Criterion Collection

[Daniel]

Oh Droo. That's almost always the case.

Going by the email they sent out, this is not just a Pixar collab:

We're are proud to announce our first collaboration with Disney and Pixar: WALL-E

[EricJ]

"'We'? You mean 'You"

OHH, no--You had to have been there, back in the '99-'00 "Wilderness" days of first DVD adopters, when retail and Blockbuster stubbornly clung to the belief that we were a "fad", and Amazon, the Internet and a little CA garage site called Netflix were the only understanding souls who would listen.
It was plural, although I will not across the board admit to "We" = "Plural including Me".

Oh, the times I had with other DVD forums, trying to streetcorner preach to them that just you didn't "have" to blind buy every DVD, let alone every Criterion, just to show your "loyalty" to them the week they came out.
And, to break the bad news that just because Amazon had a "This title is not yet available, but we will notify you" placeholder listing did not automatically mean that it was coming or that there was a PetitionOnline petition being sent to studios.

I ordered it and yet I kind of feel disappointed that it's not one of Walt's films or Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin or The Lion King that could have gotten an actual 4K scan and restoration and could actually be a huge improvement over what exists now. Hopefully they'll release them in the future.

That's why I assumed it was a Pixar exclusive deal--
Whatever 4K marketing of their own classics they do, Disney's not going to let anyone else handle the core animateds, and even if they decide to free up a few unwanted stepchildren (like they did with Robin Hood and Alice in the first days of VHS, and might conceivably consider for SotS), there's NO way in HFIL they're letting anyone else get a dollar off of the 90's Big Four, and you'll only pry Lion King out of their cold dead paws.

That would be like Warner telling Disney "Er...why don't you handle Batman for a while?"

[Ben]

Disney never licensed out Robin Hood or Alice In Wonderland.

Criterion *may* have had to renegotiate their 20th Century-Fox deal, which is maybe where the expanded Disney deal hails from, since that still had a way to run, so perhaps The Diz thought they may as well go all in.

Disney have licensed out Disney and especially Touchstone titles before, to Anchor Bay in the DVD days, and Mill Creek and Kino in more recent Blu-ray times, though nothing core Disney-branded on BD.

[Daniel]

December titles:

Michael Haneke: Trilogy: (The Seventh Continent, Benny's Video, 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance)
High-definition digital masters, supervised by director Michael Haneke, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks
New interview with actor Arno Frisch
New interview with film historian Alexander Horwath
Interviews from 2005 with Haneke
Documentary about Haneke's career featuring interviews with the director and actors Juliette Binoche, Isabelle Huppert, and Jean-Louis Trintignant
Deleted scenes from Benny's Video
Trailers
New English subtitle translations
PLUS: An essay by novelist John Wray

Three Films by Mai Zetterling: (Loving Couples, Night Games, The Girls)
NEW 2K RESTORATIONS, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks
New interview with author Alicia Malone
Maybe I Really Am a Sorceress, a 1989 documentary on director Mai Zetterling, featuring interviews with Zetterling; her coscreenwriter, David Hughes; and actors Harriet Andersson, Ingrid Thulin, Bibi Andersson, and Gunnel Lindblom
Lines from the Heart, a 1996 documentary reuniting The Girls actors Harriet Andersson, Bibi Andersson, and Lindblom
Interview with Zetterling from 1984 on Loving Couples and The Girls
Swedish television footage from 1966, filmed on location during the production of Night Games and at the film's premiere
New English subtitle translations
PLUS: An essay by film scholar Mariah Larsson

Cooley High:
NEW 4K RESTORATION, supervised and approved by director Michael Schultz, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
New conversation between Schultz and film scholar Racquel J. Gates
Program on the making of the film
Panel discussion from the 2019 tribute to Cooley High at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, featuring Schultz, actor and filmmaker Robert Townsend, casting director Gloria Schultz, and actors Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs and Garrett Morris
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

The Velvet Underground:
NEW 4K MASTER, approved by director Todd Haynes and cinematographer Ed Lachman, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack
Audio commentary featuring Haynes and editors Affonso Gonçalves and Adam Kurnitz
Outtakes of interviews shot for the film with musicians John Cale, Jonathan Richman, and Maureen Tucker; filmmaker Jonas Mekas; and actor Mary Woronov
Conversation from 2021 among Haynes, Cale, and Tucker
Complete versions of some of the avant-garde films excerpted in the movie, including Piero Heliczer's Venus in Furs (1965)
Teaser
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Optional annotated subtitle track that identifies the avant-garde films seen in the movie
PLUS: A 2021 essay by critic Greil Marcus

[Randall]

Cool stuff, I'm sure, but nothing for me. And that's fine. I still have dozens of titles in my collection that I have yet to watch!

