Eclipse Series 10: Silent Ozu—Three Family Comedies

Message

Tribe · #26 Post by **Tribe** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 4:49 pm

I would expect that anything like a box set would come towards the end of their Ozu release schedule, though, and that we'd be getting it some considerable time after the Eisenstein box (which is surely the next cab off the rank in terms of ambitious silent projects for them).

Don't forget that Pabst' Pandora's Box and the john Ford silents are still out there somewhere in restoration hell.

Tribe

King of Kong · #27 Post by **King of Kong** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 7:48 pm

"OZU IN SEATTLE"

Nothing like this ever comes to my side of the world.

I am excited over the prospect of a boxset of Ozu silents, though.

FilmFanSea · #28 Post by **FilmFanSea** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 8:12 pm

I don't know how I missed the announcement of the Ozu festival in Seattle, but I couldn't be happier. I'm hoping to see at least 10 of them (Tokyo Chorus, I Was Born but ..., Dragnet Girl, The Only Son, There Was a Father, Record of a Tenement Gentleman, Late Spring, Good Morning, An Autumn Afternoon, and maybe Passing Fancy or Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family---I feel like a kid in a candy store.)---more if I can afford it. Thanks for the heads up, Nick.

Michael Kerpan · #29 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 8:59 pm

Seattle is lucky. You are getting "Tokyo Twilight" and "Inn at Tokyo" (unlike Chicago). I highly recommend both of these -- two relatively unheralded films that are as good as any of Ozu's more well-known films. "Early Spring" is also quite impressive.

"Lady and the Beard" is utterly trivial, but extremely funny. It shows a side of Ozu that is almost entirely lost to the ravages of time. Our family laughed itself silly the first time we saw this -- even without the aid of any subtitle translations.

I didn't get to the screenings of nearly enough of the films here in Boston (well Cambridge, actually -- only 15 or so). But at least I could fall back on the Shochiku set. ;~}

MEK

artfilmfan · #30 Post by **artfilmfan** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 11:17 pm

A Criterion boxset of Ozu silents consisting of Passing Fancy, An Inn in Tokyo, and I Was Born, But ... would be really awesome.

Should Criterion choose to release I Was Born, But ... by itself, I would like to see Woman of Tokyo take its place in the boxset.

Rufus T. Firefly · #31 Post by **Rufus T. Firefly** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 5:25 am

matt wrote:
guzijewski wrote:I've emailed them requesting DeMille's Squaw Man - his first film - combined in a release with the talkie remake he did in 1933. What a grand two-disc set that would be.

Too bad you most likely wasted your time. The silent version is owned (I believe) by Paramount and the sound remake is (definitely) owned by Warner Bros. (from the MGM library).

There are two silent versions. DeMille gets a share of the direction credit on the 1914 version, though Oscar C. Apfel apparently directed virtually all of it. Unfortunately, only the last of the six reels of DeMille's 1918 remake survives.

Both would be in the public domain, so if Warners decide to release the 1931 version on DVD, they could include the 1914 and the one reel of the 1918 version if they wanted (and if they could gain access to the material in the archives). I'm not going to hold my breath.

FilmFanSea · #32 Post by **FilmFanSea** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 2:27 pm

Dear Brian,

Look for more Ozu in 2006.

best,
JM

After a brief flurry of Ozu releases on DVD (four in 9 months), we've now gone 14 months without any new titles (counting the September schedule). Having seen 19 of Ozu's films during the Seattle retrospective earlier this year, I am hungry to own these masterpieces on DVD. Since Criterion appears to hold the US DVD rights to most (if not all) of Ozu's films, is there any chance we'll see any more releases before the end of this year?

Let the wailing and gnashing of teeth begin.

ellipsis7 · #33 Post by **ellipsis7** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 3:15 pm

Sounds as if there will be several in 2006, and a lot of effort is going into print quality, transfer etc...

