Criterion's January 2006 slate: Kurosawa, Ford, DeSica and Bergman... (1 Viewer)

[John Hodson]

I must admit I'm a little underwhelmed by the specs for Criterion's first John Ford film, and I held off buying the R2 in anticipation, but it's that little word 'more' that give me hope...

 

[Adam_S]

Kinda sad that Fox Studio Classics can manage two discs worth of material (two sided, single disc is essentially the same) and an audio commentary for many of their Ford films for a $15 price tag but Criterion can't even manage an audio commentary for $30. Why do I get the feeling a Fox edition of YML would have been better than the upcoming Criterion?

 

[Jesse Blough]

From Criterion's newsletter:

"We’ve received many such e-mails from fans wondering about the status of Tati’s astounding 1967 comedy, and we are happy to report that we are indeed planning to release a new edition of Playtime—either individually or as part of a Jacques Tati box set—sometime in 2006. Watch the Criterion website for details."

So Playtime is coming. Just have patience.

 

[Michael Elliott]

That's my feelings as well. It seems to me Fox is just trying to get more money out of these classic films. I understand something like THE LEOPARD going to Criterion but Fox could very easily release their own Ford box set or release these titles under their Studio Classics line.

I'll just keep what I recorded off FMC.

 

[george kaplan]

Good news for me, great news for Gordon -- it means he'll only have to hear me sigh 11 more times at most.

 

[Mario Gauci]

Unsurprisingly, I'll eventually be picking up all of Criterion's January slate!

I'm familiar with only two of them from one previous viewing:


1) THE BAD SLEEP WELL (1960) - Kurosawa's modern version of Shakespeare's "Hamlet", which I watched on Italian TV on my 17th birthday 12 years ago:frowning:!

and

2) THE VIRGIN SPRING (1960) - via my original PAL VHS, which will soon be joining the ranks of about 200 other redundant videotapes:frowning:!


As for the other two, I had missed an opportunity to watch YOUNG MR. LINCOLN (1939) on late night Italian TV (as part of a lengthy John Ford retrospective in English with Italian subtitles!) and, as far as I can recall, THE CHILDREN ARE WATCHING US (1943) has, strangely enough, never been shown on Italian TV so an opportunity to catch up with Vittorio De Sica's first real "neo-realist" drama is welcome.

Even so, I do agree with Adam and Michael's thoughts re the Fox/Criterion situation...

As for George's Criterion wishlist, THE GREAT McGINTY (1940) and HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO (1944) are available on R2 but I'd be up for any DVD release of the following:


The Prisoner of Zenda (1937; a childhood favorite)
Night Train to Munich (1940; is this REALLY coming, Gordon?)
Ball of Fire (1941; a Howard Hawks/Billy Wilder subversion of the "Snow White And Seven Dwarfs" theme!)
The Sea Wolf (1941)
The Devil & Miss Jones (1941)
The Major & the Minor (1942)
The Blue Dahlia (1946; Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake - enough said)
Berlin Express (1948; Jacques Tourneur and Robert Ryan - ditto)


As for PLAYTIME (1967), however, they can sit on it for as long as they like as far as I'm concerned...

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

george kaplan, wrote:


Ha ha!
Yes, I recieved the Criterion newsletter and was delighted to hear that they are moving towards a new release. Obviously, they are being as cagey as usual about this, though. I'd love to see a box that included Jour de Fete, Trafic and the underrated, shot-on-video Parade - his last film. I cherish the existing M. Hulot's Holiday and Mon Oncle, though, but any upgrade would be most welcome.

 

[PaulP]

I doubt Fox could've given us this cover art.

 

[Patrick McCart]

It would be really neat if Criterion released a "complete Tati" box set with even M. Hulot's Holiday and Mon Oncle in new editions. The two could be improved with new HD transfers. Also, the alternate English version of Mon Oncle has been restored and new outtakes were found.

 

[Elijah Sullivan]

Just watched some of the Bad Sleep Well disc. The video and the audio are... amazing! The image is as silky smooth and beautiful as the Criterion treatment of 8 1/2 and the audio, for the first time on a b&w Kurosawa disc, actually has some oomph.

If this is any indicator of what they can do with a remaster of Seven Samurai, I'm very enthusiastic.

BTW, the making-of doc on this is a 33-min chunk of the It's Wonderful to Create doc. A commentary would have been nice, but this is still a great little disc.

Can't wait to finish the movie... this is a terrific flick...