The Criterion Collection

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

You're marooned on a desert island for the rest of your life with a blu-ray player, a giant HD flatscreen, some mysterious never-ending power source and ten Criterion blu-rays.

...which ten would you choose?

Off the top of my head...

1. Army of Shadows
2. Le Cercle Rouge
3. The Night of the Hunter
4. The Third Man
5. The Vanishing
6. The Killers (1946)
7. Paris, Texas
8. Sweet Smell of Success
9. Ace in the Hole
10. Night and the City

[CriterionBlues]

This is too hard. I just saw about 20 on other lists that I'd want on my desert island.

I'm just going to build my own island with a sea of Criterions around me.

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Off the top of my head...

1. Army of Shadows
2. Le Cercle Rouge
3. The Night of the Hunter
4. The Third Man
5. The Vanishing
6. The Killers (1946)
7. Paris, Texas
8. Seven Samurai
9. Ace in the Hole
10. Night and the City

That's an interesting list.

I like Le Circle Rouge, but I don't find it to be as compelling as Le Samourai.

I didn't like The Vanishing that much. It didn't really disturb me and I didn't find it to be "terrifying", the way Stanley Kubrick said it was.

I recently saw The Killers for the first time and thought it was pretty good for a film noir flick.

But not nearly as good as Out of the Past, which I watched last night for the second time.

...great movie.

[Edward J Grug III]

Of course we wouldn't be able to bring ourselves to turn the blu rays into a raft and cause them to be less-than-mint condition.

(Sorry if this joke has already been made - I skip a lot of this thread during sales :P)

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

That's an interesting list.

I like Le Circle Rouge, but I don't find it to be as compelling as Le Samourai.

I didn't like The Vanishing that much. It didn't really disturb me and I didn't find it to be "terrifying", the way Stanley Kubrick said it was.

I recently saw The Killers for the first time and thought it was pretty good for a film noir flick.

But not nearly as good as Out of the Past, which I watched last night for the second time.

...great movie.

Out of the Past is my all-time favorite movie.

Le Samouraï would normally be at the top of my Criterion list, but you specified "Blu-rays." Haha. That is my favorite movie ever released by the Collection, though.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Edward J Grug III

Of course we wouldn't be able to bring ourselves to turn the blu rays into a raft and cause them to be less-than-mint condition.

That Jacques Demy set would make a good life jacket. It's huge, but it feels lighter than air.

[SlickDamian]

Originally Posted by Snicket

What's a good entry point into Cronenberg? I'm thinking of wading into those waters.

The Fly

[pro-bassoonist]

NEW RESTORATIONS 2016

Horse Feathers (1932)

http://filmfestival.tcm.com/programs...feathers-1932/

The Marx Bros. bring their manic and surrealistic style of comedy to college football and academia when College president Groucho enlists Chico and Harpo to help his team beat a rival in one of the funniest football games in movie history, shown in a world premiere restoration presented in collaboration with Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

Shanghai Express (1932)

http://filmfestival.tcm.com/programs...nghai-express/

The pairing of director Josef von Sternberg and actress Marlene Dietrich turns this melodramatic tale of bandits and ladies of easy virtue into one of the most exotic experiences in film history, shown in a world premiere restoration presented in collaboration with Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

Pro-B

[darkness2918]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

You're marooned on a desert island for the rest of your life with a blu-ray player, a giant HD flatscreen, some mysterious never-ending power source and ten Criterion blu-rays.

...which ten would you choose?

Le Samourai
Videodrome
Cronos
The Devils Backbone
Purple Noon
Le Cercle Rouge
Scanners
Dressed to Kill
Mulholland Drive
Shallow Grave

[Gusto-Guus]

Originally Posted by CriterionBlues

After years of pegging away, today I am finally Blu-Ray Criterion Complete.

Today is a good day.

Where do you keep them all? Mind sharing a picture?

[ParaOK]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

You're marooned on a desert island for the rest of your life with a blu-ray player, a giant HD flatscreen, some mysterious never-ending power source and ten Criterion blu-rays.

...which ten would you choose?

Army of Shadows
Badlands
Bottle Rocket
Brazil
Devil's Backbone
The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Harold and Maude
Repo Man
Sword of Doom
Wild Strawberries

[cicada88]

Picked these up in the sale...

1. The Killing
2. Seventh Seal
3. YiYi
4. In The Mood For Love

[jmclick]

Originally Posted by hoytereden

I do live on an island (probably for the rest of my life) and have a Blu-ray player, tv, and a never ending (unless I stop paying them!) power source and my ten would be:

Beauty and the Beast
Amarcord
Badlands
Lord of the Flies (just to remind me living on a island could be worse!)
My Life as a Dog (my pick-me-up film)
Red River
Summer With Monika
Tokyo Story
Walkabout

I spent a lot of time debating over whether to include Lord of the Flies and Red River on my list, and probably would have numbered them 11 and 12, respectively. You came up with a great list.

