Criterion and StudioCanal

News on Criterion and Janus Films.
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KJones77
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1126 Post by KJones77 » Thu Nov 29, 2018 8:26 pm

captveg wrote:
Thu Nov 29, 2018 4:36 pm
FrauBlucher wrote:
Wed Nov 28, 2018 8:43 pm
According to the KLInsider.... Kino doesn't have any Bardot films. Which pretty much ensures Contempt will be returning to Criterion.
Unless it's simply remaining with Lionsgate. I get the feeling that SC is allowing Lionsgate to "keep" the handful of titles they released on Blu-ray in the US. Kino just announced Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob and The Man in the White Suit, with The Ladykillers suspiciously absent. Combined with the KL Insider's statement that Ran "most likely stayed with Lionsgate as did many others," I wouldn't be surprised if that's the situation with Contempt.
KL Insider just confirmed Contempt stayed with Lionsgate.

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FrauBlucher
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Criterion and StudioCanal

#1127 Post by FrauBlucher » Thu Nov 29, 2018 8:48 pm

I don't believe he knows. Two days after he said that about Ran, Janus posted on Twitter a shot of Ran. To me that is more of an indication than the Insider guy saying they are staying with Lionsgate. If you're a bluray.com forum member, ask him why Janus posted a picture of Ran.

Plus Domino makes a good point to take into consideration.... Here

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movielocke
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1128 Post by movielocke » Thu Nov 29, 2018 9:28 pm

FrauBlucher wrote:I don't believe he knows. Two days after he said that about Ran, Janus posted on Twitter a shot of Ran. To me that is more of an indication than the Insider guy saying they are staying with Lionsgate. If you're a bluray.com forum member, ask him why Janus posted a picture of Ran.

Plus Domino makes a good point to take into consideration.... Here
Funnily enough this link auto posts a picture of one of the New Years drawings in Tapatalk. Which made me jokingly think, ah the sixteen candles symbolize sixteen studio canal titles coming back in print.

Aka Sixteen canals

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domino harvey
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1129 Post by domino harvey » Thu Nov 29, 2018 9:39 pm

Don't worry, I've just banned movielocke

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1130 Post by FrauBlucher » Thu Nov 29, 2018 9:41 pm

:lol:

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Brian C
I hate to be That Pedantic Guy but...
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1131 Post by Brian C » Thu Nov 29, 2018 11:30 pm

You gotta admit, though, that’s the best double clue ever.

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captveg
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1132 Post by captveg » Fri Dec 21, 2018 4:28 pm

That Kino industry newsletter that they didn't expect to go public confirmed they have Port of Shadows, Last Year at Marienbad, Alphaville, and title(s) by Melville (presumably more than Le Doulos) and Carol Reed. If Criterion re-acquired any of their OOP titles from SC, it is definitely on the low end, perhaps only a couple.

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1133 Post by FrauBlucher » Fri Dec 21, 2018 4:57 pm

Low end you mean quality of titles or number of titles? If you go by their newsletter and they named the biggest titles they have, that leaves some big titles for Criterion, which I believe will be the case. Time will tell.

I'm interested in knowing the evolution of these latest deals. Could this be the scenario.. Studio Canal went to Criterion first (remember the SC rep was at the Criteion offices) and they turned down this mega deal, probably because CC already has so much on their plate that it would take them years to put out many of the SC films. But did settle for a handful of titles. Kino was up next and easily accepted the deal, and would release these films much faster than Criterion.

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Drucker
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1134 Post by Drucker » Fri Dec 21, 2018 4:59 pm

Not crazy to me. They would be re-releasing titles with projected sales figures on the lower end and whose restorations already have UK releases. How many people are dying to get Port of Shadows on blu-ray that are region locked to A?

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captveg
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1135 Post by captveg » Sat Dec 22, 2018 12:02 am

FrauBlucher wrote:
Fri Dec 21, 2018 4:57 pm
Low end you mean quality of titles or number of titles?
I was referring to low in numbers, perhaps 5 or less of the OOP titles.

