Criterion U.K.

[rapta]

Here is a list of OOP DVDs and Blu rays in the UK that Criterion could have picked up:

F for Fake
Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence
Chungking Express
The Seventh Seal
Fanny and Alexander (both the TV and Film versions)
Cries and Whispers
Persona
Vengeance is Mine
The Big Chill
The Phantom Carriage
Rosetta
La Promesse
Chronicle of a Summer
Cronos
Life of Oharu
Metropolitan
Weekend
Sansho The Bailiff
George Washington
Hearts and Minds
Hoop Dreams
In Cold Blood
Samurai Trilogy

The below might be oop.

Following
Hiroshima Mon Amour
Babette's Feast is OOS
Make Way for Tomorrow is also OOS

I reckon the Bergman's are most likely (unless Palisades are still being stubborn and clinging onto the Tartan rights for no reason), and I would absolutely love The Life of Oharu and the Samurai Trilogy.

Hiroshima, Mon Amour definitely isn't OOP - StudioCanal only just released it on Blu-ray! MoC's Make Way For Tomorrow looks like it will be soon though. I don't think Babette's Feast is OOP yet - it has been out for 3 years now but I doubt it'd go that quickly (I notice several AE titles are either low in stock or OOS on Amazon and Base, if that's where you were looking).

[L.A.]

So is Criterion the only label that released Pál Fejős' Lonesome? Maybe this is coming too in the UK branch, at least I hope this happens.

[ellipsis7]

Can the celebrated Criterion Collection make a splash in the UK? - The Guardian...

As for Criterion’s future UK plans, “We want to get a critical mass into the market relatively quickly,” says Turell. “After the first wave, we’ll probably follow up with another six a couple of months thereafter, and then probably two titles a month, three titles every other month.”

And on CC's main release schedule...

“For the first time in 30-plus years of business, we have licensing arrangements with all the major American studios,” Turell told me. “Our biggest shortage is slots in the schedule – we have more films than we have slots for.”

[swo17]

I wonder if they'll do anything on their foreign subtitled releases to address the variances in American vs. British English. Does Arrow do anything like this with their joint US/UK releases?

[tenia]

I love how Turell says "We always did have a PAL/NTSC [video format] barrier, but that disappeared with the advent of HD and Blu-ray." while MoC has been doing NTSC DVDs for years.

Anyway, we'll see how it goes. It seems Sony has a huge role in Criterion entering the market, but surely Criterion can't release 2 titles a month just from the Sony catalog, so it'll be interesting to see how the split and priorities are distributed.

[Drucker]

I wonder if they'll do anything on their foreign subtitled releases to address the variances in American vs. British English. Does Arrow do anything like this with their joint US/UK releases?

Michael repeatedly stresses that the discs are 100% identical, as is noted in DVD Beaver reviews, so I would doubt this.

NOTE: As Michael Brooke informs us on Facebook in regards to Day of Anger: 'As the producer of Arrow's release, I can confirm first hand that the UK and US discs are absolutely identical: we only paid for one master, so there's no doubt about this at all! Which means that no matter which package you buy, the discs will play in any Region A or B setup (or Region 1 or 2 for DVD - and in the latter case the video standard is NTSC, to maximise compatibility). The booklets are also identical, but there are minor cosmetic differences on the disc labels and sleeve to do with differing copyright info and barcodes, and the US release doesn't have BBFC logos.' We presume Black Mama, White Mama to be the same situation.

[MichaelB]

If an Arrow US/UK release is simultaneous, the machine-readable side of the discs will be identical - and jointly encoded to Region A and B.

Exceptions are discs that came out in the UK first - the biggest differences being with Immoral Tales and The Beast, because Arrow didn't have the US rights to the supporting shorts on the UK disc. So those had to be ditched, but in their place we added lots of other extras that originally accompanied the UK releases of features that Arrow didn't have the US rights for.

And for joint UK/US releases the subtitles are identical - usually in US English because UK audiences are better acclimatised to it. But for Arrow Academy releases I still produce subs in UK English.

[colinr0380]

If Optimum didn't have it out on DVD already in the UK we could have hoped for an answer to the US versus UK English question by seeing if Criterion released the Louis Malle film as either Elevator To The Gallows or Lift To The Scaffold! And I remember Zazie dans le Metro played quite differently in its Criterion subtitles compared to UK subtitles from an old Channel 4 screening, but that is a quite extreme example of a film that is defined by any slight differences in its language and in some ways it just added to the fun by allowing that comparison. (I often find more than slight variations in spellings that the differences are more jarring when swearing is translated for Criterion's American audiences - so fewer "Bloody hells!" and more instances of "Goddamn!" in something like Seven Samurai. Though I have a suspicion that the occasional times that "Dumb cluck" turn up in subtitles are more a Criterion-ism than anything else!)

