The Criterion Collection

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by DenOfEarth

Any chance Elephant Man might come out next year as a possible Criterion title?

A box set with The Elephant Man, Fatso, My Favorite Year, and other films is apparently going to be released by Brooksfilms.

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I decided that I cannot wait for Halloween. I'm going to watch my Blu-ray of The Vanishing this evening.

It has never looked or sounded better. Glad I purchased it!

[soarinsteven]

All this talk of The Tree of Life and Ozu is absolutely wonderful.

I've seen hundreds of films in the theater, but few impacted me the way TTOL did. My heart was racing the entire time completely taken by the beauty of the images, soundtrack, themes, and ingenuity of the filmmaking.

However, I can see why some mainstream audiences might not have a similar reaction. My second viewing I actually got out of my seat to tell an elderly couple to please be quiet. They started grumbling almost from the start. They left a few minutes after my polite request thank god. I was not about to have an experience of watching this film ruined. Most films produced by Hollywood function like prose concerned with moving the plot from point A to B to C. TTOL is poetry, and that's going to throw off some people like that elderly couple reacting quite hostile to the film.

As for Ozu I've seen 11 of his film, and I've liked them all tho Good Morning and The End of Summer are lower tier for me. Tokyo Story, Late Spring, Early Summer, Early Spring, Tokyo Twilight, An Autumn Afternoon, Late Autumn, and Equinox Flower are all such beautiful, marvelous, sad, compassionate studies of humanity. I need to finally buy that Late Ozu Eclipse set.

[adamhopelies]

Originally Posted by Polaroid

Just wondering are there any Criterions that feature a heavy Jazz soundtrack? I really cant think of any off the top of my head >.< Only one I can think of is All That Jazz but not seen and only going based on title lol

There's no jazz in All That Jazz. I'd echo the call for Elevator To The Gallows, which is probably the most famous cinema/jazz collaboration of them all. Shadows is a good one too.

[adamhopelies]

Originally Posted by filmmusic

Hope it's The Tree of Life. (even the theatrical cut)

It'd be a waste of a spine, as the existing Fox disc is perfect already, supplements aside.

[mallomar]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

Lonely is the man who feels that TTOL is about as precious as a Hallmark greeting card.

I'm with you. Also, I think all the protestations about the definition of pretentious are a little disingenuous. If someone says that In the Realm of the Senses is pornography, you might not agree, but you can certainly see how they got there. I don't think it's any accident that many people who watch TTOL immediately feel the word pretentious rising in their throat. You might not agree, but you can't honestly say the whole question mystifies you. As for a Hallmark greeting card, that's my feeling precisely. Or maybe a tv commercial for an investment bank or credit card or something. Okay, now I duck.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by mallomar

I'm with you. Also, I think all the protestations about the definition of pretentious are a little disingenuous. If someone says that In the Realm of the Senses is pornography, you might not agree, but you can certainly see how they got there. I don't think it's any accident that many people who watch TTOL immediately feel the word pretentious rising in their throat. You might not agree, but you can't honestly say the whole question mystifies you. As for a Hallmark greeting card, that's my feeling precisely. Or maybe a tv commercial for an investment bank or credit card or something. Okay, now I duck.

Or an episode of “Say Yes to the Dress.”

Sincere thanks, though… finally one ally.

[MKej]

Is dvdplanet down?
I get a 403 error

[Fellini912]

Originally Posted by Polaroid

Just wondering are there any Criterions that feature a heavy Jazz soundtrack? I really cant think of any off the top of my head >.< Only one I can think of is All That Jazz but not seen and only going based on title lol

As mentioned already Elevator to the Gallows. Miles Davis recorded this score, experimenting with modal improvisation, before making his classic album Kind of Blue.

Anatomy of a Murder score by Duke Ellington is also a jazz masterpiece (truly my main reason to purchase the film).

A non-criterion film that has a strong jazz score is Taxi Driver by Bernard Hermann, besides Vertigo, this is one of my favorites from him. Jerry Goldsmith's Chinatown is also fantastic and arguably one of the best jazz scores. John Barry's Body Heat is yet another jazz film score masterpiece.

Those are the ones that come to mind.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by mallomar

I don't think it's any accident that many people who watch TTOL immediately feel the word pretentious rising in their throat.

Many people see subtitles and/or a long run time and/or funny, hard-to-pronounce names and think 'pretentious art house crap'. Many people think 2001 and The Godfather are 'overrated'. Many people think this childhood favorite or that is a 'criminally underrated masterpiece'.

I suppose one could look at things like that and think 'well, where there's smoke there's gotta be fire' but wouldn't it be at least as reasonable to conclude that many people throw around words like overrated and underrated and sublime and exquisite and pretentious with little or no thought to what those words actually mean?

[octagon]

Originally Posted by Fellini912

Anatomy of a Murder score by Duke Ellington is also a jazz masterpiece (truly my main reason to purchase the film).

I just had that cd on yesterday.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by Polaroid

I know! Where is the Thin Red Line extended version as well!? Would have been amazing if Criterion had that as an alternate version for their release.

I think most the stuff cut from TTOL was family scenes and stuff like that - rather than the experimental creation stuff. I hope we get to see it as it seems so depressing all these beautiful footage hidden away .

The film I am waiting for is A Voyage of Time - The creation sequence was incredible.... give me 3-6 hours of that and ill be in heaven.

Originally Posted by Ausjdm

Awesome to see all this TTOL love. O Malick how I love your movies! We need those new releases asap! TTOL is my fav but Badlands is underrated.

