The Criterion Collection

[SleazyForWeasley]

I'd really like to see CC release a Celine Sciamma box set of all of her releases like Plain Archives did overseas. I wasn't able to get my hands on that while it was in print, and there are a few Sciamma films that aren't available individually.

[eightslicesofpie]

Originally Posted by SleazyForWeasley

I'd really like to see CC release a Celine Sciamma box set of all of her releases like Plain Archives did overseas. I wasn't able to get my hands on that while it was in print, and there are a few Sciamma films that aren't available individually.

Plain's Sciamma set is beautiful in hand, I hate to rub it in haha. I wish they'd either finally release Portrait of a Lady on Fire like they said they were or announce it's canceled, though...I'd love to own the movie, but I've held off on the Criterion because I don't like owning multiple copies and I'd rather have Plain's if it ever materializes

[Sommerswerd]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWsXjptCScU

[HenryHill]

Originally Posted by DimitriL

I'd argue Soderbergh does.

Guillermo Del Toro

[Jorvic]

Originally Posted by Professor Echo

True, but I don't think my post dismissed any of them outright, it merely commented via anecdotal evidence from my own experiences during the 1970's, which is nowhere near gospel and certainly not how I meant it nor for anyone to take it that way.

Although some very famous directors who were lauded back in those days have pretty much lost their legacies, such as Claude LeLouch, I would never claim that for Bertolucci or Truffaut or Antonioni, just that their stars aren't as shiny as they once were.

For me, films like The Conformist and The Passenger have lost none of their power. A number of Bertolucci's and Antonioni's films seem better than ever now.

[Professor Echo]

Originally Posted by Keepcalm

Yasujiro Ozu wrote ALL of the films in his "old master" phase (1949-1962, from Late Spring to An Autumn Afternoon) together with Kogo Noda. Akira Kurosawa liked to have two people to write alongside him because he believed that when you are a director, it is very easy to fall in the trap of not writing what's better, but what's easier to direct. Billy Wilder valued collaboration too, I don't think Billy Wilder has a single solo writing credit in any movie. Genuine and healthy artistic collaboration isn't a bad thing at all, unlike clueless executives who don't care about art.

Writers have never gotten enough credit for films, largely because there have always been eras such as now where most movies were group written or in our present day, "corporate written."

I remember reading once where a great movie screenplay writer, whose name I can't remember at the moment, said that most studio executives and other production people would rarely approach the director and tell him what kind of music should be used in their film or in fact compose their own music and give it to the director, but that those same people all think they are writers and have no hesitation in submitting ideas and changes to the original script.

[Professor Echo]

Originally Posted by mande2013

I have a hard time simply saying Bazin, Sarris, and Rivette "were all just full of shit".

Yes, but a lot of those theories and conclusions and analyses are now 50-60 years old and I see nothing wrong with getting some newer voices thrown into the mix.

In 2001 (the year, not the movie) Sarris thought that the then present state of film criticism had transcended the days when he and Pauline Kael were being held in such lofty regard. I have no idea what critics he was following at that time, but it's hard to agree with him in retrospect. Outside of David Thompson and Dave Kehr and J. Hoberman and OTHERS, I just don't see these recent voices as being as significantly perceptive as the likes of Sarris (although I never liked Kael and still don't).

I am fond of championing User Reviews at the IMDb and message boards like this for learning more details about film history, but criticism and theory is not that easy to find today despite all the multitudes of people now writing about movies as art.

[koberulz]

Originally Posted by Professor Echo

Writers have never gotten enough credit for films, largely because there have always been eras such as now where most movies were group written or in our present day, "corporate written."

As with many things, jobs don't get respect when women do them. Writing, editing, etc. all have a much heavier female presence than directing does, and get less respect as a result (unfortunately I don't have this theory nearly as thoroughly sourced as the Eddie Muller anecdote from earlier).

Indeed, in the early days almost all writers were women, and they weren't actually employees of the studios. It would just be an open submission process: write us a story, and we might use it. Women, not being employed, were the ones with the free time to participate in that sort of venture.

Originally Posted by Professor Echo

Outside of David Thompson and Dave Kehr and

David Bordwell? Maybe being named "David" has something to do with it.

[Professor Echo]

Originally Posted by Keepcalm

I would love if the Sight & Sound magazine's decennial poll of greatest movies of all time also had a writers' poll. I'm willing to bet that a film such as All About Eve would be ranked much, much higher in a writers' poll than it is in the Critics' poll and in the Directors' poll.

I agree with you. There are many great films that excel because of their writing and in spite of what might be poor or ill supporting direction.

[poisonmail]

I don’t agree with Kael with any great frequency but she was a brilliant writer. I was reminded of this when I recently saw the movie Betrayal (1983) and read her review. I didn’t hate it nearly to the extent she did but I was in stitches at how accurately she characterized it.

[dwk]

Anyone here a member of The Movie Crypt's Patreon? They have posted an early access interview with Criterion producer Curtis Tsui. I assume the shorter public version will post on Monday.

[BoydR12]

What do we think we are gonna get on Tuesday? I think it’s going to be an absolute monster of a month!

[swamptours2]

Is there anymore blu rays going out of print besides the Lars Von Trier Trilogy?

[mande2013]

Originally Posted by Professor Echo

I agree with you. There are many great films that excel because of their writing and in spite of what might be poor or ill supporting direction.

Secrets & Lies is another “functionally/perfunctorily” directed film that I could see ranking highly in a writer’s poll.

[Professor Echo]

Originally Posted by mande2013

Secrets & Lies is another “functionally/perfunctorily” directed film that I could see ranking highly in a writer’s poll.

Interesting choice as the writer and director were the same person. But I agree.

[DimitriL]

Originally Posted by Professor Echo

I remember reading once where a great movie screenplay writer, whose name I can't remember at the moment, said that most studio executives and other production people would rarely approach the director and tell him what kind of music should be used in their film or in fact compose their own music and give it to the director, but that those same people all think they are writers and have no hesitation in submitting ideas and changes to the original script.

As both a writer and director, it’s usually because it’s infinitely easier to fire the writer at almost any stage in the process. A director - almost by definition - has a small army behind them. Not that a director doesn’t have to fight their own fights, but they get dug in. There’s nothing inherently tying a writer to a project. (This has advantages - you can still make a fortune parachuting in as a fixer to do rewrites for a week.)

[dwk]

Originally Posted by BoydR12

What do we think we are gonna get on Tuesday? I think it’s going to be an absolute monster of a month!

I'm going to guess:

Saving Face
Point Blank
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Kenji Misumi's Sword Trilogy
Manchurian Candidate

[Scottie]

Surely The Time Masters gets an announcement.

[ilenewoodsfan99]

Please, I'm begging for That Hamilton Woman and Trouble in Paradise!

Along with a 4K of the 1959 Imitation of Life and a Blu ray of the 1934 Les Misérables

[HuggyBear73]

Originally Posted by ilenewoodsfan99

Please, I'm begging for That Hamilton Woman and Trouble in Paradise!

Along with a 4K of the 1959 Imitation of Life and a Blu ray of the 1934 Les Misérables

Would LOVE Trouble in Paradise.

Has Criterion said why there hasn't even been a blu for it?