The Criterion Collection

[shadedpain4]

Originally Posted by iScottie

I wonder if we'll see an upgrade of Early Summer in 2017, completing the Noriko trilogy on BD.

Would make sense. The Japanese blu of the 4k restoration has been out since September, so it should be all ready to go. The eventual Criterion release will probably be superior in terms of on disc supplements, but I doubt it will match packaging/printed material.

[shadedpain4]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

I've only seen the American film, and it's great. Just captures the 1980's feel really well, and has a nice gritty edge to it, and a solid soundtrack. Will try and seek out the Japanese film, as I've liked most of what I've seen from Imamura.

Visually, being a Ridley Scott movie, Black Rain is also very cool looking. Some scenes in Japan felt very Blade Runner-esque to me. I have this shot as a background pic on my profile page

Nice. The blu looks regularly below $10 so I'll make sure to snag it. I can watch it as part of...um...... Asians in American Films April?

[Ray Jackson]

I've watched Inside Llewyn Davis twice now.

I really like it, but can't quite decide where it belongs in the Coen Brothers canon?

I'd be curious to know why Criterion decided to release this one, given it came out just a couple of years ago and already had a pretty good BD release. I'm glad they did, because the special features are fantastic. I just think it would be fascinating to be a fly on the wall in one of their meetings where various titles get pitched.

Which factors take precedent in those meetings?

Financial matters...or Jon Mulvaney's Robert Altman fetish?

[Hoke Moseley]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

I've watched Inside Llewyn Davis twice now.

I really like it, but can't quite decide where it belongs in the Coen Brothers canon?

Watching it the second time bumped it into their top 5 for me.

[javi92]

Originally Posted by iScottie

I wonder if we'll see an upgrade of Early Summer in 2017, completing the Noriko trilogy on BD.

Wouldn't surprise me, since I just bought the Japanese release.

[Reddington]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

I've only seen the American film, and it's great. Just captures the 1980's feel really well, and has a nice gritty edge to it, and a solid soundtrack. Will try and seek out the Japanese film, as I've liked most of what I've seen from Imamura.

Visually, being a Ridley Scott movie, Black Rain is also very cool looking. Some scenes in Japan felt very Blade Runner-esque to me. I have this shot as a background pic on my profile page

Agreed. Great film, with an excellent cast.

[lordmorpheus72]

Originally Posted by pedromvu

Nice, will try and do it now, here is the list of all CC released or being released this year:

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/searc...&action=search

Of course I read this post after I painstakingly go back over all the posts and my purchases!

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by iScottie

I get the feeling that Criterion will be re-releasing the MGM Coen Brothers films.

I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a tease of Raising Arizona or Miller's Crossing in the 2017 New Years clue.

Actually, both of those titles are with Fox, not MGM. Fox distributes MGM releases, which is why the MGM-owned Fargo and Blood Simple were included in the Fox-released {From the Minds of the} Coen Brothers boxed set.

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

Sure, as far as plot goes, the films are fairly straight-forward, but what about the themes and meaning? In Red,

[Show spoiler]I spent a good portion of the film fairly sure of the fact that her boyfriend on the other line is really only 3 doors away and is having an affair w/ a blonde haired woman. Correct me if I’m wrong, but in the first scene of the movie, doesn’t Kieslowski explicitly show this? I gather that one of his themes is that the young man (whose identity we discover later on in the film - an identity I accept, but nevertheless can only be accepted in a fictional universe. It is an identity I wouldn’t have been able to detect if I were to have 100 first watches) may as well have been her b/f, or could be her b/f if the universe had unfolded differently. You’re saying you understood all of that and processed it as KK perhaps intended?

How about White? I liked the vibe of this film and I liked the comedy, but

[Show spoiler]I let out a “wtf?” at the end of the film. What was the conversation about him travelling to Hong Kong (was it HK? It was an Asian city, but I don’t remember which) only to have him peering through binoculars at his funeral? I accept the ‘leaps’ that Kieslowski takes in this one because they run consistent throughout the film – how does he get so rich so quickly? what did he do to get rich? I think the answer to that is ‘who cares?’ don’t they say in the film that she was seen with him the last day he was alive? Huh? …and then she goes to prison for killing him? Again, I don’t think it is important and KK is taking some kind of leap here. But still, I think there could be answers possibly revealed during subsequent viewings. Or… maybe it is just, as cpinheiro mentioned, KK showing spilt milk just for the sake of showing spilt milk.

I decided to reread this since I recently saw all three films again.

