After both Criterion Blu-ray editions of Akira Kurosawa's Ran and Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt [Le mépris] were canceled, many (myself) included suspected that it was the evil doings of The Weinstein Company, who own, presumably, the Wellspring catalogue... but in fact, it looks as it if was Studio Canal, who already released the Blu-rays in the UK, France and Germany. Well through Lionsgate, Studio Canal has announced both films on Blu-ray in the US for 16 February, in addition to Alexander Mackenrick's The Ladykillers. We'll see if any of the other films Studio Canal has released overseas, including Joseph Losey's The Go-Between, Luis Buñuel's Belle de jour and David Lynch's The Elephant Man will show up as well. I'd imagine that if Studio Canal owned the worldwide rights to some of their other releases in Europe (Breathless, Pierrot le fou, Last Year at Marienbad and The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum), their US discs would have gone out-of-print like Criterion's releases of Contempt and Ran already did.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Ran and Contempt on Blu-ray in February
After both Criterion Blu-ray editions of Akira Kurosawa's Ran and Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt [Le mépris] were canceled, many (myself) included suspected that it was the evil doings of The Weinstein Company, who own, presumably, the Wellspring catalogue... but in fact, it looks as it if was Studio Canal, who already released the Blu-rays in the UK, France and Germany. Well through Lionsgate, Studio Canal has announced both films on Blu-ray in the US for 16 February, in addition to Alexander Mackenrick's The Ladykillers. We'll see if any of the other films Studio Canal has released overseas, including Joseph Losey's The Go-Between, Luis Buñuel's Belle de jour and David Lynch's The Elephant Man will show up as well. I'd imagine that if Studio Canal owned the worldwide rights to some of their other releases in Europe (Breathless, Pierrot le fou, Last Year at Marienbad and The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum), their US discs would have gone out-of-print like Criterion's releases of Contempt and Ran already did.
