The Criterion Collection

[SlickDamian]

Originally Posted by deltasun

Man, people in here really go after you when you dislike a (classic) Criterion film, huh? And now, they have to dictate what type of mindset you have to be in so that you can change your opinion (which is proclaimed wrong) to liking it. Not only that, but the degree to which you disliked the film (repulsed) has to be corrected too.

Come on, guys...less pretension and more respect. These films are not everyone's cup of tea. Then you have someone take a crack at another film (The Human Centipede) without even having seen it! Yet you have a strong opinion on why Wilky should like Amarcord, which he did see. Doesn't make sense.

Well said. As much as I love this thread, several posters here really need to get over themselves. If we all had the same tastes, what a bland world it would be!

[Dosto]

Originally Posted by TriuneImpurityRites

any chances we'll see these on Blu soon ?


Vampyr
Notorious
La Strada
Magician
Virgin Spring

The Magician has been out since October 12, 2010...

[KilloWertz]

Originally Posted by BluPops

FYI - Turner Classic Movies will be showing a bunch of Criterion titles this month in case folks want to check them out... On today are Charles Laughton films REMBRANDT (1936), SPARTACUS (1960), and HOBSON'S CHOICE (1954). Tomorrow 8/8 has MR. ARKADIN (1962), and THE THIRD MAN (1949). On 8/25 are SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957), BRUTE FORCE (1947), THE LEOPARD (1963), and THE KILLERS (1946). There may be some others that I missed...

Schedule here - http://www.tcm.com//schedule/monthly.html

Thanks for posting that. I've wanted to check out Sweet Smell of Success, but it isn't available for streaming online. This is will be a good chance before the next sale in November starts.

[greekak229]

8 1/2, La Dolce Vita, Amarcord. I love all of 'em.

[jcs913]

Originally Posted by ccfixx

I love you. I think we would make a great, heterosexual quasimodo-sexual couple.

CC, In all these years, that is the nicest thing you have ever said to me...

[TriuneImpurityRites]

Originally Posted by Dosto

The Magician has been out since October 12, 2010...

oops missed that somehow when overseas last year and never noticed

the rest?

[jcs913]

Originally Posted by zui

Since I feel that the essence of your post can be found in the bolded part of the quote I have to say that I'd completely agree with you if it weren't for the fact that you reduced films solely to the potential to entertain.
Just as much as the motivation behind making an individual film can be founded on something very different than the intention to create entertainment, a film can be much more than just entertainment.
Cinema is pluralistic in its nature.

If you are a director, then disregard the rest of the post. As viewers of an art form, film, the sole idea of a director should be to 'entertain' the senses. Now that 'entertainment' you receive from it can be spiritual or comical, perhaps even evoke a scare in you. Only the persons making the film have the inspiration, hence their motivation to use the arts to display it. In essence, as viewers, it should be to entertain.

[drbikeshorts]

Originally Posted by deltasun

Man, people in here really go after you when you dislike a (classic) Criterion film, huh? And now, they have to dictate what type of mindset you have to be in so that you can change your opinion (which is proclaimed wrong) to liking it. Not only that, but the degree to which you disliked the film (repulsed) has to be corrected too.

Come on, guys...less pretension and more respect. These films are not everyone's cup of tea. Then you have someone take a crack at another film (The Human Centipede) without even having seen it! Yet you have a strong opinion on why Wilky should like Amarcord, which he did see. Doesn't make sense.

I don't disrespect anyone for disliking Amarcord or any film. I just asked wilky61 why he was so repulsed by it and he gave a pretty good answer.
I'm happy to be reading people's opinions about these films, whether positive or negative. I think there's a lack of discussion about Criterion's films in this forum.
I think wilky61's negative response is probably just as useful as a positive resonse to other readers who might be considering a blind-buy of a Fellini film.
I'm pretty sure I'm not pretentious - I love the fart humour and big-breasted women in Amarcord

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Sagacious Koreo

I was always more of a Tokyo Drifter fan myself. Branded to Kill is just a little too out there. Still love it though.

One of my two favorite quotes on movies from my days in Usenet newsgroups appeared after those two Seijin Suzuki films first came out from Criterion on DVD (or maybe on LD):

"Branded to Kill, on the other hand, is like Tokyo Drifter's drunk, crack-addict cousin who just happens to have taken some acid on the day you run into him."

(For the record, my other favorite quote was about Salò: "Brings new meaning to the phrase 'Eat shit and die.'")

