The Criterion Collection

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I have not seen 3 Women yet. It's a candidate for a later Barnes & Noble sale or something of the sort.

I'll probably give Nashville another chance in the not-too-distant future, but it's probably tied with Lynch's Eraserhead as my least favorite Criterion title in my collection. I mean, I get why both films are highly acclaimed, and I love how Criterion makes a case for both of them, but I'll be revisiting them less often than I revisit the other titles on my shelf.

The Long Goodbye is a fun bit of randomness, though. I'm surprised that I even warmed up to it at all, since I consider Chandler's novel to be one of my favorite reads in recent memory, but I got into it once I settled into the vibe.

going to sing the familiar refrain here: the Owl REALLY needs to see 3 Women!!

[14728]

Will GRAMPS: THE MOVIE ever get a criterion release?

[jmclick]

Originally Posted by Buscemi

It looks like Pickup on South Street might be happening later this year. A 4k restoration was screened at a Utah arthouse convention called Arthouse Now (think Cinemacon for arthouse theatres) last night.

That would be fantastic! I love that film. I think Richard Widmark was vastly underrated during his heyday, and Thelma Ritter's performance is nothing short of brilliant; despite Donna Reed's excellent work in From Here to Eternity that same year, I would have awarded the Supporting Actress Oscar to Ritter that year.

I already own the Criterion DVD edition of Pickup on South Street and would jump at the chance to upgrade.

[joie]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

not to poop on anybody's optimism, but restorations, cinema revivals, or foreign releases do not seem to have any bearing on imminent domestic blu-ray releases... at least from what I have observed in recent history.

Tati, Demy, Rossellini, WCF, La Dolce Vita, Antonioni, ... ? I'd say that Criterion is dependent on restorations.

Criterion often releases something after there has been a foreign release, too.

If there is a suitable master available, they probably consider a release.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by joie

Tati, Demy, Rossellini, WCF, La Dolce Vita, Antonioni, ... ? I'd say that Criterion is dependent on restorations.

Criterion often releases something after there has been a foreign release, too.

If there is a suitable master available, they probably consider a release.

of course they are dependent on restorations. I did not state anything to the contrary. my point is that, just because there is a recent restoration available or a UK release for a film, that does not mean that it is "coming soon" from a US distributor.

if these things meant, "imminent release," then where is Classe Tous Risques? The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (the UK transfer got 4 1/2 stars!) and this was released 2 years ago. A restored Alphaville screened all over U.S. art houses last year - no word on that. Elevator to the Gallows... same thing.. not even a murmur about it coming. Gilda?? I'm sure that there are dozens more.

[littleprince32]

Originally Posted by nondiatonic

but I think you should give Short Cuts a try.

That one is a masterpiece. Like TheGreatOwl, I've had trouble connecting with Altman's more famous works but Short Cuts and The Player are two of my all-time favorites. Short Cuts also needs to be upgraded to blu ray, preferably with the book like the DVD edition. Although I wonder how Julianne Moore would feel about having THAT scene in high definition.

[filmmusic]

An Altman film I'd like to see released in Criterion is Images!

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by filmmusic

An Altman film I'd like to see released in Criterion is Images!

I'd prefer McCabe & Mrs. Miller but that's a Warners title so who knows.

[WonderWeasel]

Originally Posted by littleprince32

That one is a masterpiece. Like TheGreatOwl, I've had trouble connecting with Altman's more famous works but Short Cuts and The Player are two of my all-time favorites. Short Cuts also needs to be upgraded to blu ray, preferably with the book like the DVD edition. Although I wonder how Julianne Moore would feel about having THAT scene in high definition.

I actually enjoyed 'O.C. and Stiggs' more than 'M*A*S*H'. Is that bad?

[WonderWeasel]

Originally Posted by Vinyl

I have had a few genres like that also. Took me years to explore them because I kept rationalizing not watching.

I avoided French Poetic Realism and New-Wave for several years because I had a predetermined notion that it was all pretentious, surreal tripe. Some of it is, but I've grown quite fond of Marcel Carne's films now.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by WonderWeasel

I avoided French Poetic Realism and New-Wave for several years because I had a predetermined notion that it was all pretentious, surreal tripe. Some of it is, but I've grown quite fond of Marcel Carne's films now.

Interesting, since the New Wave was a reaction to Poetic Realism.

(Among other things, obviously.)

[WonderWeasel]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

Interesting, since the New Wave was a reaction to Poetic Realism.

(Among other things, obviously.)

