277 My Own Private Idaho

Discuss releases by Criterion and the films on them. Threads may contain spoilers!
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Cinephrenic
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#26 Post by Cinephrenic » Mon Nov 29, 2004 1:22 am

The first half of 2005, therefore before June or March or April.

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Steven H
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#27 Post by Steven H » Mon Nov 29, 2004 11:52 am

It'll probably come out february.

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denti alligator
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#28 Post by denti alligator » Mon Nov 29, 2004 7:50 pm

It'll probably come out february.
You're right!

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Dylan
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#29 Post by Dylan » Mon Nov 29, 2004 7:59 pm

I've been meaning to see this Van Sant classic for a long time, and it's wonderful news that it's receiving the Criterion treatment. This is one of their most requested titles, so I'm sure many on here are overjoyed.

Dylan

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Michael
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#30 Post by Michael » Mon Nov 29, 2004 8:50 pm

This is sooooo awesome. I will probably lose sleep til it comes out.

Narshty
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#31 Post by Narshty » Mon Nov 29, 2004 8:56 pm

Michael wrote:I will probably lose sleep til it comes out.
Heh - was that intentional?

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Steven H
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#32 Post by Steven H » Mon Nov 29, 2004 9:55 pm

Haynes comes up again in a release... what's his connection to this film? Gayness? He and Van Sant friends? I suppose we'll find out in the conversation... maybe.

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Michael
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#33 Post by Michael » Mon Nov 29, 2004 10:15 pm

Jon wrote:
Heh - was that intentional?
Can't believe that you got it!

Back in my early 20s, I saw MOPI at the New York Film Festival and Gus van Sant was there.. keep in mind I was young (about the same age as River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves), the night was a very overwhelming experience for me.

This very visually beautiful and eerie film inspired me to read William Burroughs for a long time. River Phoenix gave a very sensitive and unforgettable performance as Mike...unquestionably the best performance of his tragically brief life. I remember loving the strange documentary-like interviews with the hustlers inside a Chinese take-out...that was very new and eye-popping to me back then.

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criterionsnob
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#34 Post by criterionsnob » Mon Nov 29, 2004 10:25 pm

harri wrote:Haynes comes up again in a release... what's his connection to this film? Gayness? He and Van Sant friends? I suppose we'll find out in the conversation... maybe.
He and Van Sant both live in Portland, are gay, filmmakers and yes, friends. I guess that gives them plenty to talk about.

Can't wait.

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Buttery Jeb
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#35 Post by Buttery Jeb » Tue Nov 30, 2004 12:29 am

This news is like a thing of beauty to me. It really is. I've been hoping for a decent DVD of this for a while, even if maybe just a New Line Platinum Edition disc. Knowing Criterion's on this just makes me happy.

And the best part is, I still have two other personal favorites rumored to be on their way from the New Line/Criterion deal ("Naked" and "Hoop Dreams"). At this point, it looks like the only other New Line title I'll be waiting for is gonna end up being "Metropolitan."

-BJ

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Tribe
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#36 Post by Tribe » Tue Nov 30, 2004 12:47 am

So, with this release, who's ahead besides Toshiro Mifune for Criterion appearances, Udo Kier or Jean Gabin?

John

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solaris72
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#37 Post by solaris72 » Tue Nov 30, 2004 10:02 am

The only Van Sant I've seen so far was Drugstore Cowboy, which didn't really impress me. I was immensely looking forward to seeing it, because I'd been reading a lot of Burroughs, and I'd heard Van Sant was influenced by Burroughs, and of course that Burroughs was in Drugstore Cowboy, so I was looking forward to a seeing a (non-Cronenberg) film with some of Burroughs' sensibility. But I just found it sort of clumsy and in places artificial. It was in a way refreshing to see a drug movie that ended with the character recovering and doing so largely by himself, and the scenes with Burroughs were just amazing, but other than that I didn't really take to the film.
Anyway, I'm posting this here because I want to know if I should give Van Sant another chance with Idaho or if I probably won't like the rest of his stuff if I didn't like Drugstore Cowboy.
Last edited by solaris72 on Tue Nov 30, 2004 10:59 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Fletch F. Fletch
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#38 Post by Fletch F. Fletch » Tue Nov 30, 2004 10:36 am

solaris72 wrote:Anyway, I'm posting this here because I want to know if I should give Van Sant another chance with Idaho or if I probably won't like the rest of his stuff if I didn't like Drugstore Cowboy.
definitely. IMO, My Own Private Idaho is Van Sant's masterpiece. I also feel that it is his most personal project, a labour of love that he has yet to equal. MOPI is an ambitious blend of Shakespeare's Henry IV and the lives of Portland street hustlers. However, the film really belongs to River Phoenix's incredible performance. It was with this film that he finally shed, once and for all, his "teen idol" image and the baggage that went with it. His rumpled appearance and mannerisms in the movie made me think of James Dean's tortured teen in Rebel Without A Cause. Like Dean, Phoenix suggested emotion from simple movements and gestures.