With so many boutique labels doing tons of licensing, plus the reawakening of some studios' home video units, it's gotten a lot tougher for Criterion to stand out - at least in terms of offering classic Hollywood content. And though I won't buy a lot of the art house and foreign film offerings they're focusing more on now, it's nice that those films can get more love from them.

[Ben]

Only dozens…?

[Randall]

... of Criterions.

[Ben]

Ah.

[Dan]

I still have dozens of titles in my collection that I have yet to watch!

*Looks at my near hundred of titles yet to be watched*

[Ben]

Only a hundred…?

[Dan]

That's visible.

[Ben]

[Daniel]

January titles:

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen 4K Blu-ray:
BRAND NEW 4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM, approved by writer-director Terry Gilliam, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
Audio commentary featuring Gilliam and his coscreenwriter, Charles McKeown
Documentary on the making of the film
New video essay by critic and filmmaker David Cairns about the history of the Baron Munchausen character
Behind-the-scenes footage of the film's special effects, narrated by Gilliam
Deleted scenes with commentary by Gilliam
Storyboards for unfilmed scenes, narrated by Gilliam and McKeown
Original marketing materials including a trailer and electronic-press-kit featurettes, as well as preview cards and advertising proposals read by Gilliam
Miracle of Flight (1974), an animated short film by Gilliam
Episode of The South Bank Show from 1991 on Gilliam
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: An essay by critic and author Michael Koresky

Bergman Island:
2K DIGITAL MASTER, approved by director Mia Hansen-Løve, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
New interview with Hansen-Løve
New interview with actor Vicky Krieps
Bergman's Ghosts (2021), a short film made during the filming of Bergman Island by actor Gabe Klinger
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: An essay by critic Devika Girish

Imitation of Life:
4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
New interview with Miriam J. Petty, author of Stealing the Show: African American Performers and Audiences in 1930s
Hollywood, about the resonance of Louise Beavers's and Fredi Washington's performances
New interview with Imogen Sara Smith, contributor to The Call of the Heart: John M. Stahl and Hollywood Melodrama, about director John M. Stahl and his work with actor Claudette Colbert and others
Trailer
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: An essay by Petty

This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection:
2K DIGITAL MASTER, approved by director Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
New audio commentary featuring Mosese and producer Cait Pansegrouw
Mosese's short films Mosonngoa (2014) and Behemoth: Or the Game of God (2016), along with his 2019 essay film
Mother, I Am Suffocating. This Is My Last Film About You., with a new introduction by Mosese
Trailer
PLUS: An essay by novelist and playwright Zakes Mda

Lars von Trier's Europe Trilogy:
NEW 4K RESTORATION of Europa, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack
NEW 3K RESTORATIONS of The Element of Crime and Epidemic, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks
Audio commentaries featuring director Lars von Trier and others
Tranceformer: A Portrait of Lars von Trier (1997), a documentary by Stig Björkman
Interview from 2005 with von Trier about the Europe Trilogy
Making-of documentaries for all three films
Programs on the films featuring interviews with many of von Trier's collaborators
Two short student films by von Trier: Nocturne (1980) and Images of Liberation (1982)
Danish television interview with von Trier from 1994
Trailers
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: An essay by critic Howard Hampton

[Ben]

More eclecticism from Criterion, guaranteeing something for everyone, as they say.

I don’t really need another version of Munchausen (the Sony Blu is still pretty awesome), especially with so few "new" extras, but I still have fond memories of going to see this at our local second run cinema (sadly now gone), and the short and South Bank episode (which I still have on VHS somewhere!) means it’ll inevitably end up joining that Blu and my CC LaserDisc, natch! Kind of a shame they don’t make mention of the 35th anniversary that this ties in with, and no doubt why we are getting it now.

Of the others, I’ve only ever seen Sirk's remake of Imitation Of Life, and as with many of his over the top films, it doesn’t really inspire me to seek out the original, as much as I like Colbert. I’d likely check it out when it shows up somewhere first rather than blind buy yet another CC, though I’ll likely add it to my longer list of CC curios that I either want to just see or pick up way way down the line. This’ll be around for a long while, so there’s time…!

[Farerb]

Andrew Stanton Reached Out to Criterion About ‘WALL-E’ Because He ‘Wanted to Be in the Club’

When asked if the “WALL-E” deal was part of a larger partnership between Disney and Criterion, Stanton made it very clear that this was a one-off project driven purely by his passion for the Criterion Collection.

“Not at all,” he said. “It was filmmaker-driven. If it’s anything, it was driven by my own filmmaker ego of wanting to be in the club.”

https://www.indiewire.com/2022/11/wall- ... 234779576/