Criterion Releases: Update

[Jim Roots]

Criterion has announced its July releases, and they are a nice bunch.
https://www.criterion.com/shop/browse?p ... oming-soon

1984 is supposed to be a really good depiction of the Orwell classic. The Baker's Wife is a new title to me, but it stars an actor Orson Welles proclaimed "the greatest in the world", which is good enough to excite me. I'm easily excited.

Best of all, Fassbinder's The BDR Trilogy will finally be brought back into print, albeit only in blu-ray format (dang!) Those are the films that turned me on to Fassbinder and several other German filmmakers of the last quarter of the 20th century, and I haven't seen them since I watched them in the Revue Repertory cinema in Toronto a good 40 years ago. Wish they would do a new DVD version too, but I'll take what I can get.

Now, if only they could do something about that logo...

Jim

[s.w.a.c.]

I really like that version of 1984, it gets a lot of details from the book right, and John Hurt is fantastic. Suzanna Hamilton is a heartbreaking Julia as well, the Eurythmics song for her character gets me teary-eyed every time I hear it. Would have been interesting to have the '50s versions with Peter Cushing (BBC) and Edmond O'Brien (dir. Michael Anderson) included as extras, but can't have everything. Also love that 1984 allowed Richard Burton to go out on a high note.

I've been waiting for a blu-ray of Klute for ages, so that's a must-have, and Bruno Dumont's La Vie de Jesus is a remarkable film that I saw once at a film festival and seemed to disappear from view, nice to see it have a revival.

[Mike Gebert]

The Baker's Wife is a new title to me, but it stars an actor Orson Welles proclaimed "the greatest in the world", which is good enough to excite me. I'm easily excited.

To me this one is the big news. Marcel Pagnol is one of the major figures of French cinema, but apart from the Marseilles Trilogy (Marius, Fanny, Cesar) and an 80s hit with Jean de Florette/Manon of the Springs, based on his books, his films have been very hard to see even in French editions. The Baker's Wife is the best of his films I've seen but hopefully Harvest and others will follow.

[boblipton]

I looked at that recently. I thought that it was one of the greatest movies of the 1930s. The way Raimu can break your heart and make you laugh uproariously at the same moment is brilliant.

Bob

[Dean Thompson]

What a wonderful surprise! Ever since Bob Lipton reviewed The Baker's Wife a few months ago, I've been seeking out a good print with English subtitles, but the search has been fruitless. This will be a lovely introduction to Pagnol's art.

[Jim Roots]

I really like that version of 1984, it gets a lot of details from the book right, and John Hurt is fantastic. Suzanna Hamilton is a heartbreaking Julia as well, the Eurythmics song for her character gets me teary-eyed every time I hear it. Would have been interesting to have the '50s versions with Peter Cushing (BBC) and Edmond O'Brien (dir. Michael Anderson) included as extras, but can't have everything. Also love that 1984 allowed Richard Burton to go out on a high note.

I've been waiting for a blu-ray of Klute for ages, so that's a must-have, and Bruno Dumont's La Vie de Jesus is a remarkable film that I saw once at a film festival and seemed to disappear from view, nice to see it have a revival.

They will also release Dumont's second film, L'Humanite, at the same time. I haven't seen either film.

Jim

[s.w.a.c.]

I really like that version of 1984, it gets a lot of details from the book right, and John Hurt is fantastic. Suzanna Hamilton is a heartbreaking Julia as well, the Eurythmics song for her character gets me teary-eyed every time I hear it. Would have been interesting to have the '50s versions with Peter Cushing (BBC) and Edmond O'Brien (dir. Michael Anderson) included as extras, but can't have everything. Also love that 1984 allowed Richard Burton to go out on a high note.

I've been waiting for a blu-ray of Klute for ages, so that's a must-have, and Bruno Dumont's La Vie de Jesus is a remarkable film that I saw once at a film festival and seemed to disappear from view, nice to see it have a revival.

They will also release Dumont's second film, L'Humanite, at the same time. I haven't seen either film.

Weirdly, while I remember great swaths of La Vie de Jesus, I saw L'Humanite and have a hard time recalling specific scenes or images. But I'm happy to have a chance to revisit it. Looking at a few photos on IMDb the story is coming back to me, kind of an early entry in the "depressed detective" genre that seemed to be everywhere for a while.

Haven't seen Dumont's later films, but having been on a First World War kick lately (just listened to something like 20 hours of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History on the topic on a recent road trip), I would love to track down a copy of his WWI drama Flanders.

[moviepas]

The Baker's Wife is a new title to me

I had a loan of a French Embassy 16mm print of this film in the mid-1970s(they used to place French films for 6 months at a time for free loan to schools etc in my country)and been looking for disc version ever since. Been a good year for films I have never seen or not seen for over 40 years. The French 30s The Crime of Mon Lange was another Blu I got this year I had wanted since the mid-1970s when I screened it. The well is not empty yet from this French period.