One of the many things that I dig about this movie is how it opens with Phoenix's character on a deserted, picturesque stretch of road and he delivers a Kerouacian ode to the road before passing out in a narcoleptic fit. From there, Van Sant goes for a kind of dreamy, romanticism complete with beautiful vistas and rolling landscapes captured via time-lapse photography juxtaposed with gritty street hustler culture. Imagine William S. Burroughs rewriting Jack Kerouac's On the Road and you get an idea of the tone of the movie.

Anyways, you really should give it a chance.,

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#39 Post by cdnchris » Tue Nov 30, 2004 11:09 am

John wrote:So, with this release, who's ahead besides Toshiro Mifune for Criterion appearances, Udo Kier or Jean Gabin?

John
Takeshi Shimura.

But I think Gabin beats out Kier. Seymour Cassel is up there, too. But if Criterion releases Dazed and Confused, Ben Affleck will be getting up there, too.

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Michael
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#40 Post by Michael » Tue Nov 30, 2004 11:25 am

Fletch's wonderful, absorbing description of MOPI should be printed on the back of the DVD case!

I've seen every film by Van Sant and MOPI easily stands out as his most personal work. It has this very infectious, inventive, intoxicating style that Van San fails to bring back in his post-MOPI works.

Look at Mike's pants - the color of salmon. He is a salmon in search for his home. I will never forget this very beautiful, blurry image of his mom in her go go boots dancing on the porch with a plastic yellow sunflower pinwheel that Mike struggles to remember or to clarify. Heartbreaking and poetic at its best.

The DVD is worth every cent for the threesome sex between Keanu, River and ...Udo Kier! Imagine!

I think the DVD set would be the most perfect if it completes with Van Sant's debut film - Mala Noche.

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Fletch F. Fletch
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#41 Post by Fletch F. Fletch » Tue Nov 30, 2004 1:43 pm

Michael wrote:I think the DVD set would be the most perfect if it completes with Van Sant's debut film - Mala Noche.
I was just thinking that! Like Criterion did with Richard Linklater's Slacker (including his first film), have Mala Noche on the second DVD. I wonder who owns the rights? Maybe they've reverted back to Van Sant. Or, at the very least, maybe some of his short films like "The Discipline of D.E."

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Arn777
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#42 Post by Arn777 » Tue Nov 30, 2004 1:54 pm

Plexi Films has Mala Noche (release status has been TBD for over a year now)

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The Fanciful Norwegian
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#43 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Wed Dec 01, 2004 4:30 am

I suspect the "audio conversation" is the audio commentary. Otherwise, what would be the point of making it audio-only? I mean, if it doesn't actually play over the movie, they may as well have made it a video interview.

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Poncho Punch
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#44 Post by Poncho Punch » Wed Dec 01, 2004 4:48 am

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:I suspect the "audio conversation" is the audio commentary. Otherwise, what would be the point of making it audio-only? I mean, if it doesn't actually play over the movie, they may as well have made it a video interview.
Tell that to Jim Jarmusch.

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colinr0380
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#45 Post by colinr0380 » Wed Dec 01, 2004 9:25 am

Arn777 wrote:Plexi Films has Mala Noche (release status has been TBD for over a year now)
Sorry for being so ignorant but what does TBD stand for? Is it To Be Determined? I've been having fun making up my own acronyms! Totally Bloody Disastrous? Too Badly Distributed?

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#46 Post by cdnchris » Wed Dec 01, 2004 9:55 am

colinr0380 wrote:
Arn777 wrote:Plexi Films has Mala Noche (release status has been TBD for over a year now)
Sorry for being so ignorant but what does TBD stand for? Is it To Be Determined? I've been having fun making up my own acronyms! Totally Bloody Disastrous? Too Badly Distributed?
To Be Determined. Unless I make up my own, too.

Martha
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#47 Post by Martha » Thu Jan 06, 2005 11:03 am

Theodore R. Stockton wrote:According to Amazon this one's being delayed with no date yet.

DVD Planet has a date of 2/15.
Just got an email from DVD Empire announcing March 1.

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#48 Post by peerpee » Thu Jan 06, 2005 7:16 pm

The CC site says March now... making that TEN films in March.

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Lino
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#49 Post by Lino » Fri Jan 07, 2005 11:45 am

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0360486/releaseinfo

Constantine, Keanu Reeve's latest blockbuster opens late February, early March. Maybe the change of the art cover and the delay in the DVD release date are not that surprising...

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Buttery Jeb
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#50 Post by Buttery Jeb » Fri Jan 28, 2005 3:30 pm

From Home Vision's website:

Disc 1: The Film

- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack
- Original theatrical trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired

Disc 2: The Supplements

- Exclusive new audio conversation between Van Sant and filmmaker Todd Haynes
- "The Making of My Own Private Idaho," a new documentary featuring "Idaho" crew members
- "King Of The Road," a new video interview with film scholar Paul Arthur in which he discusses Van Sant's adaptation of Orson Welles and Shakespeare
- Video conversation between producer Laurie Parker and River Phoenix's sister Rain
- New audio conversation between writer JT LeRoy ("The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things") and filmmaker Jonathan Caouette ("Tarnation")
- Deleted Scenes
- English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
- PLUS: a 64-page booklet featuring new essays by JT LeRoy and film critic Amy Taubin, a 1991 article by Lance Loud, and reprinted interviews with Van Sant, Phoenix, and Reeves.

-BJ

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