Charlie Chaplin and Criterion

[Jeff]

Veroux is owned by The Film Desk now, no?

Every film Chaplin made since 1918 (except Countess from Hong Kong) was owned outright by Chaplin, and is now owned by his estate and managed on their behalf by Mk2. As Ian mentioned, The Film Desk had a contract to distribute the estate's restored print of Monsieur Verdoux in the U.S. for a period of time, but that doesn't effect DVD at all. I'm assuming that the Janus contract with Chaplin/Mk2 includes both video rights and theatrical distribution as contracts with other distributors expire.

[Adam]

Wow. This is fantastic news for me, and yes, I have the various Chaplin DVDs already.
A Criterion release of this particular film would enable me to have a key title for gifting people.
Fantastic news.

Well, it's not actually news. It's all completely unsubstantiated speculation.

[Mark Zimmer]

I would be surprised if the Chaplin Estate would drop its demands that the theatrical cuts continue to be suppressed in favor of the "Daddy cuts." That being the case, I don't see why Criterion would bother.

[Napier]

I would be surprised if the Chaplin Estate would drop its demands that the theatrical cuts continue to be suppressed in favor of the "Daddy cuts." That being the case, I don't see why Criterion would bother.

Why not offer both.

[Antoine Doinel]

In my chat with Mulvaney he confirms that Criterion is indeed in discussions to acquire the rights to the Chaplin library.

[Tribe]

In my chat with Mulvaney he confirms that Criterion is indeed in discussions to acquire the rights to the Chaplin library.

Interesting tidbits there! Thanks for taking the time to post that.

[Oggilby]

I wonder what are the odds of Criterion picking up the BFI's Keystone restorations.

[ianungstad]

Follow up email from the Chaplin estate:

I 'm not sure yet but I think that the first dvds to be released will be more or less the same as the Warner ones, unless Criterion are planning something we don't know about. New stuff including HD restorations will be on blueray, ?next year? year after?

Seems like Criterion has indeed picked up all the Chaplin titles! The specifics regarding the discs seem to be understandably vague at the moment.

[Jeff]

I 'm not sure yet but I think that the first dvds to be released will be more or less the same as the Warner ones, unless Criterion are planning something we don't know about. New stuff including HD restorations will be on blueray, ?next year? year after?[/i]

I can't imagine Criterion releasing dupes of the Warner discs. I imagine they'll hold off until the HD masters are ready. The news that the intent is to go Blu is wonderful though. A Criterion Blu-ray of City Lights would be a dream come true.

[captveg]

With Kinowelt releasing these on Blu-ray in April/May, could US versions from Criterion be far behind? Or were they outbid by another company for US distribution?

[Jeff]

With Kinowelt releasing these on Blu-ray in April/May, could US versions from Criterion be far behind? Or were they outbid by another company for US distribution?

Criterion did indeed win the U.S. distribution rights. The films are owned by the Chaplin estate, managed by Mk2, and distributed in different territories by the highest bidder. I believe Criterion will want to do some additional restoration of their own, so their discs may still be a way down the line.

[Cinephrenic]

I hope they go Blu with Chaplin. Would go nice with Kino's Keatons.

[cineman2002]

I see Park Circus have announced the first two of their Chaplin Blu-Rays. They are releasing THE GREAT DICTATOR and THE KID May 10th on standard DVD and Blu Ray. The other titles will follow during the rest of 2010.

[Mark Zimmer]

Follow up email from the Chaplin estate:

I 'm not sure yet but I think that the first dvds to be released will be more or less the same as the Warner ones, unless Criterion are planning something we don't know about.

I sincerely hope that's not to be taken literally, and that they'll have the same PAL/NTSC ghosting issues as the Warner discs, which are frankly unwatchable.

[domino harvey]

Probably supplement-wise, but even that's depressing

[Peacock]

It's a uk company, so they'll surely use the Warners uk transfers, so I wouldn't worry about the ghosting issues which affected the r1s

[Jonathan S]

If the stated running time (60 minutes) of The Kid is accurate, a new transfer seems more likely. The previous UK disc ran only a little over 50 minutes due to a combination of fast running speed, additional PAL speed-up and the decision to use Chaplin's 1971 cut with various scenes excised (these were presented as a supplement). By contrast, David Shepard's earlier NTSC transfer for Image ran 69 minutes with a slower frame rate and the cut scenes reinstated.

Park Circus might just use the old Warner transfer with the deleted scenes reinstated (which would total about 60 minutes without PAL speed-up), but then they would not be able to use Chaplin's 1971 score without re-editing the music as the Image release did (in their case partly to accommodate the slower speed as well as the extra scenes).

[captveg]

I would imagine that Criterion would work with the estate to have multiple versions of the films (original and re-release) whenever possible.

[Jonathan S]

It will depend initially though on the Chaplin estate (or their various related bodies) - which makes their vagueness quoted above all the more surprising. Until 2002, when the DVD rights changed hands, the films had been issued on disc in the original lengths. But then those who manage the post-1918 Chaplins insisted on only the re-edited versions being released, albeit with the cut scenes as supplements. (The Gold Rush was an exception, though the reissue with narration was still indicated as the preferred edition.)

It will also be interesting to see what happens with the transfer speed of the shorts ("The Chaplin Revue" etc.) which contain passages of jerky stretch-printing in the reissue versions that Warner released. I can't imagine that Criterion would put them out like that, except as a supplement.

What is unlikely to change is the fact that some of the films as we almost always see them now are not the original takes. This has been discussed at length on various silent forums but in a nutshell, to quote a 2000 post on alt.movies.silent

... the current versions of Chaplin's First National films are NOT the original versions of those films. They were assembled from alternate takes so that the new negatives would be clean and intact; and were first published with the sound reissues...

[captveg]

Wow - never knew that about the First National films. Amazing to think that the takes originally used in the films are gone.

[Brianruns10]

I'm just dying to know what Chaplin will get released this year!

[captveg]

I'm just dying to know what Chaplin will get released this year!

My guess is that they'll eventually release all the MK2 library that Warner released in 2003. However, one has to think that The Kid and The Great Dictator would be sooner than the others since the German versions are coming in May.

It's a lot of titles:

The Kid
A Woman of Paris
The Gold Rush
The Circus
City Lights
Modern Times
The Great Dictator
Monsieur Verdoux
Limelight
A King in New York

And a number of short films, including those that make up the "Chaplin Revue" feature. And likely all the bonus content of the MK2/Warner release, plus whatever new content they create. And hopefully multiple cuts of the films when applicable.

I would expect only the "big" titles on Blu (The Kid, The Gold Rush, The Circus, City Lights, Modern Times and The Great Dictator) at best.

[captveg]

Jeez, you guys can be teh uber strict on posts sometimes.

Chaplin was a part of the recent Newsletter, you know.

[cineman2002]

I checked and Park Circus are not using the same generic masters that MK2/Warner used. Theyare doing their own authoring so they can maintain the control over the quality.So quality should be higher.