The Criterion Collection

[CriterionBlues]

Originally Posted by yoyokid8

So what you guys think about a flash sale Tuesday?? I really hope it happens.

I actually guessed Monday. Either way I think it happens this week.

Unrelated, I am watching House and had to take a break halfway through to give my face a rest after laughing uncontrollably.

[yoyokid8]

Originally Posted by CriterionBlues

I actually guessed Monday. Either way I think it happens this week.

Unrelated, I am watching House and had to take a break halfway through to give my face a rest after laughing uncontrollably.

I love House [emoji3]

[CriterionBlues]

Originally Posted by SkyAntoine

I'm following the logical Criterion collector's progression:
1. Buy the essential Criterion titles
2. B&N sale? I'll get a few.
3. 150 titles isn't that many. I'll get everything except the OOPs. I'm not paying that much for Third Man!
4. Ok...I'll get all the blu-rays. But, no DVDs!!
5. ...unless the DVDs are bargains on eBay...or they're essential.
6. Forget it! I'm going for all of them!

I'm in between steps 5 and 6.

I've been beyond #6 for awhile now, and with 2 left to go and two probably sales in the near future, I'm trying to figure out what #7 is.

[Namuhana]

Originally Posted by popcorntreect

Are there that many new Criterion collectors that only got into them on blu-ray? I think that's great there's new fans but that still kinda blows my mind.

I started out collecting Criterion films in 2012, with The Red Shoes, and so my entire collection consists of Blu-rays (plus some extra DVDs from the Dual-Format era). I'm not opposed to getting their DVDs, but since there's always hope for an upgrade, I'm always a bit hesitant.

[zoodermin]

Originally Posted by Namuhana

I started out collecting Criterion films in 2012, with The Red Shoes, and so my entire collection consists of Blu-rays (plus some extra DVDs from the Dual-Format era). I'm not opposed to getting their DVDs, but since there's always hope for an upgrade, I'm always a bit hesitant.

My first Criterion film was also The Red Shoes!

[The Great Owl]

Today was rainy and depressing across the board here in my neck of the woods. After my soaked morning run, I headed to the theater to see two movies back-to-back. I cannot remember the last time that I enjoyed a double feature at a theater.

I saw Ridley Scott's The Martian and Denis Villeneuve's Sicario. This was an interesting double-feature, because The Martian illustrated the importance of saving just one precious human life, while Sicario showed us how thousands of lives are thrown away like litter for the sake of the drug trade.

Anyway, my point in sharing this here on the Criterion thread is to say that, while watching The Martian, I thought of Robinson Crusoe on Mars quite a few times!

[Martin_31]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Today was rainy and depressing across the board here in my neck of the woods. After my soaked morning run, I headed to the theater to see two movies back-to-back. I cannot remember the last time that I enjoyed a double feature at a theater.

I saw Ridley Scott's The Martian and Denis Villeneuve's Sicario. This was an interesting double-feature, because The Martian illustrated the importance of saving just one precious human life, while Sicario showed us how thousands of lives are thrown away like litter for the sake of the drug trade.

Anyway, my point in sharing this here on the Criterion thread is to say that, while watching The Martian, I thought of Robinson Crusoe on Mars quite a few times!

What did you think of Sicario?

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Martin_31

What did you think of Sicario?

Here's my full review that I shared on Facebook...

[Show spoiler]Sicario, which translates to "hitman" in Spanish, is unflinching in its depiction of how innocent families, dedicated law enforcement officers, and entire cities along the Mexican border pay a gruesome price for the ability of the oblivious privileged to enjoy the recreational use of drugs. Emily Blunt, one of my favorite contemporary actresses, plays an FBI agent who is recruited to assist a shadowy joint government team dedicated to tracking down Mexican cartel leaders. This film hits the ground running with a brutal scene involving an FBI discovery of multiple corpses stashed inside a suburban Arizona home, but this scenario barely scratches the surface of the horrors that Blunt's character encounters as she is led by two weathered officials, played by Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro, through the shellshocked metropolis of Juárez, through haunting border landscapes, and even through dark underground tunnels. Nothing is what it seems in this twisted world, and the motivations of even the closest allies are suspect. Denis Villeneuve's 2013 directorial effort, Prisoners, which stars Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal, was a good movie that seemed to be missing a special something that would have made it a great movie. Sicario is even more intense and uneasy than Prisoners, but it also comes closer to achieving greatness. This is not a film for the squeamish or those who are easily unsettled, but I personally give it an enthusiastic recommendation, because of its awesome ensemble cast, its ability to shock the viewer with abrupt violence, and its focus on a real-world situation that most news media sources seem oddly reluctant to cover.