[Bumbuliuz]

I'm looking forward for Amazon to deliver my order of Paths of Glory, The Thin Red Line and High and Low. The last one is the only one I haven't seen, but I have little fear since this is a Kurosawa film. I still need to see so many of his films :/

[Hendershot737]

Trying to catch up on my Criterions. This weekend I settled with Kiss Me Deadly and Sweet Smell of Success. I loved them both, to put it simply. I really enjoyed the sci-fi element in Kiss Me Deadly. I know that most everyone else thinks the same, this movie's genre defying abilities making it stand out from the bunch. And SSoS?! I loved the dialogue and the way it was filmed. It just felt so smooth, just like jazz :wink: I see that Aaron Sorkin must use this movie as a guideline. While the story wasn't exactly extraordinary, I felt it's script and acting set it apart. I look forward to delving into the supplements of both movies to get even more out of them.

I should also add that I find it quite entertaining to see so many open handed hitting in these films, haha. The good ol' days!

[BohemianGraham]

Originally Posted by jcs913

I read your other posts following and the problem I see is the bolded line. Why are you looking for something in his films? That is your first problem. Fellini's style is just that, a style. It shouldn't mean that he is brilliant to you or any other person because he is regarded as 'brilliant'. I see many new viewers of classic films, especially foreign in this thread, that post how 'they did not get it.' The problem is that there is really nothing to 'get' A film is an interpretation. Whether you like that 'interpretation' is entirely up to you. If you somehow have a yearning to 'get it', then do what others do when they seek information, watch the supplements, read the booklets that come with the film, read articles on this vast tool, the internet. IMO, you should never go into a film to 'get it' or understand some deep meaning, but rather enjoy it for what it is, entertainment. Frankly, its either entertaining to you, or not. Everyone has different tastes, I would just leave it at that. It looks like you have viewed a few of his films and are still not entertained. I would leave it at that.

Whoa, that totally contradicts what you said to me about Salo. I'm not trying to start anything, but that's exactly why I avoid Salo, it's not entertaining to me, and I'm not going to get any sort of interpretation I like out of it. Also, I think you're going under the assumption that too many people in this thread are "new" classic/foreign film viewers. I don't think that's the case at all. Who's to say what people have watched outside of their BD collection? I'm leaving it at that.

Originally Posted by deltasun

Man, people in here really go after you when you dislike a (classic) Criterion film, huh? And now, they have to dictate what type of mindset you have to be in so that you can change your opinion (which is proclaimed wrong) to liking it. Not only that, but the degree to which you disliked the film (repulsed) has to be corrected too.

Come on, guys...less pretension and more respect. These films are not everyone's cup of tea. Then you have someone take a crack at another film (The Human Centipede) without even having seen it! Yet you have a strong opinion on why Wilky should like Amarcord, which he did see. Doesn't make sense.

This. I'm guilty of this sometimes, but sometimes this thread gets a little silly. It seems like everyone is supposed to like all the films in the collection, and can't enjoy only the ones that appeal to their tastes :P

I finally watched the film titled Naked last night. What a bleak, yet highly enjoyable film. I saw a lot of parallels with Trainspotting, although I honetly enjoyed Naked much more. Post-Thatcherite England was very bleak.

[ShellOilJunior]

I think there's only so much a director can do to entertain the viewer. I don't mean to come off as condescending but if someone is NOT enjoying a film like 8 1/2, The Red Shoes or Seven Samurai--- that's not the director's fault. The viewer is either just not getting it or not ready to see it (Either that or the viewer is going in with a bias against the director and looking for faults).

Something must be said for "not getting it". I'm not sure why the snob connotation is associated with it. There's nothing wrong with not getting a film. Once I viewed McCabe and Mrs.Miller and thought the film was a bore and the dialogue mumbled. Most recently I viewed The Four Feathers on TCM and thought it was decent if not stuffy. In each case maybe I didn't get the whole film or wasn't ready for them. It happens.

That's why I think most any picture of substance should be viewed twice.

[Tin Drum]

Watched The Secret of the Grain on Netflix yesterday and, wow, what an amazing film. It's definitely one that I want to own in the future.

I was weary of the two and a half hour running time for, what I read, was a 'talkie' film but I was drawn in almost immediately to these characters and their lives. I was a bit surprised that the last thirty minutes were far more tense than most films that label themselves thrillers nowadays.

I'll say that I am still digesting the ending even though I truly did love it.

[BHolst]

I had my Tarkovsky virginity taken this weekend...

