A hint from Criterion--more early Ingmar Bergman? (1 Viewer)

[Haggai]

Criterion's monthly e-newsletter often contains little cartoon hints of upcoming titles. Here's the one for this month, December '06:



Notice that they're all seals, and there are...seven of them.

The logical guess is that they're going to be releasing a 5-movie Bergman boxset of pre-Seventh Seal films ("elder siblings"). Criterion has already released Smiles of a Summer Night. I would be thrilled if they released The Naked Night, from '53, an excellent movie that I saw as part of a Bergman festival a couple of years ago. The print I saw was pretty beaten up, so if they were able to find good elements and do a nice transfer for that movie, it would be excellent news.

 

[Bruce Morrison]

Your interpretation of the cartoon appears to be correct. But the Bergman work that I would really like Criterion to release is the full TV version of 'Face To Face'. This is a superb miniseries from the 70's similar in scope to 'Scenes From A Marriage', which has already been released by Criterion. Liv Ullmann gives a brilliant performance as a suicidal psychiatrist, and it would be great to see it released by Criterion in 2007.

 

[Martin Teller]

I would guess:

Sawdust and Tinsel (a.k.a. The Naked Night)
Summer With Monika
Summer Interlude
Secrets of Women
To Joy

I'd love Face to Face too, I've only seen the edited version. Also The Magician is long overdue. Heck, I'd welcome ANY new R1 Bergman releases... even All These Women, which is horrible.

 

[Tim_C]

It looks like this is indeed referring to a set of early Bergman films and that they will fall under the new Eclipse banner:

http://www.criterionco.com/blog/index.html

A lot of fantastic information about the Eclipse line here, and it seems we'll be getting an official announcement tomorrow.

I'm extremely excited to see what comes of this line - there's the potential for a whole lot of great rare films to finally get released.

 

[Jim Tudor]

Well today has pretty much come and gone, and no official announcment. Man I'm jonesing for this. Hopefully Monday...?

 

[Casey Neutron]

This is great news. Instead of waiting for these films to trickle out one or two at a time, we'll be able to grab five at once. I'm really hoping "Sawdust and Tinsel" (his first masterpiece IMHO) and "Summer With Monika" will be among the five. I've had "Secrets of Women" on VHS for years but haven't watched it--it's a dubbed version and I don't think I could bear it. Glad I waited, hope it's included. "Dreams" and "A Lesson in Love" are two other possibilities for the set.

And yeah, "The Magician" is long overdue. I believe this is the only Bergman film Criterion released on laserdisc that hasn't made its way to dvd yet. One of my favorites. I think a near-future release is inevitable.