inri222

For starters I'll take Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica & The Adjuster.

slop101

You know, now that he's a big name, it would be great if Criterion could put out the more "artsy" early movies of Denis Villeneuve, like Maelstrom.

Yes to all those, and, even though it has problems, I have a personal soft spot for his Ararat movie.

Norm de Plume

There's a disgracefully huge amount of Canadian cinema missing on DVD/BD. Criterion would only go for the obvious films.

Dan

A Gary Burns set would be a no-brainer for me, among others.

inri222

And Polytechnique

Not too crazy about that one, I'll take Felicia's Journey instead.

slop101

Actually, now that I think about it, the main reason I'd want Maelstrom and Ararat are because they both star Marie-Josée Croze, who I have had a massive crush on since Maelstrom fist came out - so that's a while!

slowcloud

Have any of you seen Possible Worlds by Robert Lepage? It features Tilda Swinton and Tom McCamus of Sweet Hereafter. That would be a great release.

Never got U.S. distribution, but it's a wild, trippy movie. It appropriately came out the same time as Maelstrom.

Coral

Yes, I've seen it. I liked it, but didn't love it. I would probably watch it once more and that's it. But speaking of Robert Lepage, I absolutely loved "Far Side of the Moon" and would pick it up on Criterion for sure - hell, I'd pick it up on BD if anyone released it.

Back to Canadian cinema... I agree with getting Egoyan in the collection - even though that's low hanging fruit. I love The Sweet Hereafter and Exotica (although they have decent BDs out right now) and thought Felicia's Journey was excellent. Unfortunately Egoyan's quality dropped dramatically from there on and I find myself no longer anticipating his next film.

As well films from Denys Arcand, (as mentioned) Denis Villenue and Jean-Marc Vallée. Even Sarah Polley.
Leolo is a fucked up film and really seems to be right up Criterion's alley.

Would love to see The Red Violin (available on BD) and 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould on Criterion. They require the best picture and sound quality possible. Last Night is also a great film. The Triplets of Belleville (co-Canadian) as well.

Of course, who could forget Goin' Down the Road?

andicus

Love it. The sequel (Down the Road Again) is actually quite watchable, too.

Trivia: The actor that played Pete also played the gym teacher in Porky's that couldn't stop laughing when the other teacher had Kim Cattrall's character howling in the equipment room.

Brian T

I'd love for Criterion or some other boutique label to get their hands on Sidney J. Furie's first film A DANGEROUS AGE from 1957 or A COOL SOUND FROM HELL from 1959. Apparently neither film ever played in North America, but both found some success in England (the latter was restored by BFI and played at TIFF last year), which explains Furie's move there in the 60's. I know he didn't go on to the most prestigious career as do most filmmakers who get Criterioned, but he's still working today, but both of these would be nice additions to, say, an Eclipse-type box of early Canadian films, or promising debuts, or what have you. GOIN' DOWN THE ROAD would be ideal, too, but it already exists in a decent special edition on Blu-ray (which also includes the sequel, the hilarious SCTV parody and other stuff). The Canadian film industry in the 50's and 60's was pretty anemic, but there were some defining gems produced in the era.

Another companion piece to the films above would be Don Owen's NOBODY WAVED GOODBYE, but since it's an NFB and therefore available free and legal online (click the title), I doubt there'd be much interest in a disc release.

If he hadn't been mentioned already above, I'd also nominate some early films of Bruce McDonald for consideration, at least: ROADKILL (1989), HIGHWAY 61 (1991), DANCE ME OUTSIDE (1994), HARD CORE LOGO (1996)

Coral

Yes, definitely Bruce McDonald's works. I'd also include Pontypool in the mix. I found it really interesting. Saw it at TIFF and it was neat having the whole cast there for questions.

On an unrelated topic - anyone hear if Criterion will be doing any of Patrice Leconte's films? More specifically, The Hairdresser's Husband and Monsieur Hire. Love those films.

Brian T

I was gonna put PONTYPOOL on the list, but it has its detractors. Personally, I think it's the best of his post-2000 work (and more unique and intelligent than it's sometimes given credit for) especially considering his career has largely been in episodic television for the better part of two decades, much like so many other Canadian directors who'd prefer to stay up here rather than de-camp to the states.

Norm de Plume

That's a good way of describing it.
I own the NFB DVD, which I bought 10+ years ago. Since it is now available for free, I don't know if the NFB is still pressing DVDs. It's not a great film, but a good one, and it has a number of great moments. The sequel, Unfinished Business, is quite poor, sadly.

Hazel Motes

Even though most of his films have pretty good Blu Rays, I'm sure it's only a matter of time before Xavier Dolan ends up on the label.

Josh Z

Having just watched the new Limited Collector's Edition of The Man Who Fell to Earth from Lionsgate/Studio Canal, I would advise anyone who owns the older Criterion edition to hold onto it. The Criterion has a much better video transfer. The supposed 4k restoration used on the Collector's Edition looks like hot garbage in comparison. Less detail, awful contrast boosting, bleached colors and flesh tones.

JackBurton

Thanks, Josh. I was wondering about that.

AMERICAN

..I read that the studio canal release has an excellent picture quality..in fact bluray.com review gives it a 5 out of 5 picture quality

slop101

I never got around to getting Criterion's blu of MWFtE, but I still have their DVD that came with the novel. 1080p aside, how's that compare? (to my eyes, the upscaled SD looked good enough to not upgrade to Criterion's blu, at that time)

Dan

I know Criterion already hinted at Ghost World with their little drawing, but here's more confirmation from Thora Birch on the estimated release date (May)

Why So Blu?

sb5

It's weird - at the time I thought Thora was going to be the one to go on to have the bigger career of the two...

Coral

Well she can still follow in her parents footsteps and do porn.

Seriously, the last movie she was in that I recognised was the 2004 John Sayles film Silver City. Everything else looks like bad low-budget movies. Maybe she should do porn.

stvn1974

Yay for Ghost World. Although Steve Buscemi's character hits a little bit too close to home at times.

Josh Z

That's nice. Nevertheless, the information I stated is actually correct and the Studio Canal disc is terrible. I will publish my own review with screencaps in the near future.

Dan

To follow up Josh's comment... where are you seeing this? When I go to their review, I see this: