WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY A GAME...? SPECULATED CRITERION TITLES FOR 2014 (2 Viewers)

[Kevin EK]

Martin, you may want to go back and grab that DVD. Sounds like a great price and a good idea. I wouldn't wait for Criterion to re-issue DTRT. The Universal Blu contains nearly all of the extras from the Criterion disc (excepting the "Fight the Power" video and Chuck D's commentary for that). The only thing a Criterion Blu would be able to add at this point would be a new transfer, and I'm not certain that they're inclined to invest in that.

A redo of the Spartacus Blu would be a different matter, because there are PILES of extras that didn't go on the Universal Blu of that title. So you'd be able to get a new, corrected transfer, AND you'd get the commentary and all the plentiful goodness Criterion provided on the laserdisc and DVD sets. And that would be a Day 0 purchase for me.

BTW, when does Criterion issue their preview cartoon image for their 2014 releases? That's always been a fun moment for me at the end of the year.

 

[Derrick King]

BTW, when does Criterion issue their preview cartoon image for their 2014 releases? That's always been a fun moment for me at the end of the year.

January 1st.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

1. The Trial - This Welles film already has a Euro release on blu which I have been holding off purchasing because I expect a US release.

2. Touch of Evil - I have the wonderful DVD set and would love to see this get a blu-ray release. Also already available on blu in Europe and another title that I keep holding off on because I would expect a US release.

3. Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould - This would make an awesome Criterion release I think and the dvd (which I have) is out of print.

4. 'Round Midnight -It's a shame and a little surprising to me that Tavernier's film has never made it to blu but Criterion would be the perfect spot for it.

5. Waterloo - Bondarchuk's film is exactly the kind of film I would expect to see Criterion chase down and get out on blu-ray.

6. The Parallax View - Already listed by many others and included in a post I made about 1970's thrillers that were missing on blu.

7. Winter Kills - Love this film but might be more likely from Shout Factory...either way I want a blu.

8. The Day of the Jackal - Another missing 70s thriller that would look great with a Criterion spine number.

9. Fearless Vampire Killers - More Polanski please Criterion.

10. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia - What are the chances of Criterion getting into Peckinpah's catalog?

11. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada - Love this film, love to see Criterion tackle it, and I have read rumors they will. I hope those are true.

12. The Hospital - A great performance from George C. Scott and a Paddy Chayefsky script that plays like a warm-up for Network. Criterion should do this.

13. The Last Detail - Basically this film just needs to be on blu but Criterion would make the most sense. Nicholson gives one of his greatest performances and Hal Ashby's catalog is sorely under represented on blu.

14. The Candidate - This is one of Redford's finest performances and while they are at it upgrade Downhill Racer to blu.

15. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - Who's afraid of getting this great film out on blu? Just blazing performances in this.

16. Nineteen Eighty-Four - Another one that seems perfect for Criterion. Long out of print DVD and no blu in sight...

17. Pi - Still my favorite film from Mr. Aronofsky and needs a blu.

18. I Heart Huckabees - I think David O. Russell is a wonderful director and this would be a pretty cool film for Criterion to dip into.

19. Bringing Up Baby - Seriously this was an easy one.

20. California Split - Really, an Altman Classic and also Images...which I've read rumors about as well.

21. The Long Goodbye - I've read rumors Criterion is doing this one too and there was just a Euro release on blu. So, I sort of expect to see this and an upgrade of Short Cuts on blu. Ok, that's a lot of Altman and I have not even mentioned McCabe and Mrs. Miller which must be coming to blu from somebody...right?

22. Drugstore Cowboy - A real gem and one of my favorite films of the 80's. I still think this is Van Sant's best effort and the performance of Dillon's career. A perfect Criterion fit as well.

23. Ghost Dog, Broken Flowers, The Limits of Control - Obviously any Jarmusch works.

24. Bad Day at Black Rock - This also has to be coming to blu...doesn't it?

25. Paper Moon and Saint Jack - A pair of Bogdanovich films that also really need to be on blu. Maybe Saint Jack would go to Shout Factory.

I also am waiting for Looking for Mr. Goodbar and I hope someday Welles The Other Side of the Wind gets a release.

 

[DSmith1984]

Any chance of FINALLY seeing a standalone release of Madadayo even if on DVD only? For the life of me I can't understand why Criterion has sat on it for this long after releasing it in that comically expensive AK 100 box set. Especially considering that the other 4 exclusives to that set were released separately within months of the box set's release.

