The Criterion Collection

[*DrStrangelove*]

Have the day off today and trying to decide what to watch first, any suggestions out of these?

Tokyo Story
In Cold Blood
Kwaidan
Apu Trilogy
Ikiru

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by filmmusic

Maybe it's because English is not my native language?
I meant that I also think most of the times that whatever Criterion releases must be a masterpiece, so I'm disappointed when I don't see it and I feel I must see it.

yes, those are my insecurities, but I feel I see it regularly in others too when they say that they didn't like one film and hope to like it in the future and such stuff.
Jayembee said that he didn't like one film, but he was glad he was exposed to something noteworthy.
Is the "noteworthy" part an objective opinion? Because it sounded to me like he said it because it is a Criterion release, so it must be noteworthy.
(I don't even remember what film that was)

I don't consider everything that Criterion releases to be somehow a masterpiece or even noteworthy. But there are definitely films which I own more for their place in film history than for my interest in them -- and not Criterions either.

For example, I own Sleeping Beauty (the DVD, though) not because I am ever going to watch it. But because it was Disney's first feature, so it is important. That's just one instance.

There were a number of Announcement Days that came and went where I was very disappointed, having no interest whatsoever in what Criterion was releasing. Though the last few have been pretty exciting. I have 37 SKUs from Criterion on BD (though a few of those are box sets, so it comes down to about 43 individual films, I think), and about 27 SKUs on DVD, making up about 40 individual films, give or take. So, I have somewhere just over 80 films from Criterion. But I'm fairly careful in what I purchase.

But trust me: I don't buy something simply because Criterion releases it. There may come a day where I want to be a completist, and say that I can have the "entire set." That day hasn't come yet. I don't have the funds to devote to that.

I used to do that with comic books, though. I have longboxes in the basement filled with entire runs of comic books that I have no interest in whatsoever, many of which I never even read. I would just buy them because it was, say, #43 and I already had #1 through #42. I'm not at that point with Criterions though.

Yet.

[SkyAntoine]

I don't do it too often, but I went ahead and ordered Downhill Racer (released tomorrow) directly from Criterion. Amazon still has it at full retail for some reason.

This may not be a masterpiece, but I expect the ski scenes to look amazing. The Art of Flight on blu is a film I like to pop in and play in the background for eye candy every so often.

[moviebuffed]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Resurrection (Daniel Petrie, 1980)

Just thinking about the ending makes me teary-eyed.

I could not agree more. Ellen Burstyn gives such an incredible performance. This film has been a favorite for many years. Too bad it's only released on DVD in a "Vault Series" but I'm glad to have it in any format.
The score is admirable as well. After experiencing her amazing journey in the film and that last scene approaches it just brings me to tears as well. Perfect ending to a film. I highly recommend this film to many of my friends.

[ccfixx]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

For example, I own Sleeping Beauty (the DVD, though) not because I am ever going to watch it. But because it was Disney's first feature, so it is important. That's just one instance.

Since when did Sleeping Beauty become Disney's first feature? Even if you're talking animated features from Disney there are about fifteen more that came out before Sleeping Beauty.

1937 - Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs

1959 - Sleeping Beauty

From Wikipedia... Sleeping Beauty was the "first animated film to be photographed in the Super Technirama 70 widescreen process, as well as the second full-length animated feature film to be filmed in anamorphic widescreen, following Disney's own Lady and the Tramp four years earlier." So, maybe that's what you're referring to?

So, you better hurry up and go pick up the Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs blu-ray.

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

Here’s another one… True story.

I saw La Dolce Vita when I was 20ish. I spent a good portion of the movie waiting and hoping for the Italian actresses to take their clothes off. It was, after all, an Italian movie and anything goes in Europe, right? Even in the 60’s? Although I had started to seek out some highly regarded foreign films, I certainly wasn’t past hoping for that. Especially after one scene after another completely washed over me.

You think I was ‘done’ with La Dolce Vita? Would it have been fair to say, at age 20, that Fellini was not for me? He was not for my 20 year old self, but there’s a darn good chance that La Dolce Vita can still be for the old man I am now.

