The Criterion Collection

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by iScottie

70?

I have about 40-50 that I'll be listing for sale in the future.

Wait...you only have 70 blu-rays left in your collection and you're trying to get rid of 50 of them?

...what's that about?

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

Wait...you only have 70 blu-rays left in your collection and you're trying to get rid of 50 of them?

...what's that about?

No, I had over 110 Criterion Blu-rays at the start of the year and I've removed between 40-50 of them, hence why I only have approximately 70 left.

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by iScottie

No, I had over 110 Criterion Blu-rays at the start of the year and I've removed between 40-50 of them, hence why I only have approximately 70 left.

Okay that makes sense.

I have about 50 Criterions and I can't think of more than five more than I feel like I have to have in my collection.

...I'm not collecting for the sake of collecting.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

Okay that makes sense.

I have about 50 Criterions and I can't think of more than five more than I feel like I have to have in my collection.

...I'm not collecting for the sake of collecting.

I used to collect and hold on to films for the sake of it, but I've slowly but surely been making my way to this end goal of personal favorite films.

I've seen a lot of films, I admire and like a lot of films, but I don't love every film I've watched.

One of the films that I'm getting rid of is 12 Angry Men. I recognize it as one of the greatest films ever made but it's not my personal favorite. I've already seen it twice and it's not the type of film, in my opinion, where you can gain new things from on rewatches. It's straight, to the point, and once you know the outcome, the waiting game becomes less intriguing.

[Namuhana]

I watched two 40s films today: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and Sullivan's Travels. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir is fantastic, sophisticated, and nuanced, and I'm hoping to get the Blu-ray for my birthday next month. I had a problem with Sullivan's Travels, though. The first half was fun and engaging, but then there was a wide swing in tone about two-thirds of the way into it and it just didn't work for me. I understand that there was to be some sort of suffering, but it was a bit too drastic for me. Did anyone else get a similar feeling? Am I missing something?

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by iScottie

I used to collect and hold on to films for the sake of it, but I've slowly but surely been making my way to this end goal of personal favorite films.

I've seen a lot of films, I admire and like a lot of films, but I don't love every film I've watched.

One of the films that I'm getting rid of is 12 Angry Men. I think it's one of the greatest films ever made but it's not my favorite. I've already seen it twice and it's not the type of film, in my opinion, where you can gain new things from on rewatches. It's straight, to the point, and once you know the outcome, the waiting game becomes less intriguing.

Personally I just can't understand folks who have 1000+ titles in their collections. I wouldn't take any pleasure from having that many blu-rays, knowing that I would never watch 80% of them more than once.

And while I can understand the desire to have a complete Criterion collection, I personally take great pleasure at looking at the Criterions I do have and knowing how much they had to go through to survive the selection process to become a permanent edition to my book shelf.

...they're like my own personal Criterion special forces unit.

...the elite best of the best.

[SkyAntoine]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

Personally I just can't understand folks who have 1000+ titles in their collections. I wouldn't take any pleasure from having that many blu-rays, knowing that I would never watch 80% of them more than once.

And while I can understand the desire to have a complete Criterion collection, I personally take great pleasure at looking at the Criterions I do have and knowing how much they had to go through to survive the selection process to become a permanent edition to my book shelf.

...they're like my own personal Criterion special forces unit.

...the elite best of the best.

You just made my life feel worthless.

[ThatOneGuy]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

Personally I just can't understand folks who have 1000+ titles in their collections. I wouldn't take any pleasure from having that many blu-rays, knowing that I would never watch 80% of them more than once.

I've actually seen a large chunk of my collection more then once but I am planning on doing a clean up since I do have Blu-Rays that I dislike so much that I hate knowing that I have them. My issue is, a large amount of my collection are films that I've actually felt like rewatching at one point (even if they are not my favorite) and if I get rid of them, I'm going to want to watch them again because that has always happened to me when I got rid of things I like.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by iScottie

I used to collect and hold on to films for the sake of it, but I've slowly but surely been making my way to this end goal of personal favorite films.

I've seen a lot of films, I admire and like a lot of films, but I don't love every film I've watched.

