Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

News on Criterion and Janus Films.
Locked
Message
Author
User avatar
justeleblanc
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 6:05 pm
Location: Connecticut

Re: Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#76 Post by justeleblanc » Tue Jan 01, 2019 7:57 pm

TOO MUCH JOHNSON seems like the more likely addition to a CITIZEN KANE blu.

User avatar
What A Disgrace
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 10:34 pm
Contact:

Re: Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#77 Post by What A Disgrace » Tue Jan 01, 2019 7:58 pm

FlickeringWindow wrote:
Tue Jan 01, 2019 7:50 pm
kcota17 wrote:
Tue Jan 01, 2019 5:56 pm
Why would Criterion release Citizen Kane? There is nothing more they can add to that release.

I mean, I thought the same about Dr. Strangelove and they still did but still. Citizen Kane is probably one of those big Warner titles that’ll be on 4K soon.
Warner's edition has the excellent Ebert and Bogdanovich commentaries, but other than The Battle Over Citizen Kane... there's only a minute of premire footage, less than ten minutes of interviews, production gallery with Ebert commentary (15 min), a post-production gallery (5 min), and the unrestored trailer.

Criterion could add:

Third commentary with Jonathan Rosenbaum
Craig Barron/Ben Burtt piece on the special effects and sound design (this would be enough to get me to rebuy)
Simon Callow interview
Piece on Gregg Toland and his work on the film
Piece on Bernard Herrmann's Mercury work and his score for Kane
Piece on Robert Wise and the editing
Piece on the Mercury Theatre and the actors
Piece on Herman J. Mankiewicz and the evolution of the screenplay
Include Too Much Johnson and The Heart of Ages
Something on the home video history of the film/restorations
HD restoration of the trailer
Most importantly, it'd be a great way to roll out their first 4K disc.

User avatar
DRW.mov
Joined: Thu Sep 15, 2016 2:43 pm
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Re: Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#78 Post by DRW.mov » Tue Jan 01, 2019 8:19 pm

FlickeringWindow wrote:
Tue Jan 01, 2019 7:50 pm
[quote=kcota17 post_id=643749 time=<a href="tel:1546379770">1546379770</a> user_id=24685]
Why would Criterion release Citizen Kane? There is nothing more they can add to that release.

I mean, I thought the same about Dr. Strangelove and they still did but still. Citizen Kane is probably one of those big Warner titles that’ll be on 4K soon.
Warner's edition has the excellent Ebert and Bogdanovich commentaries, but other than The Battle Over Citizen Kane... there's only a minute of premire footage, less than ten minutes of interviews, production gallery with Ebert commentary (15 min), a post-production gallery (5 min), and the unrestored trailer.

Criterion could add:

Third commentary with Jonathan Rosenbaum
Craig Barron/Ben Burtt piece on the special effects and sound design (this would be enough to get me to rebuy)
Simon Callow interview
Piece on Gregg Toland and his work on the film
Piece on Bernard Herrmann's Mercury work and his score for Kane
Piece on Robert Wise and the editing
Piece on the Mercury Theatre and the actors
Piece on Herman J. Mankiewicz and the evolution of the screenplay
Include Too Much Johnson and The Heart of Ages
Something on the home video history of the film/restorations
HD restoration of the trailer
[/quote]

They could also add Reflections on Citizen Kane, a doc they produced in ‘91 for the 50th anniversary laserdisc which has interviews with Peter Bogdanovich, Roger Corman, Joe Dante, Brian De Palma, Linwood Dunne, Richard Edlund, Blake Edwards, John Frankenheimer, Costa Gavras, Gary Graver, Taylor Hackford, Henry Jaglom, Rick Jewel, Lawrence Kasdan, Laszlo Kovacs, John Landis, Barry Levinson, Gary Lucchesi, Frank Marshall, Paul Mazursky, Burt Reynolds, Martin Ritt, Joel Schumacher, Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, Susan Seidelman, Penelope Spheeris, Robert Townsend, Theo Van de Sande, Ruth Warrick, Haskell Wexler, Richard Wilson, Robert Wise, and Vilmos Zsigmond which has not been released since.

