Issue 178
News: Cinema on Criterion: Crack is Cheaper.
In the past twelve months, I've managed to get my hands on a few Criterion DVDs that had just gone out of print. Most recently, five films from one of my favorite directors, Luis Bunuel, had just gotten out of circulation, and I managed to get two of them: The Milky Way and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. So far, this just leaves Belle de Jour as the only one of his later French works to remain in circulation. Just before that, I managed to get Ran, The Third Man, Grand Illusion, Tales of Hoffman, and Pierrot Le Fou while I could. Surpsisingly, a lot of this has been happening extremely recently: I managed to come across a list of OOP Criterion titles from October 2009, and there were only 24 titles on the list. With the latest two extinction events, as I call them, the total has become 59. Yes, suddenly, Criterion seems to be hemorrhaging titles, and who pays for it? The fans who were hoping for the right time to get the titles they wanted and give the copy they kept renting from the local video rental to somebody else for a change. And the fact that most, if not all, of these titles will be extremely expensive ($30 a pop) doesn't help. The thing that I think is a big middle finger to the cinephiles who would want to acquire them is that, while for most of the titles I mentioned, it appears that there are no plans to put them back on the market anytime soon, some of the titles are available, but only on Studiocanal Blu-Ray. I can certainly imagine that many of the titles would look good on Blu-ray, especially the scenery porn that is Ran, but the fact is that just because somebody is willing to pay upwards $30 for a single-disc DVD that may or may not have had any special features doesn't mean that they're going to be receptive to having to buy a whole new system just to be able to buy a new title. I personally am considering holding back on Blu-ray until I can buy a portable player at Costco so I can watch them on vacation. And it's not just art-house distributors who are doing this, by the way. Just to list one example, according to Amazon, Kevin Smith's Dogma is only available on Blu-ray now. Why? DVD is still going strong; making certain titles only available on Blu-Ray is not going to change that. It's just going to piss off the people who still prefer DVD.
Film Review: Bugsy Malone. I recently stumbled upon this movie, a gangster movie with only preteens in the cast, at Skokie Public Library, and I found that, while utterly bizarre (twelve-year old Jodie Foster in such a sexualized performance is unsettling even if you remember her as a child prostitute in Taxi Driver), many of the songs in the film are earworms; Even right now, I can hear the words "we're the very best at being bad" being sung in my head. It's certainly worth a look, but it's not available on DVD, only VHS. This problem really needs a once-over.
Quote of the Day: "The inquisitors were torturing Harry. First, Ignatius used the rock. Then Billy asked Harry if he wanted to read his BDSM blog. Harry was so surprised that his pants flew right off. He was wearing women's underpants. The inquisitors were wearing them, too. They realized that they were all men of the lord."
Link of the Day: A new reading of Thirty H's: The greatest Harry Potter Fanfic ever.
Tract Reviews: The Poor Revolutionist: I can only assume that this tract was re-released to capitalize on right-wing fears that Obama=Black Revolutionary Antichrist, and not Obama=milquetoast who can't even get Universal Health Care to pass yet. None of this stops the tract from feeling hopelessly dated.
Things to Come: Apparently, a Gypsy Catholic fortune teller decides to tell a Fundie what for, after she learns he can tell the future, but, surprise surprise, gets interested in getting saved, but in an unusual Gainax ending, the rapture occurs, and we're left hanging. Also features first person narration. Besides, everybody knows that only one man could see the future and his name was Oswald Spengler.
In the past twelve months, I've managed to get my hands on a few Criterion DVDs that had just gone out of print. Most recently, five films from one of my favorite directors, Luis Bunuel, had just gotten out of circulation, and I managed to get two of them: The Milky Way and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. So far, this just leaves Belle de Jour as the only one of his later French works to remain in circulation. Just before that, I managed to get Ran, The Third Man, Grand Illusion, Tales of Hoffman, and Pierrot Le Fou while I could. Surpsisingly, a lot of this has been happening extremely recently: I managed to come across a list of OOP Criterion titles from October 2009, and there were only 24 titles on the list. With the latest two extinction events, as I call them, the total has become 59. Yes, suddenly, Criterion seems to be hemorrhaging titles, and who pays for it? The fans who were hoping for the right time to get the titles they wanted and give the copy they kept renting from the local video rental to somebody else for a change. And the fact that most, if not all, of these titles will be extremely expensive ($30 a pop) doesn't help. The thing that I think is a big middle finger to the cinephiles who would want to acquire them is that, while for most of the titles I mentioned, it appears that there are no plans to put them back on the market anytime soon, some of the titles are available, but only on Studiocanal Blu-Ray. I can certainly imagine that many of the titles would look good on Blu-ray, especially the scenery porn that is Ran, but the fact is that just because somebody is willing to pay upwards $30 for a single-disc DVD that may or may not have had any special features doesn't mean that they're going to be receptive to having to buy a whole new system just to be able to buy a new title. I personally am considering holding back on Blu-ray until I can buy a portable player at Costco so I can watch them on vacation. And it's not just art-house distributors who are doing this, by the way. Just to list one example, according to Amazon, Kevin Smith's Dogma is only available on Blu-ray now. Why? DVD is still going strong; making certain titles only available on Blu-Ray is not going to change that. It's just going to piss off the people who still prefer DVD.
Film Review: Bugsy Malone. I recently stumbled upon this movie, a gangster movie with only preteens in the cast, at Skokie Public Library, and I found that, while utterly bizarre (twelve-year old Jodie Foster in such a sexualized performance is unsettling even if you remember her as a child prostitute in Taxi Driver), many of the songs in the film are earworms; Even right now, I can hear the words "we're the very best at being bad" being sung in my head. It's certainly worth a look, but it's not available on DVD, only VHS. This problem really needs a once-over.
Quote of the Day: "The inquisitors were torturing Harry. First, Ignatius used the rock. Then Billy asked Harry if he wanted to read his BDSM blog. Harry was so surprised that his pants flew right off. He was wearing women's underpants. The inquisitors were wearing them, too. They realized that they were all men of the lord."
Link of the Day: A new reading of Thirty H's: The greatest Harry Potter Fanfic ever.
Tract Reviews: The Poor Revolutionist: I can only assume that this tract was re-released to capitalize on right-wing fears that Obama=Black Revolutionary Antichrist, and not Obama=milquetoast who can't even get Universal Health Care to pass yet. None of this stops the tract from feeling hopelessly dated.
Things to Come: Apparently, a Gypsy Catholic fortune teller decides to tell a Fundie what for, after she learns he can tell the future, but, surprise surprise, gets interested in getting saved, but in an unusual Gainax ending, the rapture occurs, and we're left hanging. Also features first person narration. Besides, everybody knows that only one man could see the future and his name was Oswald Spengler.
Labels: Movies, Tract Reviews
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