Hadn’t thought about it when I began to type this, but this was a good example to use… Read about what Roger Ebert had to say about how he looked at La Dolce Vita when he revisited the film later in life and reflected on it as an aging man. Or just read the last two paragraphs if you haven’t seen the movie.

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/gr...olce-vita-1960

The first time I saw it I was 23, and it was one of those late nights watches, I think I finished it around 4 o clock in the morning and while I didn't grasp all it was trying to say, it sure left a great impression in my mind, the way it seems to be composed only of set pieces, it doesn't matter that it doesn't have a conventional narrative when all it's parts are that good.

As for what filmmusic talks about, I understand him, having watched almost all Criterions released on blu, there are many I don't even think about rewatching, and the ones I will try again it is not because they were selected by Criterion, but because they are from a director I usually enjoy and are aclaimed by a lot of other sources too.

For example a film I just had to gave up trying to like after a second watch is Kurosawa Rashomon, I just don't enjoy the story and the execution, and disagree with everything I read is so great about it.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Resurrection (Daniel Petrie, 1980)

Just thinking about the ending makes me teary-eyed.

Originally Posted by moviebuffed

I could not agree more. Ellen Burstyn gives such an incredible performance. This film has been a favorite for many years. Too bad it's only released on DVD in a "Vault Series" but I'm glad to have it in any format.
The score is admirable as well. After experiencing her amazing journey in the film and that last scene approaches it just brings me to tears as well. Perfect ending to a film. I highly recommend this film to many of my friends.

I've mentioned this before, but to connect this back to Criterion, Resurrection was written by Lewis John Carlino, who also wrote Seconds. I need to get off my ass and recommend this one to Criterion.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by ccfixx

Since when did Sleeping Beauty become Disney's first feature? Even if you're talking animated features from Disney there are about fifteen more that came out before Sleeping Beauty.

1937 - Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs

1959 - Sleeping Beauty

From Wikipedia... Sleeping Beauty was the "first animated film to be photographed in the Super Technirama 70 widescreen process, as well as the second full-length animated feature film to be filmed in anamorphic widescreen, following Disney's own Lady and the Tramp four years earlier." So, maybe that's what you're referring to?

So, you better hurry up and go pick up the Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs blu-ray.

I haven't had a drink (until right now) for nearly 4 days. My brain is temporarily broken.

I own Snow White on DVD. I do in fact own Sleeping Beauty on BD, which I purchased because a friend told me about how stunningly beautiful it would look. Which it does. Not that I've watched it many times. Those aren't exactly in my wheelhouse -- as a quick scan of my collection would pretty much bear out.

But yeah, I meant Snow White obviously.

[RojD]

Originally Posted by Knaldskalle

Personally, I feel that Shoah is so important a document that it doesn't matter whether it's watchable or not. Shoah is on my list for the next Criterion sale (possibly next BF sale, depending on what Criterion comes out with in 2016).

I think Shoah is fantastic film on a couple of levels. On the level of content, it got through to me what the Holocaust was more than any film I've seen that treated the subject. It's become my mental reference point when the Holocaust comes up. It also brings the effects of the Holocaust into a closer contemporary time (mid-80s, I think). It's chilling.

I also think it's formally creative. No question that some of it is slow and repetitive, but that's part of the way it brings more overt art elements into documentary. I find it unique.

I stretched it over three depressing evenings but was changed by the experience. And I'm actually looking forward to rewatching it at some point since I'll have a much better idea of what to expect. And I think it's worthwhile to look at genuine evil so it becomes a little more recognizable. Lanzmann catches it here.

[baheidstu]

Originally Posted by ShellOilJunior

A Safe Place is soporific.

I agree with this assessment as I literally started to doze off watching it. The only thing that piqued my interest was the presence of the lovely Gwen Wells as it's the only thing I've ever seen her in besides Nashville.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

Here’s another one… True story.