User avatar
movielocke
Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:44 am

Re: Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#79 Post by movielocke » Tue Jan 01, 2019 8:40 pm

Yeah, citizen Kane has been an obvious candidate for spine 1000 or 1001 (as the laserdisc was spine 1) for a couple years now. For all that bamboo sled is a perfect typical criterion pun, criterion knows that they could put any kind of sled (including a nineties neon-hued plastic sled) in a clue and 99.9% of their newsletter’s movie obsessed readers would immediately assume that the presence of any sled= Citizen Kane.

Naturally that means any sled becomes a perfect red herring candidate as well, but they sort of really emphasized the point of what the sled means by going with a Cane =Kane combination.

So I don’t know that bamboozled is correct, or if it is, could easily be a double clue.

But given just how loaded it is to use sled iconography in an audience of cineastes, criterion HAS to know that they are opening themselves up to the expectation of imminent Citizen Kane release and all the badgering that probably entails for years and years and years, so to use the sled iconography only for a red herring to better hide the pun of bamboo sled seems to me sort of shooting oneself in your own foot and doesn’t seem to match their style of sincere enthusiasm in how they play around with clues.

So a long winded way of saying I think bamboo sled is probably being too cute and too clever and criterion thought they were making an extremely direct and straightforward, but “fun” Kane clue (right dead center in the image because it’s such a big deal) and they thought in doing so that it couldn’t possibly be misinterpreted as anything other than Kane.



User avatar
solaris72
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:03 pm
Location: Baltimore, MD

Re: Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#80 Post by solaris72 » Tue Jan 01, 2019 8:50 pm

Near as I can tell, all the clues are a pun on the title of the movie in question and not a depiction of an iconic element of the film. And if they're supposed to be canes rather than bamboo, why are there leaves?

User avatar
HinkyDinkyTruesmith
Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2017 10:21 pm

Re: Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#81 Post by HinkyDinkyTruesmith » Tue Jan 01, 2019 9:01 pm

solaris72 wrote:
Tue Jan 01, 2019 8:50 pm
Near as I can tell, all the clues are a pun on the title of the movie in question and not a depiction of an iconic element of the film. And if they're supposed to be canes rather than bamboo, why are there leaves?
The clue for His Girl Friday is one other clue I recall that wasn't a pun on its name. (Edit: Although I respect anyone's skepticism concerning the clue being for Kane, even though it was the first thing I thought of.)

Image

User avatar
Dansu Dansu Dansu
Joined: Sat Feb 18, 2012 4:14 pm
Location: California

Re: Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#82 Post by Dansu Dansu Dansu » Tue Jan 01, 2019 9:15 pm

movielocke wrote:
Tue Jan 01, 2019 6:36 pm
Since Scarlett empress was the only hint for the big Dietrich set last year, I’m hopeful that swing time might indicate a larger set of Astaire Rogers films.
That would be wonderful. I know Swing Time was a LD release, but in light of Criterion’s Trump-era leanings toward inclusivity, I imagine they might place less emphasis on a film marred by a key number in blackface by packaging it with less blatantly offensive films (unless they went the other direction and paired it with Bamboozled). Plus they could crank out the Kracauer scholars for supplements on Flying Down to Rio, and who doesn’t want that?

Also, count me in for the balloon “S” being a pun for The Heiress. I imagine with the classical Hollywood floodgates opening to Criterion that they would want some postwar Wyler sooner than later. Scorsese is a fan of the film, plus they could interview Mark Harris. Hoping for a double spine pairing with the oop Detective Story, even though it’s a different studio, and doesn’t seem to be alluded to in the doodle at all, as much as I am trying to make it so.

User avatar
HinkyDinkyTruesmith
Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2017 10:21 pm

Re: Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#83 Post by HinkyDinkyTruesmith » Tue Jan 01, 2019 9:28 pm

Dansu Dansu Dansu wrote:
Tue Jan 01, 2019 9:15 pm
Also, count me in for the balloon “S” being a pun for The Heiress. I imagine with the classical Hollywood floodgates opening to Criterion that they would want some postwar Wyler sooner than later. Scorsese is a fan of the film, plus they could interview Mark Harris. Hoping for a double spine pairing with the oop Detective Story, even though it’s a different studio, and doesn’t seem to be alluded to in the doodle at all, as much as I am trying to make it so.
I would be all for this. Wyler seems to really suffer in terms of auteurist critical attention these days, in what I can only chalk up to a redirection of attention away from traditionally acclaimed filmmakers (of which Wyler represents the zenith), and an anti-Bazinian belief in the realism of the image, of which of course Detective Story is, for me, one of his three great achievements (along with the Best Years of Our Lives, and The Little Foxes). Boy, what I wouldn't do for a Wyler Deep-Focus collection.

