The Criterion Collection

[BohemianGraham]

Originally Posted by filmmusic

If I may ask, is Sundays and Cybele's plot revolving around Christmas?
Or it has just 1-2 Christmas scenes?

I think Owl was referring to the utterly gutwrenching, depressing ending of the film, which is the antithesis of happy, holiday film watching.

[jmclick]

Originally Posted by BohemianGraham

Have you read Erskine Caldwell's novel? If not, go do so right now.

You know, I may do just that! I just finished reading Truman Capote's In Cold Blood (the film version is my selection for the Best Film of 1967), and Tobacco Road is among the volumes on my shelf waiting to be read!

Originally Posted by BohemianGraham

1. How Green Was My Valley
2. The Searchers
3. Mogambo (why are people ignoring this one? is it because it's a remake?)
4. Fort Apache
5. Mary of Scotland (again, why is this overlooked?)

There are several more, and admittedly, I had issues narrowing down my top 5.

Mogambo would probably make my list if I were compiling my Top 10 John Ford titles; although I'm very fond of Red Dust, the Gable-Gardner-Kelly teaming is just as powerful. I'm ashamed to admit that I own, but haven't yet watched, Mary of Scotland ...

[lordmorpheus72]

on a separate but related note.. has anyone been able, or even tried, to use the current coupon more than once? I've never tried those email coupons more than once until the one that came out for Black Friday weekend. I used 5 or 6 of those on presents and such, though I think they were a little different. Just curious.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by filmmusic

If I may ask, is Sundays and Cybele's plot revolving around Christmas?
Or it has just 1-2 Christmas scenes?

Sundays and Cybele is not a "Christmas movie", although the acquisition of a Christmas gift does figure into the story.

It's just a rather heartbreaking flick to watch during a time of year when we're all supposed to be happy.

(Of course, on that note, I mayhaps shouldn't be planning to watch the last two films in The Omen trilogy tomorrow either.)

[jmclick]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Somebody's going to have a sad, sad Christmas holiday.

(Sundays and Cybele is a wonderful movie, though.)

If you like it, then you should check out the Twilight Time Blu-ray of Rapture before it's gone. Sundays and Cybele and Rapture were both incredible blind buys for me.

In fact, I almost wrote in Sundays and Cybele as my favorite Criterion blind buy in the year-end poll, but ended up choosing Il Sorpasso instead. 2014 has been a great year.

Okay, that clinches it. I was debating on picking up either Sundays and Cybele or Purple Noon with my 30% off coupon, and now I know which it's to be!

[BohemianGraham]

Originally Posted by jmclick

You know, I may do just that! I just finished reading Truman Capote's In Cold Blood (the film version is my selection for the Best Film of 1967), and Tobacco Road is among the volumes on my shelf waiting to be read!




Mogambo would probably make my list if I were compiling my Top 10 John Ford titles; although I'm very fond of Red Dust, the Gable-Gardner-Kelly teaming is just as powerful. I'm ashamed to admit that I own, but haven't yet watched, Mary of Scotland ...

I read In Cold Blood for fun in high school, long before I even knew about the film adaptation. The synopsis intrigued me. When I was doing a lit appreciation course for my MLIS, it was around the time Capote and Infamous (the superior film IMHO, Toby Jones is a far better Capote) were making waves everywhere. We had to read The Grass Harp (which, is vastly different from the film adaptation, and I was the only one who found it hilarious, and realised that Piper Laurie and Sissy Spacek essentially reversed their roles from Carrie personality wise) and everyone in the class had only heard of ICB because of Capote. No one knew Capote had also written Breakfast at Tiffany's, even though they all had seen the film. Again, the film's vastly different from the Capote novella.

Tobacco Road's fantastic. I was going through a "let's read everything on Modern Library, Radcliffe, and Time's top 100 lists" phase, and it was one of the novels that deserved to be on those lists. There were quite a few that really didn't appeal to me. I did finish all 3 top 100 lists, and there was a lot of repetition between the 3. I'm currently working, albeit slowly, through the 2012 version of 1001 novels to read before you die. I'm about 1/3 of the way through, but have all but 209 of the titles in electronic format on my Kobo. Currently I'm working through the Duane Moore series by Larry McMurtey, which, as you all should know, is Criterion related, as the first novel in the series is The Last Picture Show, which is in the BBS set.

