You may want to see all the reviews on Rottentomatoes.com. For the most part, the film received positive reviews but that was because the film captures the life of the people involved in these gangs and the brutality. Kill and be killed. I think Roger Ebert said it well that with Godfather and other films that we have seen, there is always a name and I think another critic talked about how other gangster films covered the luxury of being a gangster but with this film, it captures the brutality of what exists probably on a daily basis and how interwined this gang is with corporate business and so forth.

Anyone catch this video of this Camorra hit (note: This is the longer version of the video):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4z_oyvd9wM

If anything, it's just sad to see how these things happen in daylight and to see people just standing there. I guess they're so used to it.

Somebody compared IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES to GOMMORAH? Well, there's a comparison that never would've occurred to me!

I guess you could say it has the same sort of cold emotional detatchment as SENSES, but other than that it is worlds different, imo. It contains quite a bit of fairly brutal violence (though most of it is implied) but nothing that any serious movie fan hasn't experienced before.

A great film, BTW. Already pre-ordered.

Yeah the movie sounds really amazing and I can't wait to see it. hidaniel wasn''t really comparing the two, I just stated that I owned all the Criterion Blus except for "Sense" because I didn't want that due to its graphic/pornographic content and nature. hidaniel chimed in and said that I may not want to purchase "Gomorrah" because of its graphic nature, and I didn't know anything about it. However, I think there are two kinds of graphic one is brutal violence which I can handle and the other is pornographic which I cannot, no matter if its for artistic reasons or not. IMHO they're two different sides of the spectrum.

I think "Gomorrah" seems like the former and thus I think I can handle it. I would be fine having a graphically violent picture in my collection (trust me I have a few) rather than a graphically sexual film.

On another note, how does "Gomorrah" compare to "City of God"?

I personally didn't like Gomorrah that much when I first saw it back when it played the New York Film Festival (last year I believe it was). I did have a sense though that there was more to the movie than my gut reaction was allowing for. So I do want to see it again and definitely plan on getting the Blu-Ray when it comes out. Probably wait for the next big sale, but nevertheless I will get it.

Picked up Pierrot Le Fou this morning before heading to work. Going back at lunch, not sure what if anything I'll be getting though. I was hoping to pick up Kagemusha and maybe Repulsion, but didn't see either in stock. If I don't find anything, I may just save my money and head to a different BnN to see what they have. I know the next closest Barnes to me has Wings Of Desire, which I am highly interested in getting during this sale.

BTW my girlfriend and I both loved The Seventh Seal. What a work of art.

I honestly didn't find anything to be that graphic with Gomorrah. Maybe I'm too desensitized to violence or just not remembering that well, but nothing struck me as especially violent or off putting. I screened Tony Manero a few days before Gomorrah and found that to be far more memorably violent and unsettling (which is probably why I liked that movie far more).

Gomorrah is nowhere near as stylized as City Of God. I think that's part of the idea, to take away the glitz and glamour of the usual crime film and put in its place something far more realistic. If anything, there is one storyline that comes closer to a City Of God or any U.S. mob film than anything else, and essentially the two characters of that story are boys trying really hard to make their realities into what they've seen in the movies.

"Wings of Desire" is absolutely beautiful. I would recommend picking it up during this sale.

I enjoyed "City Of God" immensely and hold it in my collection as one my own highly regarded-watch every now and then but not often-favorites. I'm excited about watching "Gomorrah" though. I read some of the reviews on rottentomatoes.com and several of them mentioned a fantastic staged car crash.

When I saw Gomorrah at the film festival, a good amount of the people who I overheard expressed their disappointment over the movie because they were expecting something like City of God with its frantic, stylized use of violence and its deliberate use of "poverty porn". Of course, Gomorrah is an antithesis to that as it's more sterile, washed out and definitely not the same as the more mainstream of Italian cinema (no Silvio Mucchino here :P ). Heck, the overexposure of the Venice scenes made it so claustrophobic. I consider Gomorrah as a quiet movie, actually even with its violent streaks. More on the level of 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days in execution. From what I can remember, Gomorrah has 5 smaller stories ala Babel, no?

I haven't seen In the Realm of the Senses yet but I find it interesting how you guys compare them... even on the different personal levels of allowable violence/pornography in a collection. :P

I saw Wings of Desire when I was... 17? 18? and that movie went under my skin. There is just so much sadness in the film. The juxtaposition between the BnW and coloured scenes work so well. I cannot wait to watch it again.

There's really not much discussion on comparing the two since A. They don't compare at all, B. I was just stating that I didn't have any interest in seeing "Senses" that's all and somebody stated that if I didn't have any interest in seeing "Senses" because of its content then I might want to stay away from "Gomorrah".