Yes and yes. I'll take any extra footage of anything from that guy. And I don't care if its a 5 minute shot of a flower blooming in slow motion.

Badlands is good, Ausjdm, but The New World is better.

[Polaroid]

Originally Posted by cakefactory

Duke Ellington did the score for Anatomy of a Murder.

Originally Posted by Sifox211

Miles Davis - Elevator to the Gallows

Originally Posted by adamhopelies

There's no jazz in All That Jazz. I'd echo the call for Elevator To The Gallows, which is probably the most famous cinema/jazz collaboration of them all. Shadows is a good one too.

Originally Posted by Fellini912

As mentioned already Elevator to the Gallows. Miles Davis recorded this score, experimenting with modal improvisation, before making his classic album Kind of Blue.

Anatomy of a Murder score by Duke Ellington is also a jazz masterpiece (truly my main reason to purchase the film).

A non-criterion film that has a strong jazz score is Taxi Driver by Bernard Hermann, besides Vertigo, this is one of my favorites from him. Jerry Goldsmith's Chinatown is also fantastic and arguably one of the best jazz scores. John Barry's Body Heat is yet another jazz film score masterpiece.

Those are the ones that come to mind.

Thanks guys will check these out - been meaning to buy Anatomy as I posted about it ages ago and heard its really good.

Despite no Jazz in All that Jazz I still want it :P

Never heard of Elevator to the Gallows - will defy check it out, always fun discovering new films!

[bwdowiak]

in Murmur of the Heart, the main character is a big fan of jazz artists (Charlie Parker, I think, and some others.) I don't recall how prominently the music is featured in the score, but it is definitely present - especially in the first half.

[Polaroid]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

in Murmur of the Heart, the main character is a big fan of jazz artists (Charlie Parker, I think, and some others.) I don't recall how prominently the music is featured in the score, but it is definitely present - especially in the first half.

Thanks

Just started watching Lost Highway, not watch din ages and forgot how awesome the jazz is in it, also been watching Homeland and loads of jazz in that which is awesome

Just made me realise I've not heard much featured in any other films I own really which is a shame as so many films use classical scores etc and seem to miss jazz.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Fellini912

A non-criterion film that has a strong jazz score is Taxi Driver by Bernard Hermann, besides Vertigo, this is one of my favorites from him. Jerry Goldsmith's Chinatown is also fantastic and arguably one of the best jazz scores. John Barry's Body Heat is yet another jazz film score masterpiece.

I love the final moments of Taxi Driver,

[Show spoiler]with Bickle driving the cab around the city at night while the jazz music plays.

I could probably watch that for hours.

[TJS_Blu]

Originally Posted by Polaroid

Just wondering are there any Criterions that feature a heavy Jazz soundtrack? I really cant think of any off the top of my head >.< Only one I can think of is All That Jazz but not seen and only going based on title lol

Sweet Smell of Success

[octagon]

I want to throw Pale Flower in the jazz mix but I can't be sure whether I'm misremembering that wrong.

I don't think I am though. I think it had a pretty cool score.

[EPlay]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

Having endured the absolute gushing love fest (for at least the 3rd time) that is had between The Tree of Life and this forum’s members, I do not know how I was ever brave enough to attach the ‘p’ word to this film.

I am looking forward to seeing it again, like I mentioned, but (and it is not just Polaroid) there doesn’t seem to be a soul around here who thinks that the film is anything less than God’s gift to cinephiles.

Lonely is the man who feels that TTOL is about as precious as a Hallmark greeting card.

I've only seen "TTOL" once theatrically but was not a huge fan. Neither were the 2 people who saw it with me. I do, however, adore "The New World" (which I've also only seen theatrically). It felt lyrical and poetic and had one of the most romantic scenes I've seen (though I won't expound further without a refresher viewing).

While many of you here are good at critically explaining why you like or don't like a film, I've never been that way. I will never be able to give a detailed analysis of why. Especially for emotional/dramatic/"deeper" films, I think they resonate with viewers for very personal reasons that cannot always be put into words. Something clicks or it doesn't.

[jlk5844]

Watched Persona this morning. Was really looking forward to this after all of the love here. I was delightfully surprised in the beginning to see such a strange, moody montage with mesmerizing images and the score overall was creepy and unnerving. I knew right away this was going to be different than Bergman's previous films. And sure enough, as I discovered, it was his most artsy and confusing film, that I've seen anyway. There were some fantastic moments and simply amazing cinematography, lots of close ups with stark black and dark gray subjects against bright white backgrounds, such as on the cover of the Criterion Blu-ray. I was reminded of the opening of Under the Skin actually, particularly in regards to that opening eerie sequence of Persona. The acting by Bibi Andersson is terrific.

That said, I have to admit, coming fresh off my first viewing, I didn't enjoy most of the film. I'm sure it all means something, but I just found it frustrating. It was so challenging and difficult to read (not the subtitles, the film's meaning) that I gave up and wanted it to end at a point. It didn't always hold my attention, there were periods of not much happening that slowed it down.

Now, it is acclaimed, and this kind of film requires multiple viewings and analysis, so I'll be sure to grant it that before declaring my final word on whether or not I believe it to be a good film. Did anyone else have a similar experience?

[filmmusic]

Originally Posted by adamhopelies

It'd be a waste of a spine, as the existing Fox disc is perfect already, supplements aside.

So, I assume you believe all Criterion films that had already a US Bluray out are a waste?