The Criterion Collection

[bstv69]

Hey so I am looking to get a good noir film from criterion. If you could only pick one which would it be. I love all the classic obvious ones i.e. laura, double indemnity, touch of evil, Leave Her to Heaven etc. I have Ace in the Hole and haven't watched it yet and have watched the Killing and loved it minus the ending (wish he would have gotten away)
A few I was debating between are:
Night of the Hunter, Sweet Smell of Success, The Killing, Kiss me Deadly, Ministry of Fear,
Any suggestions on the ones I mentioned or even some others please all help is appreciated. Thank you

[Edward J Grug III]

Originally Posted by bstv69

Hey so I am looking to get a good noir film from criterion. If you could only pick one which would it be. I love all the classic obvious ones i.e. laura, double indemnity, touch of evil, Leave Her to Heaven etc. I have Ace in the Hole and haven't watched it yet and have watched the Killing and loved it minus the ending (wish he would have gotten away)
A few I was debating between are:
Night of the Hunter, Sweet Smell of Success, The Killing, Kiss me Deadly, Ministry of Fear,
Any suggestions on the ones I mentioned or even some others please all help is appreciated. Thank you

I think I'd probably recommend Sweet Smell of Success. It's a tremendous film, one of my most watched in the collection.

Those are all fun films though. Night of the Hunter would be my close second, but, though it's a noir, Sweet Smell of Success is probably closer to what you are looking for.

[aes3728]

Originally Posted by bstv69

Hey so I am looking to get a good noir film from criterion. If you could only pick one which would it be. I love all the classic obvious ones i.e. laura, double indemnity, touch of evil, Leave Her to Heaven etc. I have Ace in the Hole and haven't watched it yet and have watched the Killing and loved it minus the ending (wish he would have gotten away)
A few I was debating between are:
Night of the Hunter, Sweet Smell of Success, The Killing, Kiss me Deadly, Ministry of Fear,
Any suggestions on the ones I mentioned or even some others please all help is appreciated. Thank you

Based on your criteria I would say The Killing. Tons of fun, great twists, amazing performances and you can see Kubrick starting to become his own.

If you just wanted the best movie though I say Night of the Hunter. Doesn't get much better than Mitchum in that.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by bstv69

Hey so I am looking to get a good noir film from criterion. If you could only pick one which would it be. I love all the classic obvious ones i.e. laura, double indemnity, touch of evil, Leave Her to Heaven etc. I have Ace in the Hole and haven't watched it yet and have watched the Killing and loved it minus the ending (wish he would have gotten away)
A few I was debating between are:
Night of the Hunter, Sweet Smell of Success, The Killing, Kiss me Deadly, Ministry of Fear,
Any suggestions on the ones I mentioned or even some others please all help is appreciated. Thank you

The Night of the Hunter is my favorite movie of the bunch, although it strays somewhat from the stricter definitions of film noir. Sweet Smell of Success is a close second, though, and it's a quintessential noir.

[hoytereden]

The Killing has as one of it's extras Killer's Kiss so you get two noirs for the price of one.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by bstv69

Hey so I am looking to get a good noir film from criterion. If you could only pick one which would it be. I love all the classic obvious ones i.e. laura, double indemnity, touch of evil, Leave Her to Heaven etc. I have Ace in the Hole and haven't watched it yet and have watched the Killing and loved it minus the ending (wish he would have gotten away)
A few I was debating between are:
Night of the Hunter, Sweet Smell of Success, The Killing, Kiss me Deadly, Ministry of Fear,
Any suggestions on the ones I mentioned or even some others please all help is appreciated. Thank you

My top choice would be The Killing, but you've said you already watched that, and didn't like the ending, so I'll go with The Night of the Hunter, though I think Kiss Me Deadly is more noir.

You really can't go wrong with any of them, though.

[octagon]

Sweet Smell of Success by a pretty comfortable margin.

The Killing and Kiss Me, Deadly are also hard to go wrong They all have everything you'd want in a noir (and plenty of it) but Sweet Smell of Success just seems to have a little more. It's also a little more rewatchable. I think.

Ministry of Fear is a little on the light side but still pretty fun and while Night of the Hunter is a great film I've kind of become a little less enamored with it over the years.

[hoytereden]

The Tarnished Angels will be on TCM shortly. Has it been mentioned, or hinted at, as a CC title? I know it's already a MOC release but I don't have multi-region capability.

[bstv69]

Thank you everyone for your wonderful suggestions. The reason Why I asked is because I seem to have found a bit of a loophole to the sale going on right now at B&N it appears that you can use the $8 off coupon C9P8L3R. You must do it no the mobile site and you must be a member. I think I am going to go with Night of the Hunter just because its the most expensive title and it means with the coupons I am getting 'the most off'. I will buy the rest during the Criterion Flash sale. Once again thank you for the help and hope you can take advantage of the code

[RojD]

Originally Posted by bstv69

Thank you everyone for your wonderful suggestions. The reason Why I asked is because I seem to have found a bit of a loophole to the sale going on right now at B&N it appears that you can use the $8 off coupon C9P8L3R. You must do it no the mobile site and you must be a member. I think I am going to go with Night of the Hunter just because its the most expensive title and it means with the coupons I am getting 'the most off'. I will buy the rest during the Criterion Flash sale. Once again thank you for the help and hope you can take advantage of the code

Worked for me. Thanks! Only worked once, though, so make it count.

