The Criterion Collection

[SpiderBaby]

Originally Posted by wilky61

Breathless
So what would your priorities be? Or, which do you find yourself revisiting and marveling at most?

Let me tell ya about Breathless. Don't watch it unless you want to start the Godard cycle. You might get the wrong impression of Godard watching this. Some people see it as a mid-point in film history. Some people see it as another movie to compare with Citizen Kane, blah blah blah. Some people see it as a fashion scene. It's just a movie. Him being a fan. Being his first, it's well known. It's very simple to follow, so no "my head hurts" comments from some on this. People that uses "it feels like I'm having to do work watching" or "pretentious" is the wrong crowd for him and should go back to Kubrick, etc. The true Godards of that period for me are Les Carabiniers, Masculine Feminine, La Chinoise, and Week End as his 60's period is a teaching period of not just film but education in whole. The lack of true communitcation, he feels we must return to 0 (as in "year 0", start completely over), to learn everything about humanity over and re-educate. Being a filmmaker, he gets this across in his films. As soon as you watch Week End, which in the film world is known as the "death of cinema", is actually Godard scraping everything about filmmaking/communitcation/education and starting back to year 0, as seen in his next film Le Gai savoir (The Joy of Knowing, which is a fine, fine film.). Week End literally slaughters everything he has done that past decade in a comedic way (which all his films have) to start fresh. It amuses me when people put this man into a category with moviemakers and then base their opinion of him off of Breathless or a movie that made their "head hurt", because they didn't understand something.

You can take this into account, or you can listen to the "This movie is crap. Couldn't understand anything. Pretentious. I couldn't understand it, so it must be pretentious." or the "PQ is awesome. Love the look!". Either choice is your choice. I just thought I do a quick summary of Godard for you if you decide to buy Breathless, as I thought I'd help you out just so you don't become one of those people that writes him off due to a headache experience with 1 film.

So here is my "review" that people complains there isn't alot of on here. I'm not going to put the silly "best movie ever about...." stuff because isn't that just pretentious of one to do such a thing.

[wilky61]

Originally Posted by SpiderBaby

Let me tell ya about Breathless. Don't watch it unless you want to start the Godard cycle. You might get the wrong impression of Godard watching this. Some people see it as a mid-point in film history. Some people see it as another movie to compare with Citizen Kane, blah blah blah. Some people see it as a fashion scene. It's just a movie. Him being a fan. Being his first, it's well known. It's very simple to follow, so no "my head hurts" comments from some on this. People that uses "it feels like I'm having to do work watching" or "pretentious" is the wrong crowd for him and should go back to Kubrick, etc. The true Godards of that period for me are Les Carabiniers, Masculine Feminine, La Chinoise, and Week End as his 60's period is a teaching period of not just film but education in whole. The lack of true communitcation, he feels we must return to 0 (as in "year 0", start completely over), to learn everything about humanity over and re-educate. Being a filmmaker, he gets this across in his films. As soon as you watch Week End, which in the film world is known as the "death of cinema", is actually Godard scraping everything about filmmaking/communitcation/education and starting back to year 0, as seen in his next film Le Gai savoir (The Joy of Knowing). Week End literally slaughters everything he has done that past decade in a comedic way (which all his films have) to start fresh. It amuses me when people put this man into a category with moviemakers and then base their opinion of him off of Breathless or a movie that made their "head hurt", because they didn't understand something.

You can take this into account, or you can listen to the "This movie is crap. Couldn't understand anything. Pretentious. I couldn't understand it, so it must be pretentious." or the "PQ is awesome. Love the look!". Either choice is your choice. I just thought I do a quick summary of Godard for you if you decide to buy Breathless, as I thought I help you out just so you don't become one of those people that writes him off due to a headache experience with 1 film.

The interesting thing about your reply is that I've seen Breathless twice and about half a dozen Godards but not a single one of those you mentioned (other than Breathless itself).

And I mean, I'd take the fun and loose Band of Outsiders over Breathless anyday. I'd like Godard more if he didn't beat the same old cynical themes into the ground so often (e.g., the incompatibility of man/woman in love).

[SpiderBaby]

Originally Posted by wilky61

The interesting thing about your reply is that I've seen Breathless twice and about half a dozen Godards but not a single one of those you mentioned (other than Breathless itself).

And I mean, I'd take the fun and loose Band of Outsiders over Breathless anyday. I'd like Godard more if he didn't beat the same old cynical themes into the ground so often (e.g., the incompatibility of man/woman in love).

Read the bold, then watch the ones I named. Breathless, Band of Outsiders, Vivre sa vie, A Woman is a Woman, and Contempt has really nothing to do with the main outlook of this decade. Pretty much all of the Anna Karina films + Breathless/Contempt. You can do without seeing them and still get this decade by just watching the 4 I suggested : Les Carabiniers, Masculine Feminine, La Chinoise, and Week End.

[Hendershot737]

Woot! Just received confirmation of my criterion order! Night of the Hunter, Hunger & Wages of Fear enroute!

[BasicGreatGuy]

Has anyone ever had to file a claim with Amazon over a marketplace seller? If so, was it a smooth process, and how long did it take to get a refund?