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by jmclick

The Grapes of Wrath
The Searchers
The Quiet Man
Stagecoach
The Lost Patrol

I'd forgotten about The Lost Patrol. Great film with another Max Steiner score I like. I'm probably the only one here that likes his early RKO scores as much as his more famous ones for WB.
I'd like to see the British silent version of this film.

[jmclick]

Originally Posted by lordmorpheus72

on a separate but related note.. has anyone been able, or even tried, to use the current coupon more than once? I've never tried those email coupons more than once until the one that came out for Black Friday weekend. I used 5 or 6 of those on presents and such, though I think they were a little different. Just curious.

Well, they emailed me the Black Friday coupon three times (the second and third emails were of the "Don't forget!" variety), so I printed it out three times and used all three at once. The cash register accepted all three and they had the same code, so theoretically, I would guess the answer is "yes".

[The Great Owl]

This is heavily Criterion-related...

Pro-B's list of Best North American Blu-ray Releases of 2014 is ace.

L'Avventura, Il Sorpasso, The Big Chill and Persona are incredible films and incredible Criterion releases. (I have not seen Bay of Angels yet, but I will.)

I'm particularly happy, however, to see the Warner Archive Blu-ray of Out of the Past, the Grindhouse Releasing Blu-ray of The Swimmer, and the Mondo Vision Blu-ray of Possession on the list.

I've extolled the virtues of Out of the Past enough on this forum already, but it's a no-brainer for my favorite release of the year.

If, however, I had to recommend a "best movie that nobody has ever seen" from this year's crop of releases, then I would recommend The Swimmer. It's a truly haunting and surreal masterpiece of a film.

[lordmorpheus72]

Originally Posted by jmclick

Well, they emailed me the Black Friday coupon three times (the second and third emails were of the "Don't forget!" variety), so I printed it out three times and used all three at once. The cash register accepted all three and they had the same code, so theoretically, I would guess the answer is "yes".

yeah, got the same email three times as well. guess i just need to try the "regular" email coupons and see what happens.

[Edward J Grug III]

Originally Posted by the great owl

if, however, i had to recommend a "best movie that nobody has ever seen" from this year's crop of releases, then i would recommend the swimmer. It's a truly haunting and surreal masterpiece of a film.

yes

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by bugsy_pal

I haven't seen a huge number of Fords, but here's my list, in no particular order:

My Darling Clementine
Three Godfathers (This is a GREAT little movie)
The Searchers
Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Grapes of Wrath

I have to tell you if you've only seen the Ford version of 3 Godfathers you should try to find the earlier versions-Three Godfathers ('35 MGM) and especially William Wyler's Hell's Heros ('29 Universal).

I grew up with the Ford film but since seeing the other two I would rank it behind them. They are both much more grim and feature a much darker lead character than the Wayne characterization. No

[Show spoiler]happy ending

either.

[Namuhana]

Originally Posted by lordmorpheus72

on a separate but related note.. has anyone been able, or even tried, to use the current coupon more than once? I've never tried those email coupons more than once until the one that came out for Black Friday weekend. I used 5 or 6 of those on presents and such, though I think they were a little different. Just curious.

This current coupon has a specific code and can only be used once. The Black Friday coupon had the same code for everybody, and so you could use that one more than once (though, you weren't technically supposed to).

I used my 30% off code, in conjunction with my 10% off membership, to get Snowpiercer for $12, so I'm pretty happy.

[jw007]

Hey, I bought Safe today! I got it during the 40% off sale at B&N... I used a 30% coupon on top of the 10% members discount and it came out to like $15 and change!

I'm not too familiar with Todd Haynes' films but I've been wanting to see this film for some time. Totally psyched!

[oildude]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

I’d rank the Ford that I’ve seen as follows:

My Darling Clementine
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Grapes of Wrath
How Green Was My Valley
The Searchers

anyone else? top 5 Ford titles?

Really hard for me to pick a top 5 films by John Ford, since any list would change as I watch more of his work. However, I will mention a few that are candidates:

The Quiet Man - this would be on the list no matter what others come on or off. Probably my favorite Ford film. A definite crowd pleaser.....put this on for a room of people who know nothing of Ford; it is hard to imagine anyone not liking this wonderful movie. This is the movie Spielberg has playing on the television in E.T. where Elliot reenacts the scene by grabbing the little girl at school by the arm and pulling her back inside the door.