One of the films that I'm getting rid of is 12 Angry Men. I think it's one of the greatest films ever made but it's not my favorite. I've already seen it twice and it's not the type of film, in my opinion, where you can gain new things from on rewatches. It's straight, to the point, and once you know the outcome, the waiting game becomes less intriguing.

good example w/ 12 Angry Men. I've seen the film twice myself and although I've decided to hold onto it, it is a title that has somewhat been on the chopping block for the exact reason you described.

tastes are constantly evolving, though... the art films that resonated w/ me when I was in my 20's aren't the same ones that speak to me now. you might find yourself wanting to see something again only to remember that you sold it off.

just recently, I was telling my wife how I have been gravitating more towards films w/ a good message because I hope that I can share them w/ my son when he gets older. so when your life situation changes, your interest in the arts evolves, too.

some films are, however, 'open and shut.' doesn't mean they're not good films, but there just isn't much to gain from multiple viewings.

[bwdowiak]

I'm always looking at what I can downsize, too. the only thing I "collect", per se, are films by directors who I love - which right now is Hitchcock, Truffaut, and Satyajit Ray.. and I don't even have all of their films that have been released on blu-ray.

@Ray - you can't think of 5 more titles that you'd want, but I guarantee, GUARANTEE you , that by mid-summer, you'll find 5 titles that were not even remotely on your radar that will become, "oh my.. I've got to have this. can I sell a kidney to fund this" type of films.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

Personally I just can't understand folks who have 1000+ titles in their collections. I wouldn't take any pleasure from having that many blu-rays, knowing that I would never watch 80% of them more than once.

And while I can understand the desire to have a complete Criterion collection, I personally take great pleasure at looking at the Criterions I do have and knowing how much they had to go through to survive the selection process to become a permanent edition to my book shelf.

A lot of my Blu-rays were blind-buy purchases, but they were no more expensive than "blind buys" of movies tickets at the theater down the street.
My gut instincts with blind buys are usually pretty good, and most of these movies are ones that I want to revisit time and time again.

I've revisited a great many of my Blu-rays multiple times already.

A few of my Blu-rays, on the other hand, have collected dust after my first viewing. I have no desire to part with them or to "downsize", though. I learned a few hard lessons from my days of collecting VHS and DVD, and one of those lessons is that I never know when I'm going to get a random yearning to revisit a random movie that I have not seen in years.

The great thing about having a big collection is that the movies are there to watch on a whim whenever I get a hankering to revisit one. If I'm driving somewhere for work today, and I suddenly start thinking about how I'd like to see Marketa Lazarova again, for example, then all I have to do is venture up to my closet to get it when I arrive home. If I'm driving somewhere for work tomorrow, and I suddenly start thinking about how fun a certain scene in Friday the 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan is, then that movie will also be there for me to watch when I get home.

What really sucks is when I have a random yearning to see a particular movie, and then I remember that I used to own it on DVD or VHS, but sold it years ago. I'd prefer for that sort of thing not to happen anymore.

I also have a lot of still-unwatched Blu-rays in my stack right now, but that's part of the fun.

Of course, if I were to lose my entire movie collection all of sudden due to natural disaster, theft, or something of the sort, then I don't think that I would bother to rebuild it. I'd probably go full-tilt into Tyler Durden minimalist mode if that happened, and I'd be oddly happy that I no longer have that burden of owning so many things.

Oh, and I will never own the entire Criterion Collection. There are a lot of Criterion titles (more than half of them, actually) that just do not really intrigue me at the moment.

[ThatOneGuy]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

just recently, I was telling my wife how I have been gravitating more towards films w/ a good message because I hope that I can share them w/ my son when he gets older. so when your life situation changes, your interest in the arts evolves, too.

And I'm just sitting here with my mother showing me Rocky Horror Picture Show, JAWS, Pink Floyd – The Wall, and A Clockwork Orange growing up.

I've actually started collecting a lot of child movies that I enjoy for whenever I have a child of my own. Got myself a nice collection of Pixar and Studio Ghibli films.

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

Personally I just can't understand folks who have 1000+ titles in their collections. I wouldn't take any pleasure from having that many blu-rays, knowing that I would never watch 80% of them more than once.

And while I can understand the desire to have a complete Criterion collection, I personally take great pleasure at looking at the Criterions I do have and knowing how much they had to go through to survive the selection process to become a permanent edition to my book shelf.

...they're like my own personal Criterion special forces unit.

...the elite best of the best.

