The Criterion Collection

[ccfixx]

Originally Posted by iScottie

All of this "Under the Skin" talk is making me even more excited for seeing it next weekend!

Cable Car... next weekend... I'll be there!

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by ccfixx

Cable Car... next weekend... I'll be there!

Can't wait!

[jw007]

Owl, good to see you enjoyed Under the Skin. I feel that I'll need to watch this film again under different conditions to really appreciate it. I wasn't blown away like many others but the film definitely was disturbing and still hasn't left my mind. I need more meaning but maybe the meaning is there, somewhere.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by SammyJankis

It's a film that has been in my head all day, and I suspect that's going to be the case for at least a week. Most of the story wasn't very difficult to grasp. I think you can get a pretty clear understanding of what it's about. The way it's told is why people are finding it so difficult.

I imagine the word "pretentious" will be thrown about for this one, especially after its opening sequence (which is marvelous.) Frankly, I was transfixed for the entire duration, in awe at how well this (for me) unknown director is pulling off this ambitious vision with such success. He sets a tone of surrealism that is up there with some of the best. The static car shots, the strikingly unsettling score (seriously, this deserves to be compared to The Shining), and the gaze of Johansson's eyes just culminate into something that just grabs your attention and doesn't let go.

I need another viewing in order to delve into its thematic concerns (besides the obvious: sex and identity.) Might even see it in theaters again. The sound design alone makes it worth it.

Originally Posted by jw007

Owl, good to see you enjoyed Under the Skin. I feel that I'll need to watch this film again under different conditions to really appreciate it. I wasn't blown away like many others but the film definitely was disturbing and still hasn't left my mind. I need more meaning but maybe the meaning is there, somewhere.

I would not search too hard for meaning or for an underlying theme in Under the Skin. As SammyJankis wrote, it's a pretty clear-cut story.

Under the Skin appeals to my particular cinematic mindset, in that...

• I could easily spend hours watching the final moments of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, with the jazz music playing during scenes of nighttime city streets.

• I could have easily watched the closing credits sequence of Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty for hours.

• I love Terrence Malick's The New World, Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris, Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, and Víctor Erice's Spirit of the Beehive.

• I think that Philip Kaufman's 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a hundred kinds of awesome.

A lot of the reviews of Under the Skin are throwing around phrases like, "This movie examines what it means to be a human.", and such. While I was watching the movie, I did not delve that far down into a search for themes and interpretations. I was simply immersed from the awesome opening scene, and I simply enjoyed seeing what happened with Scarlett Johansson's character.

I will admit that my recent reading of the Michel Faber source novel helped, but it did not make that much of a difference. This movie adaptation veers off in a completely different direction from the novel from the beginning. The novel simply helped me to settle into the vibe of what is, more or less, a series of vignettes about Scarlett Johansson's character encountering different men.

The more that I think about Under the Skin, the more I love it. This movie rocked me hard. I'd like to see it again on the big screen while it's here.

I think that the Mica Levi music score got to me more than anything. The comparisons of Levi's score to the music of György Ligeti that appears in 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining are spot-on.
In fact, it's probably not a bad idea simply to think of Under the Skin as an awesomely eerie music video that happens to star Scarlett Johansson.

[cakefactory]

Under the Skin needs to get released on blu-ray already, I've been chomping at the bit to see it since it premiered at Telluride and it's never going to play within a hundred miles of me while it's in theaters. Cultural wastelands ftw.

[GenPion]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

This isn't Criterion related, but I messaged Warner, requesting Kurosawa's Dreams, and they replied saying that WHV is currently considering a BD release

GREAT news. This is one of my favorite films and one of my most wanted titles on Blu-ray.

Thanks for sharing this bit of info!

[jw007]

Owl, that is a good perspective you gave. I think the next time I see it, I'll just imagine the film as a long, arty, unsettling music video and won't even try to over-think what is going on. What happens to certain film critics such as myself is we tend to try and rationalize everything. Once you rationalize that which cannot be rational is when you run into the problems. One has to shut their brains off and just use their heart, emotion and intuition when watching this film. I will attempt to immerse myself in the visual story the next time I see this (possibly when its on Blu-ray).

