Criterion News and Discussion

[Gold Trumpet]

Hoop Dreams in April?

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=493&e=1&u=/ap/20041217/ap_en_mo/hoop_dreams_death

A news story talking about how the father of the Hoop Dreams star was recently shot to death. Considering how private and impactful the film was for me, this is news in itself. The news that relates to this thread is that in the article the family says they were interviewed for an upcoming DVD that is to come out in April. No names were mentioned, but 99% its Criterion.

[Alethia]

that means YAY!

[Stefen]

A hoops dreams criterion would be the greatest release known to man. more info GT, more info!

[Gold Trumpet]

A hoops dreams criterion would be the greatest release known to man. more info GT, more info!

Someone just has to email Roger Ebert and ask him if he's providing a commentary.

[Gold Trumpet]

L'ECLISSE CONFIRMED!

From the main website:

Criterion to Release Antonioni's L'eclisse

Michelangelo Antonioni's classic examination of modern alienation, L'eclisse, will be released by Criterion in early 2005. The two-disc special edition will feature a new transfer from restored film elements, as well as a number of supplemental features, including audio commentary by film scholar Richard Peña, a 56-minute documentary exploring the director's life and career, an exclusive new video piece featuring Italian film critic Adriano Apra and longtime Antonioni friend Carlo di Carlo, and more. Look for L'eclisse this March!

http://www.criterionco.com

[Gold Trumpet]

MARCH RELEASES ARE UP, INCLUDING MANY LEFT FIELD SURPRISES AND HIGHLY ANTICIPATED DVDS...........


FIRST, THE BIG ONES:

JULES AND JIM: http://www.criterionco.com/asp/release.asp?id=281

L'ECLISSE: http://www.criterionco.com/asp/release.asp?id=278


also,

THE RIVER: http://www.criterionco.com/asp/release.asp?id=276

YOUNG TORLESS: http://www.criterionco.com/asp/release.asp?id=279

THE SWORD OF DOOM: http://www.criterionco.com/asp/release.asp?id=280

The first two are "musts" for me while The River is very intriguing considering I've wanted to see it for a while and top of that, its at a decent price with a Scorsese interview. The film that I think will be a blind buy is The Sword of Doom. There's a really good essay on it (from the original laser disc release) that is very good.

http://chaumurky.net/criterion/indepth-238.html

If Akira Kurosawa is the John Ford of Japanese samurai dramas, then Sword of Doom director Kihachi Okamoto is the samurai film's Sam Fuller.

A specialist in action films, with a particulat accent on violence and raw characterizations, Okomoto made his name in the late 1960's with Samurai Assassin (1965), Kill (1968), and Zato Ichi Meets Yojimbo (1970). These movies, and The Sword of Doom, all starred a featured Toshiro Mifune, who had appeared frequently in the films of Akira Kurosawa. But like Sam Fuller, Okamoto (who spent three years in a uniform during the Pacific War) specialized in blood-and-guts World War II battle films.

The Sword of Doom is considered Okamoto's masterpiece, but when it opened here in 1967, it had the effect of separating the sheep from the goats. Perhaps western critics expected a more lyrical drama in the manner of Kurosawa, or a thoughtfull examination of bushido (samurai chivalric code.). They were agast at Sword's ballet of violence in two bravura and gory martial arts pieces that climax in the film's first and second thirds (neatly dividing it into "acts"), not to mention the finale, one of the most violent in cinema history.

The plot at first look was simpler than those of most Japanese films that have been received as classics ( The Seven Samurai, The 47 Ronin, Samurai Rebellion, etc.). Set in the 1860s, it's the story of Ryunosuke Tsukue, a samurai who is hated for his savagery and disregarded for the law. Ryunosuke is an outcast, surviving as a hired assassin of political figures. He also lives in fear of the revenge set in motion by his late father and the brother of his first samurai victim, as well as the enemy of Toranosuke Shimada (Toshiro Mifune), the only samurai who might best him as a swordsman.

If this seems superficial, it's supposed to be--Okamoto is less interested in philosophy than in entertainment. And as to narrative, Okamoto looks to the Western for his characterizations. The portrayal of madness embodied in Ryunosuke Tsukue (Tatsuya Nakadai, another Kurosawa alumnus from Yojimbo and Sanjuro) evokes, to this writer, the Stephen McNally or Don Duryea characters in Anthony Mann's Winchester '73, men who kill for the pleasure of it.

