CapRockBrewingCo.

Damn....what a major coup for Criterion. This is arguably the greatest American film they have acquired.

Solid Snake

I dunno. 12 Angry Men is pretty damn epic.

PopcornTreeCt

Without a doubt. Sweet Smell of Success is a decent 2nd.

Sondheim

It definitely will be one of their most important films, even if there are a number of American films in the collection that I enjoy quite a bit more (Night of the Hunter, Rebecca, Sweet Smell of Success, several movies by Chaplin, Sturges, Cassavetes, Sternberg, etc.)

On the Waterfront has never quite connected with me as much as several of Kazan's other films like Wild River and America, America, but it is undeniably a very important film, and it certainly has an amazing script and great acting.

Solid Snake

I can't wait to see the features that will accompany it.

Sondheim

I'm hoping/assuming it'll be one of their packed releases, like Night of the Hunter, Battle of Algiers, and Sweet Smell of Success.

Giles

I'm sort of surprised that with two Dardeene films, they couldn't also release The Kid with the Bike (??)

Sondheim

The Kid with a Bike just left the local arthouse about a month ago, and there's usually quite a long delay with these IFC films. I'd bet there's still a good chance that it'll get a release at some point in the future - maybe some time early next year.

MTRodaba2468

Wow, On The Waterfront? What a major coup...

CloverClover

the dardenne brothers seem to be remaking the bicycle thief every year with a different title

Gizmo

Don't be mad that most people care about a decade old Anderson flick over some of these "classic" films. Just remember - it's these types of releases that help pay for the ones that don't sell.

Giles

this isn't their film, but there's this film too:

A Better Life

Living Deadpan

So, Wes Anderson's just like Michael Bay, except with indie cred, oui?

nitin77

On the Waterfront is definitely major news.

BambooLounge

This release alone will make 2012 the best Criterion release year for me.

Doctorossi

Hey, I'm not the one who called Criterion the Starbucks hipster distributor. I hope Wes Anderson sells billions for them and they can dump a bunch of it right into good movies. Win/win... somehow even for the guy who complains about Starbucks hipsters and yet also buys only Criterion's most Starbucks-hipster-friendly releases.

LPMA

Hopefully it's released in 2012!

I was thinking it was Criterion's first Best Picture release. But I had forgotten about Hamlet. And Rebecca (OOP). And The Last Emperor. And The Silence of the Lambs (OOP).

Superdaddy

Just clicked on this thread for the first time in a few days, and I see...On the Waterfront teased??!!!

Pretty cool. It's been years since I watched it though. But I certainly remember Brando's superb performance.

All Sony needs to do is provide a good-quality master, and if Criterion tosses in some worthwhile extras all the better. I'll be in in either case.

I see that a 4K scan exists:

http://www.sonypicturesmuseum.com/fi...d/waterfront/2

Sondheim

?

Well, like most filmmakers since the 1940s, they were influenced by De Sica. They do tend to make "realist" movies - meaning that they focus on lower-class characters and film on location in cities. They also focus a lot on father/son relationships - though their depictions are generally without the sentimentality of De Sica's film (which, by the way, I've seen a good dozen times and consider one of the greatest films ever made.) But by those criteria, a fifth of all European films made in the last 50 years are "remakes" of Bicycle Thieves (and various other neorealist films.)

In reality, films like Lorna's Silence and L'enfant and Rosetta are very, very different from Bicycle Thieves. The Kid with a Bike probably shares the most in common, but even it is very different narratively, thematically, and stylistically.

In other words, anyone who considers Rosetta a "remake" of Bicycle Thieves has to be using an extraordinarily loose definition of "remake" - one that would mark 87% of all films made since 1948 as "remakes" of the De Sica film.

They're also strongly influenced by Bresson (so much so that L'enfant ends with a direct visual reference to Pickpocket) - but even that comparison is overused.

They do have antecedents, like all artists, but they've largely been doing their own thing for the last 15 years - their style is instantly recognizable - and they themselves have been very influential on certain schools of European filmmaking over the last decade.

Mabuse

Regarding Kazan: Isn't Scorsese working on a documentary about Kazan? Maybe that doc will be released along with Waterfront and perhaps some of his other films. Maybe a box set.

Solid Snake

omg. Shut the fuck up. Now you're making me hope too much.

GreenVulture

He already did, was released in a Kazan box set a couple of years ago. Unless he's working on a second one?

Solid Snake

DVD beaver review of THE GOLD RUSH

NoirFan

Sweet! From Kim Newman's Facebook page:

I'm assuming October then, along with Rosemary's Baby?

islandclaws

I wish he was talking about the remake....

Give me Fiend Without a Face, too!