June Criterions! (1 Viewer)

[Brian PB]

Coverart is up for The Lower Depths. No complaints here:

 

[oscar_merkx]

wonderful

 

[Rob Tomlin]

God I love Criterion!

 

[Brook K]

Lower Depths and Woman Is A Woman will be mine, though Woman is my least favorite Godard. I'll rent Mamma Roma before deciding.

Brian, you should definitely check out Tunes of Glory if you've never seen it. Fantastic movie and a superb performance by Alec Guinness.

 

[Terry St]

The Samurai trilogy is a re-issue of spine numbers 14-16. I have the original discs and the transfer/source is pretty damned piss-poor. The discs are bare-bones as well, with nary an extra to be found. Does anyone know if Criterion did an extensive restoration or got some better prints? Did they find some extras this time? They're great films and showcase Mifune at his best. I'd definately pick them up again if the new set isn't just a repackaging of the old discs.

 

[Jake Johnson]

The Lower Depths cover will probably be the same as The Killer's set. The cover Criterion is posting is just a piece of paper covering a full size cover photo of one of the movies, and the back of the box will be the other cover image. did I explain this well?

 

[Brian PB]

Terry St:

The Samurai Trilogy box set is simply a re-packaging of the previous releases. It does not feature new transfers or extras. I doubt that the potential audience for these films is large enough for Criterion to revisit them in the next few years (probably until the HD-DVD era comes to pass), so we're stuck with these in the interim.

 

[Terry St]

Thanks for the info Brian. I'm a little disappointed in Criterion. I can't believe that they wouldn't, at the very least, up the bit-rate a little and release them on DVD-9's this time. (The old discs are all DVD-5's) If people buy those discs they're not going to form a very good opinion of Criterion! They are abominably sub-standard releases by today's standards.

I can understand why they wouldn't want to put a lot of cash into redoing a title with limited appeal, so why repackage them at all? Lower the prices and leave them as is.

 

[PaulP]

Perhaps to sell off them off so they can be remastered.