The Criterion Collection

[monorail91]

Silver Linings Playbook and Inside Out both changed my life. Can't tell you how uplifting they've been during the rough patches and helping get me out of them.

[hoytereden]

I'm in my 60s so I don't think I'm going to change at this late date. What they can do is change my mood. For example my "life sucks" remedy is to watch My Life as a Dog with Ingemar always reminding me "It could be worse."

[oildude]

I am a huge fan of Melville and especially what I consider his masterpiece. Given the posts above, I wanted to weigh in with my thoughts.



Leon Morin, Priest is set in 1942-1944 Vichy France, in a provincial town near the Italian border. The film is notable for a number of reasons, including its depiction of what it was like to be living in France during the years of the German Occupation and the collaborationist Vichy regime. One thing that is immediately apparent early in the film is that the village is almost entirely made up of women. Most of the men are absent, either in Germany (some as voluntary labor, but many as prisoners of war or forced laborers), in hiding from German and Vichy press gangs looking to send them to Germany, or in a few cases, off with the resistance.

This reality was typical of many French towns. By December 1943 there were over 666,000 French men (and some women) working in Germany. There were an additional 1.5 million male French prisoners of war, the vast majority of whom were kept in Germany after the 1940 armistice as hostages for the good behavior and collaboration of Vichy France. The six week German victory over France in May and June 1940 had been the greatest encirclement in military history. France's defeat was shockingly swift, humiliating, and tragic, with far reaching consequences for the world that are still with us today. It would be difficult to find a comparable modern example of a great nation falling so hard or so far so fast.

Melville's film is superbly authentic and true to the times. Deeply nuanced, smartly written, and tightly organized in how well it presents the details of faith, life, and thought in the enemy occupied world its characters inhabit, Leon Morin, Priest is one of the most remarkable films ever made; it shies away from nothing. It shows us the occupiers and the collaborators….and there were a great many collaborators in Vichy and in Occupied France, so many in fact that Melville and similar directors were considered groundbreakers for working this dark unspoken part of France's occupation into the plots of their films.

Nor does Melville shy away from showing us the sheer muscular power of faith. Morin is a shoe leather priest. He doesn't just sermonize and pontificate, he is an intellectual man with a physical presence, wielding rapier-sharp reason, disarming charm, and genuine humility to pull his charges to their feet and challenge them to look at the spiritual world around them in a time when God is not so much in evidence in France, or in the rest of the world for that matter. He is also a man who struggles with his human desires, who fights to remain true to his higher calling. He is young, handsome, desirable; women find him attractive not least because he is one of the few young men left in town and ultimately unattainable. Melville makes us realize just how much courage and strength is required to walk in Morin’s shoes. Whether or not one chooses to believe in God, Melville makes us see it, feel it, and respect it.

Leon Morin, Priest is a testament to man and his capacity for faith, and the more I watch it, the more I think it is Melville’s deepest, most layered, and mature film. Compared with Melville's other films that have been in and out of the Criterion Collection, it is a much more dialogue driven experience. The story focuses on the relationship between a widow, who is a committed communist and atheist, and a young priest who becomes her spiritual guide along a road she did not know she wanted to travel. The conflicts we see on-screen are internally focused as opposed to external as in many of Melville's other films. They revolve primarily around what it means to have faith and to seek that which is the best in ourselves. The struggles with conscience each of the two leads undergoes give rise to dynamic character arcs, chief among these a smoldering sexuality, as the woman finds herself becoming attracted to the priest. The way this relationship is handled in the film is one of its highlights, restrained and realistic, with no weepy melodrama. The viewer is drawn into understanding the longings and the denials of both characters, and what it means to be truly committed to something larger than ourselves with all of the sacrifices walking that path demands. The film is also filled with rich details and interactions between minor characters that frequently upend preconceptions, giving us a very rewarding recreation of what it was like to be French and to be living in Vichy during the occupation.

In my opinion, Leon Morin, Priest is one of the best films ever to grace the Criterion Collection. It is a shame that Criterion lost the rights and it went out of print in the U.S. Jean-Paul Belmondo as the priest does a fantastic job, as does Emmanuelle Riva as the widowed communist. And in a supporting role as the woman's young daughter, the movie also features Patricia Gozzi, who later starred in Sundays and Cybele and one of my favorite films Rapture. I had no idea Gozzi was in Leon Morin, Priest until I saw her name in the opening credits.

