The Criterion Collection

[KilloWertz]

Originally Posted by KillDaWabbit

I feel like I just watched the dreams of a failed actress who had too much Valium. What a trip.

That was also my first time ever watching a David Lynch film. Had no idea what to expect going in as I had purposely not read anything about it, and I am happy I didn't. I normally don't like surreal and stylized movies like this, but I am going to be pondering what I just watched for quite a while. Laura Harring and Naomi Watts were fantastic as well. The audition scene was incredible.

My first viewing of Mulholland Drive a couple of months ago was similar. With the way the movie went, normally it probably would have been a one and done with me, but it f's with your head so much that I couldn't help but keep it and will gladly watch it several more times. Not to fully understand it though, since I know that will likely never happen, but it truly is something else.

[Olmo]

Originally Posted by Knaldskalle

None of these are US releases, though, which is what was asked about. Other than that, I agree wit you.

My mistake, I misread your question.

The only release I saw which came close to anything Criterion would be interested in was Milius' Dillinger. Though even that's a stretch.

The rest seems to be the kind of output which they now seem to be putting most of their efforts into in the UK. That being slasher flicks, horror, grindhouse etc, which is fair enough if you like that sort of thing but I have no interest in it whatsoever.

[jcs913]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

I'll be honest and I'm sure I'm not alone here... I don't even know who William S Burroughs is/was...

Brad, you know who Jack Kerouac was, right?

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by jcs913

Brad, you know who Jack Kerouac was, right?

Yes. On The Road, right? My sister read it. I haven't fared too well with some of what many consider to be the "great novels." I can't recall if I tried to read it or not.

[jcs913]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

Yes. On The Road, right? My sister read it. I haven't fared too well with some of what many consider to be the "great novels." I can't recall if I tried to read it or not.

I would not call it a great novel, as it said something about the time. Jack was the most famous of the Beat writers. You can throw Allen Ginsberg into that mix too. One of the greatest times for American writers. I know you are a fan of 80's and 90's music too, as we all know it was the greatest era of all-time.... See if you have 10,000 Maniacs debut album and check out track 2, if I remember right.

Back on his CC topic, Naked Lunch gives you an insight into Burroughs' crazy head, but the documentary really puts his life in a more textbook fashion. It gives some good insight into what the Beat writers were trying to say. Plus, if I remember correctly, I think Wenders was inspired by Kerouac and the Beats' adventures, he made his own ROAD films, which we can all enjoy in a few months in HD...

[pedromvu]

Just finished watching I Knew her Well, this has to be up there with Jules and Jim and The Big City as one of my favorite blind buys.

First of all technically this is quite impressive, I mean aside from the expected picture and sound quality of this release (although I would have liked more supplements), the cinematography is excellent and it has some pretty nice shots (tracking shot angled up to a cathedral and the first shot when Adriana goes back to her hometown).

I feel the music was quite special too, even if it is mostly composed of 60's pop tunes I guess, those are some of the most intimate moments with Adriana giving us a glimpse into how she might be feeling or thinking.

Lastly Stefania Sandrelli is amazing, and I mean the performance, of course she is also quite beautiful and captivating on the screen although I don't remember having seen her in anything else, need to correct that, its quite sad seeing how her character falls in the same traps over and over even if we do get some tender moments once in a while.

For me I wouldn't say this has many similarities with La Dolce Vita, even if this is also composed of several mini set pieces, these are shorter and with the way it moves in time from one second to the next feels totally different, with each part contributing more by setting a mood than anything else.

First it was Monicelli, then Dino Risi and Ettore Scola, and now Pietrangeli, seems most of these Criterion releases of Italian directors are a hit with me, can't wait for more since I have just seen 1 of each (I just checked and seems Scola is involved on 3 of these films).

BTW does anybody know why this is referred in some reviews and IMDB as being 99 minutes long? that is 16 minutes less than this release.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by pedromvu

Just finished watching I Knew her Well, this has to be up there with Jules and Jim and The Big City as one of my favorite blind buys.

First of all technically this is quite impressive, I mean aside from the expected picture and sound quality of this release (although I would have liked more supplements), the cinematography is excellent and it has some pretty nice shots (tracking shot angled up to a cathedral and the first shot when Adriana goes back to her hometown).

I feel the music was quite special too, even if it is mostly composed of 60's pop tunes I guess, those are some of the most intimate moments with Adriana giving us a glimpse into how she might be feeling or thinking.

Lastly Stefania Sandrelli is amazing, and I mean the performance, of course she is also quite beautiful and captivating on the screen although I don't remember having seen her in anything else, need to correct that, its quite sad seeing how her character falls in the same traps over and over even if we do get some tender moments once in a while.

For me I wouldn't say this has many similarities with La Dolce Vita, even if this is also composed of several mini set pieces, these are shorter and with the way it moves in time from one second to the next feels totally different, with each part contributing more by setting a mood than anything else.

First it was Monicelli, then Dino Risi and Ettore Scola, and now Pietrangeli, seems most of these Criterion releases of Italian directors are a hit with me, can't wait for more since I have just seen 1 of each (I just checked and seems Scola is involved on 3 of these films).

BTW does anybody know why this is referred in some reviews and IMDB as being 99 minutes long? that is 16 minutes less than this release.

I absolutely love the other two successful Pedro blind buys, so you've piqued my interest in this one.

Stefania Sandrelli was one half of a previous avatar I used to have and that was for The Conformist. There aren't many other films that I can give a higher endorsement for than The Conformist, so please see it.

