The Criterion Collection

[Abdrewes]

iScottie? I wouldn't consider Lumet's film one of the earliest Couttroom dramas, there were plenty that came before it. By that time feature length filmmaking was already in its fourth decade.

It's like calling Brokeback Mountain one of the earliest "gay films."

[Sherlock_Jr]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

iScottie? I wouldn't consider Lumet's film one of the earliest Couttroom dramas, there were plenty that came before it. By that time feature length filmmaking was already in its fourth decade.

It's like calling Brokeback Mountain one of the earliest "gay films."

True, but it was one of the earliest big successes (I think is what he was trying to say). There's no doubt 12 Angry Men helped usher in films like Witness for the Prosecution, Anatomy of a Murder, Judgement at Nuremberg, Inherit the Wind, and To Kill A Mockingbird, which all came shortly after the success of 12 and Paths of Glory, both in '57.

Granted, it wasn't a courtroom movie, byt a jury room movie. I'm trying to think of pre-12 Angry Men courtroom films that were popular... Miracle on 34th Street comes to mind. The Caine Mutiny. Passion of Joan of Arc.

Others?

[octagon]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Wow! I just revisited 12 Angry Men in preparation for the Film of the Week thread. That's a film that never loses its power.

Has anybody seen either the remake or the TV version?

I've only watched a few minutes of the original teleplay but I think I'm going to make a point of watching it this week.

I can't remember if I saw the Freidkin version when it aired or if rented it a bit later but I loved it. I can't really remember too much about the production. I couldn't say, for instance, whether it was a shot-for-shot kind of remake (which really isn't the right word - as much as I usually hate the word homage I think it's probably a lot closer in this case) or whether there were any significant script changes (I don't believe there were but I can't say that for sure).

What I can say is the casting was very good overall and Jack Lemmon and George C Scott were freaking spectacular.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

iScottie? I wouldn't consider Lumet's film one of the earliest Couttroom dramas, there were plenty that came before it. By that time feature length filmmaking was already in its fourth decade.

It's like calling Brokeback Mountain one of the earliest "gay films."

Thanks for bringing it to my attention, I was going more for an early courtroom drama / jury film more than anything else. I'll edit it.

[A Sith Lord?]

Any other good criterions flick with a widescreen aspect ratio that pre-date the 70's?

400 Blows, 8 1/2, 12 Angry Men, Paths of Glory, Army of Shadows, Le Cercle, are all widescreen.

Not that it's a major requirement, but I am obsessed with how good the picture quality is on these movies that have been restored. I still watch a lot of them that are 4:3, but I'm interested in the widescreen.

I was watching 8 1/2 yesterday, and was amazed at how beautiful the picture looks considering how old the movie is, same for all the others I mentioned. Would like to buy more of them like that to compare and contrast.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by Sherlock_Jr

True, but it was one of the earliest big successes (I think is what he was trying to say). There's no doubt 12 Angry Men helped usher in films like Witness for the Prosecution, Anatomy of a Murder, Judgement at Nuremberg, Inherit the Wind, and To Kill A Mockingbird, which all came shortly after the success of 12 and Paths of Glory, both in '57.

Granted, it wasn't a courtroom movie, byt a jury room movie. I'm trying to think of pre-12 Angry Men courtroom films that were popular... Miracle on 34th Street comes to mind. The Caine Mutiny. Passion of Joan of Arc.

Others?

Oz Bow Incident
Adams Rib
Trial
They Won't Believe me
The Paradine Case
Carrington VC
Knock on any Door
Young Mr. Lincoln
..........

[octagon]

Originally Posted by MasturB

Any other good criterions flick with a widescreen aspect ratio that pre-date the 70's?

400 Blows, 8 1/2, 12 Angry Men, Paths of Glory, Army of Shadows, Le Cercle, are all widescreen.

Not that it's a major requirement, but I am obsessed with how good the picture quality is on these movies that have been restored. I still watch a lot of them that are 4:3, but I'm interested in the widescreen.

I was watching 8 1/2 yesterday, and was amazed at how beautiful the picture looks considering how old the movie is, same for all the others I mentioned. Would like to buy more of them like that to compare and contrast.

Charade
Kiss Me Deadly
The Killing
Bigger Than Life
Rosemary's Baby
Purple Noon
Sweet Smell of Success
Anatomy of a Murder
The Night of the Hunter

These all look fantastic. If I absolutely had to pick one and only one - probably Sweet Smell of Success but you can't go wrong with any of them (or with most of the ones I didn't list, for that matter).

[captveg]

Originally Posted by MasturB

Any other good criterions flick with a widescreen aspect ratio that pre-date the 70's?

400 Blows, 8 1/2, 12 Angry Men, Paths of Glory, Army of Shadows, Le Cercle, are all widescreen.

Not that it's a major requirement, but I am obsessed with how good the picture quality is on these movies that have been restored. I still watch a lot of them that are 4:3, but I'm interested in the widescreen.

I was watching 8 1/2 yesterday, and was amazed at how beautiful the picture looks considering how old the movie is, same for all the others I mentioned. Would like to buy more of them like that to compare and contrast.

Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Week End, 3:10 to Yuma, Belle de jour, Bigger Than Life...

Just look at AR and Year listings here: http://www.criterion.com/library/exp...uray&p=1&pp=25

[Abdrewes]

^^^
The Leopard comes immediately to mind

[The Great Owl]

Alright, I finished watching all four of the Rocky movies last night and this evening, and I'm now moving on to Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Collection. I've seen the first two films a great many times, but never on Blu-ray. I watched the third film once many years ago, and look forward to revisiting it as well to get the full Greek tragedy effect of the trilogy.