Regarding Red,

[Show spoiler]I think I always fall in that trap, the editing makes it seem like the phone boyfriend is the young law student, but then after a while it is pretty clear it is just a parallel story (since she hears him on the phone with the old Judge, and then considering how different the personality of his boyfriend is), why is this filmed this way in the beginning I am not sure if it was the purpose or an error though.

I think this one makes it clear the purpose of the old people putting glass bottles on recycling bins, they show us the character reactions in this case the empathy of Valentine is what makes her the only one who helps.

For me I choose not to try and think too much about whether the old Judge is the old version of the law student, it is very much implied but I think it is part of a bigger theme of the interconnections of humans and how chance shapes our destiny or whatever you want to call it, I am sure it doesn't have to make sense in the real world for it to have some truth.

But my favorite theme here is really the one explored when Valentine first discovers what the Judge does, something that I often think about, we can only live with our point of view of everything, it is incredibly difficult to distinguish why we do or want to do things, are we always being selfish with all our actions?

As for White I think I find this inconsistencies you mention one of the reason I don't enjoy this one that much, I am not sure it all makes perfect sense,

[Show spoiler]Although he primarily makes the money via the territories he sells for much more, it appears he then makes some kind of business.

The first half is pretty good though, but in the end I don't think it has the same depth as Blue or Red.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Whoa, you mean to tell me there were two Japanese-centric movies titled "Black Rain" that were released in 1989?!

The Ridley Scott one is ham-handed and is really only worth seeing for the astonishing performance of the late Yūsaku Matsuda as the Big Bad.

The Shohei Imamura one is outstanding and heartbreaking, and badly needs a Blu-ray release.

[lordmorpheus72]

Just finished The 400 blows for the first time. I'm ashamed that it took me this long to watch this movie. This is my second Truffaut film, the other being Jules and Jim.

I really enjoyed this film and thought it was quite amazing. I couldn't believe how much I felt for Antoine, and how his childhood was expressed so well on film. It jumps right up there as one of my favorite films.

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

I've watched Inside Llewyn Davis twice now.

I really like it, but can't quite decide where it belongs in the Coen Brothers canon?

I'd be curious to know why Criterion decided to release this one, given it came out just a couple of years ago and already had a pretty good BD release. I'm glad they did, because the special features are fantastic. I just think it would be fascinating to be a fly on the wall in one of their meetings where various titles get pitched.

Which factors take precedent in those meetings?

Financial matters...or Jon Mulvaney's Robert Altman fetish?

Pretty much extras, in most cases, which is unfortunate (for me, anyway) seeing Criterion upgrade already-released discs with perfectly fine PQ just to add extras I'll never watch over releasing titles that aren't even out yet.

They had the option of releasing Silence of the Lambs a few years back and passed because many of their extras had been ported over to the MGM release and they didn't feel a bump in PQ was enough to justify releasing it. Yet they regularly release Wes Anderson "upgrades" with little-to-no bump in PQ but extras the original release didn't have.

[UncleBuckWild]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

I really like it, but can't quite decide where it belongs in the Coen Brothers canon?

I'd be curious to know why Criterion decided to release this one.

Inside Llewyn Davis's a fine film, as for why in CC? Are you sirious! How can you be so heartless?! ;(

The Cat, man, the freakin' cat. I was all teary by the end of it, It got me and the Mulvaneys.

... Becker was like f**k it, get the team on this right away.

Knowing how it works now, I did suggest something similar

[Show spoiler]John Wick

and after a long pause he said, sure someday, maybe after the GVS title.

[senseabove]

Originally Posted by pedromvu

I decided to reread this since I recently saw all three films again.

Regarding Red,

[Show spoiler]I think I always fall in that trap, the editing makes it seem like the phone boyfriend is the young law student, but then after a while it is pretty clear it is just a parallel story (since she hears him on the phone with the old Judge, and then considering how different the personality of his boyfriend is), why is this filmed this way in the beginning I am not sure if it was the purpose or an error though.

I think this one makes it clear the purpose of the old people putting glass bottles on recycling bins, they show us the character reactions in this case the empathy of Valentine is what makes her the only one who helps.

For me I choose not to try and think too much about whether the old Judge is the old version of the law student, it is very much implied but I think it is part of a bigger theme of the interconnections of humans and how chance shapes our destiny or whatever you want to call it, I am sure it doesn't have to make sense in the real world for it to have some truth.

But my favorite theme here is really the one explored when Valentine first discovers what the Judge does, something that I often think about, we can only live with our point of view of everything, it is incredibly difficult to distinguish why we do or want to do things, are we always being selfish with all our actions?

As for White I think I find this inconsistencies you mention one of the reason I don't enjoy this one that much, I am not sure it all makes perfect sense,

[Show spoiler]Although he primarily makes the money via the territories he sells for much more, it appears he then makes some kind of business.