The Sword of Doom took years to achieve critical acceptance, but audience members not wedded to scholarly pretensions immediately seized upon the vitality of Okamoto's direction and Nakadai's performance. His Ryunosuke ("a man from hell," as one character puts it) is one of the screen's more memorable psychopaths, a passive-aggressive whose bloodlust is portrayed with dead calm, revealed by the tiniest motion of an eye, the trace of a smile, or the tense position of his body as he poders killing.

For lack of a full-fledged opponent to Ryunosuke, Okamoto establishes Shimada as Ryunosuke's moral opposite, a thoughtful, introspective samurai--the film's conscience. He tells Ryunosuke, "The sword is the soul. Study the soul to study the sword," after regretfully dispatching two dozen samurai for an assassination attempt. In a flurry of savage action (including several hands and blood splattering on newly fallen snow) every single samurai falls by the wayside. As Ryunosuke watches Shimada in action against his cohorts, the barest flicker of an expression indicates that he has been shaken by this sight. One has the chilling sense of a man who has seen the means of his own demise.

Okamoto and cinematographer Hiroshi Murai (Samurai Assassin, The Emperor and the General, The Submergence of Japan, a.k.a. Tidal Wave) make splendid use of the 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The close-ups are never artificially imposing, and the action scenes, almost all involving dozens of combatants, are dazzling in their complexity and scope. The finale, one of the longest, bloodiest samurai duels in history, makes incredibly evocative use of shadow and space. Impressive, also, are the little details, such as the samurai practicing with his sword, his blade interposed against shafts of sunlight that seem almost solid.

The Sword of Doom doesn't pretend to be anything more than a study of madness and violence at the extreme edges. It is the finest movie from a filmmaker who deserves to be more widely known in America.

-Bruce Eder

(Bruce Eder is a film historian and frequent contributor to Criterion commentary tracks.)

[tpfkabi]

i'm definitely getting Jules and Jim! the special features look great!

[samsong]

all this leaves me asking one question....

WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE BRESSON FILMS?!?!
and Playtime...

Jules and Jim + new Antonioni = sam being broke... well, maybe not.  my birthday's in March.

[Gold Trumpet]

all this leaves me asking one question....

WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE BRESSON FILMS?!?!
and Playtime...

Jules and Jim + new Antonioni = sam being broke... well, maybe not.  my birthday's in March.

Patience!!!!!

I actually envy your situation because its more likely the new Bressons and Playtime will drop before my anticipated release of the Eisenstein Silents does. The Bressons will be anytime while Criterion acknowledged that the earliest we'll see the Eisensteins is at the end of 2005 or sometime in 2006. And they've been saying that release should be coming "shortly" for almost two years now!

Also, if its of any importance, The Wadja War Trilogy has been confirmed as the next release after this wave of newly announced titles. They will occupy spine #'s 282-285. For anyone curious to what will be included in The Wadja War Trilogy, look back a little in this thread because I mentioned it being a possibility. I guess its now confirmed.

[Gold Trumpet]

Criterion has officially gone overboard with the releases. The Wadja War Trilogy will be included for release in March,

The Wadja War Trilogy: http://www.criterionco.com/asp/boxed_set.asp?id=282

Its official...I'm getting a second job because this release also tempts me!

[bonanzataz]

and Playtime...

haHA! the lincoln center film society is screening a newly made 70mm print of this and I'M GOING! i hope it's as good as y'all say.

[samsong]

and Playtime...

haHA! the lincoln center film society is screening a newly made 70mm print of this and I'M GOING! i hope it's as good as y'all say.

Fuck you.  just kidding... I missed it when it was screened here but the Cinematheque is doing a 70 MM Film Festival again so hopefully they'll have a print.

Don't doubt the greatness of Jacques Tati.

By the way, I've been anticipating Eisenstein: The Silent Years for a long time as well... admittedly not as much as I am the Bresson pictures but Battleship Potemkin changed my life... sort of.  I guess I should buy/watch The Sound Years while I'm waiting...

[Gold Trumpet]

I guess I should buy/watch The Sound Years while I'm waiting...

Ivan The Terrible alone is the worth the price.

[tpfkabi]

and Playtime...

haHA! the lincoln center film society is screening a newly made 70mm print of this and I'M GOING! i hope it's as good as y'all say.

the first time i watched it was on a Saturday morning, so i got sleepy, but i imagine you won't have that problem seeing it on the big screen as there is so much going on in each frame.

[samsong]

Jules and Jim coveart posted



me likes, me likes (all except the black bar at the top... reminds me of the old logo)