Cinephrenic · #34 Post by **Cinephrenic** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 3:31 pm

Everybody seems to root out for a silents box soon, but I think they should release his later masterpieces out first such as Late Spring, An Autumn Afternoon, Equinox Flower, Late Autumn, etc. They would logically be easier to release sooner.

FilmFanSea · #35 Post by **FilmFanSea** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 3:46 pm

cinephrenic wrote:Everybody seems to root out for a silents box soon, but I think they should release his later masterpieces out first such as Late Spring, An Autumn Afternoon, Equinox Flower, Late Autumn, etc. They would logically be easier to release sooner.

I posted my news in the "Ozu Silents" thread to avoid creating another thread. Donald Richie said in an interview last year that Criterion's next Ozu releases would be The Only Son and Late Spring.

backstreetsbackalright · #36 Post by **backstreetsbackalright** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 4:12 pm

cinephrenic wrote:Everybody seems to root out for a silents box soon, but I think they should release his later masterpieces out first such as Late Spring, An Autumn Afternoon, Equinox Flower, Late Autumn, etc. They would logically be easier to release sooner.

I'm more or less in the same mindset. The color films are some of my favorites. Also, and I feel like I'm beginning to harp about this, I'm not sure how happy I'd be with a Silents Box. I love the silents, don't get me wrong. My concern is that there's little to no chance that Criterion will release a comprehensive collection of all Ozu's silents in one package. The only way I can imagine a Silents Box working is if they release an I ... But... set. I'd be happy if that happened. But if Criterion were to release a more general 5-6 disc box of silent films, it would seem to indicate an indefinite halt of Ozu silent releases afterwards. Which wouldn't be good news. Admittedly, I'm making a lot of assumptions.

ellipsis7 · #37 Post by **ellipsis7** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 4:27 pm

A Silents box would be great, but unlikely to be first up... there's a phenomenon on this forum whereby when a logo or a press release mention (aka. Ozu Silents on screen touring with CC logo or prog quote, and Berlin Alexanderplatz announcement from the Fassbinder Foundation) to assume that a CC release is imminent... That will take 3-6 months minimum work after prior restoration, elements identification has taken place (at least another six months in the Berlin Alexanderplatz case) ... And then there must be a cosideration of overall CC schedule and producer workload etc...

#38 Post by **zedz** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 5:20 pm

kinjitsu wrote:
Donal Sosin wrote:Criterion will release a box set of three Ozu films sometime in coming months with new scores I am doing: I WAS BORN BUT... (a particular favorite of mine) is one of them.
Sosin apparently has written scores for Days of Youth and A Straightforward Boy, as well.

If there's going to be some coherence to the box, I Graduated, But. . . and I Flunked, But. . . might be the other titles. Whatever the titles, this is thrilling news (though I'm less thrilled by the Sosin aspect of it).

I Was Born, But. . . is the ideal entry point for Ozu's silent cinema: it probably has the highest profile and it's a sheer comic delight.

lazier than a toad · #39 Post by **lazier than a toad** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 5:31 pm

I was hoping that I Was Born But... would come with a re-release of Good Morning but ...

#40 Post by **zedz** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 6:10 pm

lazier than a toad wrote:I was hoping that I Was Born But... would come with a re-release of Good Morning but ...

Well, they didn't release An Autumn Afternoon with Late Spring, and they've probably got more in common than I Was Born, But... and Good Morning.

backstreetsbackalright · #41 Post by **backstreetsbackalright** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 6:48 pm

zedz wrote:Well, they didn't release An Autumn Afternoon with Late Spring, and they've probably got more in common than I Was Born, But... and Good Morning.

?

Michael Kerpan · #42 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 7:05 pm

backstreetsbackalright wrote:
zedz wrote:Well, they didn't release An Autumn Afternoon with Late Spring, and they've probably got more in common than I Was Born, But... and Good Morning.
?