[fdm]

Originally Posted by Clare2904

There was also a 50% sale from Amazon in June last year.

Wasn't that the one driven by Best Buy marking many/all of their Criterions down to 50% off? Amazon rarely does anything like that any more without someone else instigating it. Best Buy would have to do it again first.

[fdm]

Originally Posted by jw007

Owl, that is a good perspective you gave. I think the next time I see it, I'll just imagine the film as a long, arty, unsettling music video and won't even try to over-think what is going on. What happens to certain film critics such as myself is we tend to try and rationalize everything. Once you rationalize that which cannot be rational is when you run into the problems. One has to shut their brains off and just use their heart, emotion and intuition when watching this film. I will attempt to immerse myself in the visual story the next time I see this (possibly when its on Blu-ray).

Friends of mine could never quite get into free jazz for similar reasons. Not sure I want to put up with theater crowds (ever again ), but maybe will go check it out.

[Visco.]

Christ. I just finished 12 Angry Men and it was even better than I expected. I didn't expect it to be such a smart, expertly crafted movie. Jeez Henry Fonda is just perfect in this movie. I really didn't know what was going to happen next.

Lumet is becoming one of my favorite directors.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by jw007

Owl, that is a good perspective you gave. I think the next time I see it, I'll just imagine the film as a long, arty, unsettling music video and won't even try to over-think what is going on. What happens to certain film critics such as myself is we tend to try and rationalize everything. Once you rationalize that which cannot be rational is when you run into the problems. One has to shut their brains off and just use their heart, emotion and intuition when watching this film. I will attempt to immerse myself in the visual story the next time I see this (possibly when its on Blu-ray).

I think that SammyJankis has it right on the button in that Under the Skin is a simple story, but the way that the story is told throws many people off. The story is conveyed in a surreal visual sense, almost like a lengthy experimental music video, and this approach compels us to search for weighty thematic messages where there might not be any. This is why I like the idea of approaching the movie simply in terms of enjoying the visuals and letting the clear-cut story play out in an unforced way.

I don't think of Under the Skin as a highbrow film or as a puzzle. It's just a cool science fiction or horror story that is conveyed in a marvelous visual style.

I cannot wait until this movie comes out on Blu-ray.

[CHEЯNOБLY!]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I think that SammyJankis has it right on the button in that Under the Skin is a simple story, but the way that the story is told throws many people off. The story is conveyed in a surreal visual sense, almost like a lengthy experimental music video, and this approach compels us to search for weighty thematic messages where there might not be any. This is why I like the idea of approaching the movie simply in terms of enjoying the visuals and letting the clear-cut story play out in an unforced way.

I don't think of Under the Skin as a highbrow film or as a puzzle. It's just a cool science fiction or horror story that is conveyed in a marvelous visual style.

I saw it last night. I agree that it might not be a layered story that needs dissection and scholarly analysis (I'd need to see it again, but I think even Glazer said the story is straightforward), but I don't agree that it didn't have a strong thematic message.

I felt it had strong themes of loneliness and isolation, and it plays on our fears of it

[Show spoiler]--you have these isolated, single men she picks up, the disfigured man especially, the Czech man who moved to Scotland because "it's nowhere", the family that drowns in an isolated beach, the baby, the lonely man she lives with briefly, and finally her alone in the woods and her ultimate demise--

. You also have human empathy through the eyes of an

[Show spoiler]alien

, who doesn't fully understand it. She begins to grasp at it, but after

[Show spoiler]staring in the face of all those men as she leads them to death, she finds herself staring into her own "face" as she becomes the victim...I, personally, felt this is when she really gets what she has done

. Reminded me a lot of The Man Who Fell to Earth, stylistically at least.

[szyzk]

Originally Posted by Visco.

Christ. I just finished 12 Angry Men and it was even better than I expected. I didn't expect it to be such a smart, expertly crafted movie. Jeez Henry Fonda is just perfect in this movie. I really didn't know what was going to happen next.