To put it in perspective, I have seen a bit more than 3400 movies in my life, if I owned 1000+ movies it would take a considerable amount of years to watch taking in account that I watch less than 300 a year and I don't want to spend 3+ years only rewatching stuff.

But I am now getting closer to that number, I have been thinking on doing what iScottie has, but it will take a while since I need to rewatch before deciding.

My problem is there was a time where I only intended to buy movies I gave a 9/10 or more, but now that I work I am inclined to get 8/10 stuff (not all) but some that I consider very close to 9/10, also some movies just have a few fantastic sequences that I would like to be able to watch again and again.

This year I will try to buy less blu-rays except for the Criterion sales

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by pedromvu

To put it in perspective, I have seen a bit more than 3400 movies in my life, if I owned 1000+ movies it would take a considerable amount of years to watch considering I watch less than 300 a year and I don't want to spend 3+ years only rewatching stuff.

But I am now getting closer to that number, I have been thinking on doing what iScottie has, but it will take a while since I need to rewatch before deciding.

My problem is there was a time where I only intended to buy movies I have a 9/10 or more, but now that I work I am inclined to get 8/10 stuff (not all) but some that I consider very close to 9/10, also some movies just have a few fantastic sequences that I would like to be able to watch again and again.

This year I will try to buy less blu-rays except for the Criterion sales

When I first started collecting Blu-rays, I promised myself that I would only buy one Blu-ray per month.

I'm proud to say that I've stayed true to that promise.

Right now, I'm on July, 2374.

[ThatOneGuy]

Originally Posted by pedromvu

My problem is there was a time where I only intended to buy movies I have a 9/10 or more, but now that I work I am inclined to get 8/10 stuff (not all) but some that I consider very close to 9/10, also some movies just have a few fantastic sequences that I would like to be able to watch again and again.

$5-$10 deals destroy my plans of only buying Blu-Rays of films I liked. Amazon and Target are monsters, awesome but still monsters.

[bwdowiak]

I’m actually more concerned w/ the amount of money I spend as opposed to being concerned about an obscene amount of titles.

$2203.04 – 178 titles

I also shed 18 of those titles and probably netted my money back. that's in 2 1/2 years.

I've also managed to buy probably 10 or so of my titles brand new for $3 or less.

[jw007]

Hey everyone,

I'm looking for people's advice/suggestions/thoughts on a monologue I have to memorize for next week's acting class.

I've chosen Naked as the film of interest. This is obviously one of my favorite Criterion films and in general, favorite films of all time.

I decided to use a scene of when Johnny (David Thewlis) is talking to the security guard about the end of the world and the apocalypse.

It's a really intense scene but the teacher in my class wants us to memorize something that is 1 to 1 1/2 minutes in length. This is about 1 minute and 45 seconds.

I've attached the clip below. It starts at 3:03 and ends at 4:48.

Thoughts?

Can this be classified as a monologue?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N90s...outu.be&t=3m3s

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

I’m actually more concerned w/ the amount of money I spend as opposed to being concerned about an obscene amount of titles.

$2203.04 – 178 titles

I also shed 18 of those titles and probably netted my money back. that's in 2 1/2 years.

I've also managed to buy probably 10 or so of my titles brand new for $3 or less.

Pff that is nothing, how long have you been buying blus?

I am afraid of the number, so let's just say I have the same average per title as you, but with 659 movies or series (not SKUs).

[diskspinner]

Last week I realized that I won't be owning the whole criterion collection even though I am big on collecting...I watched Eraserhead...and it probably is the least favorite criterion title (that I have watched) that is available on blu. Thankfully I did not buy it, just watched on laptop. I think I will give it 1/5...yaak...

[kuro_sawa]

Originally Posted by diskspinner

Last week I realized that I won't be owning the whole criterion collection even though I am big on collecting...I watched Eraserhead...and it probably is the least favorite criterion title (that I have watched) that is available on blu. Thankfully I did not buy it, just watched on laptop. I think I will give it 1/5...yaak...

Watching Eraserhead on a laptop ... Yaaak ...

I'm with Owl as far as why I own so many movies. I'll find myself thinking about a film on a whim. Reasons why I may want to revisit a particular title are pretty random, and I like to have the best version available for reference whenever I do find a reason to pull something off the shelf.