The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

News on Criterion and Janus Films.
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The Fanciful Norwegian
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:24 pm
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Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1151 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Fri Oct 13, 2017 10:13 pm

bdsweeney wrote:Please, please, please be Fucking Amal or We Are the Best!
We Are the Best! is actually the only one of his films I think we can rule out for rights reasons, as it's with Magnolia. Everything else seems to be either with IFC or not currently spoken for.

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Lowry_Sam
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Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1152 Post by Lowry_Sam » Sat Oct 14, 2017 3:25 am

Fucking Amal DVD is out of print (in the US) & it was on Strand Releasing, so the quality was probably poor. Together is MGM & more readily available, but through 3rd party sellers only looks like & it doesn't look like Lilya 4-ever was ever released on dvd in US. Those are the most likely candidates.

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The Fanciful Norwegian
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Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1153 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Sat Oct 14, 2017 3:45 am

Together is actually IFC and dates back to the days when they put their DVDs out through MGM. IFC also has Mammoth, but I suspect Criterion already passed on that when it was a new release (of course they could've changed their minds by now).

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domino harvey
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Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1154 Post by domino harvey » Sat Oct 14, 2017 6:25 pm

Hopefully sister releases of Lilja 4-Ever and Fucking Åmål. Strand's DVD of the latter was non-anamorphic, but not horrible otherwise. The Swedish DVD rerelease was the first English-subbed anamorphic release, though another may have come since. And of course though it was available to rent as a disc on Netflix, Lilja never got a physical retail release in the states, which is ridiculous

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swo17
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Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1155 Post by swo17 » Sat Oct 14, 2017 7:01 pm

domino harvey wrote:Strand's DVD of the latter was non-anamorphic, but not horrible otherwise.
Forced yellow subtitles

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domino harvey
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Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1156 Post by domino harvey » Sat Oct 14, 2017 7:02 pm

I mean, the film's yellow tinted already

flyonthewall2983
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Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1157 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sat Oct 14, 2017 8:20 pm

Isn't it time to open up the guessing game again?

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headacheboy
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 8:57 pm

Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1158 Post by headacheboy » Sun Oct 15, 2017 12:31 pm

Lowry_Sam wrote:Fucking Amal DVD is out of print (in the US) & it was on Strand Releasing, so the quality was probably poor. Together is MGM & more readily available, but through 3rd party sellers only looks like & it doesn't look like Lilya 4-ever was ever released on dvd in US. Those are the most likely candidates.
Lilya-4-ever was released on DVD via Netflix. Back in their early days they would issue movies on DVD under their own imprint. I can't recall the name of that imprint but it had Red in the title. You can still get the film from Netflix. I saw it for the first time in 2005. Netflix is often the only way I'd ever be able to see something like that.

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goblinfootballs
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Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1159 Post by goblinfootballs » Sun Oct 15, 2017 12:53 pm

Have the random non-announcement day phantom web pages ever indicated a physical release? Are they not just prepping for Filmstruck additions now?

Arthur House
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 3:20 pm

Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1160 Post by Arthur House » Sun Oct 15, 2017 12:55 pm

headacheboy wrote:
Lowry_Sam wrote:Fucking Amal DVD is out of print (in the US) & it was on Strand Releasing, so the quality was probably poor. Together is MGM & more readily available, but through 3rd party sellers only looks like & it doesn't look like Lilya 4-ever was ever released on dvd in US. Those are the most likely candidates.
Lilya-4-ever was released on DVD via Netflix. Back in their early days they would issue movies on DVD under their own imprint. I can't recall the name of that imprint but it had Red in the title. You can still get the film from Netflix. I saw it for the first time in 2005. Netflix is often the only way I'd ever be able to see something like that.
Red Envelope Entertainment. It was a subsidiary of Netflix that partnered with and/or picked up films from small distributors, including New Yorker in their waning days, and packaged them for rental distribution, and even in some cases commercial releases including theatrical exhibitions.

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Jeff
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Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1161 Post by Jeff » Sun Oct 15, 2017 5:33 pm

The fact that Criterion apparently now has the rights to Oslo, August 31st bodes well for Fucking Åmål, as it means that Strand is losing the rights to some of their previous acquisitions. I've always assumed that Criterion would eventually get around to IFC's Together though, and Lilya 4-Ever's U.S. rights situation is nebulous. I'm guessing that any of these would require Criterion doing pricey new transfers themselves. Have any Moodysson films beyond We Are the Best! and Mammoth been released on Blu-ray anywhere?

Are we assuming that the Porumboiu is Police, Adjective?

Berzeli
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Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1162 Post by Berzeli » Sun Oct 15, 2017 7:49 pm

Jeff wrote:The fact that Criterion apparently now has the rights to Oslo, August 31st bodes well for Fucking Åmål, as it means that Strand is losing the rights to some of their previous acquisitions. I've always assumed that Criterion would eventually get around to IFC's Together though, and Lilya 4-Ever's U.S. rights situation is nebulous. I'm guessing that any of these would require Criterion doing pricey new transfers themselves. Have any Moodysson films beyond We Are the Best! and Mammoth been released on Blu-ray anywhere?

Are we assuming that the Porumboiu is Police, Adjective?
Fucking Åmål did get a brand spanking new restoration earlier this year courtesy of the Swedish Film Institute.