[BasicGreatGuy]

Originally Posted by Hendershot737

Woot! Just received confirmation of my criterion order! Night of the Hunter, Hunger & Wages of Fear enroute!

Great viewing ahead for you.

[BasicGreatGuy]

I looked over the Hulu / Criterion offering earlier. If I remember correctly, there are 154 films available right now. It was great to see "City Lights" and "The Kid" available. Just a matter of time before we see the BD releases. I am excited about that.

I haven't signed up for the trial. I did click on several films to watch the preview. I found it annoying that all I could see in the 90 previews were the opening credits of the films (for all intent and purposes). One of the films wouldn't load. I don't remember which one. The current setup doesn't lend itself to drawing the viewer in, in my opinion. One can see better previews on Youtube.

I can't stream to my t.v. If I did sign up, viewing would be limited to the computer. At this point in time, I am going to wait and see what unfolds with this new partnership.

[BasicGreatGuy]

Originally Posted by wilky61

Of course I'm on board with those suggestions, but I feel pretty confident those are going to get big-time releases (Vertigo is another). I'm holding out for films like The Conformist, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and Aguirre: Wrath of God () to receive (hopefully) amazing restorations/presentations.

Also, with regard to the above discussion, I'm leaning toward adding Third Man/Thin Red Line to my collection at this time and holding off on the rest.

Just to give you an idea, a digipak of "The Third Man" BD (new) sold for $77.99 this morning. Another like new copy sold for $75.00 I think there is another up for auction with 3 days left. Outside of that, slim pickings right now on Ebay, unless you want to spend close to $100.00 Amazon doesn't look any better right now. You will be doing well to get one under $85 (with shipping) from what I have seen lately. Good luck to you.

Also, I would definitely go ahead and get "Pierrot Le Fou," while new copies are still reasonable. That won't last long.

[Beta Man]

Originally Posted by BasicGreatGuy

Just to give you an idea, a digipak of "The Third Man" BD (new) sold for $77.99 this morning. Another like new copy sold for $75.00 I think there is another up for auction with 3 days left. Outside of that, slim pickings right now on Ebay, unless you want to spend close to $100.00 Amazon doesn't look any better right now. You will be doing well to get one under $85 (with shipping) from what I have seen lately. Good luck to you..

I keep seeing them at "Tempting" prices on Half.com (which is an Ebay-Cousin I guess)

[BasicGreatGuy]

Originally Posted by Beta Man

I keep seeing them at "Tempting" prices on Half.com (which is an Ebay-Cousin I guess)

Good call. There are a few listings there that are "currently" reasonable, compared to Amazon and Ebay.

[BasicGreatGuy]

Anyone with "The Bank Dick" Criterion DVD...is the spine number "78" in big font on your copy? I looked for pictures online, and couldn't find any. I just got a new copy in and want to be sure it matches, before I open it. Could someone post a few pictures for me ?

Edit: Finally found some pictures online. My copy is legit. Was worried for a minute. lol

[SpiderBaby]

^Do you have any of the other early releases in spine #'s (not re-releases.)? All of them have big white #s.

[BasicGreatGuy]

Originally Posted by SpiderBaby

^Do you have any of the other early releases in spine #'s (not re-releases.)? All of them have big white #s.

Yes, I do. Thanks for the tip. I didn't think to compare the era time frame. I was going by later releases.

[shinseiRomeo]

Review is live:





The Mikado Blu-ray Review

[SpiderBaby]

WTF is a Blu-ray Samurai and how do I change that?

[StefR]

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of Criterion teaming up with Hulu for a monthly fee. Netflix was nice because there were a lot of other flicks I could watch instantly on top of getting movies in the mail, but with Hulu there is just Criteiron and then a bunch of episodes of reality and laugh track sitcoms that don't interest me.

Oh well. I won't pay monthly for Hulu Plus, but I might use the free trial to watch the stuff that is OOP of it ever makes it there like promised.

[shinseiRomeo]

Originally Posted by SpiderBaby

WTF is a Blu-ray Samurai and how do I change that?

It's your rank on the forums. It's generally changed by post count. You cannot change it.

[SpiderBaby]

Originally Posted by shinseiRomeo

It's your rank on the forums. It's generally changed by post count. You cannot change it.

People glamourises samurai in the U.S. almost as much as Spielberg glamourises war in general. But who doesn't love blood and gore, am I right? Glad to know I'm a member of the blu-ray military and by post count determine our rank.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by shinseiRomeo

Review is live:





The Mikado Blu-ray Review

...Huh? A GOOD non-ugly on-topic Criterion cover??







Okay, who really designed the cover?

(The version's actually pretty good, too--
It could've been packaged as a companion disk to Topsy Turvy, as film record of D'Oyly Carte's production, but it's also family-friendly for the first-time curious.
Hollywood's version came up with the idea of getting all the backstory out of the way early in a 15-min. prologue, thus allowing them to present "A Wandering Minstrel I" separately and keep it from dragging down the very opening of the first scene. )

[One4Deuce]

Originally Posted by SpiderBaby

WTF is a Blu-ray Samurai and how do I change that?

For some reason this was hilarious to me, laughed out loud.