The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

[dwk]

I believe Mr. Vampire 1992 and Encounters of the Spooky Kind 2 are both owned by WB, so, assuming the rest are with Criterion, maybe they can license those when they get around to releasing Blu-rays. (Also, I think Arrow has said they have one Fortune Star title left on their deal.)

[yoloswegmaster]

OUATIC 4 and 5 are currently on the channel, so the 2 titles you mentioned should theoretically be available to license. Unless of course WB is still trying to hold on their GH titles for whatever nonsensical reason.

[dwk]

True. I suppose it is possible that WB currently does not have usable masters for those two films and that is why the Channel is not streaming them.

[yoloswegmaster]

Coming next month:

[nowhereisaplace]

Not a bad lineup! I particularly love When A Stranger Calls Back. I find it better than the original.

[brundlefly]

I hope The Rapture (which may not satisfy people looking for a straight horror movie, but I guess it's as good a place as any to shelve it) has been freed from whatever rights morass has kept it away and has been restored and gets the spine number it deserves. There are too many times I've found myself watching something reaching for faith-based ambiguity -- Take Shelter comes quick to mind -- where I've spent the entire run time wishing I were re-watching the Tolkin film instead.

[therewillbeblus]

Richard Brody championed it in a recent article my partner’s mom sent me highlighting horror films without gore - I literally just finished a piece for her this morning posing an argument why she (a single mom who has deep spiritual convictions) should see it

[beamish14]

I wish that The Rapture, The Player, and The New Age could get a box set together. I’ve always loved those 3 scripts by Michael Tolkin (and his second novel, Against the Air, which is just devastating. The first scene of The Rapture essentially mirrors the ending of The New Age, which I love.

[dwk]

October 2023's slate

[Grand Wazoo]

Amazed they are programming Dust Devil.

[Omensetter]

Hopefully The Devil, Probably's appearance portends a Film Desk release and it isn't oblique Halloween programming

[Matt]

Among the many riches available this month, I want to encourage everyone to check out Archie Mayo’s Svengali (1931). It doesn’t get much attention in discussions of early horror, but it’s marvelous. With a typically fully committed John Barrymore performance, heavy German Expressionist influence in the sets and cinematography, and a slow hypnotic mood, it’s always a pleasure for me to watch. It also explains Carole Lombard’s “I’m no Trilby!” line in Twentieth Century (one of Hawks’s hallmarks of referring to his actors’ previous films).

[swo17]

Does Svengali have a good DVD release?

[therewillbeblus]

Does Svengali have a good DVD release?

My lib has the Roan Group release, which I just put on reserve. I'll report back if there's any problem with it

[knives]

It only has ugly home video releases, but that’s just what we have to deal with.

[ando]

A bit overkill with the Horror titles this month.

The Huang Ji Trilogy, particularly Stonewalling, looks promising. But, frankly, the return of Age of Innocence is what's getting me to renew my sub - and the chance to rewatch their Berlanga collection (no one else that I'm aware of is streaming them).

[therewillbeblus]

Among the many riches available this month, I want to encourage everyone to check out Archie Mayo’s Svengali (1931). It doesn’t get much attention in discussions of early horror, but it’s marvelous. With a typically fully committed John Barrymore performance, heavy German Expressionist influence in the sets and cinematography, and a slow hypnotic mood, it’s always a pleasure for me to watch. It also explains Carole Lombard’s “I’m no Trilby!” line in Twentieth Century (one of Hawks’s hallmarks of referring to his actors’ previous films).

In many ways this is Twentieth Century if slowed wayyyyy down and toned towards a more dramatic horror! We have Barrymore's histrionic, mockingly self-serious perf; the differentiated drives of the leads in a jittery power dynamic, with Barrymore attempting to rein and, quite-literally, control his 'star'; the progression between and within only several settings, where forward momentum is driven by deft, and at-times softened interpersonal conflict fleshed out in real time; the abrupt ending). And about that... what an ending.

SpoilerShow

Not only are its implications the exemplar of the cynical possibilities from the Pre-Code era, but its nimble subversion of the horror movie climax (where the monster dies and the romance resumes) comes right after a glacially-paced scene of a primarily nonverbal, intensely dramatic interaction. The movie slowly transitions from its horror trapping to drop deeper into a tale of despair, drenching that penultimate scene. And then the drop turns into a thud. The whiplash demonstrates a great directive talent that takes into account genre, pacing, economy, tone, and decides to bend them all into a terse tragedy dressed in the clothes of a graceful gloom.

This could be studied as an allegory for specifically-coercive domestic violence (including rape defined by coercion) and so that final act can mirror as a culminating assault, Barrymore casting her into hell forever with him (so maybe it's the beginning of eteneral assaults)... but it's also a testament of adoration from his perspective. The end strikes a disturbingly-restrained, ambiguous timbre in portraying events considering two polarized perspectives under one neutral, unsettling tone: The evil monster drags the innocent princess into hell; or an ignorantly-immoral dominant human, with genuine emotions that are sincerely directed at the object of his affection, asks his love to join him in hell and she submits... it may be one sided, but she doesn't know that - so it's a sentimental tragedy for all. A supernatural horror contends with gentle melodrama. The film holds these two poles so carefully - with objectivity that's both uncomfortable and soothing - that it can engage with an answer near the center of the spectrum: A mentally-ill Romeo solipsistically kills his love in order to be with her forever in a new life, perhaps believing she wants this, but certainly as an act of vulnerable desperation and weakness (monster?), while she loses any chance with her real love. It's a Shakespearean tragedy that dares to stretch itself into the realms of horror in both narrative and mood.

[dwk]

Lynch/Oz is being added to the Channel on October 25th.

[ando]

Not good to hear. This has to be a recent development and certainly post their 70s New York retrospective because I remember watching The French Connection on the channel a couple of years back (when they ran the promo) and experiencing Doyle in full racist effect. I hope they’ll amend this unfortunate trend.

[yoloswegmaster]

1) This is old news and was already discussed months ago
2) This censored cut was done in 2021 and is the only version that Disney is providing to streaming companies and theaters who screen the DCP. To complicate matters, Disney told Criterion that this cut was done by Friedkin himself.

[ando]

1) This is old news and was already discussed months ago
2) This censored cut was done in 2021 and is the only version that Disney is providing to streaming companies and theaters who screen the DCP. To complicate matters, Disney told Criterion that this cut was done by Friedkin himself.

Ah, so it’s more an anomaly than trend. Good. Thanks.

[dwk]

November 2023 lineup

I wonder if Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky opens with the Criterion and Janus logos?

[Blutarsky]

I was checking the newly added section this morning and I noticed that even though the press release says Diary of a Country Priest was to be included in the Bresson retrospective, it is nowhere to be seen.

[Big Ben]

I am surely the only human being in existence happy to see The Devil, Probably included.

[Matt]

I’ve always thought of it as my least favorite Bresson, but that is based on last seeing it 25 years ago. I’m happy to have a low-stakes way to reevaluate it.