I saw La Dolce Vita when I was 20ish. I spent a good portion of the movie waiting and hoping for the Italian actresses to take their clothes off. It was, after all, an Italian movie and anything goes in Europe, right? Even in the 60’s? Although I had started to seek out some highly regarded foreign films, I certainly wasn’t past hoping for that. Especially after one scene after another completely washed over me.

You think I was ‘done’ with La Dolce Vita? Would it have been fair to say, at age 20, that Fellini was not for me? He was not for my 20 year old self, but there’s a darn good chance that La Dolce Vita can still be for the old man I am now.

Hadn’t thought about it when I began to type this, but this was a good example to use… Read about what Roger Ebert had to say about how he looked at La Dolce Vita when he revisited the film later in life and reflected on it as an aging man. Or just read the last two paragraphs if you haven’t seen the movie.

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/gr...olce-vita-1960

I really enjoyed La Dolce Vita when I made a blind buy of the Koch Entertainment DVD several years ago, but I couldn't quite get my mind around it in the way that I would like to have.

My already-positive opinion of the movie soared when I revisited it by way of the Criterion Blu-ray, and not simply because of the picture quality. Being a few years older than I was at the time of my first viewing, I was blind-sided by the final camera shots in a way that I had not been blind-sided before, and it was quite an emotional gut punch.

I still wish that some of the women in the film would take their clothes off, but what can ya do? Thankfully, my 1960s/1970s Italian giallo films in my collection fill that void quite well.

[filmmusic]

Thank you all for your replies in the discussion i raised.
Yes bwdowiak, it has happened to me many times to don't like a film on first viewing and like it much more later.

The point I was trying to make, is that maybe some (including me) give Criterion some more slack in the choice of films they're making, but if it was the same film from an unknown small company they never heard of, they wouldn't care to check that film out, let alone like it!

i don't know, it's just my personal sense.
I know Criterion has built a trust towards them and good for them but I feel sometimes i see an agony in members to like a film because it's Criterion and not just even think that "maybe that film is not good after all and Criterion released it just because..."?
Maybe I'm wrong..

[jmclick]

Originally Posted by jw007

I'm with Ray Jackson... I blind bought all the Antonioni films including those 2 and already am not sure if I'm going to enjoy watching them (they are still sealed). The only Antonioni film I actually liked was Identification of a Woman only because of the 80s new wave music used in the film that I loved.

One other note... two Criterion box sets that I already regret buying are Shoah and World Cinema Project, and I haven't even watched them yet. We shall see.

There are movies that I love, and some that I absolutely revere ... Shoah belongs in the latter category. I honestly consider it, not the most enjoyable film in the Collection, but the most important and the most prestigious; and I use both of those adjectives as terms of highest compliment. It is also the most enlightening. I have never understood the Holocaust on any level ... how hate and prejudice could play out on such an epic and barbarous scale; Shoah comes the closest of any book, film, or other vehicle to explaining how madness swept an entire country, then proceeded to infect a continent and the entire world.

I tried for years to see it, having read several reviews that called it "the most important film ever made about the Holocaust" (Scheuer among them), but it was never accessible. I was sorely disappointed when it was restored and released back into theatres in 2010 for a limited run; it did not screen anywhere in Texas where I was living at the time. When I found out that Criterion had acquired it, I was ecstatic. I had managed to see a bootlegged, imported DVD in 2011; when the Criterion release debuted in June of 2013, I went to Barnes and Noble in Arkansas to buy it, and they told me to wait a week for the 50% off sale. I did, and it became not only the cornerstone of my Criterion Collection, but the beginning of my relationship with Barnes and Noble ...

[jmclick]

Originally Posted by Martin_31

What movie(s) have made you teary or cried your eyes out? Anyone else can answer this question.

Many years ago on late night TV when I was a kid, I discovered this little-remembered film that I sobbed most of the way through, starting when a man slapped a boy. It usually played once a year in the middle of the night, so I would set my alarm and get up to watch it. I cried every time, and it still makes me misty-eyed whenever I see it. It's better-known now than it was when I discovered it: It's a Wonderful Life.

The other film that I've seen over 50 times and still cry over is The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, easily my favorite film of all-time.