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kcota17
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1136 Post by kcota17 » Sat Dec 22, 2018 12:45 am

Probably I’m guessing Grand Illusion, Ran, Peeping Tom, Tales of Hoffman, The Third Man and Contempt?

Noiradelic
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1137 Post by Noiradelic » Sat Dec 22, 2018 7:29 am

Drucker wrote:
Fri Dec 21, 2018 4:59 pm
Not crazy to me. They would be re-releasing titles with projected sales figures on the lower end and whose restorations already have UK releases. How many people are dying to get Port of Shadows on blu-ray that are region locked to A?
Of course you cherry-picked the least well-known title out of the Kino ones for your example (except maybe Le doulos). I'd think the better-known titles Criterion never released on Blu would do quite well. I do agree that the titles they already released on BD like Marienbad and the Melvilles (in the case of the Melvilles, they went OOP years later than most of the StudioCanal titles, though, yes, they came out later as well).

The Kino title that really surprises me is Alphaville. The Criterion's DVD is 20 years old and my impression is that it's Godard's second best-known film after Breathless among the wider public -- has that SF/noir appeal. It's possible it just wasn't a viable option for them. It would've been nice if they reaquired Marienbad just to inch closer to the forever just-out-of-reach completion of the heavy-hitter art film canon (Blow-Up and Persona being two of the more recent acquisitions on that level), but since they already released it on BD, not as big a surprise.

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1138 Post by FrauBlucher » Sat Dec 22, 2018 10:53 am

captveg wrote:
FrauBlucher wrote:
Fri Dec 21, 2018 4:57 pm
Low end you mean quality of titles or number of titles?
I was referring to low in numbers, perhaps 5 or less of the OOP titles.
I think the high end could be 10 titles and the low end 5. I think Bob Le Flambeur and possibly Army of Shadows that Criterion bring back into fold. KinoInsider (he loves dropping the big name titles in advance) would’ve named Bob Le Flambeur in a NY second, which is the biggest and best known Melville not called Le Samurai.

I also think that all the poor PQ editions that Lionsgate put out will be replaced by the new restorations from Criterion. Ran, The Third Man and Contempt which were all releases in 2010 and now have new sparkling 4k restorations. Why would Studio Canal not want these newer versions out in this market?

We could get an idea in a week with the wacky drawing.

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colinr0380
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1139 Post by colinr0380 » Sat Dec 22, 2018 4:31 pm

I would agree that Criterion would also want La grande illusion out of everything, if just to get Spine number 1 back into print.

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movielocke
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1140 Post by movielocke » Sun Dec 23, 2018 12:22 pm

Anyone have a list of the canal titles that are off the table via kino or Cohen et al?

I think there’s six for certain to come back to criterion.

Grand illusion
Third man
Contempt
Tales of Hoffman
Ran
Army of shadows

After that I think it’s an open question, but probably

Le corbeau
Le Trou
Pierrot le fou
Bob le flambeur and or red circle
A couple more Godard
Most of the bunuel

I’d focus on the titles that Kim Hendrickson did the first time around as most suspect (she did all the bunuel titles), because hendrickson only had four or five titles in the entire 2018 slate, indicating she’s working on a big yet to be announced project. If that project is a big batch of studio canal titles, she’s probably also been assigned her original titles as well titles that Takagi and Schiller used to do (since they’re no longer producing individual titles in the former case and no longer at criterion in the latter).



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kcota17
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1141 Post by kcota17 » Sun Dec 23, 2018 1:01 pm

Peeping Tom as well?

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hearthesilence
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1142 Post by hearthesilence » Sun Dec 23, 2018 2:36 pm

The Film Foundation restored Peeping Tom like ten years ago - still waiting for someone to do a good Blu-Ray based on that restoration. (The last reissue - not released in the U.S. - might have used the restoration but it's been subjected to some horrendous grain reduction.)

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Drucker
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1143 Post by Drucker » Sun Dec 23, 2018 2:39 pm

It doesn't appear that Man Who Fell To Earth has been listed in this thread but that recently was restored and given a godawful blu-ray, so I could see that one coming back, too.

