If you look on the criterion site it is still regular price if that suggests anything. Is it a studio canal title? If so probably is going out of print. Get it from Criterion for 31.96.
I actually have it but was just curious. It is a studio canal title, but it does not say studio canal on the Criterion case, so I thought maybe that Studio Canal only had rights in Europe, unless of course they obtained the rights after it was released by Criterion.
Anyhow, if it is going out of print wouldn’t criterion send out an announcement like it usually does?
I noticed they send out the announcement and then move the movie to backorder on the site. From what I hear Breathless and Last Year at Marienbad are subject to going out of print. But Senso which is a studio canal title is coming out in Feb. Most likely it will only be available for a limited time.
I haven’t heard any talk of breathless going out of print
Anyhow, I don’t think Studio Canal would get away with taking Breathless from them. Le Cercle Rouge(not oop but studio canal) and A Woman is a Woman are one thing, but Breathless going out of print would cause way too big an outcry
Maybe. But studio canal is building there own collection and slowly bringing the titles to U.S. in new editions. Look at The Third Man. They took that one away, why not Breathless.
Perhaps, but I honestly believe that if titles like Breathless and Last Year at Marienbad were going to go out of print it would have happened by now. Studio Canal’s already released those titles yet the Criterions have remained in print.
Here’s the major problem though, in my opinion, with introducing many of these titles in new editions in the US. All the titles that have been released by Criterion that are SC films are going to flop, because the entire fanbase in North America of films, such as Contempt, Breathless, Last Year at Marienbad, or any Godard, Melville, Renoir, etc. is made up of people who cherish Criterion releases, and they’re going to do whatever they can to get their hands on the Criterion edition before resorting to purchasing the studio canal collection, even if the criterion is out of print. Eventually, studio canal will realize they can’t compete in North American with Criterion in the specialty DVD market.
Even though, in theory, one would always choose a blu ray over a DVD, the kind of person that would want to own a film like Contempt or Last year at Marienbad is going to go criterion over studio canal no matter what.
I’ve noticed a couple Criterion titles going in and out of availability on Amazon. Maybe we are to expect Blu Ray upgrades soon?
Band of outsiders is about 100 clams on amazon! And some of the Ozu films have outrageous prices around $50.
Well, if they’re planning on releasing blu rays, I’m not going to replace my DVDs; too much unnecessary trouble.
True statements Rossi about the North American competition for arthouse home video. I’m still pissed that Contempt had a shitty Blu-ray release.
No Antonioni titles are OOP. Just some of the Bunuel titles and whatever was from Studio Canal are slowly being phased out.
Try not to fall for the Amazon or eBay high prices. These sellers are trying to get others to increase their selling price and see how many will join the bandwagon.
As for Studio Canal, the problem was their initial releases in the US. “Contempt” and “Ran” didn’t look good, “Pierrot Le Fou” didn’t look so great and forgot which release had a typo on the front cover. But nevertheless, StudioCanal stumbled right out of the gate for their Blu-ray releases of these titles. But they still are a huge company in Europe and there are titles they have released in Europe on Blu-ray that people want to see in the US like “Belle de Jour” but unfort. Miramax owns the distribution rights here in the US.
L’Eclisse is a studio canal film though
I would like to see Studio Canal succeed in its effort to provide meaningful competition to Criterion in the high-end Blu-ray art house marketplace. But I agree with KNDY, they really dropped the ball in getting started, and I was especially disappointed that their new version of The Third Man is by all accounts clearly inferior to Criterion’s OOP release. I thought they would have learned a lesson from the Ran and Contempt botch jobs.
Still, I think they have the potential to do some cool stuff. I have their Blu-ray of The Ladykillers and I’m interested in getting Delicatessen sometime next year, hoping to catch it on sale at B&N one of these days. And I’ll definitely buy Belle de Jour if it sees a domestic Blu-ray release – I’ve passed up the DVD on numerous occasions because it just looks like a crappy release, despite Catherine Deneuve’s obvious beauty on the cover.
I’m pulling for Studio Canal as well Mr. Blakeslee. We all could use a great release of Belle De Jour or any of the titles they have previously only released in Europe.
Rossi
It’s listed for $56 on amazon, and has a starting price of $49 on ebay for a new copy. Amazon does not have it in stock.