Criterion Blu-ray titles! (1 Viewer)

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[Derrick King]

Ben, you might want to wait on The Third Man and Chungking Express because both are in the flimsy digipaks that Criterion used on their first 8 or so releases and Criterion has said that they are going to be offering them in the clear keepcases that they now use, but they've not given a date as to when the new keepcase versions will be available.

Now, if the packaging doesn't matter, I'd say you should go with The Third Man. It looks great and is packed with quality supplemental material. I love Chungking Express, but the disc only has a few extras and while I think the transfer is great, in that it is accurate to the source material, it can be seen as disappointing to people who aren't familiar with the film or WKW's style. I haven't seen Pierrot le Fou, so I can't comment on the Blu-Ray.

 

Thanks Derrick. You should see the new Studio Canal Collection digipacks... These Criterion ones look very sturdy by comparison! At least CC gave you a dome for disc storage; these Studio Canal ones have a cardboard hole that the disc slips into; like, as if I want to pay prestige prices for a classic disc, and then risk it getting scratched just to take it in and out... Sheesh.

Here's a case question, though. Do we assume that Criterion will be issuing all forthcoming titles in blu amaray; will it be safe to pre-order Pierrot without worrying I'll be buying a digipack?

 

[Powell&Pressburger]

Pierrot Le Fou is in the clear style keep case like Playtime.

You can look at the packaging here.

http://www.criterionforum.org/DVD-packaging/pierrot-le-fou-blu-ray/the-criterion-collection/606

 

[David Wilkins]

Originally Posted by Ben Cheshire /img/forum/go_quote.gif">

Thanks Derrick. You should see the new Studio Canal Collection digipacks... These Criterion ones look very sturdy by comparison! At least CC gave you a dome for disc storage; these Studio Canal ones have a cardboard hole that the disc slips into; like, as if I want to pay prestige prices for a classic disc, and then risk it getting scratched just to take it in and out... Sheesh.

Here's a case question, though. Do we assume that Criterion will be issuing all forthcoming titles in blu amaray; will it be safe to pre-order Pierrot without worrying I'll be buying a digipack?

 

[David Wilkins]

Before I bother with emailing Criterion, does anybody know with which title the new case design started? I'd like to avoid purchasing as many replacement cases as possible.

 

Originally Posted by Powell&Pressburger /forum/thread/272151/criterion-announces-first-blu-ray-titles/480#post_3607118
Pierrot Le Fou... You can look at the packaging here.
http://www.criterionforum.org/DVD-packaging/pierrot-le-fou-blu-ray/the-criterion-collection/606

Oh my! Criterion make such classy products it makes me drool (sic?) Definitely blind buying this.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Originally Posted by David Wilkins /forum/thread/272151/criterion-announces-first-blu-ray-titles/480#post_3607124
Before I bother with emailing Criterion, does anybody know with which title the new case design started? I'd like to avoid purchasing as many replacement cases as possible.

Cardboard cases:
The 400 Blows
The Third Man
The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Last Emperor
Bottle Rocket
Chungking Express
El Norte
The Last Metro
Last Year at Marienbad
Regular Blu-ray packaging:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Newer clear case:
The Seventh Seal
The Wages of Fear
For All Mankind
Playtime
The Complete Monterey Pop Festival (2 cases)
Kagemusha
Pierrot le fou
In the Realm of the Senses
Repulsion
All releases going forward will presumably be with the new clear cases.

 

[David Wilkins]

Thanks, Brandon. You are a fount of useful info.

 

[Brandon Conway]

From a recent post on the Criterion Facebook page (which is surprisingly, and refeshingly, candid for the company more often than not):
"We'll get to more Truffaut over time. As for Blu-rays, they're really starting to catch on. We know how important the format is to the many early adopters in our audience, and we'd like to do more going forward, but because of our limited capacity, we're always going to have to make choices. We would have loved to make the Kurosawa set available in both DVD and Blu-ray formats, but as a small, independent company, we had to be honest with ourselves and admit that we don't have the capacity to make a worthy 25-Blu-ray set, at least not without bringing all other Criterion production, and with it our mission, to a grinding halt. Making good Blu-rays turns out to be an inordinately labor- and time-intensive undertaking, and we are already struggling to bring our Blu-ray capacity up from one or two releases a month to three or four. At this stage of the game, given the care we insist on, a good 25 Blu-ray set was just out of the question."
So, good news going forward as they look to increase their BD output, even if it they struggle to do so, and isn't every release.

