Has Criterion given up on Picnic at Hanging Rock? (1 Viewer)

Yet another batch of title announcements, yet another month with no Picnic at Hanging Rock. As one of the titles included in last year's (or the year before?) poll for most requested title, it baffles me why there hasn't been any movement on this release. There are two Blurays available overseas, albeit only Weir's shorter cut. I would hope that an announcement of a dual version release isn't too far off this side of the pond.

 Well it hurts a lot,that they have this in other countries ,and I got a real Nice HD Version off TV ,yet it was one of the very few Criterion

titles that they ask us if we wanted ,in a poll,and we lost out to a far lesser film.Maybe that was enough to them to say the buzz

isn't big enough ,and maybe they have a long list of cheaper stuff,I am sure MGM UA stuff is in their lap,with real stars

Or to look on the brigher side .maybe they are waitting for Mr Weir to do something I don't think he does(?) and that is

a Commentary

I am more upset that another great film" EL Sur" Isn't not only not on Blue Ray,But isn't even availible anywhere with english subtitles

Criterion never even bothered doing that on dvd

I'm sure we'll get it eventually. What were the other films in that poll?

It was not "most requested titles" poll, it was just an opportunity to let customers choose between five titles. Other options were Down by Law, Kwaidan, Au revoir les enfants and Howards End, which eventually won the poll.

It's important to note that from that list, the "Kwaidan" & "Down By Law" Blus are also still missing in action, and the "Au Revoir Les Enfants" Blu was just released this week, making it only the 2nd title from that poll to see the light of day.


In other words, there's no evidence that "Picnic" has been abandoned. Criterion has limited resources, and development schedules on their titles often ebb and flow. I assume you want them to take all needed time to make sure this title is done right?

Yes, I want it done right, but there have been what, 50 titles (or more) that have been released in the meantime?

Criterion never said that they are going to release all five films on Blu-ray. I'm not even sure if they are allowed to release Kwaidan. It is licensed from Toho who has "six months policy", which means others can release their titles six months after they have released them in Japan. And I don't think they have released Kwaidan on Blu-ray yet.

I don't know if Toho still has that six month policy. Criterion was able to release HOUSE, which isn't available on Blu-ray in Japan. (Although, going by the interviews, it doesn't seem like Toho cares for HOUSE, so maybe that played a part.)


Anyway, back on topic. As for PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK not being popular enough for Criterion to upgrade to Blu-ray, they are going to release upgrades of SWEETIE and FAT GIRL, and I have to think that PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK is more popular than those two. They will get around to PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK sometime. Who knows when (right now they seem to be focused on getting those 2-dozen or so MGM titles out), but they will release it.

"I have to think that PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK is more popular than those two. They will get around to PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK sometime. Who knows when (right now they seem to be focused on getting those 2-dozen or so MGM titles out), but they will release it."


well I think because they have to buy the rights,which should be more than those films,The TCM HD version looked like their's,so I think its money holding it up

and they are not done doing every Japanese film ever made

It probably has a transfer available to them, but is being held up by talent availability issues.


Perhaps Weir wants to sit with his DP on the timing of the HD master for the Criterion release, perhaps wrangling all the talent for a new edition is taking time, perhaps there's a clearance issue with a special feature they think is worth waiting to work out.


Perhaps there's a very limiited budget for completely new editions of bad early releases, and Picnic at Hanging Rock just hasn't worked it's way to the top of the queue yet.


there are a lot of reasons a title can be delayed.

"Weir wants to sit with his DP on the timing of the HD master for the Criterion release, perhaps wrangling all the talent for a new edition is taking time"


I don't see this ,since the HD Version shown on TCM had a Criterion Logo and was Fantastic and not a all like the Criterion dvd,maybe we can hope

for some new Features like a commentary,then the wait would be worth it,The other BRs already have Fantastic extras ,which are a most to have

The master used for Australian and British Blu-rays was supervised and approved by Weir as far as I know.

I don't really care about extras anymore, however I would like both the original and director's cuts included if possible.

well that Original version is only on the Japanese Laser disc(which I still have) Its mostly only two scenes that he cut out,so you don't really need it,I Find the doc very intresting

and one extra scene great to see,I don't agree with you on that at all,more extras the better for a great film like this