User avatar
FrauBlucher
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2013 8:28 pm
Location: Greenwich Village

Re: Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#84 Post by FrauBlucher » Tue Jan 01, 2019 9:29 pm

HinkyDinkyTruesmith wrote:
Tue Jan 01, 2019 9:01 pm
solaris72 wrote:
Tue Jan 01, 2019 8:50 pm
Near as I can tell, all the clues are a pun on the title of the movie in question and not a depiction of an iconic element of the film. And if they're supposed to be canes rather than bamboo, why are there leaves?
The clue for His Girl Friday is one other clue I recall that wasn't a pun on its name. (Edit: Although I respect anyone's skepticism concerning the clue being for Kane, even though it was the first thing I thought of.)

Image
The underlined is not a hard and fast rule. The drunken dog clue for Anatomy for a Murder was another clue that wasn't a pun on the name. There are others.

What gives me pause to the clue not being for Citizen Kane is that the WB is still in print. They take their versions OOP when they are headed to Criterion.

Bressonaire
Joined: Mon Dec 02, 2013 4:49 pm

Re: Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#85 Post by Bressonaire » Tue Jan 01, 2019 9:50 pm

The underlined is not a hard and fast rule. The drunken dog clue for Anatomy for a Murder was another clue that wasn't a pun on the name.
Speaking of dogs, the dog with the hat clue for The Awful Truth falls into that category, and the obscure cailles en sarcophage clue for Babette's Feast. But they do seem much rarer.

User avatar
okcmaxk
Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2016 12:37 am

Re: Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#86 Post by okcmaxk » Tue Jan 01, 2019 9:52 pm

FrauBlucher wrote:
Tue Jan 01, 2019 9:29 pm
What gives me pause to the clue not being for Citizen Kane is that the WB is still in print. They take their versions OOP when they are headed to Criterion.
Isn’t the WB Blu-ray of Barry Lyndon still in print?

User avatar
HinkyDinkyTruesmith
Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2017 10:21 pm

Re: Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#87 Post by HinkyDinkyTruesmith » Tue Jan 01, 2019 10:22 pm

okcmaxk wrote:
Tue Jan 01, 2019 9:52 pm
Isn’t the WB Blu-ray of Barry Lyndon still in print?
You can buy it on Amazon as an "Amazon.com exclusive edition" whatever that means.

Citizen Kane is a rather difficult title to pun on. All I can come up with is a cane holding a voting ballot. Or perhaps a Notorious-esque reference to a person named Kane/Cain/Kaine/etc. It would therefore make sense to use a reference to something in the film than the title itself––although, as mentioned, the bamboo being shaped like a cane helps.

User avatar
FrauBlucher
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2013 8:28 pm
Location: Greenwich Village

Re: Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#88 Post by FrauBlucher » Tue Jan 01, 2019 10:53 pm

All those stars has to signify something.... I came up with Starry Night= something Van Gogh related.

User avatar
movielocke
Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:44 am

Re: Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#89 Post by movielocke » Tue Jan 01, 2019 10:59 pm

HinkyDinkyTruesmith wrote:
okcmaxk wrote:
Tue Jan 01, 2019 9:52 pm
Isn’t the WB Blu-ray of Barry Lyndon still in print?
You can buy it on Amazon as an "Amazon.com exclusive edition" whatever that means.

Citizen Kane is a rather difficult title to pun on. All I can come up with is a cane holding a voting ballot. Or perhaps a Notorious-esque reference to a person named Kane/Cain/Kaine/etc. It would therefore make sense to use a reference to something in the film than the title itself––although, as mentioned, the bamboo being shaped like a cane helps.
Hah. I didn’t even think of that it was shaped like a cane, I grew up hearing bamboo referred to as a compound noun, it was always “bamboo cane” which is probably wrong, but that’s how it was always referred to.

