Criterion News and Discussion

Started by Gold Trumpet, January 16, 2003, 06:18:19 PM

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The Perineum Falcon

Quote from: godardianAlso, all Italian cinema before a certain '70s-ish turning point is dubbed, so... can't be picky about that if you wanna enjoy Fellini or any of the rest of it.
That always distracted me, even in 8 1/2.
We often went to the cinema, the screen would light up and we would tremble, but also, increasingly often, Madeleine and I were disappointed. The images had dated, they jittered, and Marilyn Monroe had gotten terribly old. We were sad, this wasn't the film we had dreamed of, this wasn't the total film that we all carried around inside us, this film that we would have wanted to make, or, more secretly, no doubt, that we would have wanted to live.

Gold Trumpet

Quote from: bigideasi wonder what the Godard short will be like?


The Criterion website confirms the short film is:

Charlotte et Véronique ou Tous les garçons s’appellent Patrick (All Boys Are Called Patrick, 1957), an early short film by director Jean-Luc Godard

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Another annoucement for June:

The Lower Depths: Two Films (Special Edition Double-Disc Boxed Set) The Criterion Collection ($39.95)

Directed by Akira Kurosawa, Jean Renoir

• New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound
• Original theatrical trailer
• A documentary on the making of The Lower Depths, part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
• Audio commentary featuring Japanese-film expert Donald Richie (A Hundred Years of Japanese Film)
• New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound
• New essay by Keiko McDonald (From Book to Screen: Modern Japanese Literature in Film) and Thomas Rimer (A Reader’s Guide to Japanese Literature)
• New and improved English subtitle translation by renowned Japanese-film translator Linda Hoaglund
• Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition
• Cast biographies by Stephen Prince (The Warrior’s Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa)
• 1.33:1 aspect ratio
• Monaural

• Jean Renoir's The Lower Depths features:
• New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound
• Introduction to the film by Jean Renoir
• New essay by film scholar Alexander Sesonske, author of Jean Renoir: The French Films 1924–1939
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• 1.33:1 aspect ratio
• Monaural

The Criterion Collection is proud to present two dramatically different interpretations of Maxim Gorsky's classic play by two of cinema's greatest masters.

Jean Renoir's The Lower Depths
(Les Bas-fonds—1936)
Made in the 1930s, amidst the rise of Hitler in Germany and the Popular Front in France, Jean Renoir took license with Maxim Gorky’s source material for The Lower Depths. Aware that the plight of Gorky’s desperates might sit uneasily in his own country on the edge of war, Renoir never lets his derelicts sink quite to the depths, offering them—like in so many of his other films—the possibility of hope. Marking the first time the director would work with Jean Gabin (Grand Illusion) and featuring the great Louis Jouvet (Quai des Orfèvres, Carnival in Flanders), The Lower Depths demonstrates one of cinema’s greatest directors transforming a classic play into his own terms for a distinct time.

Akira Kurosawa's The Lower Depths (Donzoko—1957)
Director Akira Kurosawa’s transformation of Maxim Gorky’s classic proletarian play, The Lower Depths, demonstrates another side of the acclaimed filmmaker’s remarkable versatility. In contrast to his usual broad canvas and kinetic filmmaking style, here he explores the possibilities of the stage, finding intimacy in his examination of a group of destitutes set, ironically, within Japan’s prosperous Edo period. Starring an ensemble cast that includes Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, and Minoru Chiaki, this adaptation is a Buddhist meditation on the human condition, a poignant yet comic investigation of one of Kurosawa’s favorite themes—the conflict between illusion and reality.


1957 • Japan • Runtime 85 / 125 min. • BW • DVD • In French / Japanese with optional English subtitles •

(kelvin)


cine

Quote from: The Gold TrumpetThe Lower Depths: Two Films (Special Edition Double-Disc Boxed Set) The Criterion Collection ($39.95)
http://www.criterionco.com/asp/release.asp?id=239

You Never Got Me Down Ray

Quote from: EEz28http://www.criterionco.com/content/images/full_boxshot/238_box_348x490.jpg

Quote from: cinephilehttp://www.criterionco.com/content/images/full_boxshot/239_box_348x490.jpg

I am currently creaming my pants.


And check out my collection btw, I've been going Criterion crazy lately.  :shock:
My life has taken another turn again. The days move along with regularity, over and over. One day indistinguishable from the next. A long, continuous chain. Then suddenly, there is change.

cine

Mogwai has already made a post about it; please don't quote covers that are right above on the same page.

mogwai


Ravi

I think Criterion is supported mostly by young film buffs who can't help but spend money.

Gold Trumpet

Out of all the rumors going around, a seemingly credible one has arisen in conjucture with Criterion releasing Richard Linklater's Slacker. From the CC forum, here's the original post:

"I recall that a little while back , there was a rumor about Criterion prepping Linklater's "Slacker" for DVD release. As I recall, the rumour was based on "Slacker" allegedly appearing briefly on the "Coming Soon" section of Criterion's website.

Whether or not that info about the "coming soon" section was true, there is now another potential reason to believe that the rumour of a Criterion edition of "Slacker" is true. I was just looking over the list of Film Classes for Spring/Summer at Facets in Chicago, and found a entry for a class on the films of Louis Malle to be taught by an instructor named Dan Mucha. In the biographical capsule for Mucha, we find the following text:

"Dan Mucha is an independent filmmaker who served as the video archivist for the Austin Film Society from 1996-2002. He is currently involved with the post-production of the forthcoming Criterion DVD release of Slacker, directed by Richard Linklater. "

The original link is here:

www.facets.org/asticat?fu...rsession04

An interesting development.

Phil"

Stefen

If they released slacker that would be awesome. Just awesome = underrated.
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

SoNowThen

Ugh. This might be the one time I frown on a Criterion decision.
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

Stefen

Quote from: SoNowThenUgh. This might be the one time I frown on a Criterion decision.

How could you say that? you haven't even seen the cover yet  :-D

Criterion is the best at making me want to get movies I could care less about. Only cause of the covers.
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

ono

Quote from: SoNowThenUgh. This might be the one time I frown on a Criterion decision.
Funny, this is like one of the times I'm actually excited about a Criterion decision.  Only other Criterions I've bothered to own so far, oddly enough, are Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums.  I've been eyeing Schizopolis for a while, but really, their DVDs are way to expensive to merit buying most of the time.  Slacker is one I've wanted to look at again for a while.  So good decision, that.

Gold Trumpet

Quote from: SoNowThenUgh. This might be the one time I frown on a Criterion decision.

I figured you were the only proud owner of the Criterion editions of The Rock and Armageddon.

Stefen

Quote from: The Gold Trumpet
Quote from: SoNowThenUgh. This might be the one time I frown on a Criterion decision.

I figured you were the only proud owner of the Criterion editions of The Rock and Armageddon.

Did someone just get owned?

Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.