 

[David Wilkins]

I haven't had time to go over all the posts here…but I thought 'Eraserhead' was confirmed and imminent many months ago, but still no word, in the way of a press release.

 

[Derrick King]

David, Peter Becker mentioned during the last Wexner Center talk that they are waiting for Lynch's involvement before moving ahead with ERASERHEAD. It sounded like Lynch's short films might come first.

 

[Tom St Jones]

My list (in no order. This is really more of a wish list than a guess list):
1. Touch of Evil
2. Equinox
3. The Trial
4. 'Round Midnight
5. The Day of the Jackal
6. The Parallax View
7. Blow Up
8. I Am A Camera (me following a train of thought lol)
9. Divorce Italian Style
10. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
11. Straw Dogs (1971)
12. Quiz Show
13. Tom Jones (1963)
14. Diva (1981)
15. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
16. Judgment At Nuremberg
17. Invaders From Mars (1953)
18. Spartacus
19. The Big T.N.T. Show (follow-up to The TAMI Show)
20. America, America (Elia Kazan film)
21. 2001: A Space Odyssey (hey, one can dream)
22. Drugstore Cowboy
23. Dangerous Moves
24. Bullitt (Did Warner ever fix the missing "impact" frame from the car chase?)
25. The Sting (done right)

 

[Dick]

My list (in no order. This is really more of a wish list than a guess list):
1. Touch of Evil
2. Equinox
3. The Trial
4. 'Round Midnight
5. The Day of the Jackal
6. The Parallax View
7. Blow Up
8. I Am A Camera (me following a train of thought lol)
9. Divorce Italian Style
10. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
11. Straw Dogs (1971)
12. Quiz Show
13. Tom Jones (1963)
14. Diva (1981)
15. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
16. Judgment At Nuremberg
17. Invaders From Mars (1953)
18. Spartacus
19. The Big T.N.T. Show (follow-up to The TAMI Show)
20. America, America (Elia Kazan film)
21. 2001: A Space Odyssey (hey, one can dream)
22. Drugstore Cowboy
23. Dangerous Moves
24. Bullitt (Did Warner ever fix the missing "impact" frame from the car chase?)
25. The Sting (done right)

Re: QUIZ SHOW. This title is currently available on Blu from Australia, and it looks very nice. Pricey, though. I held out for years hoping Mill Creek or someone would get this in the States, but finally decided to bite the bullet. Only bonus is a trailer.

TT will apparently be giving us ALFREDO GARCIA.

WB will be giving us VIRGINIA WOOLF soon.

DOUBLE INDEMNITY and TOUCH OF EVIL are, I hear, coming in 2014 from Universal.

 

[Didier R]

WB will be giving us VIRGINIA WOOLF soon.

Prove it.

 

[Tom St Jones]

As a couple of alternate guesses/ wishes: "Chinatown" or "The Lion In Winter (1968) (RIP Peter O'Toole)

 

[TheSteig]

Id welcome more or less anything I have in a Criterion blu ray - Im looking forward to hopefully seeing these in 2014
Eraserhead, Mulholland Drive , In A Lonely Place (they are supposed to have all of these)
Id love a Lynch set with those two plus Lost Highway and Blue Velvet
Upgrade bucket list for me
The Testament of Dr Mabuse
Equinox
Fiend without a Face
Carnival of Souls
Thief of Bagdad
Armageddon (for their own anamorphic transfer with the extras ported over)
Great Expectations (though it has a blu ray release already)
Im also hoping they have more monster / genre and more Hitchcock (other than Foreign Correspondent) Id love Criterion releases of The Mysterians, Matango , Day of the Triffids, Navy vs the Night Monsters, and more older classic titles from the 30s to the 60s

 

[Dick]

Prove it.

Guess I can't -- have read this on multiple sites, but I do understand how rumors fly and I may be guilty of perpetuating them in this case. I appreciate your challenge, but there is no need to be confrontational about it. Just ask politely where I got the information from instead of taking the bullying stance ("Prove it" with no further text or smiley comes across that way). I've been around here a while and I make mistakes (frequently, even, although I do not often pass along uncorroborated info, but I also provide a lot of accurate and useful information. I have re-read your 94 or so posts from the past year and find that a bunch of them are borderline rude and self-righteous.

("Warner! We don't want SERPICO." -- Speak for yourself.

"This [STAR WARS unaltered] will arrive in same year as Song of the South blu-ray. Fox retain rights to all existing Star Wars films until 2020 I believe. So, if the blu-rays occurs, it won't happen before that. Pointless thread, as I already said." -- In your own words, prove it.