 

There's so many great Criterion DVD's. I can't wait to see Belle and the Bete, Brazil, Written on the Wind, My Man Godfrey, 8 1/2, Regle du Jeu, Battle of Algiers, Heaven Can Wait, Pandora's Box, If..., Breathless, Days of Heaven, Vampyr, all Max Ophuls, and Melville, and Archers!!! I'd say their criterion must be pretty good.

However, there have been lapses. Ahem Beastie Boys. Ahem Michael Bay (2 entries wtf?)

 

[Adam_S]

Originally Posted by Brandon Conway /forum/thread/272151/criterion-announces-first-blu-ray-titles/480#post_3609006
From a recent post on the Criterion Facebook page (which is surprisingly, and refeshingly, candid for the company more often than not):
"We'll get to more Truffaut over time. As for Blu-rays, they're really starting to catch on. We know how important the format is to the many early adopters in our audience, and we'd like to do more going forward, but because of our limited capacity, we're always going to have to make choices. We would have loved to make the Kurosawa set available in both DVD and Blu-ray formats, but as a small, independent company, we had to be honest with ourselves and admit that we don't have the capacity to make a worthy 25-Blu-ray set, at least not without bringing all other Criterion production, and with it our mission, to a grinding halt. Making good Blu-rays turns out to be an inordinately labor- and time-intensive undertaking, and we are already struggling to bring our Blu-ray capacity up from one or two releases a month to three or four. At this stage of the game, given the care we insist on, a good 25 Blu-ray set was just out of the question."
So, good news going forward as they look to increase their BD output, even if it they struggle to do so, and isn't every release.

They later indicated that The Leopard is slated for bluray on their facebook page, but not time frame was given so it could be years til they get to that. I am glad they're trying to increase blus to three or four, and it would seem to explain why they've had months where only one or two titles come out.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Originally Posted by Ben Cheshire /forum/thread/272151/criterion-announces-first-blu-ray-titles/480#post_3609282
However, there have been lapses. Ahem Beastie Boys.

The Beastie Boys Anthology was a great release. /img/vbsmilies/htf/dance.gif

 

[Craig Beam]

Originally Posted by Brandon Conway /forum/thread/272151/criterion-announces-first-blu-ray-titles/510#post_3609383
The Beastie Boys Anthology was a great release.

Hell YES.

 

Originally Posted by Brandon Conway /forum/thread/272151/criterion-announces-first-blu-ray-titles/510#post_3609383
The Beastie Boys Anthology was a great release. /img/vbsmilies/htf/dance.gif

I don't have the disc, so no crap on the quality of the disc, I think it was probably the most leftfield decision Criterion have made. The music videos of Spike Jonze, or Bjork, I wouldn't blink twice. Beastie Boys videos I never considered great art, but haven't seen in a while. Do you think they have good artistic qualities? I'm just wondering, because its been a while since i've seen any.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Funny that you single out Spike Jonze, as four of his videos are part of the collection, including most likely the best one on the set: Sabotage (which I do consider great art, in a tongue-in-cheek kitsch way). (His other 3: Sure Shot, Ricky's Theme, Ciao LA). It's certainly a left field release, but that's partly what I like about it. /img/vbsmilies/htf/cool.gif

 

I screwed up there! I guess I revealed I knew nothing about the beastie boys set at all!!! Sorry guys. Back on topic.

 

[ccfixx]

Criterionforum.org's review of the "Monsoon Wedding" blu-ray.

CC

 

[ccfixx]

Courtesy of criterionforum.org...

Below is a great e-mail response from the president of Criterion, Peter Becker, to a customer concerning certain happenings and releases at Criterion.

My name is Peter Becker. I'm the president of Criterion. Thanks for
taking the time to write in.

You're right to call the Criterion schedule a juggling act, and
juggling this year's schedule has been more challenging than any since
laserdisc days. I understand some of the frustration you're feeling
about the balance of new and classic titles, especially in the later
2009 Blu-ray schedule. Making the Criterion schedule is always a
series of impossible compromises, and in the end, some people, some
years, are going to end up unhappy. Clearly this was not a good year
for you. I'm sorry about that. I know it may not solve anything, but I
thought you might appreciate a quick look at some of the factors that
came into play with this year's schedule.