Fort Apache - surprised this hasn't been mentioned by more people. It ranks up there with The Searchers for me as truly great John Ford; I had never seen it until I bought the Blu-ray two years ago and was blown away by how captivating and moving it is. I wasn't a big Henry Fonda fan until I saw him in Grapes of Wrath and then here as the vainglorious commanding officer of a cavalry fort. It is a tale of one man's relentless obsession, and the ultimate effects this has on the soldiers, their families living at the fort, and the Apaches nearby. The plot is somewhat based on the Fetterman Fight, an historic event that took place in Wyoming Territory during the war with Sioux chief Red Cloud in the mid 1860s, reimagined by Ford as a brewing confrontation in the American Southwest. The cast here is stellar, the character development is among the best of Ford's or any other film, so that the viewer is vested in what happens to each of them. Suffice to say, it is not all good. Fort Apache is one of the new breed of Westerns that Ford created after his experiences in WWII, darker, grimmer, no heroes, no real villains, just flawed and identifiable characters caught in fateful times.

The Searchers - not much to add to the praise and superlatives it has received over the years. Few westerns, or other genres, have ever equaled this voyage into the heart of darkness of a man, a hardened Civil War veteran on the brink of losing his humanity in his relentless quest to find his niece, where the real search is finding salvation for himself.

The Horse Soldiers - I really enjoy this one. Kind of a sleeper in that it rarely gets mentioned, but is top shelf John Ford, with a winning performance from William Holden alongside John Wayne.

How Green was my Valley - outstanding and very personal film from Ford about the hardscrabble life of a Welsh mining family and the mining community where they live and work.

and to keep this all Criterion related, arguably the most iconic and influential film of Ford's long career, Stagecoach. I have not yet watched My Darling Clementine, trying to hold off on it while I clear a backlog of other unwatched Criterions.

[filmmusic]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Sundays and Cybele is not a "Christmas movie", although the acquisition of a Christmas gift does figure into the story.

It's just a rather heartbreaking flick to watch during a time of year when we're all supposed to be happy.

(Of course, on that note, I mayhaps shouldn't be planning to watch the last two films in The Omen trilogy tomorrow either.)

Ok, thanks.
I just asked, not because you mentioned Christmas, but becuase I have seen a couple of screenshots that showed Christmas.

[Yami]

Fantastic news: Criterion to release Orson Welles' Othello in Fall 2015!

[WonderWeasel]

Woohoo! Just picked up 'All That Heaven Allows' for $7.99 at Half Price Books because it was missing the DVD. The Blu-Ray works just fine, though!

[WonderWeasel]

Originally Posted by oildude

Fort Apache - surprised this hasn't been mentioned by more people. It ranks up there with The Searchers for me as truly great John Ford; I had never seen it until I bought the Blu-ray two years ago and was blown away by how captivating and moving it is. I wasn't a big Henry Fonda fan until I saw him in Grapes of Wrath and then here as the vainglorious commanding officer of a cavalry fort. It is a tale of one man's relentless obsession, and the ultimate effects this has on the soldiers, their families living at the fort, and the Apaches nearby. The plot is somewhat based on the Fetterman Fight, an historic event that took place in Wyoming Territory during the war with Sioux chief Red Cloud in the mid 1860s, reimagined by Ford as a brewing confrontation in the American Southwest. The cast here is stellar, the character development is among the best of Ford's or any other film, so that the viewer is vested in what happens to each of them. Suffice to say, it is not all good. Fort Apache is one of the new breed of Westerns that Ford created after his experiences in WWII, darker, grimmer, no heroes, no real villains, just flawed and identifiable characters caught in fateful times.

I found 'Fort Apache' at Wal-Mart on a discount display about a year ago, and blind bought it. I didn't like it as much as 'The Grapes of Wrath', but it definitely became one of my top two or three Ford films. Plus, I don't think I've seen a Fonda film I haven't liked.

[adamhopelies]

Originally Posted by filmmusic

Ok, thanks.
I just asked, not because you mentioned Christmas, but becuase I have seen a couple of screenshots that showed Christmas.

The film's third act is set at Xmas, making it a great alternative Xmas movie. I'd watch it alongside My Night At Maud's, Blast Of Silence and Mon Oncle Antoine.