And with that, I will use this post to put in a plug for Rapture, available from Twilight Time and on sale right now. Rapture would be right at home in the Criterion Collection, a great 1965 lost-in-the-vault title resurrected on blu-ray, and my best blind buy in years.

[MeMynonsense]

Saw couple of British WW2 themed thrillers that are begging for an upgrade


49th Parallel:

P & P in their perpetual "pure cinematic" pursuit were pros at weaving an engaging yarn, even one that's drenched in palpable propaganda.
The movie follows a group of stranded Nazis as they embark on a Canadian odyssey through an assortment of communities and landscapes while they desperately attempt to scrape their way back home.
The picturesque Canadian photography is a joy to behold and while the performances are not uniformly credible (with Olivier hamming it up till hog heaven) it's Pressburger's witty and often rousing script and Powell's precise direction that makes it a delightful experience.


Green for Danger (Re-watch):

Green for Danger is a deliciously complex, almost schizophrenic post war British murder mystery.
Set in a chaotic wartime hospital (in remote, WW2-stricken London), the action kicks off when the local postman afflicted with bomb injuries, dies in suspicious circumstances on the operating table. Another murder soon follows, thereby attracting Scotland Yard’s attention.

GFD deceptively begins as another run-of-the-mill, oppressive WW2 drama but very shrewdly transforms into a classic Christie-esque whodunit (incorporating many of her typical narrative tropes):
There are five likely suspects (1 doctor, 3 nurses and 1 anaesthetist) - all having underlying motives and undisclosed associations with the deceased. There’s an eccentric detective in charge whose investigative techniques are unconventional to say the least. The claustrophobic countryside hospital subtly replaces the exotic locales, mansions, trains etc where such mysteries are usually set. And, the plot is loaded with clever twists, clues and red herrings.

The characters are mostly well defined from Trevor Howard’s jealous anaesthetist to Leo Genn’s charmingly deceitful Dr. Eden. Sally Gray, Megs Jenkins, Rosamund John all have credible presences as war-weary nurses suspected of pre-meditated murder. Judy Campbell has some fun as the extremely emotive and vulnerable Sister Bates who might hold the key to this entire affair.

But it’s the casting of Alastair Sim as Inspector Cockrill that proves to be a veritable masterstroke. Sim plays Cockrill with his signature creepy/comedic demeanour who is eccentrically British and thoroughly charming.
His Cockrill is neither a Holmesian mastermind nor an average Scotland Yard flatfoot but an entirely unique beast who revels in grilling his helpless and vulnerable suspects.
(I’m positive that his portrayal of Cockrill (at least partly) paved the way for his iconic turn as Inspector Poole in An Inspector Calls)

“Very well. (I’ll) pause for 30 seconds while you cook up your alibis.”

Produced by the screenwriting duo of Frank Launder & Sidney Gilliat (The Lady Vanishes and Night Train to Munich) and directed by the latter, Green for Danger is a satirical amalgam of droll humour and clever sleuthing and provides first-rate escapist entertainment in the guise of a captivating wartime whodunit.

[mja345]

"Green for Danger" is a great film. One of the more under-discussed films in the collection IMO. Really looking forward to checking out "Night Train to Munich" when it gets a BD release in a few months.

[atlantajoseph]

Originally Posted by Blu2u

Cat People for me. I was hoping they would include Curse as well.

Same here. Curse is a beautiful reimagining and genre buster. The world needs more sequels like that.

[ShellOilJunior]

Originally Posted by oildude

[Show spoiler]I am a huge fan of Melville and especially what I consider his masterpiece. Given the posts above, I wanted to weigh in with my thoughts.



Leon Morin, Priest is set in 1942-1944 Vichy France, in a provincial town near the Italian border. The film is notable for a number of reasons, including its depiction of what it was like to be living in France during the years of the German Occupation and the collaborationist Vichy regime. One thing that is immediately apparent early in the film is that the village is almost entirely made up of women. Most of the men are absent, either in Germany (some as voluntary labor, but many as prisoners of war or forced laborers), in hiding from German and Vichy press gangs looking to send them to Germany, or in a few cases, off with the resistance.