I saw the image and thought: “sled, wow they’re really making citizen Kane obvious!”

Then I thought, “but that’s not at all the kind of sled that rosebud was.”

Then I thought, “hah, pun, made of bamboo cane, cane equals Kane, that makes it a Kane Sled, very clever!”

User avatar
movielocke
Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:44 am

Re: Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#90 Post by movielocke » Tue Jan 01, 2019 11:02 pm

Of course criterion could be thinking: hah! We really bamboozled people with the clue for bamboozled! Nailed it!

User avatar
Brian C
I hate to be That Pedantic Guy but...
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:58 am
Location: Chicago, IL

Re: Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#91 Post by Brian C » Wed Jan 02, 2019 12:21 am

Well really it looks more like a toboggan than a sled, but I realize that is more of a semantic dispute. So I guess the question is: toboggan, or not toboggan?

Ergo, Hamlet upgrade.

User avatar
solaris72
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:03 pm
Location: Baltimore, MD

Re: Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#92 Post by solaris72 » Wed Jan 02, 2019 12:22 am

FrauBlucher wrote:
Tue Jan 01, 2019 9:29 pm
HinkyDinkyTruesmith wrote:
Tue Jan 01, 2019 9:01 pm
solaris72 wrote:
Tue Jan 01, 2019 8:50 pm
Near as I can tell, all the clues are a pun on the title of the movie in question and not a depiction of an iconic element of the film. And if they're supposed to be canes rather than bamboo, why are there leaves?
The clue for His Girl Friday is one other clue I recall that wasn't a pun on its name. (Edit: Although I respect anyone's skepticism concerning the clue being for Kane, even though it was the first thing I thought of.)

Image
The underlined is not a hard and fast rule. The drunken dog clue for Anatomy for a Murder was another clue that wasn't a pun on the name. There are others.

What gives me pause to the clue not being for Citizen Kane is that the WB is still in print. They take their versions OOP when they are headed to Criterion.
Oh yes, I meant all the clues in the current doodle, not a general rule regarding clues to date.

Also WB licensing out Citizen Kane seems pretty unlikely, AFAIK they've never licensed out such a high profile title?

User avatar
Minkin
Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2009 11:13 pm

Re: Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#93 Post by Minkin » Wed Jan 02, 2019 1:11 am

Sorry for just showing up now; and I'll point out more things in a little bit, but one thing I noticed and no real answer for yet:

The War & Peace rabbit - seems to be holding something up to its mouth and I can't make out what it is. I'd normally dismiss it, but there's three "movement lines" next to the rabbit as well; indicating that the rabbit is doing something. It sorta looks like the rabbit is holding / drinking a glass bottle. Would this play into anything: Rabbit + beer?

User avatar
movielocke
Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:44 am

Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#94 Post by movielocke » Wed Jan 02, 2019 1:58 am

solaris72 wrote:
Also WB licensing out Citizen Kane seems pretty unlikely, AFAIK they've never licensed out such a high profile title?
This is definitely true, but sales of 1930s black and white films, even the ultra high profile ones, are not especially stellar for any studio or company in 2019 nee 18

Markets are a fluid thing, and if WB back catalog titles licensed to criterion are routinely moving more units than higher profile back catalog titles issued from in-house then the market / studio accountants will shift to better align high profile titles with licensors like criterion.

User avatar
movielocke
Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:44 am

Re: Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#95 Post by movielocke » Wed Jan 02, 2019 2:07 am

after last year had a Bergman eclipse teased in the sky:

I’m gonna hypothesize a nonexistent pattern and declare that the SIX diamonds in the sky indicates a six film eclipse set called:

“Diamonds of the Czech New Wave”
(with diamonds in the night included.)

User avatar
dda1996a
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2015 6:14 am

Re: Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#96 Post by dda1996a » Wed Jan 02, 2019 2:13 am

With Blu-ray materials I doubt they'd relegate Diamonds in the Night to a DVD.

