The Criterion Collection • Page 26

Looks like Paramount has the rights back to quite a few films that were being licensed/distributed by Criterion so they all went OOP last night. Here’s some of them....

-Harold and Maude
-La Dolce Vita
-Don’t Look Now
-Rosemary’s Baby
-Days of Heaven
-Nashville

Some others that could go OOP but haven’t officially yet....

-The Friends of Eddie Coyle
-If...
-Medium Cool

 

Taking the second greatest film of all time off Criterion is a crime.

 

didn’t know you were such a huge Harold & Maude fan

 

Ugh, that sucks. I'll have to dig around if there are any remaining copies.

 

Would that movie be considered problematic today?

 

Damn Don't Look Now already out everywhere and 100 bucks on ebay.

 

I ended up getting Medium Cool from Barnes and Noble today just in case. Kicking myself for not getting it years ago since some movies I bought during the same sale ended up in box sets right after. Same for Harold and Maude, but I can’t find that one anywhere so I’m even more disappointed. It was always one I planned to get but wasn’t a priority since I own it in other formats.

 

The Parallax View is also a Paramount movie. Obviously it just came out so I imagine it will be available for at least a couple of years, but I’ll probably grab it next sale (like I was planning on anyway).

 

Rosemary's Baby and Harold & Maude are both available at Barnes & Nobles about 50 miles away from my apartment, so I might buy them and pick them up tomorrow.

 

I figured “Time” would be a slamdunk

 

YESSSSS! I'll absolutely grab Sound of Metal.

 

"The latter two will arrive on Criterion later this year, while “Sound of Metal” will bow in 2022."

 

Have they ever talked about their process for deciding which movies to pick? I assume they’re always trying to alternative between new/old, different genres, etc.

 

I liked Time and Sound of Metal well enough but ugh at them working with *another* streaming service/Amazon generally.

 

Yeah outside of Time I think these are the least interesting Criterion picks I can remember in awhile.

 

One of the guys from Criterion was on a podcast like 4 years ago now and kind of went over some. Obviously they don't get super into the nitty gritty of it but if I remember right, they just try to keep their options open for whatever comes their way and toe the line between art house / popular films.

 

I like them picking new films. It gives them an opportunity to shape the canon rather than just responding to it.

 

I would agree with this sentiment if the new picks weren’t largely predictable, either by brand affiliation or reputation. Stuff like Parasite, The Irishman, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Roma, Cold War was already enshrined in the contemporary canon before they even hit theatres.

 

Thanks paramount.

Watched it and some extras before it left criterion channel last month but thought I’d get it eventually.

 

Was able to track down Harold & Maude at a Barnes & Noble that I'm picking up tomorrow.

 

Oh no, Days of Heaven was one I really wanted to get when I got more spending money.

I don't know enough about how movie distribution rights work. With how streaming, etc., is impacting things... could, like, Tree of Life technically one day get pulled & end up on Disney+ or whatever?

 

If there was enough interest, I ~guess~ that could happen, but at the same time Disney+ is a service that protects their brand so vehemently that I doubt that'd happen. I feel like Tree of Life makes way more sense on an artsier service where it'll get more attention than Disney+.

 

I intentionally picked a ridiculous-sounding hypothetical, though I would be genuinely concerned about anything Disney owns now given their track record. Like, didn't they pull a bunch of old movies from theaters after buying Fox?

Disney+ is the funnier thing to image for a Malick film (though I love the idea of someone seeing that recommended "for fans of Star Wars"), but I'm not sure ending up on Hulu is outside the realm of possibility.

 

Streetwise is a good one