New CRITERION announcements? (1 Viewer)

[Jarrod Ferris]

I find it odd that here we are mid October and Criterion has only announced a few titles up to November 11th. Anybody heard of any news on December and January releases from them?

 

[Jean-Michel]

Criterion doesn't release anything in December unless a November title gets pushed back. January announcements should be made near either the end of this month or the beginning of November.

 

[Jarrod Ferris]

Why wouldn't Criterion release anything in December? That makes no sense, seeing as December would be the time of year when people would be more apt to pay big bucks for a DVD gift.

 

[Dan Rudolph]

Probably because it's so heavily competitive that special items liek Criterions might get drowded out of the market. (Just speculation. I'm no business major.)

 

[Brandon Conway]

However, it should be noted that Richard III has no release date yet, and could very well get a released in December.

 

[Brian PB]

Jon Mulvaney recently said in an email that they did not plan any DVD releases this December (which would appear to nix Richard III and maybe Maurice--maybe I'm the only one who expects at least one of the Merchant-Ivory releases to be on Criterion instead of HVE).

 

[Bill Burns]

Somewhere or another I generated a November 18th release for Richard III a while ago, but in thinking I should pre-order I checked a few e-tailers just the other day and found no mention of it at all -- wherever I picked up that date, it seems clear it's no longer accurate.

I hope Criterion's able to bring the film to market soon. I've never seen it (Olivier's version), but it should make a great companion piece to Olivier's Hamlet, and of course other versions of the play itself, such as the silent 1912 adaptation of Richard III (the oldest known surviving feature-length American film), which is available through Kino (from a print of astounding quality, apparently thanks entirely to the care of a private collector).

 

[Brian PB]

It was originally posted on this site long before the November announcements. Both Richard III and Maurice were given a November 11th date (along with all of the other titles which were eventually confirmed by Criterion & HVE). I believe the artwork was even available briefly on Criterion's website (to those who know how to access the covers of unofficial titles), but the title was never officially announced, which suggests it may be a January title.

 

[Bill Burns]

Thanks Brian -- I've never visited that site before, though, so I'm thinking the date must have been mentioned in passing at one of the DVD review sites, which is generally the only group of sources from which I'll actually write down confirmed dates. A little checking found this:

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=565

And the 18th is mentioned there as if it had been confirmed. I don't often visit DVDTimes, but a web master may have picked up on the date there and passed it along. Dunno. Anyway, that was just a personal "hmmm," as I always try to keep my list a "review site-sourced" thing, with titles mentioned by reasonable but unproven alternate sources written up separately as "possibles." Official press announcements, of course, count with the former. It's also possible I meant to list it in the latter and somewhow typed it into the former. I'm sure my listing parameters are only of interest to me, though. Thanks for the link. I hope you're right about January -- "early 2004" is also when we're supposed to see Rules of the Game (Renoir), delayed due to the discovery of a superior element.

 

[Eric Meske]

What ever happened to The Lower Depths?

 

[Ted Todorov]

What ever happened to The Lower Depths?

Postponed until 2004.

Indeed I think that Criterion's willingness to delay titles as long as necessary so they can release the best possible DVD, is the main reason they avoid December releases. That way they don't have to deal with customers who pre-ordered some December release as a Christmas present and are furious because it got postponed until March...

Ted

 

[John Hodson]

Somewhere or another I generated a November 18th release for Richard III a while ago, but in thinking I should pre-order I checked a few e-tailers just the other day and found no mention of it at all -- wherever I picked up that date, it seems clear it's no longer accurate.
I hope Criterion's able to bring the film to market soon. I've never seen it (Olivier's version), but it should make a great companion piece to Olivier's Hamlet,

Stunning, seminal, tour-de-force. Often copied and often parodied; the best being Peter Sellers doing Olivier, doing Richard III, whilst performing a version of A Hard Days Night, which, if Criterion could possibly get the rights, would make a superb extra!

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"Can I at least have the hump?" - Richard Dreyfuss, The Goodbye Girl