Lumet is becoming one of my favorite directors.

TCM is playing one of my favorite Lumets - The Hill - on May 24th. If you haven't seen it, do so. While Connery is the star the supporting cast really make the movie.

[movieben1138]

It's been a long time since I've ordered a movie from Rakuten.com (I think they were still Buy.com when I did!)...but I had to jump on this; they have the THRONE OF BLOOD dual format edition for $18.99. Plus %10.5 back to ebates. Heckuva deal.

--Ben

[I KEEL YOU]

What is everyone's favorite Criterion menu? Sometimes they just have a picture in the background without any audio, but in some cases they have some amazing menus, like the one for Thief. I also love the ones for Videodrome and Carlos.

[SilentDawn]

Originally Posted by I KEEL YOU

What is everyone's favorite Criterion menu? Sometimes they just have a picture in the background without any audio, but in some cases they have some amazing menus, like the one for Thief. I also love the ones for Videodrome and Carlos.

I agree with you about the Thief menus, I watched it for like five minutes before watching the Criterion for the first time.

Also, I really enjoy the menus of Paris, Texas, which is subtle but really cool to look at.

[Meek12345]

Originally Posted by I KEEL YOU

What is everyone's favorite Criterion menu? Sometimes they just have a picture in the background without any audio, but in some cases they have some amazing menus, like the one for Thief. I also love the ones for Videodrome and Carlos.

Blow Out and Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion have amazing menus as well. I wish a menu with the soundtrack/film clips would be used for every Criterion release. The only complaint I have about my Zatoichi set so far is that the menus are static. I wonder if it takes a significant amount of extra time to put together a "dynamic" menu. Maybe Criterion was too busy restoring the 25 Zatoichi films to worry about the menu.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by CHEЯNOБLY!

I saw it last night. I agree that it might not be a layered story that needs dissection and scholarly analysis (I'd need to see it again, but I think even Glazer said the story is straightforward), but I don't agree that it didn't have a strong thematic message.

I felt it had strong themes of loneliness and isolation, and it plays on our fears of it

[Show spoiler]--you have these isolated, single men she picks up, the disfigured man especially, the Czech man who moved to Scotland because "it's nowhere", the family that drowns in an isolated beach, the baby, the lonely man she lives with briefly, and finally her alone in the woods and her ultimate demise--

. You also have human empathy through the eyes of an

[Show spoiler]alien

, who doesn't fully understand it. She begins to grasp at it, but after

[Show spoiler]staring in the face of all those men as she leads them to death, she finds herself staring into her own "face" as she becomes the victim...I, personally, felt this is when she really gets what she has done

. Reminded me a lot of The Man Who Fell to Earth, stylistically at least.

I do love the scene where

[Show spoiler]Scarlett Johansson is staring in the mirror after her interaction with the disfigured man. She conveys so much internal turmoil through her eyes.

Under the Skin has a few such moments, where characters are shown simply thinking things through. For this reason, it would make a good double feature with Melville's Le Samouraï, because

[Show spoiler]both movies deal with characters who transition from a state of icy and calculated confidence to a state of shaky self-examination.

For some reason, Blu-ray.com is moving like molasses today, so it took me a while to reply to these posts.

[the sordid sentinel]

Originally Posted by I KEEL YOU

What is everyone's favorite Criterion menu? Sometimes they just have a picture in the background without any audio, but in some cases they have some amazing menus, like the one for Thief. I also love the ones for Videodrome and Carlos.

My favorite is The Thin Red Line. Still remember the first time I fired that one up..when I saw that menu screen I thought "Oh hell yeah".

[the sordid sentinel]

Originally Posted by Visco.

Christ. I just finished 12 Angry Men and it was even better than I expected. I didn't expect it to be such a smart, expertly crafted movie. Jeez Henry Fonda is just perfect in this movie. I really didn't know what was going to happen next.

Lumet is becoming one of my favorite directors.

Lumet to me is like Billy Wilder..made MANY great movies, some of which are stone cold classics..yet seems somehow overlooked or underrated.