The first half is pretty good though, but in the end I don't think it has the same depth as Blue or Red.

This is an unpopular opinion, but I think Blue & Red are more style than depth, and White is actually the most interesting movie. I don't mean that as an insult in any way: Blue & Red are beautiful, clever, and powerful evocations of some ideas that I just find to be fairly commonplace, especially in modern film: for blue,

[Show spoiler]no man is an island/we need connection/even our indirect actions affect other people (a.k.a. Liberté),

and for red,

[Show spoiler]chance governs a lot of who we are/chance can unite or separate us in unexpected ways (a.k.a. fraternité)

. There are other themes, of course, like you point out in Red, but those strike me as the dominant ones in each. I don't find them all that interesting in and of themselves, and they're all over film, from Pulp Fiction to Wendy & Lucy (which explores the themes of Red in a much more interesting, less contrived way, in my opinion) to every indie movie about chance meetings leading to unexpected relationships. (And I feel the same way about Dekalogs 1 & 5: beautiful renditions of almost annoyingly simplistic ideas, which I doubt I'll return to for any but aesthetic reasons, tho I'm eager to rewatch the much more interesting, complex, and inconclusive stories in 3 & 6, for example).

But as I said, as far as complexity of themes, I think White is the most interesting, for actually exploring

[Show spoiler]what equality means in the context of a relationship, and specifically in that relationship, where each person must experience severely limited freedom as a result of the other person's demands or actions to understand what equality and freedom actually mean, in general and in their relationship.

Karol is unequal to Dominique in their relationship, feeling imprisoned in Paris, where he's moved to be with her since she refuses to move to backwater Warsaw, and impotent both figuratively and (consequently, psychosomatically) literally, being incapable of speaking the language, unable to earn any money legally, and unable to satisfy her.

The only purpose of his years-long machinations is to show her exactly what that feels like, being (literally, this time) imprisoned in a foreign country where you don't speak the language and have no resources, which is why it doesn't particularly matter how he does it, just that he does: his business and the set-up is only a means to that end. What we do know is that he plans on fleeing to Hong Kong after seeing her one more time at his funeral. My interpretation is that, on seeing her there, he decides to go to her hotel (or maybe going to the hotel was part of the plan all along), and after showing her he's no longer impotent, he abandons plans to flee, hoping that once she experiences what his inequality felt like, they'll be able to re-establish the relationship on equal footing. Her hand motions at the end are "When I get out, I don't want to run away; let's get re-married"; cue his single tear: he was right, she realizes what he felt, and they can be equals now. So he decides to wait for her to get out, or maybe confesses to faking his death to get her out and finds a way to get himself and his co-conspirators off the hook, and they get back together, as we see at the end of Red.

(As an aside:the visualized phone call that opens red

[Show spoiler]is Valentine's boyfriend calling from England—we see the call go under is the English Channel—and Valentine and Auguste meeting on the boat is chance bringing them together, presumably as a couple, but perhaps just as survivors.

.)

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by UncleBuckWild

Inside Llewyn Davis's a fine film, as for why in CC? Are you sirious! How can you be so heartless?! ;(

The Cat, man, the freakin' cat. I was all teary by the end of it, It got me and the Mulvaneys.

... Becker was like f**k it, get the team on this right away.

Knowing how it works now, I did suggest something similar

[Show spoiler]John Wick

and after a long pause he said, sure someday, maybe after the GVS title.

I wish you wouldn't have mentioned the cat.

I hate that scene.

I hate the Coen Brothers for shooting it.

Those heartless, nihilistic bastards.

Joel Coen has the blackest eyes.

...the devil's eyes.

[Arch Stanton]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

I've watched Inside Llewyn Davis twice now.

I really like it, but can't quite decide where it belongs in the Coen Brothers canon?

I'd be curious to know why Criterion decided to release this one, given it came out just a couple of years ago and already had a pretty good BD release. I'm glad they did, because the special features are fantastic. I just think it would be fascinating to be a fly on the wall in one of their meetings where various titles get pitched.

Which factors take precedent in those meetings?

Financial matters...or Jon Mulvaney's Robert Altman fetish?