Another that left me a basket case when I first saw it was Ordinary People, because at the time, my parent were getting divorced, I was having a difficult time adjusting, and I identified with the Timothy Hutton character. I don't know how it would affect me today, but back then it was awfully potent stuff.

[Majin Blu]

Originally Posted by jw007

Alright folks...I've decided to ask everyone here what are your top 5 LEAST FAVORITE blind-buys?

I'm sure many of you have done what I've done...during those holiday 50% off sales, where we were feeling gluttonous and thrifty and "threw in" another Criterion because, well, it was 50% off! We skimmed the back cover of the blu-ray or dvd release and thought to ourselves: "Well, shit, this looks interesting, and I think it might be worth buying."

And then when it came time to watch it, we found out just how much we couldn't relate to or enjoy the movie we bought. But rather try and sell it on Ebay or go to a second hand movie/record store, we tucked it away in guilty fashion amongst our big stack of films and on our shelves and media cabinets and in storage bins, knowing we'll probably never ever again watch it.

So I will start with my top 5 LEAST favorite or regretful Criterion blind-buys:

1. Che
2. George Washington
3. White Dog
4. Life During Wartime
5. Chronicle of a Summer

Others that didn't make the list but came close (despite being from great directors): Red Desert, Pierrot le Fou, World on a Wire, The Last Emperor, La Jetée/Sans Soleil, The Milky Way and Medium Cool. Keep in mind that I'm judging this all on personal overall satisfaction with my purchases and in no way judge any of the films I mentioned to be inferior or bad in any way.

The only Criterion film that I've owned that I just couldn't sit through (and I probably will be stoned for this) - "Breathless". I tried watching it 5 times and kept falling asleep or doing something else. A friend of mine loved the movie, so I gave it to him.

[filmmusic]

Originally Posted by reelgeek

The only Criterion film that I've owned that I just couldn't sit through (and I probably will be stoned for this) - "Breathless". I tried watching it 5 times and kept falling asleep or doing something else. A friend of mine loved the movie, so I gave it to him.

I was wondering, have you seen any other Godard film?
because I can't connect to his films at all. (I've seen 3)

[Purplenoon]

Originally Posted by reelgeek

The only Criterion film that I've owned that I just couldn't sit through (and I probably will be stoned for this) - "Breathless". I tried watching it 5 times and kept falling asleep or doing something else. A friend of mine loved the movie, so I gave it to him.

I feel the same way about Goddard's "Weekend".

[bwdowiak]

films that tore me apart:

In America
Titanic

there were unequivocal tears during..
Ikiru

I also cried during parts of Up, The Descendants, The Wrestler... there have got to be (minimum) a dozen more, but those are off the top of my head.

there is a shot in In America that is so incredibly and shamelessly manipulative... that didn't stop me from sobbing loudly and in a manner that would have been quite embarassing had I not been watching at home and alone.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by reelgeek

The only Criterion film that I've owned that I just couldn't sit through (and I probably will be stoned for this) - "Breathless". I tried watching it 5 times and kept falling asleep or doing something else. A friend of mine loved the movie, so I gave it to him.

Originally Posted by filmmusic

I was wondering, have you seen any other Godard film?
because I can't connect to his films at all. (I've seen 3)

You two should be banned.


(J/K)

Godard's not going to be for everyone. But I would think that his stuff from the 60s would be fairly accessible, as opposed to the later experimentation he did. Hey, everyone has great films that they don't like, don't connect with.

That's what art is all about. I have (had -- I'm not sure why we don't talk anymore) who was an excellent musician. He couldn't stand Bach. He found Bach's music far too mathematical. He could appreciate what Bach brought to music, what he contributed. But he couldn't appreciate the music itself.

There are all sorts of films that I know, intellectually, are impressive works but that I simply cannot find a way in.

[SkyAntoine]

Originally Posted by Purplenoon

I feel the same way about Goddard's "Weekend".

I can't say that I enjoyed Weekend, but it has some of the most memorable shots I've seen on any Criterion release. The 1st 2/3 of the film is amazing at times. The last 1/3....