The Criterion Collection

[Scottie]

Speaking of long films, I really need to see Fanny and Alexander.

I kind of don't want to split it up into parts, but that may have to be the way to go.

[Polaroid]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Speaking of long films, I really need to see Fanny and Alexander.

I kind of don't want to split it up into parts, but that may have to be the way to go.

It's only 5 hours ;-) you can do it in one viewing!

[Andrew13]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Speaking of long films, I really need to see Fanny and Alexander.

I kind of don't want to split it up into parts, but that may have to be the way to go.

If your first viewing goes like mine did (just this past week, coincidentally), you'll sit down intending to watch only one, or maybe two, of the episodes, and before you know it it'll be 2 am and you'll have just finished watching one of the greatest films of all time.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by Andrew13

If your first viewing goes like mine did (just this past week, coincidentally), you'll sit down intending to watch only one, or maybe two, of the episodes, and before you know it it'll be 2 am and you'll have just finished watching one of the greatest films of all time.

Great to know. I'm really looking forward to it.

[adamhopelies]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I've never calibrated my television. I purchased my first HDTV and my first Blu-ray player on the same day, I hooked them up together with a HDMI cable, and then just started watching movies. I've never noticed anything lacking when watching Blu-rays of well-loved films on my setup, so I just roll with it and don't try to fix something, by my perception, that isn't broken.

I agree with "the darker the better" when it comes to lighting in the room, though. I live alone in an apartment, and I always turn every single light off when I'm watching a film, even down to the obsessive extent of covering a microwave clock light that I can see from my kitchen when I'm sitting on my sofa.

If you google the name of your television model followed by "tv settings" chances are someone at one of the big AV websites will have calibrated and uploaded your model already. Then you just have to copy their settings. It really does make a difference.

[silverlakephil]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Speaking of long films, I really need to see Fanny and Alexander.

I kind of don't want to split it up into parts, but that may have to be the way to go.

Originally Posted by Andrew13

If your first viewing goes like mine did (just this past week, coincidentally), you'll sit down intending to watch only one, or maybe two, of the episodes, and before you know it it'll be 2 am and you'll have just finished watching one of the greatest films of all time.

Indeed..

[pro-bassoonist]

Eraserhead Blu-ray REVIEW



Fantastic release. I am confident Mr. Lynch is pleased with it. Great selection of supplemental features as well.

Buy with confidence

Pro-B

[The Bronx Bull]

Originally Posted by Andrew13

If your first viewing goes like mine did (just this past week, coincidentally), you'll sit down intending to watch only one, or maybe two, of the episodes, and before you know it it'll be 2 am and you'll have just finished watching one of the greatest films of all time.

I will be doing this with Scenes from a Marriage tomorrow, hopefully. Fanny and Alexander is one of my favorite films, although I have yet to see the full TV version yet.

[atlantajoseph]

Originally Posted by Fellini912

There are members of the forum and blu ray buyers that actually have a job (working sometimes 12 hours a day) and a family. So having an option to watch a full movie or listening to whole album is not possible "100%" of the time.

Sorry, this won't fly. Rather than pause one's viewing experience at home, one must:
a) leave the BD running while one takes a break or
b) throw away the disc, repurchase, and begin watching again at a later date.

These are are the only ways to truly honor the director's vision.

Bonus points if you rent some teens to come to your home and talk loudly with each other during your viewing experience.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by adamhopelies

If you google the name of your television model followed by "tv settings" chances are someone at one of the big AV websites will have calibrated and uploaded your model already. Then you just have to copy their settings. It really does make a difference.

Thanks. I checked earlier and took a glance at the recommended calibrations. The recommendations that I saw for my television are not far removed from the Cinema setting, which is the one that I use. (Actually, now that I remember, switching from Standard mode to Cinema mode and switching from 16:9 aspect ratio to Just Scan were the only modifications that I did make when I purchased my set, but I just rolled with it after that.)

For now at least, I'll probably leave my television on the general Cinema mode as I've always done, since the calibration recommendations that I saw had different settings for night viewing and day viewing.

If I buy the David Lynch Eraserhead Blu-ray, then I'll take a look at his calibration settings to see what differs.

[ShellOilJunior]

Originally Posted by ultlife2013

"Salt of the earth"? Where do you guys come up with such odd statements to use in a discussion? So people with more free time aren't "salt of the earth" enough?

Salt of the Earth (1954) would make a fascinating Criterion release.

[ShellOilJunior]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Speaking of long films, I really need to see Fanny and Alexander.

I kind of don't want to split it up into parts, but that may have to be the way to go.

I usually do half one day and half the next. It's a lot to take in and rich in all of Bergman's themes.

I once spanned Gone With the Wind over 2 days for some odd reason and it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the film.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I hate doing this, but I do sometimes stop a Blu-ray halfway through late at night and resume watching it the next day where I left off. I really get sleepy when I get sleepy, so, although I might be engaged or even riveted by the plot of a film, there are times late at night when it just ain't happening.

I'd rather do than than nod off without knowing it during a movie. That has happened to me before. I went to see the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie at the theater several years ago in the afternoon when I was tired from work, and, although I was interested in the film, there were a handful of times when I dozed off and did not realize it at all. After the film ended, I was completely unaware that I had slept at any point, because the film had seemed to flow perfectly for me. A year or so later, when I was watching the DVD with others at a friend's house, though, I kept seeing moments that I had no idea were in the film (Elizabeth burning the rum in front of Jack Sparrow on the island, etc.). Pretty funny.