[theater dreamer]

Hey guys,

Film Forum has an article that Janus is showing a new 4K restoration of Late Spring. I'm dying to get this movie. But before taking the plunge, what are the odds Criterion will re-issue the film on Blu-ray with the new remaster? Criterion Forum gives the current release's picture a 6/10 score. Pro B is a bit more kind, giving it a 4/5.

Input here would be greatly appreciated.

[jhiggy23]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

Hey guys,

Film Forum has an article that Janus is showing a new 4K restoration of Late Spring. I'm dying to get this movie. But before taking the plunge, what are the odds Criterion will re-issue the film on Blu-ray with the new remaster? Criterion Forum gives the current release's picture a 6/10 score. Pro B is a bit more kind, giving it a 4/5.

Input here would be greatly appreciated.

I can't speak to whether a reissue is possible, although I'd say unlikely.

I found the picture quality to be just fine, actually. I certainly could be wrong, but I'm not sure it could look too much better.

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

I absolutely love the other two successful Pedro blind buys, so you've piqued my interest in this one.

Stefania Sandrelli was one half of a previous avatar I used to have and that was for The Conformist. There aren't many other films that I can give a higher endorsement for than The Conformist, so please see it.

It's been on my watchlist for a while along with Seduced and Abandoned and Divorce Italian Style, so I will just bump them to the top

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

Hey guys,

Film Forum has an article that Janus is showing a new 4K restoration of Late Spring. I'm dying to get this movie. But before taking the plunge, what are the odds Criterion will re-issue the film on Blu-ray with the new remaster? Criterion Forum gives the current release's picture a 6/10 score. Pro B is a bit more kind, giving it a 4/5.

Input here would be greatly appreciated.

Criterion has re-released upgraded versions in the same format before although the only occasion I can recall particularly in blu-ray is with the Tati boxset version of Playtime (whether one personally considers it looks better or not).

But not sure in this case, the current release does have a lot of small scratch marks and some shots are less sharp than others from what I remember.

[Knaldskalle]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

Hey guys,

Film Forum has an article that Janus is showing a new 4K restoration of Late Spring. I'm dying to get this movie. But before taking the plunge, what are the odds Criterion will re-issue the film on Blu-ray with the new remaster? Criterion Forum gives the current release's picture a 6/10 score. Pro B is a bit more kind, giving it a 4/5.

Input here would be greatly appreciated.

If Criterion doesn't upgrade, maybe it's time to look abroad. It's a slam dunk title for Eureka MoC or BFI.

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by Knaldskalle

If Criterion doesn't upgrade, maybe it's time to look abroad. It's a slam dunk title for Eureka MoC or BFI.

It does say: "Restored in 4K by Criterion and Cineric"

So I doubt they are investing solely for the Theatrical run, but who knows.

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

Hey guys,

Film Forum has an article that Janus is showing a new 4K restoration of Late Spring. I'm dying to get this movie. But before taking the plunge, what are the odds Criterion will re-issue the film on Blu-ray with the new remaster? Criterion Forum gives the current release's picture a 6/10 score. Pro B is a bit more kind, giving it a 4/5.

Input here would be greatly appreciated.

A lot of the Ozu's have less than stellar picture quality because they all needed VERY extensive restoration work. I'd wait.

[shadedpain4]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

Hey guys,

Film Forum has an article that Janus is showing a new 4K restoration of Late Spring. I'm dying to get this movie. But before taking the plunge, what are the odds Criterion will re-issue the film on Blu-ray with the new remaster? Criterion Forum gives the current release's picture a 6/10 score. Pro B is a bit more kind, giving it a 4/5.

Input here would be greatly appreciated.

I have the Criterion release as well as the Japanese release with the 4k restoration. I never minded the Criterion release (although I'm not super picky about picture quality), but I found the difference in the new version to be quite noticable and impressive.

[Polaroid]

£17.99 in UK.

How does Arrow and MoC sell so much cheaper WITH booklets lmao.

[CouncilSpectre]

Originally Posted by Polaroid

£17.99 in UK.

How does Arrow and MoC sell so much cheaper WITH booklets lmao.

I don't know, but it's a slap in the face for them really. I've seen people complain about the MoC/Arrow release day prices when they've been £14/£15 and yet here we are, pretty happy to hand over £18 for the Criterions.

Exciting times though if they can all happily co-exist.

[ThisKid]

Originally Posted by CouncilSpectre

I've seen people complain about the MoC/Arrow release day prices when they've been £14/£15 and yet here we are, pretty happy to hand over £18 for the Criterions.[/B]

And to think, over at the Arrow US thread, half of the replies are just complaints over the prices of current releases.
To be honest, the price for £18 a title seems a little high, but is in fact pretty reasonable, considering that whenever a video label crosses over to other countries, they might need a bit more money to help them recover some costs of leaping across the pond.

[CouncilSpectre]

Originally Posted by ThisKid

And to think, over at the Arrow US thread, half of the replies are just complaints over the prices of current releases.
To be honest, the price for £18 a title seems a little high, but is in fact pretty reasonable, considering that whenever a video label crosses over to other countries, they might need a bit more money to help them recover some costs of leaping across the pond.

I think the issue for Eureka and Arrow is that traditionally new releases have been VERY competitively priced. When there was discussion last year about the idea of dropping booklets one of the ideas against that was to perhaps increase the price. There were enough answers at the time to illustrate that a lot of people now take the low release day prices for granted.

Also doesn't help that Eureka/Arrow/BFI titles don't take long to start showing up in the sales as well.

[ThisKid]

Originally Posted by CouncilSpectre

I think the issue for Eureka and Arrow is that traditionally new releases have been VERY competitively priced.

That is probably the case. The only recent release from Eureka that had interested me was Shane, whilst Arrow is releasing too many great titles to count.