This reality was typical of many French towns. By December 1943 there were over 666,000 French men (and some women) working in Germany. There were an additional 1.5 million male French prisoners of war, the vast majority of whom were kept in Germany after the 1940 armistice as hostages for the good behavior and collaboration of Vichy France. The six week German victory over France in May and June 1940 had been the greatest encirclement in military history. France's defeat was shockingly swift, humiliating, and tragic, with far reaching consequences for the world that are still with us today. It would be difficult to find a comparable modern example of a great nation falling so hard or so far so fast.

Melville's film is superbly authentic and true to the times. Deeply nuanced, smartly written, and tightly organized in how well it presents the details of faith, life, and thought in the enemy occupied world its characters inhabit, Leon Morin, Priest is one of the most remarkable films ever made; it shies away from nothing. It shows us the occupiers and the collaborators….and there were a great many collaborators in Vichy and in Occupied France, so many in fact that Melville and similar directors were considered groundbreakers for working this dark unspoken part of France's occupation into the plots of their films.

Nor does Melville shy away from showing us the sheer muscular power of faith. Morin is a shoe leather priest. He doesn't just sermonize and pontificate, he is an intellectual man with a physical presence, wielding rapier-sharp reason, disarming charm, and genuine humility to pull his charges to their feet and challenge them to look at the spiritual world around them in a time when God is not so much in evidence in France, or in the rest of the world for that matter. He is also a man who struggles with his human desires, who fights to remain true to his higher calling. He is young, handsome, desirable; women find him attractive not least because he is one of the few young men left in town and ultimately unattainable. Melville makes us realize just how much courage and strength is required to walk in Morin’s shoes. Whether or not one chooses to believe in God, Melville makes us see it, feel it, and respect it.

Leon Morin, Priest is a testament to man and his capacity for faith, and the more I watch it, the more I think it is Melville’s deepest, most layered, and mature film. Compared with Melville's other films that have been in and out of the Criterion Collection, it is a much more dialogue driven experience. The story focuses on the relationship between a widow, who is a committed communist and atheist, and a young priest who becomes her spiritual guide along a road she did not know she wanted to travel. The conflicts we see on-screen are internally focused as opposed to external as in many of Melville's other films. They revolve primarily around what it means to have faith and to seek that which is the best in ourselves. The struggles with conscience each of the two leads undergoes give rise to dynamic character arcs, chief among these a smoldering sexuality, as the woman finds herself becoming attracted to the priest. The way this relationship is handled in the film is one of its highlights, restrained and realistic, with no weepy melodrama. The viewer is drawn into understanding the longings and the denials of both characters, and what it means to be truly committed to something larger than ourselves with all of the sacrifices walking that path demands. The film is also filled with rich details and interactions between minor characters that frequently upend preconceptions, giving us a very rewarding recreation of what it was like to be French and to be living in Vichy during the occupation.

In my opinion, Leon Morin, Priest is one of the best films ever to grace the Criterion Collection. It is a shame that Criterion lost the rights and it went out of print in the U.S. Jean-Paul Belmondo as the priest does a fantastic job, as does Emmanuelle Riva as the widowed communist. And in a supporting role as the woman's young daughter, the movie also features Patricia Gozzi, who also later starred in Sundays and Cybele and one of my favorite films Rapture. I had no idea Gozzi was in Leon Morin, Priest until I saw her name in the opening credits.

And with that, I will use this post to put in a plug for Rapture, available from Twilight Time and on sale right now. Rapture would be right at home in the Criterion Collection, a great 1965 lost-in-the-vault title resurrected on blu-ray, and my best blind buy in years.

This a 1000 times. I had first seen the film almost 10 years ago at the cinematheque. I had a feeling if I didn't see it then it might be a long while before I could ever see it in any format. Thankfully, Criterion made it available on blu-ray for a short while. It's my favorite Melville and one of the best in the entire collection.

Also, not many here talk about it but this Melville is a great companion piece to Leon Morin:

[Page14]

Originally Posted by monorail91

Silver Linings Playbook and Inside Out both changed my life. Can't tell you how uplifting they've been during the rough patches and helping get me out of them.

