Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

[Glowingwabbit]

Can we talk about Bressonaire calling the WCP boxset?!!!

[therewillbeblus]

Can we talk about Bressonaire calling the WCP boxset?!!!

And Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project 3- Bressonaire strikes again!

[modernmalaise]

Sort of disappointed we'll have to wait until the next box for Night of Counting the Years...but Beau travail is spectacular to hear! Looking forward to seeing it again, those scenes in the salt flats would be gorgeous to look at in HD!

[senseabove]

Christ Stopped... is excellent. I saw it twice, a few months apart. Given, that was partly motivated by the possibility that it wouldn't get a home video release so I didn't know that I'd ever get the chance to... I will very much appreciate more context for it.

[felipe]

Some of the non-Pixote WCP titles sound interesting, but I'm just happy for all those die-hard Elephant Man fans out there who have been itching for this one for years, even if I may never understand why.

Don't you like Pixote?

[FrauBlucher]

Can we talk about Bressonaire calling the WCP boxset?!!!

And Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project 3- Bressonaire strikes again!

Mr Becker, I mean Bressionaire may have been suggesting the two Dassin upgrades with this line...

Criterion has a distinct pattern of twinning releases that’s been going on for a while now

[therewillbeblus]

Some of the non-Pixote WCP titles sound interesting, but I'm just happy for all those die-hard Elephant Man fans out there who have been itching for this one for years, even if I may never understand why.

Don't you like Pixote?

I have mixed feelings but like it fine, though my comment was geared at differentiating the ones aside from what I've seen, which is only Pixote. I'm aware of my interest in that one!

[beamish14]

Pixote really does deserve a stacked release. Hell, Babenco's whole catalog does, and outside of
Kiss of the Spider Woman (which does have a lot of unused archival material, as its producer saved
every single rush!), he's really been neglected. Blows my mind that the easiest way to see At Play in the Fields of the Lord
is a 30 year old master on the library app Hoopla.

[Finch]

I've not seen the Rosi but liked many of his other films a great deal so Christ Stopped At Eboli will be a blind buy. Thrilled about the 4k upgrade for Brute Force (Naked City is tedious by comparison) and The Elephant Man is not must-have Lynch for me (good film though it is).

[Minkin]

A month has passed already? Well, time to oil the wheels and head on over the pass

Beau Travail - Was making the informal rounds with Janus

Christ Stopped at Eboli - No definitive speculation, a surprise

The Elephant Man - No definitive speculation, a surprise

World Cinema Project Vol 3 - Pixote, Soleil Ô, and Lucia were all confirmed Janus titles, the rest were only known based upon Criterion releasing all of the WCP restored films

The Naked City - the march of random upgrades

Brute Force - random upgrade
===================================================
225 potential upgrades remain to be upgraded

The lack of newsletter clues are especially being felt. I think Elephant Man is the first Lynch film to not be hinted at via newsletter clue or new years clue.
=================================
For this month's All-Around Cowpoke ceremony, we find ourselves with a three-way tie with one correct guess each for modernmalaise, criterionsnob, and jwd5275. Rather than share the award, its been determined that straws will be drawn and one winner will prevail. And this month's all-around cowpoke is:

Modernmalaise - with a guess of Pixote!

As always, the golden lariat can be picked up at the concession stand.

And with that, we find our rodeo coming to a close. Until next month, see you at the ball!

[modernmalaise]

Haha thanks, but I will pass it off to Bressonaire...they did say WCP box 3. And the twin releases.

Happy to have a good month though!

[Bressonaire]

Haha thanks, but I will pass it off to Bressonaire...they did say WCP box 3. And the twin releases.

In all fairness, I was spitballing or I would have made a list, and I'd have paired the WCP with Scorsese's The Irishman for twinning. It was only speculation on the New Year's clue (the Rohmer box set that off) that made me start to wonder about the possibility of an expanded meaning of the box sets, and the timing was right for another WCP box. The Dassin updgrades are an illustration of the pattern that's been around for awhile, not a prediction.

[What A Disgrace]

One of the original WCP restorations, the 1964 Romanian film Forest of the Hanged, was pulled from the roster many years ago. This article explains why.

https://www.filmneweurope.com/news/roma ... ctor-s-son

[whaleallright]

Shades of Jean Eustache's son seemingly spitefully refusing his dad's films a threatrical or home-video release.

[Shrew]

From the article, it sounds like it's more Romania's fault than Ciulei's son. He's upset that the Romanian National Film Center didn't try to work with/offer more money to support the WCF's restoration project.

[Calvin]

Judging by Filip Jan Rymsza's comments here it doesn't sound like a Criterion release of The Other Side of the Wind is imminent

[Ribs]

He doesn't say Criterion is doing it, though.

[cdnchris]

On Facebook it was either Joseph McBride or someone else working on it that implied Criterion was releasing it. The implication, though, comes from the fact it was in reply to the original Netflix/Criterion announcement. They said they were still working on features.

[dwk]

I think it was Kristin Thompson that posted that Criterion was still working on the special features.

[Drucker]

The real buried lede of this thread is that somehow people would be surprised the Welles film didn't have the same viewership as Irishmen or Marriage Story. What exactly was anyone at Netflix expecting here?

[Lowry_Sam]

Christ Stopped at Eboli - No definitive speculation, a surprise

The Elephant Man - No definitive speculation, a surprise

Actually neither of these are surprises. I immediately put Christ Stopped At Eboli on my guessing list the month after I saw it on the big screen (and saw it was with Rialto), as I think one or two others did here. Definitely gets a 10 out of 10 from me (film not the disc).

No Lynch release should be a surprise, particularly not a Studio Canal release, and many have included this on their list over the past few years (myself included). Unless you mean being surprised that this (along with Roma, Parasite, Don't Look Know) is not being used as part of Criterion's great leap forward into UHD, then yes it is a surprise Criterion would do this.

High Hopes,Secrets And Lies, & Happy Go Lucky all open with the wacky C animation, I'd welcome any of them as the next Mike Leigh to disc.

[therewillbeblus]

High Hopes has been confirmed for years, I thought as the “next” Leigh, long enough ago where I forgot about it. I’d kill for Secrets and Lies and it would be a rather timely release now that I think of it.

[hearthesilence]

High Hopes has been confirmed for years, I thought as the “next” Leigh, long enough ago where I forgot about it. I’d kill for Secrets and Lies and it would be a rather timely release now that I think of it.

I'd definitely get those two, as well as Happy-Go-Lucky and Vera Drake, but High Hopes and Secrets and Lies would be at the top of my list. The UK BD for Secrets and Lies is pretty good, but I could see it being topped pretty easily in both PQ and extras.

[Lowry_Sam]

The UK BD for Secrets and Lies is pretty good, but I could see it being topped pretty easily in both PQ and extras.

Really? For some reason I thought the response to this one was as lackluster as for High Hopes & so I've been trying very hard not to not be spring for them in the hopes of both better P/Q & extras on a Criterion. Was a bit surprised that Meantime came before them though.

[hearthesilence]

The UK BD for Secrets and Lies is pretty good, but I could see it being topped pretty easily in both PQ and extras.

Really? For some reason I thought the response to this one was as lackluster as for High Hopes & so I've been trying very hard not to not be spring for them in the hopes of both better P/Q & extras on a Criterion. Was a bit surprised that Meantime came before them though.

I can take another look at it, but my recollection was that it was just fine and a very sensible upgrade - a real HD transfer at a budget price. The High Hopes BD was re-done, wasn't it? I haven't seen it, but the original one was reportedly an SD master that was upscaled to HD.