I need to post a 12 Angry Men review tomorrow, since that film is so fresh in my mind from my last viewing, but I might go through it again late tonight.

[ParticleDan]

I ended up with two copies of Last Year at Marienbad, so if anyone wants them for cost ($40 each) shoot me a PM.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Oz Bow Incident

"Ever see a hangin', Glinda?"

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Alright, I finished watching all four of the Rocky movies last night and this evening

(Uh, there's five of them, and the fifth wasn't as goofy as 3&4. Six, if you count the "reunion" sequel, which was supposed to be pretty good too.)

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by EricJ

"Ever see a hangin', Glinda?"



(Uh, there's five of them, and the fifth wasn't as goofy as 3&4. Six, if you count the "reunion" sequel, which was supposed to be pretty good too.)

Oops, i meant Ox.

It's a really good film too. If memory serves it's also Clint Eastwoods favorite film.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by EricJ

(Uh, there's five of them, and the fifth wasn't as goofy as 3&4. Six, if you count the "reunion" sequel, which was supposed to be pretty good too.)

There are only four Rocky movies. Rocky V and Rocky Balboa never happened. This is why I bought inexpensive used copies of the first four stand-alone Rocky Blu-rays instead of buying the box set.

Historical revisionism at its finest, I know. Rocky V has always annoyed me. Rocky Balboa is actually not a bad movie, but it bums me out, and it's not a movie that I'd watch multiple times.

I'll freely admit that Rocky III and Rocky IV are not quite essential to the Rocky canon, but they were a huge part of my childhood, and, in all honesty, I revisit them more often than I revisit the first two.

[SammyJankis]

Originally Posted by MasturB

Any other good criterions flick with a widescreen aspect ratio that pre-date the 70's?

400 Blows, 8 1/2, 12 Angry Men, Paths of Glory, Army of Shadows, Le Cercle, are all widescreen.

Not that it's a major requirement, but I am obsessed with how good the picture quality is on these movies that have been restored. I still watch a lot of them that are 4:3, but I'm interested in the widescreen.

I was watching 8 1/2 yesterday, and was amazed at how beautiful the picture looks considering how old the movie is, same for all the others I mentioned. Would like to buy more of them like that to compare and contrast.

Really, it's just gorgeous. Just looking at this still makes me want to watch it.

[Miho]

^ what movie is that from

that looks like the perfect present for my best friends' wife

[SammyJankis]

Originally Posted by Miho

^ what movie is that from

that looks like the perfect present for my best friends' wife

The Leopard.

[Fellini912]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Perhaps the one that is considered to be the first feature-length documentary is a good recommendation

Terrific release from Flicker Alley



Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange's documentary film The Extraordinary Voyage included on the release below is also quite fascinating!



Pro-B

Thank you for the recommendations, Pro-B.

You were right about the cover art of Last Year at Marienbad being aesthetically beautiful in it's simplicity. It complements the movie's title and credits at the beginning of the film.

[shortmartin]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Great analysis! Thanks for sharing that.

For me, Repo Man works as a middle ground between one of the road trip movies (Easy Rider, Two-Lane Blacktop, etc.) and the Jean Renoir/Akira Kurosawa versions of The Lower Depths, about poverty-stricken people finding an offbeat dignity in squalor, or Akira Kurosawa's Dodes'ka-den. Repo Man combines the sense of freedom by way of embracing tense situations with the soulless claustrophobia of middle to lower class struggles in 1980s America.

Repo Man reverberates with me in part because of my occupational history since graduating from college. I worked as a collections agent for a credit card debt collections company for a short while, I worked as a restaurant health inspector for three years, and I now work as an environmental auditor. All of my post-college jobs, in a sense, have revolved around visiting people who do not want to see me and possibly revoking their businesses. It can be a rather dismal responsibility, but there is also an offbeat sense of freedom with these jobs, since I am not trying to please customers face-to-face. This is why I love those aimless scenes in Repo Man where the characters are having throwaway conversations and philosophizing while they are on their way to repossess vehicles. That sense of being a downtrodden middle class American without a foothold on the ladder to success, but still finding humor in day-to-day events, appeals to me.

Thanks for this insightful and personal analysis. It opens up new ways of seeing the movie for me, and is very helpful. I find the comparison with the Kurosawa works is especially sage and relevant, and indeed I feel encouraged to go back and check out Lower Depths and/or Dodes'ka-den. I'm also thinking of Stray Dog (which I recently saw) in getting at some of those same themes.

On a similar note, I've never seen Border Radio, but I have it, and imagine that it might make a nice complement to Repo Man, if only for the geographical focus and some of the music/audio impulses.

[shortmartin]

I just watched The Leopard a couple of nights ago, for the first time, and was completely blown away. I'd give it a 4.5 or a maybe even a 5, truly a top-shelf film. The epic scope, the way the tragedy plays out as personal fate, Lancaster's contribution is phenomenal, as is the outstanding supporting cast, and the extent to which the viewer really feels like you are right there, in the throes of aristocracy, opulence, and social upheaval. The costumes, the set, the score, all of it is simply gorgeous. I'm a huge fan of Italian cinema and just had never gotten around to this one - but boy am I glad that I did. Brings to mind the Godfather, Heaven's Gate, and other similarly scoped and scaled epics of the New American Cinema, at least imo, and thus has a nice convergence with lots of other work inside and outside of the Criterion Collection.