Thinking of the subject of life-altering films ... I can't help but think of Ray Harryhausen, who often credits seeing King Kong on the big screen in 1933 with changing his life. King Kong is what motivated Mr. Harryhausen to get into stop-motion animation, which in turn inspired so many other film makers. I have to think that Ray's effect is still being felt in today's films.

"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVcO8qMZzO8"

[shadedpain4]

Originally Posted by ShellOilJunior

This a 1000 times. I had first seen the film almost 10 years ago at the cinematheque. I had a feeling if I didn't see it then it might be a long while before I could ever see it in any format. Thankfully, Criterion made it available on blu-ray for a short while. It's my favorite Melville and one of the best in the entire collection.

Also, not many here talk about it but this Melville is a great companion piece to Leon Morin:

I know those two aren't the "sexiest" Melvilles, but they're the two that I watch most often. When I knew Morin was going oop, I purchased a bunch of copies so I'd have them for future trades (oop Criterions are pretty good currency when trying to trade for other oop stuff), but I just ended up giving them all away because I just wanted people to see the movie.

[ShellOilJunior]

Originally Posted by shadedpain4

I know those two aren't the "sexiest" Melvilles, but they're the two that I watch most often. When I knew Morin was going oop, I purchased a bunch of copies so I'd have them for future trades (oop Criterions are pretty good currency when trying to trade for other oop stuff), but I just ended up giving them all away because I just wanted people to see the movie.

I did the same with copies of The Third Man. It helped fund other purchases.

[SammyJankis]

I can see how the phrase life-changing can seem hyperbolic from an outside observer, but I don't believe it to be at all far fetched. It's the experience of one's own life that can be related to the medium, making it a unique relationship that not everyone can have. That's why people cherish certain films (or any other medium, really: literature, music, etc.), because they engage the material in a way that differs from others. It can change one's life in the smallest of increments, such as broadening the definition of what cinema can be, or it can provide insight into a way of living, maybe through a reflection of one's own self or an exploration into theme that the viewer may be drawn towards, thus (hopefully) being beneficial to that person. The latter is, at least by my experience, rare, and when it comes around I'm always struck by how cathartic it can be. (Sans Soleil is the first film that springs to mind while typing this.)

[Huseyin]

Just put a few Criterions on my channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-UNl6FJaLE

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by shadedpain4

I know those two aren't the "sexiest" Melvilles, but they're the two that I watch most often. When I knew Morin was going oop, I purchased a bunch of copies so I'd have them for future trades (oop Criterions are pretty good currency when trying to trade for other oop stuff), but I just ended up giving them all away because I just wanted people to see the movie.

I bought "backup copies" of Melville's Army of Shadows and Le Cercle Rouge years ago, simply because those movies are both in my all-time top 10, and I did not want to risk something happening to my primary copies. These backup copies are simply hoarded in a drawer at my place. It's a frivolous notion, but I'm glad that I have them, just in case.

In retrospect, I should have done the same for Léon Morin, Priest, because it's Melville's most underrated film, and it features some brilliant cerebral dialogue moments.

I have double copies of Le Silence de la Mer, simply because I purchased the Eureka release a few years ago, and then bought the later Criterion release in order to have the new Melville documentary. Great, great, great film!

[zoodermin]

Thanks for all your opinions! I think I'm starting with Apu and then go with Tokyo Story, Ikiru, Devil and Leon Morin.

[llj]

Originally Posted by tisdivine

I totally agree with you Sky. Stillman is not my thing either. Hated Metropolitan and thought Barcelona was just alright. Wouldnt want to see it again. I did really enjoy The Last Days of Disco to the point I actually bought it. So if you haven't already you might want to check it out.
.

The mistake with watching Stillman is going in treating his films according to a standard of "realism". It's not; his characters inhabit a completely different, more articulate world than our own. Even Stillman admits that people approaching his films from a perspective of "realism" won't like his stuff. Which is not to say his films aren't well observed. There is still an essential core of behavioural truth to his stylized dialogue.