I FINALLY got Solaris last Friday and we started watching it the same evening (not quite normal behaviour when it comes to Criterions, unfortunately).

When the movie was over I thought it had been interesting to see it but I suspected that it would be quickly forgotten.
Now, several days later, I have to realize that it will not be so... I have catched myself several times in having... hmmm, "flashbacks" is not the correct word. Actually, what seems to be the best description is that I have caught my brain in pondering the film without me even being really aware of it.

It's a strange feeling made even more so by the fact that (to keep in line with the latest string of posts here) when watching the film I wouldn't say that I "got it" fully.
Some of the things I didn't catch on to while watching the film, I had to go to various web-sites to read other peoples explanations. After reading about these things I couldn't really understand why I didn't interpreted it that way while watching as it now seemed the quite logical.

On a side note it was a nice surprice to see where one of my all-time favourite space-horror films, Event Horizon, had gotten at least some of it's inspiration from

I am looking forward to watching this one again, but I think I'll have to wait until my brain has stopped analyzing it.

[BluPops]

and Blow Out is on MGMHD this month. 8/16, 8/21, 8/26,8/27 and Sept 10.
http://www.mgmhd.com/

Haven't seen it since the early 80's, and recall almost nothing from it. Might as well see it now right?

Originally Posted by killowertz

Thanks for posting that. I've wanted to check out Sweet Smell of Success, but it isn't available for streaming online. This is will be a good chance before the next sale in November starts.

[deltasun]

Originally Posted by ShellOilJunior

I think there's only so much a director can do to entertain the viewer. I don't mean to come off as condescending but if someone is NOT enjoying a film like 8 1/2, The Red Shoes or Seven Samurai--- that's not the director's fault. The viewer is either just not getting it or not ready to see it (Either that or the viewer is going in with a bias against the director and looking for faults).

Something must be said for "not getting it". I'm not sure why the snob connotation is associated with it. There's nothing wrong with not getting a film. Once I viewed McCabe and Mrs.Miller and thought the film was a bore and the dialogue mumbled. Most recently I viewed The Four Feathers on TCM and thought it was decent if not stuffy. In each case maybe I didn't get the whole film or wasn't ready for them. It happens.

That's why I think most any picture of substance should be viewed twice.

You're still implying that just because someone didn't find enjoyment/satisfaction/etc. from a film they're "not getting it." A viewer can get it and still not like it or be repulsed by it. Sometimes, it's the actual "getting it" that repulses them.

Also, I believe a director can be faulted in certain circumstances. Most of these cases occur when adapting a book. A director can most certainly "not deliver" as well and be faulted. Of course, that's subjective since who's to say the director didn't purposely take that route/interpretation. That is why each opinion is valid...even in this thread.

Speaking of supplements and required "homework" as brought up by fdm, I believe. I rarely find myself watching those or doing my homework prior to watching a film. Usually, if a film impresses me, I am motivated to read more on it. And for Criterion films, watch as many of the supplements as possible. It's also true if I "don't get" the film but have an interest - I read up / watch the supplements. If I didn't like the film, I almost never read up on it.

[SlickDamian]

When I said I don't "get" Fellini films, I was wrong. I "get" what he's trying to do, I just don't "get" why. Just not my taste. I just don't like it. Should I be barred from serious cinema discussions because I don't like Fellini? No, I don't think so.

I like many popcorn flicks, but I also adore Bergman, Godard, Melville, etc.

[Arkadin]

just noticed while looking at the tv listings that tcm is showing The Third Man and Citizen Kane tonight.
what really stuck out was the rating given to each film--3 stars each.
uhh riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiihgt.

[JHas]

Originally Posted by Hendershot737

Trying to catch up on my Criterions. This weekend I settled with Kiss Me Deadly and Sweet Smell of Success. I loved them both, to put it simply. I really enjoyed the sci-fi element in Kiss Me Deadly. I know that most everyone else thinks the same, this movie's genre defying abilities making it stand out from the bunch. And SSoS?! I loved the dialogue and the way it was filmed. It just felt so smooth, just like jazz :wink: I see that Aaron Sorkin must use this movie as a guideline. While the story wasn't exactly extraordinary, I felt it's script and acting set it apart. I look forward to delving into the supplements of both movies to get even more out of them.

I should also add that I find it quite entertaining to see so many open handed hitting in these films, haha. The good ol' days!

I hear ya. Those are two of my favorite Criterion releases in a while.