The Criterion Collection

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by StLouisRibs

Does Criterion have any precedence for Fox Searchlight stuff, though? Looking it up, there's the Ice Storm (which I just checked and is licensed directly from Fox) and the Darjeeling Limited (and we know Anderson's got a thing that he retains home video control to some degree on everything, so that one would be regardless, and Budapest will come out in a few years time for sure).

Notable titles from Directors with early films in the collection would be The Tree of Life, Slumdog Millionaire and 12 Years a Slave. I'd say those are slightly more likely than Birdman at the moment (by virtue of having directors who have worked with the collection in the past), but still exceptionally unlikely.

I do not think they have precedence and I do not really see a reason for them to release it, but it would certainly be interesting to see some cool extras regarding the history of the film and its production.

[soarinsteven]

Originally Posted by iScottie

I do not think they have precedence and I do not really see a reason for them to release it, but it would certainly be interesting to see some cool extras regarding the history of the film and its production.

Regardless of a Criterion treatment I'd LOVE an Iñárritu/Lubezki/Keaton commentary.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by jayembee

I don't know when I'm going to get around to seeing it. My wife wants to see it, too, but she's having back problems that are exacerbated by sitting for too long. We're going to tempt fate and see the Fathom Events showing of Jon Stewart's Rosewater on Thursday evening, which is accompanied by a live-streaming interview with Stewart and Maziar Bahari conducted by Stephen Colbert. If my wife can manage to sit through this without being too uncomfortable, we might try to see Interstellar on the weekend.

Just as a follow-up, we saw Rosewater last night and thought it was terrific. The interview bit was nice, too. Felt like I was watching a BD/DVD extra, but in the theater. Hopefully it will be included as an extra on the presumed BD/DVD release, especially if it was released by...oh, what is the name of that label...Cri-something...

(And my wife managed to sit through the 2½ hours of film+interview, so she may well be up for Interstellar.)

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by TJS_Blu

Wenders's fans will be happy to hear:





Source

I hope by DVD they of course mean blu-ray. I wonder what will happen with the rest of the stuff from the Anchor Bay box set: Scarlet Letter, Lightning Over Water, Room 666, American Friend, Tokyo Ga... not to mention Million Dollar Hotel and his Antonioni collaboration Beyond the Clouds.

[Namuhana]

Originally Posted by BohemianGraham

Yes, a lot of the early Criterion BDs are like this.

Ah, okay. Thank you!

[MikeyHitchFan]

Originally Posted by lordmorpheus72

Quick question for the group... I noticed yesterday at BN a plastic case edition of Foreign Correspondent, and the original digi-pack style packaging (both dual format it seemed). Anyone else see these? I didn't see it as a replacement package on Criterion's site, so just wondering what gives. I like the look of the special packaging, but sometimes they take up a lot of space, i.e. Red River and Fantastic Mr. Fox. Is this just a random title they did, or has anyone heard that they are doing this more often?

I like to think they did this title because I complained about the digipack on their website and Facebook page several times! The digipacks are nicely done, but are wider and taller and deeper than the regular plastic cases. It's annoying to my OCD. Plus I don't want or need DVD copies when I own a blu-ray player. Red River & A Hard Day's Night in the DVD only case look nice and I hope they eventually replace them all.

[Gusto-Guus]

Criterion posted a bunch of trailers on their youtube page. Lola, Young girls of Rochefort, umbrellas of Cherbourg, and the bay of Angels.

[Makarov]

So yeah I have to say I wish I'd listened to those warning me against blind buying Picnic at Hanging Rock. I actually read the novel that came with it before watching the movie and thought the novel was way better. Didn't care for the movie version. Gonna sell it off unfortunately.

Is Slacker a good blind buy if I love all Linklater movies except Boyhood?

[Wernski]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Vanya on 42nd Street is sadly nothing at all like Elevator to the Gallows (one of the best films to ever be made, in my opinion). It is dreadfully boring and consists of several individuals rehearsing a play in a rundown theater for approximately two hours.

Agree that Vanya is nothing like Elevator, but otherwise I feel your description does not do this film justice. It's not like just some footage of actors rehearsing of a play, they enact the entire play of Uncle Vanya from beginning to end, and it is, in my opinion, the best-performed adaptation of Uncle Vanya ever filmed, including BBC TV adaptations, etc (at least, that's been released with English translations; I can't speak to stuff like obscure Russian TV versions). There is also another aspect where you see the actors and director as themselves (rather like Bergman cutting to the audience in Magic Flute), but the thrust of the film is: a wonderful Uncle Vanya.

But yes, it's very different from Elevators, which is more of a fun, cute, well made entertainment. You'd be more inclined to Vanya on 42nd, I think, if you like Malle films like My Dinner With Andre or God's Country, which tend to lean towards the touching and artsy ends of the scale rather than the amusing and escapist ends.

Is Slacker a good blind buy if I love all Linklater movies except Boyhood?

If you liked Waking Life, then yes definitely. Waking Life was almost like a kind of sequel to Slacker; they have a lot in common.

[adamhopelies]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Vanya on 42nd Street is sadly nothing at all like Elevator to the Gallows (one of the best films to ever be made, in my opinion).

I'd struggle to name an auteur with as diverse a body of work as Malle. I like everything I've seen of his a great deal (including Vanya), but that guy really knew how to keep things fresh.

[mande2013]

Originally Posted by adamhopelies

I'd struggle to name an auteur with as diverse a body of work as Malle. I like everything I've seen of his a great deal (including Vanya), but that guy really knew how to keep things fresh.