For what it's worth, we've spent much more time on classic film this
year than our announced schedule shows. The single most time consuming
and expensive mastering project in the history of the company was
Kobayashi's THE HUMAN CONDITION -- that is, until we started work on
Rossellini's War Trilogy, which is still not finished. We had
originally hoped to have the Rossellini set ready for October release,
then November, then December. Ironically the easiest of the masters,
the 2007 restoration of ROME, OPEN CITY, is the one that is giving us
the most trouble. PAISAN, which has never been available in a
watchable video version, has taken us three straight months of digital
restoration, an amount of time and an expense that will probably never
come back, but the film will finally, for the first time, look good --
still damaged, but with a beautiful black and white image that will be
a revelation to anyone who has ever seen the old tapes and 16 mm
prints that are still in circulation. Our tech director is about to
make his third trip to Italy on this project, just to try to
straighten out the last master, next week.

You also mention STAGECOACH. We never announced it for December, but
it's true that we had hoped to release it then. Again mastering turned
out to be more complicated than we anticipated. The original negative
of the film is lost, and we have been evaluating a number of different
elements. We are now working closely with UCLA's restoration team to
evaluate all available elements and create a new HD master, starting
from scratch. The bad news is that it's taking a long time. The good
news is that in the time we've been working on the master, we've had
the opportunity to unearth some interesting supplemental materials, so
the edition will be all the better for it. That said, it's frustrating
that it didn't come out -- the cover's been on the wall of our office
for weeks now, and we're looking forward to making it a part of the
collection.

Those two big classics that we've been hard at work on were never
announced, which helped to give disporportionate weight to the
contemporary releases of this fall/winter. I can understand why you
would think we were stepping back from classics in favor of more
contemporary films, but in fact, the opposite has been true. Our
Blu-ray schedule has been heavily weighted toward international
classics with THE SEVENTH SEAL, PLAYTIME, WAGES OF FEAR, THE THIRD
MAN, REPULSION, 400 BLOWS, THE LAST METRO, IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES,
LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD. And when you throw in our DVD schedule with Z,
JEANNE DIELMAN, 2 OR 3 THINGS..., HUMAN CONDITION, MY DINNNER WITH
ANDRE, the Imamura box, Painlevé, etc., I don't think we pulled any
punches or spared any expense where classics were concerned.
Integrating Blu-ray production into our workflow has been challenging
in its own right. Adding an existing DVD upgrade is about equivalent
to adding a new DVD production to the schedule, at least where our
technical team is concerned, and that is where our capacity is most
constrained. New Blu-rays released day and date with the DVD editions
are marginally more efficient, and many of our customers are avidly
urging us not to release DVD-only editions anymore, but each
simultaneous release we do is one more DVD catalog classic we aren't
revisiting that month. Right now we're struggling to bring our Blu-ray
capacity up from one to two a month to three or four. As our capacity
increases, it will be easier to keep a balance, but in the meantime
it's an inexact science.

The other title that you say you were expecting, but which we didn't
officially announce for December, is CHE. It's coming, and as you can
imagine there's a wealth of great content getting developed. We wanted
to be ready for December, but Steven Soderbergh needed time to
reconstruct some deleted scenes, and we were also able, in what we
think is going to be a controversial coup, to persuade Che biographer
Jon Lee Anderson to do commentaries on both films, but he also needed
more time to prepare. In short, it became clear that if we delayed the
release a month we would be able to make a much better set. That's a
trade we will always make, even if it means we don't get the benefit
of sales in the holiday season, and we think that's the kind of
decision our collectors would want us to make.

To touch briefly on some of the other things you mention: more Eclipse
is a goal for us too. Again, this is a capacity issue. Each disc in a
set represents multiple passes for our QC department, and when we're
working on large-scale projects like Rossellini, HUMAN CONDITION, or
the Imamura box, that has a tendency to cramp our capacity to handle
multi-disc Eclipse sets at the same time. Still, we're proud of what
we've been able to do in Eclipse this year, but we are definitely
looking forward to getting more out next year. As for "two-release
months," by which I assume we're referring to December, I've already
mentioned that we intended to have STAGECOACH and CHE ready for
December as well but we delayed them to make them better rather than
sooner. That said, when one of the two releases is a 25-disc set,
that also factors in. I'm sorry you don't like the Kurosawa box idea,
but we felt that his centennial was an important opportunity to draw
attention to his monumental body of work, and so far we've had some
very positive feedback from people who have not been as diligently
collecting his work as you have.

I don't expect anything I've said will change your mind about our
slate, but I hope at least you'll know that we have no desire to
dismiss your concerns. We do value feedback from our customers,
especially longtime supporters like you, and we hope we'll earn your
loyalty again in 2010.

All the best,
Peter Becker

 

[David Wilkins]

The Becker response is great stuff. Thanks for sharing.