Sicario was the second movie that I saw at the theater on a rainy day today, and I watched it immediately after seeing Ridley Scott's The Martian. The Martian illustrated the importance of saving just one precious human life, but Sicario sways the pendulum in the other direction by showing how thousands of lives are discarded like litter for the sake of a murderous industry that thrives on addiction and misery.

Perhaps I'm being overly-optimistic, but I would like to think that Sicario might encourage someone somewhere out there to stay away from drugs.

Steering this big ship back into Criterion waters...

I liked Benicio del Toro's performance here even better than I liked his performance in Traffic.

[CriterionBlues]

Since I'm a short road trip from Owl, I also had a rainy day with a couple more in our future (although they predicted 17 inches and that didn't and won't happen. Phew).

So I spent my day editing our big Wes Anderson podcast (which took half the day), finishing !Alambrista!, having my mind blown with the aforementioned House and now I am marathoning Humphrey Jennings work from the brilliant BFI DVDs.

And I think I'll stick with Region B tomorrow while I let House settle in further.

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by yoyokid8

So what you guys think about a flash sale Tuesday?? I really hope it happens.

I put my money on next Tuesday 13, it will be quite A Special Day with The Brood coming out too.

[monorail91]

Great evening at the UCLA Film Archives, where they presented Gilda and The Bigamist (which I hadn't seen before).

Gilda was a 35mm restoration done by the UCLA team and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association - I'm guessing this is the one that would presumably be used for the Criterion, but a friend commented that Martin Scorsese may have helped with another recent restoration? (I'm bad at keeping all that straight.) Anyway, looked great and the audience was eating it up - lots of cheers whenever Rita would ignite the screen.

The Bigamist felt a little soapy, but was still entertaining. The shots of exterior 1950s San Francisco and Los Angeles were probably my highlights!

[pedromvu]

I know I am late to the party, but just watched Night and the City, I am not much of a film-noir fan, so after having loved Ride the Pink Horse, I wasn't expecting this to top that, but I was wrong.

These 95 minutes fly, there doesn't seem to be any breaks in the script to reflect or just to create atmosphere although it still has one, the script is very tight and there is always something important going on, oh and that wrestling scene was pretty heart pounding.

What surprises me as with Pink Horse, is that after checking reviews it doesn't seem to be as well regarded film as I thought, I just have seen this and Rififi, but surely need to check out more of Dassin work.

[Bob Kramer]

Originally Posted by pedromvu

I just have seen this and Rififi, but surely need to check out more of Dassin work.

Two words: Brute Force

[Polaroid]

Saw Macbeth yesterday and was a treat! The cinematography was breathtakingly beautiful, there were changes to original story but worked. Need to rewatch Polanski's to confirm but I think the story was better in Polanski's.

The casting was perfect and the soundtrack was incredible and brought everything together, at times it was so subtle but worked so well.

Highly recommend it!

[CriterionBlues]

Did I mention it was rainy in my town? This is the road just down the hill from my house. I'm okay.



So yeah, I'm looking for very DRY Criterion releases to watch .. The Shooting would be a good one.

[kuro_sawa]

Jeez, that looks like a Werner Herzog set from the 70s/80s

[Sifox211]

Ouch! I just landed in San Diego last night. Everyone in the office jokes that I always bring the rain with me from the UK.. well, today is no exception! Guess it'll help with the drought...

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by CriterionBlues

651.jpg[/IMG]

So yeah, I'm looking for very DRY Criterion releases to watch .. The Shooting would be a good one.

Sorry about the flooding in your area. I was flooded out of my old apartment in 2009, and that was not a lot of fun.

Walkabout, or at least the first half of it, is gloriously dry.

Letter Never Sent is a great Criterion title about all of the horrors that nature has to offer working against the characters. It's not a "dry" movie, although there is a sequence where more water would have been decidedly more welcome for the characters.

[kwillard37]

Hasn't there been a criterion sale in November in prior years? Anyone know if that's happening this year?

[Page14]

Originally Posted by CriterionBlues

Did I mention it was rainy in my town? This is the road just down the hill from my house. I'm okay.

[Show spoiler]

So yeah, I'm looking for very DRY Criterion releases to watch ..The Shooting would be a good one.

Wow ... just a little rainy, eh?

As for "dry" Criterion releases, how about Paris, Texas? Although it might get a little wet at the end, as in emotional.