[SpiderBaby]

Originally Posted by hoytereden

The Tarnished Angels will be on TCM shortly. Has it been mentioned, or hinted at, as a CC title? I know it's already a MOC release but I don't have multi-region capability.

TCM released the film in a Sirk set.

[Snicket]

Originally Posted by bstv69

Thank you everyone for your wonderful suggestions. The reason Why I asked is because I seem to have found a bit of a loophole to the sale going on right now at B&N it appears that you can use the $8 off coupon C9P8L3R. You must do it no the mobile site and you must be a member. I think I am going to go with Night of the Hunter just because its the most expensive title and it means with the coupons I am getting 'the most off'. I will buy the rest during the Criterion Flash sale. Once again thank you for the help and hope you can take advantage of the code

What was your total?

[RojD]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

good post, Owl.

to add to Wes Anderson and Godard, I'd say you also are well aware when you are watching a Kubrick film and a Terrence Malick film to name a few others off the top of my head. I, personally, don't agree that this group of filmmakers create movies that feel like "homework" (except for some later Godard,) but I see what you are saying when comparing them to Kurosawa, Ford, etc.

films by Kieslowski, Antonioni, Resnais, and Wong War Kai all have that "high culture" quality that Kael is referring to. I certainly do enjoy some of their films, but my appreciation is more in line with the way in which I would appreciate a painting or poetry. I think sometimes we like to have our heads spin a little bit and not be able to reach something in a tangible way; it's one type of pleasure we take from the movies.

I think you put this really well. There's the cliche about the "invisible" film-making style that doesn't call attention to itself. It's the cinema devices we take as, well, "realistic," for lack of a better word. There are lots of great movies that are original, touching and affective that use this style.

And I think not using the "realistic" style is one way you lose audience. It's possible to have a strong personal voice -- like Kurosawa, Kieslowski, Malick, PT Anderson, lotsa Kubrick -- and still not feel like work to the audience, but when you start messing with basic elements of the style we are used to, you lose audience. I think that's one of the reasons Wes Anderson is confined to art cinemas and that Breathless is a more widely appreciated than Weekend. No denying that Weekend calls for a different kind of engagement.

So I'm with you in getting a different kind of movie pleasure from the different styles. A self-conscious, non-realistic style doesn't really feel like work to me. When I watch something like Melancholia, Mill and the Cross, Stories We Tell or Grand Budapest, I'm left simultaneously moved by the film's significance and amazed that anyone could even imagine to use cinema in that way. I'd put Vampyr an Night of the Hunter in this category. It's rare that a director can try something so different, and rarer when it succeeds, but when it works, the wait is always so worth it to me.

[bstv69]

Originally Posted by Snicket

What was your total?

$21.99 +6% tax = $23.31

[Snicket]

Originally Posted by bstv69

$21.99 +6% tax = $23.31

Yeesh, the 40% off and $8 coupon didn't help much.

EDIT: Oh maybe Night of the Hunter is a higher priced title.

[Edward J Grug III]

Originally Posted by Snicket

Yeesh, the 40% off and $8 coupon didn't help much.

EDIT: Oh maybe Night of the Hunter is a higher priced title.

It is. $49.99.

[Art_Vandelay]

Sorry if this has been answered, but I couldn't find anything from a (brief) search. Just curious, why is On the Waterfront at a higher MSRP price than most of the other ones? Is there anything special about it? Other that it being a great film, of course.

[Edward J Grug III]

Originally Posted by Art_Vandelay

Sorry if this has been answered, but I couldn't find anything from a (brief) search. Why s On the Waterfront at a higher MSRP price than most of the other ones, just curious?

I assume it's because it has three versions of the film on it?

[Fellini912]

My favorite kind of "homework" involves Anna Karina, Jean Seberg, Jeanne Moreau, Emmanuelle Riva, Catherine Deneuve, Irene Jacob, Bibi Andersson ....

Who in their right mind would call these films "homework"? Trademark or not

[Meek12345]

I just finished the Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman set!

I purchased this set during the February Criterion flash sale, so it took me over three months to get thru the 25 films. If I didn't try to fit TCM recordings and other blu's into my schedule, I probably would have finished a month ago.

Overall, it was one of the greatest blu-ray experiences of my life. I wish my first experience with the Bond films had been to watch all of them chronologically like I did with this series. Although, the experience is significantly different since several actors have protrayed Bond. One of the reasons why Zatoichi is so great is that you get to see Shintaro Katsu evolve as an actor over the course of the series.

All of the films are either okay, very good, or great in my opinion. However, if I had to list the best and worst films in the series this is how it would go:

Top 5
Zatoichi the Fugitive
Fight, Zatoichi, Fight
Zatoichi's Cane Sword
Zatoichi Challenged
Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival

Bottom 5
Zatoichi's Vengeance
Zatoichi and the Fugitives
Zatoichi in Desperation

Okay...I can't really come up with a bottom 5. The series is that good. It can be somewhat repetitive just like the Bond series, but the great acting and talented directors keep the series consistently entertaining.

Well, I hope other owners of this set will enjoy it. Also, it is more than worth the 50% off MSRP.