"You must be the most pesky person that I've met online. Will you stop creating a threads for same old titles over and over again?" -- Are you an admin.?

"They [Olive Films] don't concern themselves with the opinions of bloggers." -- And the evidence of this? Have they told you so?

"I think it's time for you to admit you're on WB payroll" [re: a member's list of 2013 WB catalog titles].

I accept your challenge to me to produce evidence regarding VIRIGINIA WOOLF, but with a caveat: don't be a hypocrite.

 

[Didier R]

Guess I can't

I thought as much.

 

[Dick]

I thought as much.

At least I owned up to it.

 

[moviebuff75]

Jesus of Nazareth. I know this was released as a mini in the States, but it was released theatrically in Europe and it really transcends the television medium. Would love this as a Criterion in its 1979, four-part extended version with extras.

 

[Tom St Jones]

Jesus of Nazareth. I know this was released as a mini in the States, but it was released theatrically in Europe and it really transcends the television medium. Would love this as a Criterion in its 1979, four-part extended version with extras.

Great pick (and great pic). If not Criterion, maybe whoever holds the rights will release it as an MOD Blu-ray at some point.

 

[Mark Edward Heuck]

Jesus of Nazareth. I know this was released as a mini in the States, but it was released theatrically in Europe and it really transcends the television medium. Would love this as a Criterion in its 1979, four-part extended version with extras.

It's an ITC project owned by ITV, so it would likely appear via Shout Factory.

 

[Adam_S]

I keep forgetting about that... and I own it!!! Whoops.

Re: DTRT. Malcolm said what I would have said. The color of that film was a significant factor in its impact for 20 years. It's the way I -- and everyone else -- knew the movie to look. To me, it's on the level of Storaro's fiddling with aspect ratios. If you have a new vision, fine, but make the original available as well.

It is true that at least we have the original Criterion DVD, which although not HD, is a reasonably acceptable substitute. In fact, just yesterday I found a used copy of it and considered a purchase. But I'm still hoping out hope for some kind of deluxe release that will at least have the option of watching with the original color timing.

I sort of wonder how much color space and resolution has to do with the issue here. The film prints had a specific look. The DVD was prepared to reproduce that look given the extremely imperfect mechanisms of the color space and resolution. The bluray exists in a different color space that has greater latitude and can better handle the vagaries and subtleties of a film color space. Thus you may be able to achieve an affect that required going to eleven on DVD by only going to seven on bluray, and neither is really exactly what a film print would look like because all three are different mediums with different standards. DVD and bluray and film prints after all are just simulacra of simulacrums, we lend them the illusion of authenticity, but how is any reproduction more or less authentic than any other reproduction. the persons in question have said that the film exists in these two states of commerically available reproductions and both are legitimate approximations of authenticity, that is what it is.

 

[FoxyMulder]

I sort of wonder how much color space and resolution has to do with the issue here. The film prints had a specific look. The DVD was prepared to reproduce that look given the extremely imperfect mechanisms of the color space and resolution. The bluray exists in a different color space that has greater latitude and can better handle the vagaries and subtleties of a film color space. Thus you may be able to achieve an affect that in any way make it right.required going to eleven on DVD by only going to seven on bluray, and neither is really exactly what a film print would look like because all three are different mediums with different standards. DVD and bluray and film prints after all are just simulacra of simulacrums, we lend them the illusion of authenticity, but how is any reproduction more or less authentic than any other reproduction. the persons in question have said that the film exists in these two states of commerically available reproductions and both are legitimate approximations of authenticity, that is what it is.

DVD and Blu ray both use 8 bit colour, they specifically altered the original look and that has nothing to do with what blu ray is capable of giving us, we could have 12 bit colour and REC 2020 standards and this title would still look radically different to the original cinema presentation, it's revisionism, it's filmmakers deciding twenty years later that just because they have the tools they will use them and they will alter the film.

How would you feel about every film having this done to it, i'm sure film restoration people would be appalled if this happened to a classic movie so why is it okay for this film, just because a filmmaker decides he wants change doesn't make it right, if you are going to do this sort of thing then make the original look also available in HD, if you don't then we lose what was originally filmed and the "new look" takes over and future generations think this is how the film always looked.

 

[ajabrams]

I'd love to see Blu-rays of JULIET OF THE SPIRITS, SATYRICON, and TALES OF HOFFMAN.

Also would be overjoyed if Criterion could do the Szabo/Brandauer triliogy: MEPHISTO, COLONEL REDL and HANUSSEN.

And one more vote for a BD of THE DEVILS.