[Martin_31]

Today I saw Purple Noon, and I loved it! An amazing movie. Once the boat scene began till the end, my nerves where going mad. I felt agitated and tensed throughout Toms endeavors to become rich. Highly recommend buying it now that the B&N Sale is on. Tomorrow I'll watch the special features and read the thick booklet. And Alain Delon was extremely handsome!

[cakefactory]

Originally Posted by Snicket

What's a good entry point into Cronenberg? I'm thinking of wading into those waters.

I would VERY, VERY strongly advise against Scanners, it's probably the most flawed of his early films. The lead performance is famously bland and the plot is a bit haphazard and it doesn't have the same thematic richness as all his other major pictures from Shivers through Naked Lunch. It seems like he got halfway through writing the script and then was told he had to film it before he could polish it. Ironically, I think that he actually was writing Videodrome as that was being filmed and that turned out amazingly.

The Fly is his biggest "hit" and is probably my favorite. It's more accessible than most of his other stuff, naturally, but it is VERY gruesome so be ready for that.

Videodrome is quite a bit more complex than The Fly plotwise, if you're fine with movies where reality is intentionally ambiguous then it's a fine starting point.

A History of Violence is the one that's probably the most accessible to mainstream audiences, it's far less disgusting than The Fly. I like it a fair amount, but I would rate it about in the middle of his catalog. It got great reviews when it came out but seems to have faded in the minds of Cronenberg fans over time. It might be a good starting point, though.

Dead Ringers has a lot of people who consider it his masterwork, it's where he really started getting away from goriness and horror. "Crash" also has quite a following of people who consider it his best - that one is famous for how much it offended people, it is extremely sexually explicit.

I'd highly recommend The Dead Zone, but that one is SO accessible that it barely feels like a Cronenberg movie. It's one of my favorite horror movies of the 80s, though.

Ones to avoid at first would be Map to the Stars (yuck), Cosmopolis (INCREDIBLY divisive), Shivers/Rabid (I love both, but they are a bit less mature than later ones), The Brood (if you're not a big horror fan you might want to be careful with this one, but it's a big step up in quality and thematic richness from Shivers/Rabid), A Dangerous Method/Spider/Eastern Promises (not Cronenbergy enough), M Butterfly (widely considered his weakest, it's alright), Scanners (I have watched this 5 or 6 times now and still don't understand how it can be considered anything other than one of his worst movies), and probably Naked Lunch, which is good but pretty wild and fairly non-essential in the grand scheme of his catalog.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

You're marooned on a desert island for the rest of your life with a blu-ray player, a giant HD flatscreen, some mysterious never-ending power source and ten Criterion blu-rays.

...which ten would you choose?

Something like this.

01. L'Avventura
02. Chungking Express
03. La Dolce Vita
04. Fanny and Alexander
05. The Great Beauty
06. In the Mood for Love
07. Modern Times
08. Mulholland Drive
09. Tokyo Story
10. Y Tu Mamá También

[darkness2918]

Originally Posted by Martin_31

Today I saw Purple Noon, and I loved it! An amazing movie. Once the boat scene began till the end, my nerves where going mad. I felt agitated and tensed throughout Toms endeavors to become rich. Highly recommend buying it now that the B&N Sale is on. Tomorrow I'll watch the special features and read the thick booklet. And Alain Delon was extremely handsome!

Purple Noon is one of my favorite films. Its one of the best blind buys I picked up during the summer B&N sale.

[wondervamp]

Originally Posted by jmclick

I looked for, but didn't find, A Room With a View; incredibly, they had sold out of that title. And ... I got their last copy of The Brood, which they said was selling fast even before the sale started. All in all, a great day!

Just have them order it for you and they will have what you want in store in about 3-5 days...that's what I did today.

[Polaroid]

Originally Posted by CriterionBlues

This is too hard. I just saw about 20 on other lists that I'd want on my desert island.

I'm just going to build my own island with a sea of Criterions around me.

Can I come ?

[Sifox211]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

You're marooned on a desert island for the rest of your life with a blu-ray player, a giant HD flatscreen, some mysterious never-ending power source and ten Criterion blu-rays.

...which ten would you choose?

Great post and some top suggestions abdy*!

Here's mine -

1. Chungking Express
2. Fanny and Alexander
3. Wild Strawberries
4. The Qatsi Trilogy (K if only one)
5. Il Sorpasso
6. The Life Aquatic
7. Complete Jacques Tati (M. Hulot's Holiday)
8. A Hard Day's Night
9. L'Avventura
10. Colonel Blimp

* Abdy = Doric (Aberdonian) for everybody