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Site created 12/15/97.
page created: 12/27/99
A Sneak Peek at Crtierion DVDs for 2000
and a Criterion DVD Checklist
Back to page 1
| There
is no specific timetable connected with this list, but here's a
partial list of next year's DVD additions to the Criterion
Collection. Criterion has been kind enough to give Bits
readers a preview of what they have in development, so please... for
the love of God... treat this as a friendly offering only. Criterion
will have no idea when these titles will street until they know when
they'll street! So unless you hear an official announcement from
Criterion, these titles are to be considered "in progress"
only. Each film features a short comment from Peter Becker,
president of The Criterion Collection... Jean Cocteau box set, featuring Le Sang d'un poète (1930 - aka Blood of a Poet), Orphée (1949 - aka Orpheus) and Le Testament d'Orphée (1960 - aka Testament of Orpheus) "Drawing on the Orpheus myth, these are all films that have been hard to find in good condition. The film elements were not in the greatest condition. In fact all of the film elements on Cocteau's films are troubled. We've done a lot of work on Orpheus, and Testament looks gorgeous. Blood of a Poet is the most damaged, but after what we've done with it, it's the best it's going to get. Orpheus is a personal favorite of mine, and we've never been able to release these films on laser, which broke my heart. We have always been trying to find elements that represented these films well enough that we could put them out. This is a big event for me personally, and many of our producers." Tales of Hoffman, The Magic Flute, Le Million (1931) and À nous la liberté (1931 - aka Freedom For Us) "We took a look around the Collection and said -- Wow. The closest things we have to music films are The Red Shoes and Sid and Nancy. They are films where music is central, but they are in no way musicals. We're working on Tales of Hoffman, which has been in our catalogue and we've been working on it for 6 or 8 months now, The Magic Flute and René Clair's Le Million. I'm particularly excited by Le Million, because it's been out, really, only in pretty reprehensible pirate or public domain versions as far as I know. What I have seen has been pretty awful. We went back to Europe, dug through the vaults and found some very nice elements. We're doing new subtitles, which is very difficult because in French it rhymes. I don't think we're going to retain that, but we haven't finished the translations yet. It's a film that people don't know well enough here, but elsewhere if you look at any list of the greatest movies, you'll find Le Million on it somewhere -- along with its partner, which we are also working on À nous la liberté (1931) which is another René Clair film. I don't know if those two will be scheduled together, but perhaps not at this point." Eisenstein films "A major project that has been underway for a year and more is a restoration of all the Eisenstein films, or at least almost all of them. All of the major ones. We've been working with Mosfilm, and with a group of Eisenstein scholars, many of whom came together at Dartmouth last November. The films themselves have never look like this in the US. We've consulted the scholars about all the many versions that have existed of these films in an effort to get to the version that best represented Eisenstein's wishes. Some of the films were radically restructured, one being October, which was only released here in a ruined state. It was radically cut in 1957 -- the film was essentially made into a different piece and that's the version that's generally available here. Alexander Nevsky is absolutely gorgeous, the restoration work we've done on that -- I'm so pleased with the way it came out. Just the change in the film itself on Ivan The Terrible, Parts 1 and 2 brings out so much detail. It's breathtaking. It's just so much more articulate. That very carefully painted, deeply focused frame has never been more beautiful. The plan is to release them in two batches -- the sound and the silent films. The silent films are a bit more difficult because we have issues with the scores to develop, so we will probably be able to release the sound films first and follow-up with the silents." The Scarlet Empress "We are working on The Scarlet Empress, which is a Josef von Steernberg film that's not terribly well known here, and it was actually Martin Scorsese that caused people here to look at it. He featured a few elements from it in Personal Journey, and we were all quite blown away by it when we went to look at it. It's one of the most incredible looking films I've ever seen. It's also quite bizarre, because it's about Catherine the Great and is in a sense a precursor rather than an echo of Einsestein's later period, because it's an earlier film than the Ivan films or Alexander Nevsky, which are the films of his epic-style period. The visual style is filled with the Hollywood glamour of the 20's and 30's. It stars an incredible Marlene Dietrich, and she's lit by candlelight through gauze in the way we have to remember her. That image is so entrancing." Spartacus "People know we are working on Spartacus, and we ARE working on it." Sisters "A classic that's been on and off our docket for years. We don't know yet what's going on this disc or to what degree De Palma wants to ornament it, so I don't know what features will be on it. We've done the first phase of masters and it looks gorgeous." The Blob "We've been working on a master from an extremely early generation element. That's another one where I can't tell you the exact extras that will be on it." Hidden Fortress "Hidden Fortress is our top priority Kurosawa film. We are working on it, and it again has no release date, but it's in our schedule and people are working on it. We've found quite a bit of good film (elements) on Hidden Fortress, but this is a film that deserves the very best, so we're digging." Last Temptation of Christ "We have gone back yet again to film to create an anamorphic transfer, we didn't know if we were going to be able to do it, because the transfer the first time was so complex, but I believe we have succeeded." W.C. Fields disc "On a lighter note, we are working a W.C. Fields disc that will feature Bank Dick and 6 early shorts that are some of his most important films. Shorts like Pool Shark and Fatal Glass of Beer among others will appear." Douglas Sirk films: All That Heaven Allows (1955) and Written on the Wind "These are two films that we are working on, in various stages of development, that we were never able to get to on laser, so I'm excited by it." Black Narcissus (1947) "A great classic." Among others to look for: And God Created Woman Element of Crime The Ruling Class The Lady Eve Gimme Shelter |
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The
Criterion Collection DVD checklist
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