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Big Ben
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1144 Post by Big Ben » Sun Dec 23, 2018 3:01 pm

Drucker wrote:
Sun Dec 23, 2018 2:39 pm
It doesn't appear that Man Who Fell To Earth has been listed in this thread but that recently was restored and given a godawful blu-ray, so I could see that one coming back, too.
The film somehow looked worse on this Blu-Ray despite the restoration being made from the original negative. I can see this film coming back for sure except this time it won't feel like a cash grab in the wake of Bowie's death.

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Drucker
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1145 Post by Drucker » Sun Dec 23, 2018 3:59 pm

I mean SC's terrible encode is likely the reason for that look right? Look at the difference in the Shout/BFI encodes for Herzog. Is there confirmation the restoration itself was botched?

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tenia
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1146 Post by tenia » Sun Dec 23, 2018 6:29 pm

Their Purple Noon 4K restoration was awful and worse than Criterion's 2K restoration, and that had nothing to do with the encode.
To me, their TMWFTE BD is problematic because of the restoration, and then made even worse by a problematic encode. What is unfortunate is that it was restored by Deluxe, people whose restorations are consistently much better than that.

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bad future
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1147 Post by bad future » Mon Dec 24, 2018 2:21 pm

I don’t think I’ve seen Nights of Cabiria mentioned re: the recent StudioCanal developments, but that’s by far the one I’ve been most eager for news on. How do its chances look from here, to those more caught up on the minutiae? I’m not sure how the Lionsgate arrangement affects things.

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Drucker
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1148 Post by Drucker » Mon Dec 24, 2018 5:13 pm

You're right but Fellini is so hit and miss on blu-ray and the SC disc of La Strada was certainly not worth an upgrade.

KJones77
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1149 Post by KJones77 » Mon Dec 24, 2018 8:07 pm

bad future wrote:
Mon Dec 24, 2018 2:21 pm
I don’t think I’ve seen Nights of Cabiria mentioned re: the recent StudioCanal developments, but that’s by far the one I’ve been most eager for news on. How do its chances look from here, to those more caught up on the minutiae? I’m not sure how the Lionsgate arrangement affects things.
Janus tweeted out a Nights of Cabiria poster a few months back. So if people are taking the Ran screenshot tweet as confirmation that it is coming back, I would think the same applies to Nights of Cabiria.

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RSTooley
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Re: Criterion and StudioCanal

#1150 Post by RSTooley » Tue Dec 25, 2018 11:28 am

movielocke wrote:
Sun Dec 23, 2018 12:22 pm

I think there’s six for certain to come back to criterion.

Grand illusion
Third man
Contempt
Tales of Hoffman
Ran
Army of shadows
KJones77 wrote:
Thu Nov 29, 2018 8:26 pm
captveg wrote:
Thu Nov 29, 2018 4:36 pm

Unless it's simply remaining with Lionsgate. I get the feeling that SC is allowing Lionsgate to "keep" the handful of titles they released on Blu-ray in the US. Kino just announced Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob and The Man in the White Suit, with The Ladykillers suspiciously absent. Combined with the KL Insider's statement that Ran "most likely stayed with Lionsgate as did many others," I wouldn't be surprised if that's the situation with Contempt.
KL Insider just confirmed Contempt stayed with Lionsgate.
Do we have any new information that confirms your certainty? I don't see any reason to disbelieve Kino Insider for now.

The Grand Illusion, The Third Man, Contempt, and Ran all have Region 1 Blu-ray releases from Lionsgate and they don't appear to be out of print. Sure, Janus tweeted an image of Ran, but that wouldn't mark the first time that they promoted an image from an out of print title.

Don't get me wrong, Ran and The Grand Illusion are two of my all time favorite films, but I'm not holding my breath. I suppose we may have more information when the New Year's clue drops in a week...

Also, Tales of Hoffman has been all but confirmed by Thelma Schoonmaker.

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