"Autumn Afternoon" is pretty much a very comical revisiting of the themes of "Late Spring". "I Was Born But" and "Good Morning" have nothing in common beyond the motif of children going on strike aginst their parents (for totally different reasons -- and using totally different methods)

backstreetsbackalright · #43 Post by **backstreetsbackalright** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 7:35 pm

Michael Kerpan wrote:"Autumn Afternoon" is pretty much a very comical revisiting of the themes of "Late Spring". "I Was Born But" and "Good Morning" have nothing in common beyond the motif of children going on strike aginst their parents (for totally different reasons -- and using totally different methods)

Fair enough, I suppose.

MichaelB · #44 Post by **MichaelB** » Wed May 09, 2007 3:14 pm

Theodore R. Stockton wrote:It is my understanding from the Hitchcock Traffaut book that Pleasure Garden is not a good film at all and has been destroyed. Unless, a print of it has surfaced since that book has last been updated I wouldn't count on seeing it anytime soon.

I know I'm replying two-and-a-half years late, but since no-one else has pointed out that the film being referred to in this post is in fact The Mountain Eagle, Hitchcock's lost second feature, I might as well do it now.

The Pleasure Garden does indeed survive, and has a fair bit going for it - it's no masterpiece, but it's a pretty good debut.

Cinephrenic · #45 Post by **Cinephrenic** » Wed May 09, 2007 3:45 pm

I know I'm replying two-and-a-half years late

The only problem with that, is, you got my hopes up! =P~

Sanjuro · #46 Post by **Sanjuro** » Sun Jun 03, 2007 11:01 pm

Hello,

Has anyone seen the Region 2 Japanese Ozu box sets and care to comment on the quality? Box 4 has 14 silent films (including I was Born But...) and the first few films of box 3 are silents too.

No subtitles of course, but ya know... it's a box of silents.

I'm interested in the actual quality of the DVDs in these sets, so forget the price tag for the moment of course (when you've been in Japan long enough the DVDs don't seem outrageously expensive anymore. Most of the time...)

Michael Kerpan · #47 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Sun Jun 03, 2007 11:31 pm

Sanjuro wrote:Has anyone seen the Region 2 Japanese Ozu box sets and care to comment on the quality? Box 4 has 10 silent films (including I was Born But...) and the first few films of box 3 are silents too.

Well -- the DVDs are reasonably good -- but many of the films are in a poor state of preservation. The subbed Panorama releases of the early films seem to be reasonably decent -- but when (if ever) they will get to the early silent films is unknowable (or at least unknown).

#48 Post by **zedz** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 1:08 am

Michael Kerpan wrote:The subbed Panorama releases of the early films seem to be reasonably decent -- but when (if ever) they will get to the early silent films is unknowable (or at least unknown).

They recently released Days of Youth, the earliest surviving film, so I'm hopeful they're about to start closing in on the elusive 30-33 period.

justeleblanc · #49 Post by **justeleblanc** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 9:01 am

zedz wrote:
Michael Kerpan wrote:The subbed Panorama releases of the early films seem to be reasonably decent -- but when (if ever) they will get to the early silent films is unknowable (or at least unknown).
They recently released Days of Youth, the earliest surviving film, so I'm hopeful they're about to start closing in on the elusive 30-33 period.

Criterion should have started a sub-label specifically for Ozu releases. Don't they own the rights to all of his films?

Michael Kerpan · #50 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 10:19 am

zedz wrote:They recently released Days of Youth, the earliest surviving film, so I'm hopeful they're about to start closing in on the elusive 30-33 period.

Days of Youth -- by far the best Harold Loyd film not actually made by Harold Lloyd. Indeed, I'd say it's a much better Lloyd film than things like "Grandma's Boy". ;~}

Glad to hear that Panorama keeps plugging away. Despite a few conspicuous lapses in their Ozu series, they have done a commendable job of making less well-known Ozu films available -- cheaply and in passable form.