Fans of Luis Bunuel are the most-impacted by Criterion's just-announced wave of titles going Out of Print at the end of the month. This leaves only three Bunuel titles in the Collection: Viridiana, The Exterminating Angel, and Simon of the Desert.
This news hit on Friday, but I was too overwhelmed to get something together on it right then. I figure it being Friday news means people still don't know. All of the following titles are going Out Of Print on the 30th of June, and Criterion is only selling them while their supplies last. None of them will be reprinted like they did with the last monster batch. This marks a total of eleven more titles disappearing, including their third Blu-ray OOP (The Man Who Fell to Earth), 5 out of 8 Luis Bunuel movies in the Collection, another Godard (A Woman is A Woman), the wonderful Bob Le Flambeur, and a few others.
I'm going to run through them all in a series of captions under their box art (like the Bunuel above). Hopefully, that will help guide frantic purchasing decisions. If you're loaded and need someone for whom to buy all of these, I'll gladly accept them (since I own none of them at present). After some research, the best prices on all titles can be found (in order of lowest to highest): at Deep Discount (until June 20th), Criterion's site, and Amazon. Frankly, I'd just order them from Criterion based on past experiences with DD shipments getting damaged in transit and having trouble obtaining replacements for OOP discs that got loose in the case and scratched to hell.
(l. to r.) Billy Liar, Touchez pas au grisbi, Kind Hearts and Coronets.
The Matthew McConaughey vehicle Failure to Launch could never have hoped to out-do John Schlesinger's Billy Liar, which stars Tom Courtenay and Julie Christie (just a year after Lawrence of Arabia) and covers similar ground (young man refuses to grow up, be a man). It's a wonderful film that jumps from the real to the fantastic.
Touchez pas au grisbi (1954) is probably the least-known among this bunch, and it's one I haven't seen. I want to see it very badly indeed, as the story is apparently one of the classic examples of the retired criminal doing one last job. On top of that, I know that director Jacques Becker was a tremendous talent. I'll leave it at this: before starting to direct himself, he was assistant director for none other than Jean Renoir, starting with Night at the Crossroads (1932) all the way through The Lower Depths (1936) and Grand Illusion (1937). Becker's Le trou (1960) went OOP in the last batch.
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) stands as one of the darkest and most delightful black comedies that Ealing Studios ever made. The protagonist is set on avenging his mother's legacy by bumping off the eight relatives between him and his mother's title. Sir Alec Guiness plays all eight of them.
I saved the better-known for last (l. to r.) Bob le flambeur, A Woman is A Woman, The Man Who Fell to Earth
Bob Le Flambeur (1956) is similar to Grisbi above in that it is a "one last score" movie, but it's about a gambler rather than a thief. I remember when this one was first announced. I was in college. I had just seen Rififi for the first time.
A Woman is A Woman (1961) joins Pierrot le fou (1965) on the list of OOP Godard movies.
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) is sadly OOP Blu-ray #3. The US theatrical cut of it removed 20 minutes from what Criterion put out here (with Roeg's signature of approval).