I think it being fairly modern makes it a good sell for them, and it's quite 'hip' in the same way Wes Anderson's movies are deemed (even though ironically it's a film about the Greenwich Village folk scene in the 60s)

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by senseabove

This is an unpopular opinion, but I think Blue & Red are more style than depth, and White is actually the most interesting movie. I don't mean that as an insult in any way: Blue & Red are beautiful, clever, and powerful evocations of some ideas that I just find to be fairly commonplace, especially in modern film: for blue,

[Show spoiler]no man is an island/we need connection/even our indirect actions affect other people (a.k.a. Liberté),

and for red,

[Show spoiler]chance governs a lot of who we are/chance can unite or separate us in unexpected ways (a.k.a. fraternité)

. There are other themes, of course, like you point out in Red, but those strike me as the dominant ones in each. I don't find them all that interesting in and of themselves, and they're all over film, from Pulp Fiction to Wendy & Lucy (which explores the themes of Red in a much more interesting, less contrived way, in my opinion) to every indie movie about chance meetings leading to unexpected relationships. (And I feel the same way about Dekalogs 1 & 5: beautiful renditions of almost annoyingly simplistic ideas, which I doubt I'll return to for any but aesthetic reasons, tho I'm eager to rewatch the much more interesting, complex, and inconclusive stories in 3 & 6, for example).

But as I said, as far as complexity of themes, I think White is the most interesting, for actually exploring

[Show spoiler]what equality means in the context of a relationship, and specifically in that relationship, where each person must experience severely limited freedom as a result of the other person's demands or actions to understand what equality and freedom actually mean, in general and in their relationship.

Karol is unequal to Dominique in their relationship, feeling imprisoned in Paris, where he's moved to be with her since she refuses to move to backwater Warsaw, and impotent both figuratively and (consequently, psychosomatically) literally, being incapable of speaking the language, unable to earn any money legally, and unable to satisfy her.

The only purpose of his years-long machinations is to show her exactly what that feels like, being (literally, this time) imprisoned in a foreign country where you don't speak the language and have no resources, which is why it doesn't particularly matter how he does it, just that he does: his business and the set-up is only a means to that end. What we do know is that he plans on fleeing to Hong Kong after seeing her one more time at his funeral. My interpretation is that, on seeing her there, he decides to go to her hotel (or maybe going to the hotel was part of the plan all along), and after showing her he's no longer impotent, he abandons plans to flee, hoping that once she experiences what his inequality felt like, they'll be able to re-establish the relationship on equal footing. Her hand motions at the end are "When I get out, I don't want to run away; let's get re-married"; cue his single tear: he was right, she realizes what he felt, and they can be equals now. So he decides to wait for her to get out, or maybe confesses to faking his death to get her out and finds a way to get himself and his co-conspirators off the hook, and they get back together, as we see at the end of Red.

(As an aside:the visualized phone call that opens red

[Show spoiler]is Valentine's boyfriend calling from England—we see the call go under is the English Channel—and Valentine and Auguste meeting on the boat is chance bringing them together, presumably as a couple, but perhaps just as survivors.

.)

Well looking at it that way it certainly appears that White is the one with the more complex story, and it is certainly the one with more plot, which may be one of the reasons I don't respond that much to it, although on my first viewing it was my favorite and the one I felt I understood more completely.

Now I feel too much plot interferes with my enjoyment on a deeper level, what I mean is that my mind tries to keep track of everything that is going on in the surface without leaving much time to digest the themes or letting it hit me on an emotional level.

Not sure if all this makes sense, anyway at the end all 3 films in the Colors Trilogy are great and technically impressive films, I just felt Red and Blue are more relatable personally which is a big reason I prefer them.

For me simple ideas don't bother me as long as they are presented in interesting ways or make you question yourself or relate to them, for example Mulholland Dr. has a simple idea even if wrapped on a difficult to open package, but the way it's done and challenges the audience is what pays off.

[ThatOneGuy]

Originally Posted by Arch Stanton

I think it being fairly modern makes it a good sell for them, and it's quite 'hip' in the same way Wes Anderson's movies are deemed (even though ironically it's a film about the Greenwich Village folk scene in the 60s)

They might also be trying to release all of the Coen Brothers' praised work. I really won't be surprised if they announce The Big Lewbowsky and/or Fargo in the near future.

[UncleBuckWild]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

[Show spoiler]I wish you wouldn't have mentioned the cat.

I hate that scene.

I hate the Coen Brothers for shooting it.

Those heartless, nihilistic bastards.

Joel Coen has the blackest eyes.

...the devil's eyes.

GRRR!... You baboon! at least put a spoiler! I think I'll have nightmares tonight!

[joie]

I'm buying "Burroughs." I've been getting some Beat reading kicks lately by reading Jack Kerouac. I've advanced to "Visions of Cody," which is full of the spontaneous bop prosody that his writing was praised for. I read "Big Sur," "On the Road" and "Dharma Bums" before beginning "Visions." Burroughs turns up as "Old Bull," living near New Orleans, in "On the Road." He hasn't shown up yet in "Visions," unless it's been with another name.