
IMO Playtime is a masterpiece (the choreography, use of sound, direction & cinematography are top notch) and his other films are ok.
07-16-14 | 11:29 PM
#6872
DVD Talk Gold Edition
re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
As someone who has never seen them, but is seriously considering a purchase at some point- what was it specifically about the material that didn't click with you?
My resistance up till now to even looking into his work is my antipathy towards most slapstick. Unless it's up to Buster Keaton level (which it sounds like Tati might be).
My resistance up till now to even looking into his work is my antipathy towards most slapstick. Unless it's up to Buster Keaton level (which it sounds like Tati might be).
07-17-14 | 07:57 AM
#6874
DVD Talk Hero
re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
Collectors did threaten to boycott them over the dual-case millimeter issue. I recall seeing a few boycott threads in the comments section on Criterion's site. IMO, that's the most pathetic reason to boycott a video company. I haven't seen anyone threaten to boycott major studio BD's for their unstable recycled cases, but I suppose those don't impose upon anyone's precious millimeters.
"We soon found that we had to start releasing stand-alone DVD editions alongside the dual-format ones because a fairly large proportion of our audience has not made the leap to Blu-ray yet."
People can also buy shelves that can fit cases of varying millimeters.
To quote Brian of Nazareth: "There's no pleasing some people."
To quote Brian of Nazareth: "There's no pleasing some people."
07-17-14 | 08:26 AM
#6875
re: The Criterion Collection 4K/Blu-ray Discussion and Release Thread
EXACTLY. Criterion should have stuck to their guns, but the flip flopping just shows how weak they are.