Another mistake people have about Stillman is that they think he's trying to be snarky, snobbish, or condescending, when in fact he is a totally sincere writer. His characters aren't shifty (and when they try to be, they are bad at it) and are totally upfront about their desires. They say what they mean and mean what they say. I think this is the biggest thing; a lot of people mistake his characters' stylized dialogue as being some kind of low key snark or condescension on Stillman's part, when in fact it's the exact opposite. Once you jive with his personal form of verbal idyll, and you get that Stillman isn't cynical or looking down on his characters or audience, you can enjoy his stuff a bit more. Strip away the verbal stylization and you'll find Stillman is quite the humanist, with a great affection for all kinds of people.

[mja345]

I thought the actors Chris Eigeman and Taylor Nichols were huge keys to the success of Stillman's first two films. I think the reason why "The Last Days of Disco" doesn't work as well for me is that Chloe Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale, even though I like both as actresses overall, annoy the shit out of me delivering Stillman's particular kind of dialogue. I also thought Eigeman was a huge key to the success of Baumbach's first and best film IMO, "Kicking and Screaming".

[llj]

Originally Posted by mja345

I thought the actors Chris Eigeman and Taylor Nichols were huge keys to the success of Stillman's first two films. I think the reason why "The Last Days of Disco" doesn't work as well for me is that Chloe Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale, even though I like both as actresses overall, annoy the shit out of me delivering Stillman's particular kind of dialogue. I also thought Eigeman was a huge key to the success of Baumbach's first and best film IMO, "Kicking and Screaming".

Eigeman's still a big part of The Last Days of Disco, though, and I don't have a problem with Beckinsale. She definitely played the "least" likable character of all of Stillman's films, but her utterly clueless and misplaced confidence in herself managed to cut the edge on her character down a bit and make her amusing, and I thought Beckinsale really nailed that balance.

What I like about The Last Days of Disco is it reminds me so much of people I knew in my 20s in the post college years. They didn't talk that way, of course, but the behaviours, the insecurities, the little social faux pas were DEAD ON.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by oildude

[Show spoiler]I am a huge fan of Melville and especially what I consider his masterpiece. Given the posts above, I wanted to weigh in with my thoughts.



Leon Morin, Priest is set in 1942-1944 Vichy France, in a provincial town near the Italian border. The film is notable for a number of reasons, including its depiction of what it was like to be living in France during the years of the German Occupation and the collaborationist Vichy regime. One thing that is immediately apparent early in the film is that the village is almost entirely made up of women. Most of the men are absent, either in Germany (some as voluntary labor, but many as prisoners of war or forced laborers), in hiding from German and Vichy press gangs looking to send them to Germany, or in a few cases, off with the resistance.

This reality was typical of many French towns. By December 1943 there were over 666,000 French men (and some women) working in Germany. There were an additional 1.5 million male French prisoners of war, the vast majority of whom were kept in Germany after the 1940 armistice as hostages for the good behavior and collaboration of Vichy France. The six week German victory over France in May and June 1940 had been the greatest encirclement in military history. France's defeat was shockingly swift, humiliating, and tragic, with far reaching consequences for the world that are still with us today. It would be difficult to find a comparable modern example of a great nation falling so hard or so far so fast.

Melville's film is superbly authentic and true to the times. Deeply nuanced, smartly written, and tightly organized in how well it presents the details of faith, life, and thought in the enemy occupied world its characters inhabit, Leon Morin, Priest is one of the most remarkable films ever made; it shies away from nothing. It shows us the occupiers and the collaborators….and there were a great many collaborators in Vichy and in Occupied France, so many in fact that Melville and similar directors were considered groundbreakers for working this dark unspoken part of France's occupation into the plots of their films.

Nor does Melville shy away from showing us the sheer muscular power of faith. Morin is a shoe leather priest. He doesn't just sermonize and pontificate, he is an intellectual man with a physical presence, wielding rapier-sharp reason, disarming charm, and genuine humility to pull his charges to their feet and challenge them to look at the spiritual world around them in a time when God is not so much in evidence in France, or in the rest of the world for that matter. He is also a man who struggles with his human desires, who fights to remain true to his higher calling. He is young, handsome, desirable; women find him attractive not least because he is one of the few young men left in town and ultimately unattainable. Melville makes us realize just how much courage and strength is required to walk in Morin’s shoes. Whether or not one chooses to believe in God, Melville makes us see it, feel it, and respect it.