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Jeff
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Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1163 Post by Jeff » Sun Oct 15, 2017 9:42 pm

Berzeli wrote:Fucking Åmål did get a brand spanking new restoration earlier this year courtesy of the Swedish Film Institute.
Thanks for that info. I'm now mostly convinced that this is what Criterion is working on, and I couldn't be more pleased. I found the Strand DVD pretty terrible. Apparently there is an entire forum dedicated to the film, and they had this translation of the Swedish Film Institute's press release about the restoration:
Moodysson's successful debut regains the right look after nearly 20 years

Fucking Amal has barely gone to see as it looked at the movies when they came in 1998, as it was verging on impossible to digitize of sufficiently high quality. Until now. Soon the film will be able to be shown in cinemas across Sweden, seen through VOD, TV and other windows. At the revival of the Cinematheque is also protagonists Rebecka Liljeberg and Alexandra Dahlström, the film's producer Lars Jönsson and film journalist Andrea Reuter in place for a conversation about the movie.

Lukas Moodysson's drama school in the small town of Amal was seen by the whole 868,015 people in cinemas in Sweden and became an international success with over 1.29 million moviegoers abroad. It was awarded the Guldbagge for best film, best screenplay, best director and best actress. It won the prestigious queer film prize Teddy Award at the Berlin Film Festival and qualified last year in the British Film Institute's list of top LGBT films ever. The film has been so difficult to restore digitally depends on the process that gave the film its peculiar grainy appearance. It was shot on 16mm reversalfilm as negative was developed and then turned to the 35mm master before cutting and then to 35mm duplikatnegativ as light added to the final display copy. A very intricate analogue process that had previously been impossible to recreate digitally.

- Fucking Åmål film prints had a nice and unique look when the movie came out in 1998. When it was made video and television masters not so hung with contemporary technology. It was in some scenes too dark and noisy. Funny that the digital versions can finally live up to the original, says Lars Jonsson.

Fredrik Rundqvist, materials manager, said Swedish Film Institute's digital restoration of the film:
- There was an extensive process. We scanned everything, 16mm-reversalfilmen and the various 35-mm materials to test which gave best results. We have had test impressions with Lukas Moodysson and Lars Jönsson in place in our cinema and compared with the analog display copies in the archive. In the end, we assumed anyway from 16mm-reversalfilmen, and has processed it for getting the digital restoration as similar to the version of the film that first met the audience as possible.

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domino harvey
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Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1164 Post by domino harvey » Sun Oct 15, 2017 9:47 pm

There was also a recent full-length academic study of the film and its following, hopefully the author is involved. The Show Me Love website used to have these great bootleg videos of audience shots from key points of the movie filmed during its first run and the audience reaction is incredible-- huge laughter and cheering at every line. It really sold how this wasn't an art house movie in its homeland, but popular entertainment that had a strong and broad cultural impact. I might still have the video files saved somewhere...

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bradass
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Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1165 Post by bradass » Sun Oct 15, 2017 11:29 pm

Jeff wrote:The fact that Criterion apparently now has the rights to Oslo, August 31st bodes well for Fucking Åmål, as it means that Strand is losing the rights to some of their previous acquisitions. I've always assumed that Criterion would eventually get around to IFC's Together though, and Lilya 4-Ever's U.S. rights situation is nebulous. I'm guessing that any of these would require Criterion doing pricey new transfers themselves. Have any Moodysson films beyond We Are the Best! and Mammoth been released on Blu-ray anywhere?

Are we assuming that the Porumboiu is Police, Adjective?
If Oslo, August 31st being on Filmstruck is evidence the film is controlled by Janus/Criterion, the film is still accompanied by the Strand logo, so... I can't think of any precedent for Strand letting go of a title in their library. They're more likely to capitalize on a restoration than relinquish their license. Is it not more likely that these are placeholders for FIlmstruck additions, like so many films before? Porumboiu's The Treasure, controlled by IFC, makes sense for that entry (if these are tied to upcoming discs) but it's surely too minor for Criterion to handle (I love it, it's just a very modest film and never received much attention).

Self
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Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1166 Post by Self » Mon Oct 16, 2017 11:41 am


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Drucker
Your Future our Drucker
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Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1167 Post by Drucker » Mon Oct 16, 2017 12:08 pm

Uh George Wilhelm Pabst already has two films in the collection why would he have a phantom page?

KHAAAABB
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Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1168 Post by KHAAAABB » Mon Oct 16, 2017 12:13 pm

Perhaps they're shortening his name? It looks like this is pointing to a Pandora's Box upgrade.

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Luke M
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Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1169 Post by Luke M » Mon Oct 16, 2017 3:50 pm

Pandora’s Box and Fucking Åmål in the same month?

Yay.

Bressonaire
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Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1170 Post by Bressonaire » Mon Oct 16, 2017 5:08 pm

If it's a new page, then could it be for Westfront 1918 and/or Kameradschaft. Weren't both released in new restorations in Europe?

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jwd5275
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Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1171 Post by jwd5275 » Mon Oct 16, 2017 5:23 pm

Bressonaire wrote:If it's a new page, then could it be for Westfront 1918 and/or Kameradschaft. Weren't both released in new restorations in Europe?
And Janus has been sitting on them for ages...

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jwd5275
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Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1172 Post by jwd5275 » Mon Oct 16, 2017 5:28 pm

SpoilerShow
Westfront 1918
Breakfast Club
I, Daniel Blake
Last edited by jwd5275 on Mon Oct 16, 2017 5:38 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Luke M
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Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1173 Post by Luke M » Mon Oct 16, 2017 5:29 pm

Luke M wrote:Pandora’s Box and Fucking Åmål in the same month?

Yay.
Goddammit.

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fdm
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Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1174 Post by fdm » Mon Oct 16, 2017 6:52 pm

Self wrote:G.W. Pabst
Of course since I ordered the MoC set last Thursday...

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Ribs
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Re: The Mystery of the Phantom Web Pages

#1175 Post by Ribs » Mon Oct 16, 2017 6:55 pm

So... have they finally gotten wise the the Phantom Pages?

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