But the two are not similar in any fashion of the sense, so no comparison. Simply put, "Senses" is just not my taste.

If anything, yeah...I'd recommend you stay away from the film. It's not just the scenes or the final scene, there's things that you see in the film that you either appreciate or find it ewww....(ie...the period scene...). It's not for everyone. Although, I am interested in "Gomorrah"...and I've read it's bleak but it's more like a film showcasing reality and in that case, I'm good with that.

But I'm sure a lot of people who are buying all the Criterion Blu-ray's in this sale will find out with other titles and see if it's for them or not. For example, "Wages of Fear" is such a popular title, but I won't watch it because I dislike films with messed up endings for their characters.

Like watching Korean dramas...great love story throughout the series and then at the end one of the couple ends up with cancer, losing a limb or gets hits by a car and it happens too frequently. Or a film like "Arlington Road" or even "Carrie"... I'm not in to things that are too bleak. That's why as much as I'm interested in "Wages of Fear" or "Salo", I get a feeling those are films that may be too bleak for my taste. I've been tempted to watch the film "Spirit of the Beehive" though... another film that people have raved about from Criterion but that may be too bleak for my tastes as well.

Thanks for understanding what I was getting at aggienader08, you're pretty much spot on with what I somewhat glibly wrote.

To clear things up further, I wasn't directly comparing In the Realm of the Senses to Gomorrah, the comparison was broadly abstract linking graphic violence to graphic sexuality. If Senses is borderline/actual pornography then Gomorrah can be construed as borderline/actual documentary. Gomorrah's style is visceral and very realistic in the sense that the violence is rather believable as opposed to say something detaching like the lawnmower scene in Dead Alive.

Not a value judgment but I find the of a child being shot as an initiation into manhood, heck any scene of murder, more disturbing and hard to handle than I would ever consider a penis going into a vagina which to me is a pretty natural thing.

Cool. Makes me want to watch it now though. :P

I know exactly what you're saying. I do plan on staying very far away from "Senses". Although, it seems pretty paramount for the CC, and in that sense I do sorta feel like I'm missing out, but I just don't think I will ever be able to bring myself to watch it. The same goes with "Salo" I heard that that film was very disturbing in relation to sex and I just don't have the taste for those kinds of films.

The same also goes for "Fear and Loathing". I've seen it once, and it's made by one of my favorite filmmakers, but Gilliam's style mixed with loads of drug use/content is enough to make me feel nauseous.

I get wanting to collect every title in a collection, but I definitely fall in line with those of you that will not buy certain titles because they go against your personal tastes. In The Realm Of The Senses is definitely something that I'm hesitant of seeing; not so much for the sexual scenes, but rather the more graphic imagery that I've heard is in the movie. My major turnoff is anything involving mutilation as it were. It is why I have also chosen to avoid Antichrist, and why I would have avoided Taxidermia had I known what would be in it (especially the final scene).

I am also avoiding Howards End, but that's because I find period pieces like that to be quite dull.

Anyway, went to the store at lunch, ended up getting nothing. Same woman was working from this morning so I didn't want to push my chances with the $5 off coupon. I've gotten three titles out of the sale already, and still have like a week to go, so no use in rushing and risking getting cut off by my local store.

Got Howards End in the mail today...... I need to start making time to watch some of this stuff though!

I didn't make it through Wings of Desire the other night..... woke up to the credits :( (Not that I don't love the film, it's because I woke up at 6:00 am that morning, and tried to watch it at 3:00 am that night........ after an Oban or two :D )

Wings of Desire and scotch...sounds like a great night. Or morning. Whatever.

let me know what you think of the PQ and AQ on Howards End, Beta man. although the blu-ray.com review gave solid 4.5/5, looks like 2 user reviews were adamant that the PQ stunk. i'd be very interested to hear your take on the PQ.

And the overtly sexual stuff is the least of the horrors in SALO! :ohnoes:

I get where you're coming from. If I could somehow unsee SALO, I'd do it in a heartbeat. I accept that the film has artistic merit and is not intended as mere exploitation, but... oy! Not a movie I feel any need to see again, much less own.

Screenshots

Look at the two with Emma Thompson standing by the window. This is the transfer at it's worst. Blacks are blown out and foreground detail is non-existant. It only happens a handful of times throughout the movie, in total I would say no more than a few minutes look bad. There is a heavy dose of grain, but colors are terrific and detail is great.

A good comparable would be Ghostbusters. A handful of scenes lack the dynamic contrast of others and grain is ever present.

I watch movies to enjoy myself. There was NOTHING I enjoyed about watching that one. To each his own, but I can't see why anyone would want to watch it twice.