The Criterion Collection

[Scottie]

Obligatory post about how fantastic The American Friend is and how great the restoration is. Wow!

[Reddington]

Originally Posted by jayembee

It doesn't look like anyone's mentioned Peter Weir.

Originally Posted by belcherman

I'll add three more names that I haven't seen mentioned before:

1. Mike Leigh

Late to the "best living director" discussion today, but glad to see two of my favourites referenced.

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by Reddington

Late to the "best living director" discussion today, but glad to see two of my favourites referenced.

Speaking of Peter Weir, how was Picnic At Hanging Rock?

[Brad1963]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Obligatory post about how fantastic The American Friend is and how great the restoration is. Wow!

I agree 100%. It is a stunning restoration.

[Edward J Grug III]

Originally Posted by I KEEL YOU

Coens brothers?? William Friedkin and Spike Lee, anyone? They each made three masterpieces IMO:

The French Connection
The Exorcist
Sorcerer
+To Live and Die in L.A., great film

Do the Right Thing
Malcolm X
25th Hour

But they sure had some downs as well..

Coens were the third I mentioned near the start of the conversation.

Friedkin = Thumbs up.

The only Spike Lee I've seen I've really disliked, but I've not seen enough to really judge.

[Edward J Grug III]

Originally Posted by adamhopelies

Mine changes regularly but right now.

1. Histoire(s) du cinema
2. Pierrot Le Fou
3. Every Man For Himself
4. Passion
5. Goodbye To Language

It's worth noting that according to the Sight & Sound list Godard holds the title for best film by a living filmmaker in Breathless.

While I'm at it my favourite Wenders are State Of Things and Paris, Texas, and the Road Trilogy. I'm not a massive fan though, outside of these and The American Friend.

A list that doesn't include any of the Godard that didn't connect with me. Thanks, I'll check some of these out.

[Reddington]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

Speaking of Peter Weir, how was Picnic At Hanging Rock?

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by Reddington

I'm done Reddington.

...I'm done with you.

[the sordid sentinel]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I just finished watching Fight, Zatoichi, Fight.

This eight film in the Zatoichi series is both the silliest entry yet and the most sincerely heartfelt entry yet. The storyline, where the title character plays "Mr. Mom" for a baby after the death of the mother, has quite a few comedic moments and one really awesome display of swordsmanship at a gambling table, but it's also an unexpected tearjerker at the end.

I'm not even halfway through the episodes, but they already run together somewhat, in that I cannot quite remember where various scenes occur in various movies, but I will likely have no trouble distinguishing the events of Fight, Zatoichi, Fight from the other films.

I was very surprised at the very real emotional punch some episodes have as well. Was not expecting that. And yeah, some do blur together a bit but none of them cease to entertain. You are in for a treat when you reach the last 3-4 episodes.

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by Yami

In an article in The Indian Express, Criterion's Lee Kline lets slip:

"We will soon work on Ray’s Devi. We are also trying to get some Guru Dutt as well as classic Bollywood titles. But as proven with The Apu Trilogy, these things can take a while to come through"

Just an update on this, it appears Guru Dutt Pyaasa has already been restored for the past Venice Film Festival, so if Criterion wants to release it, I suppose it could be announced any day now.

Clip:

[Show spoiler]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO9gYBfBGh8

C'mon Criterion, I am ready for some classic Bollywood

I'm not sure if these could be called musicals in the strictest sense, as it appears the songs in some of those films only extend the run-time instead of filling the normal running time (like 2 hours movie plus 1 hour of songs), but I just remembered there are very few musicals in the collection.

[pedromvu]

I watched Knight of Cups, and I am afraid to say we had lost Malick, I was as frustrated by this as watching Goodbye to Language, wondering why the hell I kept watching it, pretty images without any meaning at all, I don't think it is better than To The Wonder .

These phrases from critics sum it up for me:

...neither here nor there, neither great nor terrible, just an eternal dance of recollections in which nothing is answered, nothing concludes and no one grows anything but older...

While you can admire the filmmaker for his unconventional means of expressing himself, without any sense of linearity, or character development, it becomes impossible to invest in this picture.

Since crafting a potently polarising masterpiece with 2011's The Tree Of Life, Malick has become a man on a mission. A mission to stuff a movie so full of coded self-indulgence it seems like a perverse joke that has misplaced its own punchline.

It's basically

[Show spoiler]the sequel to The Tree of Life with only the bits with Sean Penn for the whole movie

.

[oildude]

Originally Posted by ShellOilJunior

Breathless following the 400 Blows. A knock out!

I would be knocked out and Breathless following 400 Blows too. Especially if it included 3 Women.

[Pyro.Kitty]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I would add Michael Mann (Thief, Manhunter, Heat, Miami Vice) to the list of greatest living directors.

You missed two: The Insider, Collateral

[oildude]

Originally Posted by jayembee

It doesn't look like anyone's mentioned Peter Weir.

Doh! I thought he was on my list. Went back and looked and he isn't.

Ok, best living directors list amendment number one and two: adding Peter Weir and Bruce Beresford.

[theater dreamer]

Originally Posted by Pyro.Kitty

You missed two: The Insider, Collateral

You both missed The Last of the Mohicans, my favorite Mann film.

[Gull Cottage]

Not really two of the greatest living directors but certainly two of the more interesting living directors are Michael Winterbottom and Kelly Reichardt in my opinion.

[theater dreamer]

Hey guys, I've been wanting to ask a question about your experiences when ordering from Best Buy. I've been buying some of my Criterion films from them, and the service has been great. The last order I put in included Tokyo Story (this on December 20th). I think the film was listed as back ordered at the time, but I can't remember for sure if that happened right before I placed the order, or shortly after. No worry, as the $19.99 price point made any wait a non issue. I can always rewatch it on Hulu in the mean time.

With Criterion announcing that they are releasing the film in a Blu-ray only edition, meaning the DigiBook will be discontinued, is it likely that Best Buy will receive no further copies of the DigiBook between now and March, when the new edition comes out? I received an email that it's still on back order, and if they don't have an update by Sunday, they might cancel the order. I don't mind waiting longer so long as I know I'll get the DigiBook copy eventually. But if I might not get it, I need to cancel the order, and find it elsewhere, albeit at a much higher price. Criterion's store still has it, but it's $32 there plus shipping. Amazon is temporarily out of stock on it, too. They list it as $29.48. Are we sure that Best Buy and/or Amazon will get this in, or is it possible Criterion is no longer shipping this movie out? I can't believe they'd go more than two months with the film out of stock.

Thanks for your input!

[Ausjdm]

If we're adding extra directors just random ones I thought of off top of my head, I have no idea if their worthy or not...

Oliver Stone
Weir
Park Chan-wook
demme
Costa-gavras
Inarritu
Howard
de Palma
Mann
aronofsky
zemeckis
cuaron

[Gull Cottage]

Originally Posted by Pyro.Kitty

You missed two: The Insider, Collateral

And The Jericho Mile!

[bipbop13]

Originally Posted by Gull Cottage

And The Jericho Mile!

And The Keep (And I'm dead serious.)