I loves me some To Die For.

I had a ticket to see the second showing of ALL THE BEAUTY at TIFF last year (both sold out extremely fast), and after the first screening played to great notices, the second was mysteriously yanked from the schedule and I was given a voucher to use on something else. No explanation other than “unforeseen circumstances” or something like that. I couldn’t find any news about it online either, until a few days letter when I stumbled across an article noting that during a TIFF Docs panel discussion, the director, Laura Poitras, took a big swipe at TIFF and the Venice festival for booking Hilary Clinton-related documentaries that, in Poitras’ opinion, were tools that served to whitewash Clinton’s own career and image. Not sure if Poitras pulled her own film, or if TIFF yanked it in retaliation (I kinda doubt this, but you never know when you consider how much most festival programmers suck up to powerful people), or if HBO maybe had a hand in it as they had already picked it up by that point. I think it continued to play other fests and (I assume?) ended up on HBO, but it was one of the more curious things I’d encountered at TIFF over the years.

https://deadline.com/2022/09/laura-p...18337/#respond

Easily Nicole Kidman's greatest film.

I am ALL OVER "The Devil & Daniel Webster" - one of the best photographed films ever shot!

I've had the old Devil And... release for ages and never watched it. I'll get around to it sometime I guess.

Nicole Kidman has gotten some Criterion love lately.

Awesome to see I AM CUBA back in circulation. I’ve wanted to see it — and the 90-minute doc that appears to have been ported over (which is also on YouTube incidentally) — but the Milestone DVD editions, particularly their ‘cigar box’ with supplements, have been OOP and priced out of my range for ages. It’s a fascinating piece of failed propaganda (neither the Russians nor the Cubans liked it) and it’s to the credit of American film fest programmers and Milestone (and Scorsese et al) in the 90’s that it survived.

In case you guys don't know, God was the DP of I Am Cuba.

I have the SS version of Picnic Rock, so I'm good on that one. I will be getting La Haine, though.

There’s a Blu release isn’t there? I think that’s what I have after owning the original DVD. Still haven’t watched the Blu version so I don’t need another upgrade.
(talking about Picnic).

A Bela Tarr box set would have been nice considering how slow it’s been getting his movies on blu ray let alone 4K. But I’ll take what I can get.

Super excited about the Tarr release, as I'm a big fan of both Tarr and Krasznahorkai (author on whose novel the film is based). I wonder if Criterion will/can pick up Satantango (another Krasznahorkai).

Coming this May: three powerful 1970s works by a trailblazing Senegalese auteur, a masterful examination of the line between truth and fiction, and a singular tale of a young woman’s path to self-realization. Plus: a Blu-ray upgrade of a silent classic from one of cinema’s greatest directors alongside his color remake, and a still-shocking masterpiece of British cinema, now on 4K UHD.

Too bad Anatomy of a Fall isn't getting a 4K release...I would have gotten that, but will skip the Blu-ray version, as I only buy 4K discs these days.

Girlfight (2000) & Peeping Tom (1960)?

all in for Girlfight. awesome movie and Rodriguez is amazing in this.

Been waiting a LONG time to see Peeping Tom in HD!

Years ago, possibly before I even moved to Toronto (in 2006), I was browsing in a used record/movie store in a hipster part of town here called The Annex during TIFF, flipping through the used DVD bins, along with a few other stragglers. I glanced at the guy standing almost shoulder to shoulder with me and realized it was Paul Giamatti, who I’d already seen in a couple of his early higher-profile late 90’s early 00’s movies. He still wasn’t quite the household name, so he could probably flit around cities like that relatively unnoticed. I’m not one to gush over movie people, so everybody just kept flipping through the bins. Canadians, right? Apparently he now gets his discs in classier joints!

Definitely going to pick-up Bound (1996)

July:
4K & Blu:






Blu:

That's a solid month. It feels like they've been sitting on Pat Garrett for a decade. I was in New York this past weekend and caught the new 4k of Le Samourai at the Film Forum. I thought it looked great and was wondering when Criterion might get around to it. Some new extras would have been nice, but it's Criterion in 2024, so it's not like I actually got my hopes up.

Because it almost has been. At least 7-8 years.