The Criterion Collection

[cakefactory]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I posted on Facebook about Olivia de Havilland's birthday earlier today. Just incredible, both for her acting and for her successful fight against studio contracts.

The 1946 film noir, The Dark Mirror, is fantastic, because Olivia de Havilland plays identical twins.

I don't think I've ever seen anything with her in it. It sounds like that would be a great place to start to correct that.

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Incidentally, today is also the 31st birthday of Léa Seydoux, who appears in the Criterion title, Blue is the Warmest Color, as well as in the latest Bond film, Spectre.

Ugh. Having seen Blue is the Warmest Color first, Spectre felt all the more criminal for giving such an incredible actress such a worthless role. If they were going to make her part so bad, they should have given it to a modern equivalent of Britt Ekland or Denise Richards or whoever. :P I guess at least she probably made quite a bit of money. Her character was so bad that the relationship between Bond and whatshername from Irreversible seemed like it would have made for a far more interesting film based on just ONE SCENE.

Her part in MI4 was also really lame, but better than Spectre! I guess those kinds of movies usually waste their female leads on looking hot and/or being unconvincingly swapped out with stunt women during any action scenes. MI:RN was a big exception.

[pro-bassoonist]

Hello guys,

Below are some new packaging photos for recent and upcoming releases that I have received. There are additional photos in the reviews (click on the links).

We will have six new reviews coming up between Saturday/tomorrow and next Friday.

Happy 4th to all of you
Enjoy the long weekend and beautiful weather!

PACKAGING PHOTOS

[pro-bassoonist]

NOT YET REVIEWED

















Pro-B

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by cakefactory

I don't think I've ever seen anything with her in it. It sounds like that would be a great place to start to correct that.

I'd recommend The Adventures of Robin Hood. Beautiful Olivia, handsome Flynn, gorgeous technicolor, a wonderful score, and an adventure film for the ages

[Knaldskalle]

I'll recommend Snake Pit where she is wrongfully committed to an insane asylum. That was the first movie where I really noticed that she could act. The Heiress has another great performance from her as a somewhat naive heiress to a fortune who's wooed by a "gold digger".

[tisdivine]

Has anyone seen Muriel? I suppose I could say Im a Resnais fan even though the only films of his Ive seen are Night & Fog, Last Year At Marienbad (which I loved them both (not sure loved is the correct word for a doc on the horrors of the Holocaust but I loved that he kept it real and didn't candy coat and shy away from the absolute atrocity that it was. Let the world see what they've done) and Hiroshima Mon Amour which I enjoyed but didn't love.

Muriel sounds really interesting but it also sounds really confusing.

[JoeBuck]

Originally Posted by tisdivine

Has anyone seen Muriel? I suppose I could say Im a Resnais fan even though the only films of his Ive seen are Night & Fog, Last Year At Marienbad (which I loved them both (not sure loved is the correct word for a doc on the horrors of the Holocaust but I loved that he kept it real and didn't candy coat and shy away from the absolute atrocity that it was. Let the world see what they've done) and Hiroshima Mon Amour which I enjoyed but didn't love.

Muriel sounds really interesting but it also sounds really confusing.

I think if you enjoyed his other work you should be totally fine with Muriel.
I dont remember being confused by it but I do remember it being a bummer of a movie and finding it quite cold, but I find most of his work like that.
My advice is go for it

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by tisdivine

Has anyone seen Muriel? I suppose I could say Im a Resnais fan even though the only films of his Ive seen are Night & Fog, Last Year At Marienbad (which I loved them both (not sure loved is the correct word for a doc on the horrors of the Holocaust but I loved that he kept it real and didn't candy coat and shy away from the absolute atrocity that it was. Let the world see what they've done) and Hiroshima Mon Amour which I enjoyed but didn't love.

Muriel sounds really interesting but it also sounds really confusing.

Originally Posted by JoeBuck

I think if you enjoyed his other work you should be totally fine with Muriel.
I dont remember being confused by it but I do remember it being a bummer of a movie and finding it quite cold, but I find most of his work like that.
My advice is go for it

Yeah, I haven't seen Muriel either. But I'm a big fan of the Resnais films I've seen, which isn't surprising since I'm a big French New Wave fan in general.

This sounds right up my alley, and typically Resnais.

[Donnie D]

Originally Posted by Knaldskalle

I'll recommend Snake Pit where she is wrongfully committed to an insane asylum. That was the first movie where I really noticed that she could act. The Heiress has another great performance from her as a somewhat naive heiress to a fortune who's wooed by a "gold digger".