Leon Morin, Priest is a testament to man and his capacity for faith, and the more I watch it, the more I think it is Melville’s deepest, most layered, and mature film. Compared with Melville's other films that have been in and out of the Criterion Collection, it is a much more dialogue driven experience. The story focuses on the relationship between a widow, who is a committed communist and atheist, and a young priest who becomes her spiritual guide along a road she did not know she wanted to travel. The conflicts we see on-screen are internally focused as opposed to external as in many of Melville's other films. They revolve primarily around what it means to have faith and to seek that which is the best in ourselves. The struggles with conscience each of the two leads undergoes give rise to dynamic character arcs, chief among these a smoldering sexuality, as the woman finds herself becoming attracted to the priest. The way this relationship is handled in the film is one of its highlights, restrained and realistic, with no weepy melodrama. The viewer is drawn into understanding the longings and the denials of both characters, and what it means to be truly committed to something larger than ourselves with all of the sacrifices walking that path demands. The film is also filled with rich details and interactions between minor characters that frequently upend preconceptions, giving us a very rewarding recreation of what it was like to be French and to be living in Vichy during the occupation.

In my opinion, Leon Morin, Priest is one of the best films ever to grace the Criterion Collection. It is a shame that Criterion lost the rights and it went out of print in the U.S. Jean-Paul Belmondo as the priest does a fantastic job, as does Emmanuelle Riva as the widowed communist. And in a supporting role as the woman's young daughter, the movie also features Patricia Gozzi, who later starred in Sundays and Cybele and one of my favorite films Rapture. I had no idea Gozzi was in Leon Morin, Priest until I saw her name in the opening credits.

And with that, I will use this post to put in a plug for Rapture, available from Twilight Time and on sale right now. Rapture would be right at home in the Criterion Collection, a great 1965 lost-in-the-vault title resurrected on blu-ray, and my best blind buy in years.

I have to agree with you that this film is one of Melville's finest. I bought this on blu-ray just before it went out of print. I had been keeping tabs on the forthcoming OOP titles, and there were a slew of them from Melville at the time. I remember watching it years ago and enjoying it. I think this makes for a good double feature with another out of print Criterion film based on faith: Diary of a Country Priest (1951 / directed by Robert Bresson). Both are heartfelt stories on the human condition.

On the Criterion website, under personal "short note" for the title, I wrote this for Léon Morin, Priest:

“Melville's film about a priest dealing with moral decisions is seething with sexual tension & intrigue. This is quite an unusual film about morality.”

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by llj

The mistake with watching Stillman is going in treating his films according to a standard of "realism". It's not; his characters inhabit a completely different, more articulate world than our own. Even Stillman admits that people approaching his films from a perspective of "realism" won't like his stuff. Which is not to say his films aren't well observed. There is still an essential core of behavioural truth to his stylized dialogue.

Another mistake people have about Stillman is that they think he's trying to be snarky, snobbish, or condescending, when in fact he is a totally sincere writer. His characters aren't shifty (and when they try to be, they are bad at it) and are totally upfront about their desires. They say what they mean and mean what they say. I think this is the biggest thing; a lot of people mistake his characters' stylized dialogue as being some kind of low key snark or condescension on Stillman's part, when in fact it's the exact opposite. Once you jive with his personal form of verbal idyll, and you get that Stillman isn't cynical or looking down on his characters or audience, you can enjoy his stuff a bit more. Strip away the verbal stylization and you'll find Stillman is quite the humanist, with a great affection for all kinds of people.

Or maybe no one is making any "mistakes" at all and it could be that he just stinks.

I wish he, Noah Baumbach, and Peter Bogdanovich's ascot would just go away.

[RalphoR]

Originally Posted by Page14

Thinking of the subject of life-altering films ... I can't help but think of Ray Harryhausen, who often credits seeing King Kong on the big screen in 1933 with changing his life. King Kong is what motivated Mr. Harryhausen to get into stop-motion animation, which in turn inspired so many other film makers. I have to think that Ray's effect is still being felt in today's films.

"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVcO8qMZzO8"

Ray Harryhausen opened up the world of fantasy for me. I pretty much owe it to him my love of movies. I wish Criterion could release some of his BDs like they used to on Laser Disc. Perhaps they could persuede Warners to let them do a special disc of The Valley of Gwangi since pretty soon it will be the last Harryhausen movie standing not out on bd.