And a lot of it is very pretentious lol.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by WonderWeasel

And a lot of it is very pretentious lol.

..and now you must defend your use of the 'P' word and cite examples. IMO, the 'P' word is subjective so there really isn't any wrong responses, but what did you see in the French New Wave that you found pretentious?

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by WonderWeasel

And a lot of it is very pretentious lol.

I don't believe that a lot of New Wave is pretentious, to be honest. I think that movies like Last Year At Marienbad or Hiroshima mon amour were just different films, moving in a different direction, as opposed to "pretentious."

Godard, Truffaut, Demy, and many others made films which were fairly straight-forward, really.

Godard obviously had different elements of his career. And something like Breathless or Vivre sa vie are very different from something like even Weekend, let alone his more didactic work of the last few years.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by hoytereden

I'd prefer McCabe & Mrs. Miller but that's a Warners title so who knows.

[Scottie]

Off-topic, but I'm sure some will be interested in seeing it.

Watch: Hitchcock's Thwarted Holocaust Documentary Comes to HBO

In 1945, British Allied Forces commissioned director Alfred Hitchcock (circa "Spellbound" era) to helm a documentary on the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. Titled "German Concentration Camps: Factual Survey," the project foundered under political and artistic pressures. Thus, enter producer Brett Ratner and director André Singer, whose "Night Will Fall" plays HBO on Monday, January 26 at 9pm EST. Watch trailers and clips below.

The presentation combines restored, hardly seen archival footage (including pieces of an elusive sixth reel thought to be lost) and eyewitness testimony to offer an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at a film that was never finished. (An incomplete version played the Berlin Film Festival in 1984, and PBS in 1985, under the title "Memory of the Camps.")

Newsweek has a fascinating, in-depth look at what went wrong and what this footage looks like: "Two women drag an emaciated female corpse along the ground, its head bouncing on the dirt. When they reach a large pit, they stop, give the naked body a quick tug backward to pick up momentum, then hurl it into the hole. The corpse, which looks like a skeleton covered in a thin film of skin, flops onto a mound of decomposing bodies." (Daily Beast also digs into the making of the film.)

That description of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the end of WWII is one piece of this film, which was produced by British movie mogul Sidney Bernstein before getting shelved by the British government in August 1945-- not long after the production began. Footage was said to be so horrific that there were doubts as to whether Hitchcock's portrayal was really accurate or not. (Having seen Alain Resnais' harrowing 1955 Holocaust mini-doc "Night and Fog," it probably was.)

Narrated by Helena Bonham Carter, "Night Will Fall" also captures how British forces equipped, and trained, Allied soldiers to use cameras to produce hundreds of hours of disturbing, eye-opening firsthand footage.

Page Six reports on a recent Museum of Jewish Heritage screening here; "Night Will Fall" hits HBO Go simultaneously on Monday night, with VOD play beginning on January 27.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsono...o-hbo-20150120

[MikeyHitchFan]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Off-topic, but I'm sure some will be interested in seeing it.

Watch: Hitchcock's Thwarted Holocaust Documentary Comes to HBO



http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsono...o-hbo-20150120

I saw this on PBS in the '80's. It was quite horrific, but since it's now more complete I will watch it again. The long held shots of piles of dead bodies is something you don't forget.

[WonderWeasel]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

..and now you must defend your use of the 'P' word and cite examples. IMO, the 'P' word is subjective so there really isn't any wrong responses, but what did you see in the French New Wave that you found pretentious?

I think the thing that turns me off of some of the new-wave is the attitude it tries to portray. 'Breathless', for example, comes off as trying too hard to be cool, from the disjointed jazz used in the soundtrack, to the sunglasses, and so much damn smoking. It's like a beatnik's wet dream.

Like you said, the p-word is subjective, and this is just my opinion (which is obviously in the minority, considering it's widely thought of as a classic of world cinema.)

[Vinyl]

Originally Posted by WonderWeasel

'Breathless', for example, comes off as trying too hard to be cool, from the disjointed jazz used in the soundtrack, to the sunglasses, and so much damn smoking. It's like a beatnik's wet dream.

haha, I kinda agree with you. I watched it twice because I heard about how amazing and revolutionary it was. First time I watched it made less sense than 8 1/2 the first time. Honestly, I just think it is too aware of itself and trying so hard to look cool.

I sort of get it, but just not for me.

[Luke B.]

Oh, I want so much the ''Rosemary's Baby'' Criterion edition.
It will be one of the first blu-rays I will buy when I start working.