User avatar
RyanGallagher
Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2010 4:03 pm
Location: Portland, OR
Contact:

Re: Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#97 Post by RyanGallagher » Wed Jan 02, 2019 4:04 am

Minkin wrote:
Wed Jan 02, 2019 1:11 am
Sorry for just showing up now; and I'll point out more things in a little bit, but one thing I noticed and no real answer for yet:

The War & Peace rabbit - seems to be holding something up to its mouth and I can't make out what it is. I'd normally dismiss it, but there's three "movement lines" next to the rabbit as well; indicating that the rabbit is doing something. It sorta looks like the rabbit is holding / drinking a glass bottle. Would this play into anything: Rabbit + beer?
Here's a closer look. I'd guess that it's just eating the peas.

Image

User avatar
Minkin
Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2009 11:13 pm

Re: Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#98 Post by Minkin » Wed Jan 02, 2019 6:27 am

I agree Ryan, the close-up does give it the same shape as the peas. I suppose everything can't be a double clue!

Rib's avatar was determined to be the Ingmar Bergman set - as it was Dame-moon, which was Bergman's signature.

As to the Citizen Kane speculation: if Criterion could get access to it, they're going to do it. It was their first Laserdisc title; they love Orson Welles; and it is such an obvious no-brainer of a choice, regardless of how stacked the previous releases were. I don't see any debate on the subject - that they could assuredly find things to add to it, new slant to approach it; and material to be added (including that Eyes of Orson film).

So, I'm going to update the forthcoming list, and here is what I have:

An Angel at My Table upgrade (angel at table)
Bamboozled OR Citizen Kane (the sled) -leaning towards the former
@SpikeLee wrote:Would love to have a Criterion 25th Hour,Summer of Sam or Bamboozled. It's up to them
Bringing Up Baby (I thought the singing guy was Harold Lloyd, but looking up stills for the film - it clearly is Cary Grant's character from this movie - with the same glasses + hair)
Children of Men (the dudes with the kids)
Diamonds of the Night (diamonds in sky)
Europa Europa (Euro signs)
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (owl + worm)
The Heiress (S-balloon)
Klute (k-lute)
Koker Trilogy (coke bottles) - Koker Trilogy was confirmed as forthcoming on the Indian Restoration current post btw.
One Sings, the Other Doesn't
Swing Time (clock on swing)
La Vie de Jesus (Jesus w/ V)
War and Peace (rabbit + peas)
----------------------
Questions:

Three of the four people in the drawing have distinctive faces; one is Cary Grant; do the other two match-up with any actor portraying either Jesus or an angel? The angel looks like Mary Woronov to me.

The Board Game (that's not Game of Life + that would be redundant with the "V" already accounted for. We just need to figure out which boardgame it is). So far Funny Games is the best match.

The clock's time (9 to 5 mentioned, doesn't really match the ~9:05 time) - there's been clocks in previous New Years clue, and everytime the clock's time indicates a film; so I'd expect one here.

The 19 stars in the sky (could just be to show that its night for the Diamonds clue to work)

The Tree (Taste of Cherry mentioned) - honestly, its just a tree; you could guess anything. I don't think it represents anything other than part of scenery.
-----------
Best comment from Reddit:
Killjoy13337 wrote:There is a board game. Board games have dice. Dice have 6 sides. There are 6 children in the Brady Bunch. The Brady Bunch was made in the 1970s. Led Zeppelin were at their peak in the 1970s. The Hindenburg was a zeppelin. The Hindenburg Disaster happened in the 1930s. The Grand Budapest Hotel is set in the 1930s. THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL CONFIRMED FOR 2019 RELEASE!

User avatar
Lemmy Caution
Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 3:26 am
Location: East of Shanghai

Re: Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#99 Post by Lemmy Caution » Wed Jan 02, 2019 6:47 am

How about the lute with the K on it?

Or have they been deciphered?

Oh, got it ...
Last edited by Lemmy Caution on Wed Jan 02, 2019 6:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

Calvin
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:12 am

Re: Criterion New Year's Doodle 2019

#100 Post by Calvin » Wed Jan 02, 2019 6:54 am

The stars are Columbus. They could have chosen any other number if it were just to show it was night.

Locked