'The Heiress' is an excellent film with Montgomery Clift as the fortune digger and directed by the great William Wyler. It was remade with Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ben Chaplin and Albert Finney with original title 'Washington Square' based on Henry James novel. I was excited at the time it came out because of Ben Chaplin and went to see it at the cinema with a friend. We were disappointed.

'Snake Pit' sounds good. Will have to check that out. Happy 100 Olivia de Havilland. So beautiful.

[ShellOilJunior]

I had the pleasure of viewing this in 4K last night. At 3 hours the film takes its time getting started and the first fight scene isn't until about a 1/3 of the way through. Once it picks up it's a steady dose of breathtaking fight scenes featuring plenty of aerial choreography and brilliant use of color (You won't forget the ending).

If you enjoy films like Hidden Fortress and The Samurai Trilogy then you will probably love A Touch of Zen. I mention the former because this film brings people together from much different walks of life and it makes me think of the latter because of its exceptional use of color.

It's a fun film and this new 4K restoration is magnificent.

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by ShellOilJunior

I had the pleasure of viewing this in 4K last night. At 3 hours the film takes its time getting started and the first fight scene isn't until about a 1/3 of the way through. Once it picks up it's a steady dose of breathtaking fight scenes featuring plenty of aerial choreography and brilliant use of color (You won't forget the ending).

If you enjoy films like Hidden Fortress and The Samurai Trilogy then you will probably love A Touch of Zen. I mention the former because this film brings people together from much different walks of life and it makes me think of the latter because of its exceptional use of color.

It's a fun film and this new 4K restoration is magnificent.

Sounds like a winner to me.

With the way you describe the use of color and aerial choreography, would you say it's anything comparable to Zhang Yimu's work (like House of Flying Daggers, or my favorite, Hero)?

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by octagon

I don't know how they do it in Georgia but if you were in Illinois you would have almost put in a full year's worth of work by now.

I kid, I kid...

There are busy days and then there are normal days, I guess. A couple days back, I was outside for six hours in 95-degree humid weather with a pair of mud boots and hacking my way through thick thorny woods to find some steel chemical barrels that were illegally dumped in the forest, according to an anonymous complaint. I was basically getting paid to avoid stepping on copperheads. Thankfully, the barrels were empty when I found them, so there was no need to get the Hazardous Waste people involved.

On other days, though, I'm writing work reports in the office, and checking Blu-ray.com news ever so often on my iPhone.

My job is not unlike Ben Affleck's job in Terrence Malick's To the Wonder, except that I never got to hook up with Olga Kurylenko or Rachel McAdams.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by Knaldskalle

I'll recommend Snake Pit where she is wrongfully committed to an insane asylum. That was the first movie where I really noticed that she could act. The Heiress has another great performance from her as a somewhat naive heiress to a fortune who's wooed by a "gold digger".

Two excellent picks. As I've said before, I'd kill for The Heiress on bluray.

[Fabs]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Strange

Sounds like a winner to me.

With the way you describe the use of color and aerial choreography, would you say it's anything comparable to Zhang Yimu's work (like House of Flying Daggers, or my favorite, Hero)?

I believe House of Flying Daggers was inspired (along with Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) by A Touch of Zen.

[colbyw]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Two excellent picks. As I've said before, I'd kill for The Heiress on bluray.

Would love to see The Heiress release on bluray, I could see Olive Films putting that out. She was also good in the underappreciated Lady in A Cage (1964) with a young James Caan.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by colbyw

Would love to see The Heiress release on bluray, I could see Olive Films putting that out. She was also good in the underappreciated Lady in A Cage (1964) with a young James Caan.

Not unless they have a licensing deal with Universal.

[ajburke]

The newsletter clue made me think of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. It's a restaurant and not a movie, but I figured I'd share since I think there are a few western New Yorkers in this thread.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by ajburke

The newsletter clue made me think of Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. It's a restaurant and not a movie, but I figured I'd share since I think there are a few western New Yorkers in this thread.

Hmmm... Maybe it was a clue for this...

[zorbonaut]

Ok- Give me some more blind buy recommendations. Feel free to check out my collection to see my taste preference. Here are some titles I'm considering.


A Brighter Summer Day
Foreign Correspondent
Black Narcissus
The Kid with a Bike
Seconds
Foreign Correspondent
The Red Shoes
The Thin Blue Line

[DrBabylon]

Regarding Ivan's Childhood... don't know how many people have seen this but DVDBeaver compares the Criterion to the new Artificial Eye release, and the picture looks much sharper.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film5/blu-r...od_blu-ray.htm

I was considering picking this up during the sale, as a blind-buy, I've never seen it but have been getting into Tarkovsky lately, but now I'm not sure if the Criterion is the better presentation. Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on the PQ of the Criterion...