It's also not uncommon for me to pause a Blu-ray once or twice for some reason or another, whether it's just to grab a drink from the refrigerator or to wait a few seconds while the landscape people at my apartment finishing working on the plants with a weed-eater right below my window.

I like to watch my movies in absolute silence with undivided attention, and I prefer to do so completely uninterrupted, but I'm glad that the glorious miracle of home video viewing allows me to pause the picture from time to time or even stop it altogether if needed.

I know what you mean about preventing the danger of dozing off while watching a film. I do my very best to stay awake and I feel I've done a good job, but even when I catch myself dozing off, I sometimes have to "rewind" the disc to re-watch parts of the film I didn't listen to while in the state of "dozing off". So I try to watch the film earlier in the evening but sometimes when I start it later, I have to accept the possibility that I may start falling asleep and losing my attention (and that is usually if the film or content isn't particularly riveting).

Good to hear you also treat your films with undivided attention.

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by adamhopelies

If you google the name of your television model followed by "tv settings" chances are someone at one of the big AV websites will have calibrated and uploaded your model already. Then you just have to copy their settings. It really does make a difference.

When I was selling TVs, every one we unpacked and set up was factory dialed to "vivid" or "dynamic" or whatever the manufacturer called their torch mode setting and stayed that way unless myself or a couple of other co-workers who cared about what good picture quality looked like fiddled with the settings. Of course, on Plasma displays super duper brightness and contrast settings was just asking for trouble. We had more than one that sustained permanent burn-in. It was always discouraging at how many customers would look at some of the TVs with factory settings and rave about what "great" or "natural" color they had. Yea, if you liked bleeding reds, neon green sports fields, and orange complexions! It that case indeed they are the perfect sets. I think the first set I owned that I calibrated was a circa '96 31" Panansonic CRT using a laserdisc set-up disc. It made quite a difference and through the years the TVs makers have given the owners more settings that can be accessed and adjusted and the different calibration discs also cover the range from casual fiddlers to hard-core videophiles.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by ShellOilJunior

I encourage you to watch [Drive, He Said] at least once then watch Jack's interview.

I just finished them both and while I don't see myself going back to it any time soon I have to say I was pretty engaged the whole time. If nothing else, it was a pretty interesting time capsule kind of thing.

And I definitely think it adds a lot to the set. Presented as a whole it's a pretty fascinating outfit/body of work. I had obviously heard of and/or seen several of the titles but before getting the set I had no idea what BBS even referred to.

[tenia]

I tend to think a bit like Polaroid here.
I do believe it is a midconception to think that most of the buyers of titles like Eraserhead are very knowledgeable technologically-wise. You can be a movie buff and not knowing how to calibrate a TV.
I think I know enough technologically-wise but never got my TV calibrated in an other way than by using the THX stuff from certain discs, for instance.

And moreover : I much prefer a director trying to make sure that viewers have everything in their hands to enjoy the movie as it was conceived than assuming they know stuff and not giving them the means to ensure a proper viewing.

Lynch's views on this, especially on chapter stops, seems a little excessive but I do respect them a lot, because it brings back a bit the viewer of a piece of art into, well, the position of a viewer, not something else.

Finally, I love his piece on watching a movie on an iPhone. It is silly, but quite true though.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Fellini912

There are members of the forum and blu ray buyers that actually have a job (working sometimes 12 hours a day) and a family. So having an option to watch a full movie or listening to whole album is not possible "100%" of the time. Of course, the college bums and movie directors don't have worries of that sort.

In conclusion, it is common courtesy of the blu-ray/DVD producers to divide a movie in chapters for The Salt of the Earth hard working people.

That's what bookmarks are for.

Me? I don't care one way or the other about whether the chapter stops are there, but I for one never use them.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I like to watch my movies in absolute silence with undivided attention, and I prefer to do so completely uninterrupted, but I'm glad that the glorious miracle of home video viewing allows me to pause the picture from time to time or even stop it altogether if needed.

I pause a lot during movies, and don't feel the least bit guilty about it. Sometimes it's to get something to drink, sometimes to get rid of the last drink (I often wish I had that option when I'm at the cinema), sometimes it's because I want to sit and ruminate on a scene that I just watched.

[Show spoiler]"And when I say 'ruminating', I mean 'thinking about', not 'chewing my cud'." (Pushing Daisies)

Hell, there are times when I'll go, "Waitaminute...was that the guy that did such and such back a ways?" and zip back to the previous scene to rewatch before returning to where I was and continuing. No doubt some would be horrified about my doing that, but it's the way I roll.

I do the same with books. People think that reading books and watching films are different experience. There's a good reason for that, because when you go to the movies, you are forced to experience the movie in one sitting from beginning to end; with books, you're not. But home video frees me to watch movies the same way I read books.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by ShellOilJunior

Salt of the Earth (1954) would make a fascinating Criterion release.

And Criterion would agree with you, given that they released it on LD back in the day.

[adamhopelies]

Originally Posted by tenia

I tend to think a bit like Polaroid here.
I do believe it is a midconception to think that most of the buyers of titles like Eraserhead are very knowledgeable technologically-wise. You can be a movie buff and not knowing how to calibrate a TV.

I'm constantly amazed by how few people actually go in to the setting on their televisions. One of my friends, who's a big Blu-ray nut actually said yesterday that he believes that the need to calibrate your television is a myth!