I have mixed feelings about Malle. Le Feu Follet and Zazie dans le Metro are both quite good, but some of his period films like Au Revoir, Les Enfants and Lacombe, Lucien just feel like award bait 'prestige' fare to me. He was essentially a commercial director in my view.

Sorry to spoil the party.

[Edward J Grug III]

Originally Posted by adamhopelies

I'd struggle to name an auteur with as diverse a body of work as Malle. I like everything I've seen of his a great deal (including Vanya), but that guy really knew how to keep things fresh.

Vanya is still the only Malle I've seen, I think, but I was really taken with it. Even though it's a 'smaller' film, I guess, it's one of my favouites in the collection, surprisingly.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by Edward J Grug III

Vanya is still the only Malle I've seen, I think, but I was really taken with it. Even though it's a 'smaller' film, I guess, it's one of my favouites in the collection, surprisingly.

Make sure you watch My Dinner With Andre. Brilliant film and amazing dialogue.

[blujazz]

Vanya is such an incredible film. So good in so many levels: excellent acting from everyone, very meta and, of course, interesting how a Russian play is interpreted/portrayed from a NY perspective, knowing NY has strong Russian-Jewish roots.

And the humour was not lost in translation, too.

[kuro_sawa]

Originally Posted by Bates_Motel

I hope by DVD they of course mean blu-ray. I wonder what will happen with the rest of the stuff from the Anchor Bay box set: Scarlet Letter, Lightning Over Water, Room 666, American Friend, Tokyo Ga... not to mention Million Dollar Hotel and his Antonioni collaboration Beyond the Clouds.

Tokyo Ga is on the CC blu ray of Late Spring already. Looks like next up would be Alice In The Cities, but I hope they do look into the American Friend.

[oildude]

Anyone who enjoys live theater and who appreciates great acting will be richly rewarded by Vanya on 42nd Street. The dialogue is exceptionally well done and the wonderful actors who bring it to life capture all the human interactions and brilliance of Chekhov's play with a passion seldom seen on the screen. The film may be structured as a stage rehearsal with all the actors in their street clothes, but in my mind's eye I was seeing a 19th Century Russian country estate peopled with real and identifiable characters. I got a taste of the film from youtube before blind buying it, and had no regrets at all.

I am a big fan of Louis Malle; his work is diverse, beautiful, and crosses the narrative spectrum from surreal to outright weird to gritty reality. In the course of his career, he created works of such varied styles, approaches, and themes, including both films and documentaries, to cement his legacy as one of the most talented and creative directors ever. He may not have knocked one out of the park with every movie, but he damn sure made you sit up and pay attention. In the hands of Louis Malle, even the most difficult and un-filmable story could be tamed and turned into substance by a magician who was not afraid to pursue Alice down the rabbit hole.

However, when it comes to approaching Malle's work in the Criterion Collection, if your only reference point for him is something like Elevator to the Gallows, I would recommend Au Revoir, Les Enfants next. Au Revoir, Les Enfants is a powerful, deeply moving film, one of Malle's most personal efforts based on his childhood in Nazi occupied France.

[BohemianGraham]

The only Malle film I haven't enjoyed was Black Moon, and normally I like trippy, weird movies. I just couldn't get into it, as it was too weird for me.

Zazie's great, but I actually enjoy the novel a titch more.

Yes, I'm one of those ones who tries to read the novels of any film she sees, and 6/10, the novel is far superior, 3/10 it's equally as good, and 1/10 the film's far better than the novel. Out of Criterions, I do have a few that fall into that last category. Despite my earlier feelings on Rosemary's Baby where I said Cul-de-Sac was a better Polanski, the film version is more enjoyable than the novel. Ditto for Night of the Hunter, although I think my issue with NotH is that it was published by a cheap publisher as it's full of spelling errors and looks like someone did full justification on the entire novel, with no lines or paragraph indentation. Just solid blocks of texts which made it uncomfortable to read. I think I disliked it because it wasn't exactly a cheap novel, it was still 13 bucks. I'll have to try reading the ebook version to see if it's any better.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by Wernski

But yes, it's very different from Elevators, which is more of a fun, cute, well made entertainment. You'd be more inclined to Vanya on 42nd, I think, if you like Malle films like My Dinner With Andre or God's Country, which tend to lean towards the touching and artsy ends of the scale rather than the amusing and escapist ends.

I actually really, really love My Dinner with André, so I was very surprised to find myself disappointed with Vanya on 42nd Street.

The theater has never really been my main area of interest, though, so I'm sure that is weighing heavily on my bias.

[lordmorpheus72]

Originally Posted by jmclick

You have a sharp eye, my friend! I kept glancing at the copies of Foreign Correspondent in the store yesterday, thinking they didn't quite look like mine, but I couldn't put my finger on what was different. Duh! Thanks for pointing out what should have been obvious!

No problem, I just found it odd... and was a little confused myself.

[lordmorpheus72]

Originally Posted by MikeyHitchFan

I like to think they did this title because I complained about the digipack on their website and Facebook page several times! The digipacks are nicely done, but are wider and taller and deeper than the regular plastic cases. It's annoying to my OCD. Plus I don't want or need DVD copies when I own a blu-ray player. Red River & A Hard Day's Night in the DVD only case look nice and I hope they eventually replace them all.

I like the digipacks, but alos hate them. My OCD too gets flaired up looking at the unevenness of my shelf. Plus now that I am married, space is at a little more of a premium. My wife likes movies, not as much as I love them, and doesn't want me to get rid of any, but I have four large shelves of movies and no real room to add more. I have finally been able to take some of my older, cheaper movies and put them in smaller cases... making more room.

But yeah, as much as I like them, digipacks get a little annoying sometimes. And Red River is just way too big for me.