Criterion and Warner Bros.

News on Criterion and Janus Films.
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Noiradelic
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#601 Post by Noiradelic » Fri Mar 31, 2017 6:02 pm

It's not as well-known as They Live By Night, but definitely better-known than The Breaking Point!

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domino harvey
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#602 Post by domino harvey » Fri Mar 31, 2017 6:24 pm

The Set-Up is of course best known for its real time gimmick. It feels more like a future Archives Blu release to me, but I said the same about Asphalt Jungle so what do I know

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Lowry_Sam
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#603 Post by Lowry_Sam » Fri Mar 31, 2017 6:32 pm

Is Freaks still a WB property? Seems like we've been waiting on that one for a while, perhaps a restoration is imminent? The dvd is OOP.

If Criterion isn't releasing a Val Lewton box, then I guess a Busby Berkeley box is out of the question too, though maybe we can still hope for a smaller Gold Diggers box.

The Controversial Classics box is also OOP, & from that A Face In The Crowd & I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang are likely candidates.

And since Joan has already entered the collection, can Bette be too far behind? I'd love to see sets of their older titles, but if it's going to be single releases, one can only speculate which of Bette's would come first. All 3 boxes are OOP, but individual titles seem to be readily available & the most likely candidate to match Mildred Pierce (All About Eve) has already been upgraded by WB.

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captveg
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#604 Post by captveg » Fri Mar 31, 2017 7:22 pm

All About Eve is a Fox title.

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#605 Post by FrauBlucher » Fri Mar 31, 2017 7:31 pm

Put this in the "take it for what it's worth" category. When I went to see Mildred Pierce screened with many of the Criterion folks on hand, Lee Kline said during the introduction that he's a bigger fan of Bette Davis than Joan Crawford.

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Lowry_Sam
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#606 Post by Lowry_Sam » Fri Mar 31, 2017 7:35 pm

captveg wrote:All About Eve is a Fox title.
Forgot that...& The Little Foxes is MGM, so what would qualify as her biggest critical success during her Warner's studio days? or perhaps they'd just go with another Michael Curtiz, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex.

...and speaking of Curtiz, I almost forgot to mention one from the top of my WB list, Young Man with a Horn is also OOP.

Werewolf by Night

Criterion and Warner Bros.

#607 Post by Werewolf by Night » Fri Mar 31, 2017 7:50 pm

Lowry_Sam wrote:so what would qualify as her biggest critical success during her Warner's studio days? or perhaps they'd just go with another Michael Curtiz, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex.
It's not a distinguished work for Davis, Curtiz, Flynn, de Havilland, or maybe even for anyone else except Nanette Fabray. I'm a Davis fan and even I wouldn't buy a Criterion Blu-ray of that film.

Better Warner possibilities might be Jezebel or The Letter, which are both William Wyler films. Neither his best work, though, nor Davis'. Now, Voyager would be nice, but Irving Rapper doesn't really fit Criterion's auteur profile. The Little Foxes, also Wyler, is a possibility if the Samuel Goldwyn library, which Warner Bros. currently distributes, is in play. I seriously doubt any of these are likely, though.

CantelopeSkiz
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#608 Post by CantelopeSkiz » Fri Mar 31, 2017 7:51 pm

Young Man With a Horn is currently available on Kirk Douglas's TCM set, released by Warner. Still, that doesn't mean that it's off limits, seeing as Mildred Pierce, The Cat People, and Woman of the Year were all released in TCM sets, too.

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Lowry_Sam
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#609 Post by Lowry_Sam » Fri Mar 31, 2017 8:21 pm

Which is why I lament that Criterion doesn't consider boxed sets, not necessarily replicating the Warner's sets, but sets from a certain period, from a specific director, or on certain theme. I think no individual Warner title from Bette would have as big of a draw as Mildred Pierce, but a box would definitely be greater than the sum of its parts in Bette's case (and perhaps for most of Joan's other Warner titles too). I think a Wyler title might be the most likely, though The Little Foxes dvd is still in print (and also not originally Warner's).

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DeprongMori
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#610 Post by DeprongMori » Fri Mar 31, 2017 8:30 pm

Werewolf by Night wrote:Now, Voyager would be nice, but Irving Rapper doesn't really fit Criterion's auteur profile.
FWIW, Irving Rapper has a Phantom Page.

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Lowry_Sam
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#611 Post by Lowry_Sam » Fri Mar 31, 2017 9:01 pm

DeprongMori wrote:
Werewolf by Night wrote:Now, Voyager would be nice, but Irving Rapper doesn't really fit Criterion's auteur profile.
FWIW, Irving Rapper has a Phantom Page.
With 3 Davis titles to his credit (Now, Voyager, The Corn Is Green, & Deception) a director-themed box would be nice, as I don't see the other 2 getting individual blu-rays (from Criterion or WB).

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#612 Post by FrauBlucher » Sat Apr 01, 2017 9:22 am

I could see Now, Voyager getting released. But if this is not the Davis film, I could see Criterion getting All About Eve from Fox. Especially if there is a 4k restoration coming. As for Rapper, I could see Rhapsody in Blue. Criterion could do so much with a Gershwin themed release.