Either way, I'd never criticize Criterion for using American English subtitle tracks. I've been watching US discs since April 1st 1999 and that hasn't colored my speech patterns at all!

I must admit that I did roll my eyes a little at the slightly unnecessary dig at Criterion only having 3% of the films in the collection directed by women, but I guess if that could help Jeanne Dielman get a UK release, dig away!

(EDIT: Did you all know that less than 3% of Hollywood movies that have Dawn in the title have a female character named Dawn in them? #Dawngate)

[Drucker]

I actually kind of like it when on an MOC / Arrow disc they use the British spelling of a word of British slang. Makes me feel multi-cultural.

[swo17]

I must admit that I did roll my eyes a little at the slightly unnecessary dig at Criterion only having 3% of the films in the collection directed by women

Failing to recognize that they have released 100% of movies (on two continents!) in which Dustin Hoffman passes for a woman.

[David M.]

Yes, it wouldn't be the Moral Guardian without bringing gender issues into it, would it?

[Davy Gallagher]

Looks like Easy Rider's Criterion will be UK-bound in May if Amazon is to be believed. Ivan's Childhood still listed despite, surely, not being within Criterion's purview since Artificial Eye have it. Expect that to fall off the slate. The lack of official word from Criteriom is frustrating. A few words in blog posts and a Guardian piece. Some press releases, statement of intent, news on how they will announce UK titles etc would be nice.

Personally I'll keep my old 1988-artwork steelbook too as well as my old copy with the BFI book on the film and Easy Riders, Raging Bulls as a bonus disc.

[Alphonse Tram]

Criterion C meets the BBFC logo

[Alphonse Tram]

It seems the next UK releases are: Easy Rider, Gilder, Overlord, L'Avventura, Here Comes Mr Jordan and In a Lonely Place.

[med]

Alphonse Tram, in the URL, change the number (see where arrow is pointing below) to your desired size:



I removed the '1' from the '1500'



EDIT: Ah, the post has been revised.

[Cinephrenic]

Wacky 'C" meets the wacky "ratings sticker".

[tenia]

Not sure if it has been notified here, but Amazon.co.uk's Criterion product pages is getting longer :
Gilda (June 27th)
Here Comes Mr Jordan (June 20th)
Overlord (June 6th)
L'avventura (May 30th)
In A Lonely Place (May 16th)
Easy Rider (May 9th)

Ivan's Childhood still has a May 2nd release date, but it's still weird since AE should have the video rights in the UK.

[eerik]

All those except Ivan's Childhood are also up on Zavvi, so yeah, the latter must be some sort of a mistake.

[peerpee]

They should place the wacky C around the BBFC logo so it looks like PAC-MAN eating it.

[colinr0380]

And another Guardian piece, which somehow manages to make a backhanded comment in every...single...sentence!

[krnash]

They cleverly point out that Criterion released Armageddon once. How original.

[Finch]

The Grauniard's been shit ever since Alan Rusbridger took over, and the new editor has managed to make the paper worse still.

[colinr0380]

The rather snobby tone of the article amusingly reminded me of that documentary Channel 4 did on Lego around a year ago, which tried to portray the company as a secretive organisation on the level with Scientology by following a young man from his youthful dreams of working for Lego, through an interview process and getting the job, to a brief (and suspiciously staged!) interview with the guy in front of the Lego headquarters blankly stating that he was really loving working there for the last few months but unfortunately could not talk about what new projects he was working on as they were top secret! That was built up into a stupidly big climactic moment of the documentary, as the guy we had been following then walked back into the office flanked by a couple of work colleagues, making it seem like he was being escorted! But I seriously doubt that Lego is running any kind of pseudo-religious brick-based cult in their offices, as the documentary seemed to be heavily implying in its focus on the masses of the 'faithful' at various Lego conventions and the in depth recruiting process!

I have my suspicions that there might be something about the 'unaccountability' of companies that are not beholden to shareholders that drives even the left-wing media a little crazy in this country!

Although the article was worthwhile in reminding me of the wonderful line in Brasseye dismissing a Harley Street doctor's office as a "top whack quack shack!"

[MichaelB]

Then again, their film coverage has never come close to plumbing the depths that they did circa 1993, when Toby Young was their chief film critic.

And I know that Peter Preston was the editor then because I wrote to him explaining how much real damage the paper was doing to the independent sector as a direct result of having an aggressive philistine as their film critic, and as a film buff himself I wondered whether he was aware of this?

(Struggling independent cinemas were humiliatingly dependent on sympathetic media outlets thanks to a lack of decent marketing budgets).

[Finch]

Got my copy of Only Angels Have Wings today. The BBFC cert is not as instrusive as feared (they have made it relatively small on the front). For those that care, it is NOT on the spine. It's showing on the backcover in the bottom left corner in a white box. Other than that and the Region B logo, it is exactly the same as the US edition: same keepcase etc. The BBFC cert makes another appearance on the disc itself.