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dwk
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#613 Post by dwk » Mon May 22, 2017 9:52 am

Someone at the Blu-ray.com forum posted a list of WB titles, some already licensed to Criterion, that were recently listed on WB's press site as being OOP. These could be headed to Warner Archive, but, if I'm not mistaken, some have been rumored Criterion titles:
Round Midnight
The Roaring Twenties
The Philadelphia Story
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
O Lucky Man
Lone Star
Hedwig & The Angry Inch
Captain Blood
Bringing Up Baby
Arsenic and Old Lace
Mean Streets
Barry Lyndon

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domino harvey
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#614 Post by domino harvey » Mon May 22, 2017 9:54 am

Sure, some of those could be coming, but WB is letting nearly all of their DVDs of studio-era fare fall out of print to reappear in the Archives, so that means nothing

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dwk
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#615 Post by dwk » Mon May 22, 2017 1:27 pm

True about WB doing that, but, to the best of my knowledge, they have never replaced a WB Blu-ray with an Archive Blu-ray and I have a hard time seeing them do that with Mean Streets and Barry Lyndon

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The Elegant Dandy Fop
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#616 Post by The Elegant Dandy Fop » Mon May 22, 2017 2:14 pm

I thought the current Warner Bros. Blu of Mean Streets looks great. Is this a way to finally add the Scorsese short films they promised over fifteen years ago?

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Gregory
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#617 Post by Gregory » Mon May 22, 2017 2:34 pm

dwk wrote:True about WB doing that, but, to the best of my knowledge, they have never replaced a WB Blu-ray with an Archive Blu-ray
What they have done is let a Blu-ray go OOP and then announce a virtually identical Blu-ray to replace it (Rio Bravo, for example) or some kind of dumb 45th Anniversary edition (which is what it'll be next year for Mean Streets). Not that I'm making any predictions one way or the other.

AfterTheRain
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#618 Post by AfterTheRain » Mon May 22, 2017 2:35 pm

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote:I thought the current Warner Bros. Blu of Mean Streets looks great. Is this a way to finally add the Scorsese short films they promised over fifteen years ago?
Perhaps, and if they can retain the original Saul Bass WB logo that was plastered with the new WB logo on the Blu-Ray, it will be even better.

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TwoTecs
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#619 Post by TwoTecs » Mon May 22, 2017 9:37 pm

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote:I thought the current Warner Bros. Blu of Mean Streets looks great. Is this a way to finally add the Scorsese short films they promised over fifteen years ago?
It is a good looking Blu but nothing that can't be improved by a 4k scan. Compared to the transfers of Taxi Driver or King of Comedy it is kind of pedestrian.

Emilio
Joined: Sat Dec 05, 2009 8:38 am

Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#620 Post by Emilio » Tue May 23, 2017 11:37 am

Lone Star would be glorious as well...!

On a related note, are the Warner Archive discs safe enough to purchase, as they are BR's?

Noiradelic
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 12:45 am

Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#621 Post by Noiradelic » Tue May 23, 2017 6:26 pm

Emilio wrote:On a related note, are the Warner Archive discs safe enough to purchase, as they are BR's?
Yes, all of the WAC Blu-rays are pressed discs.

rrenault
Joined: Wed Nov 17, 2010 3:49 pm

Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#622 Post by rrenault » Thu May 25, 2017 10:44 am

Can we expect Criterion to be releasing Un Homme et Une Femme from Claude Lelouch at some point?

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domino harvey
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#623 Post by domino harvey » Thu May 25, 2017 11:56 am

It's one of the first titles I pictured them pursuing, but that's more speculation than evidence that it's forthcoming. Still, seems like a good bet

Emilio
Joined: Sat Dec 05, 2009 8:38 am

Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#624 Post by Emilio » Fri May 26, 2017 2:58 pm

Noiradelic wrote:
Emilio wrote:On a related note, are the Warner Archive discs safe enough to purchase, as they are BR's?
Yes, all of the WAC Blu-rays are pressed discs.
Great, thanks!

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Criterion and Warner Bros.

#625 Post by FrauBlucher » Mon Jul 31, 2017 7:55 am

Was wondering what was left from the initial group of WB oop titles that were speculated to be heading to Criterion. Ian's post was from November of 2014 (page 15)
ianungstad wrote:About a week ago Warner Brothers discontinued a number of Archive releases that generated some speculation that they may have been licensed to Criterion including:

Dreams (Akira Kurosawa)
Blow Up (Michelangelo Antonioni)
The Breaking Point (Michael Curtiz)
Barcelona (Whit Stillman)

The OOP list this week has a few more Warner titles that seem like they may go to Criterion:

Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles)
The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston)
A Face in the Crowd (Elia Kazan)
Klute (Alan Pakula)
Day for Night (Francois Truffaut)
Before Sunset (Richard Linklater)
Cat People (Jacques Tourneur) Both the individual Cat People and the Val Lewton box are officially discontinued this week.
Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater)
The only titles left from this list. Ambersons, Klute and A Face in the Crowd.

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