The Criterion Collection

[Mike0284]

Originally Posted by sacekubrick

Ashes and Diamonds cover art is nice though.

Danijel Zezelj is one of my favorite comic book artists.

[Brad1963]

Count me in for Ashes and Diamonds. It is a great film.

[javy]

Originally Posted by gbm82

damn dude, someone posts a wishlist and that's how you respond?!

I thought this was a safe place.

[Show spoiler]

[captainron_howdy]

Originally Posted by javy

I thought this was a safe place.

[Show spoiler]

Is it?

[Show spoiler]marathonman.jpg

[Scottie]

Another thing I'm going to be adding to the OP -- a rumor/confirmed list.

Here's a taste of what it will look like.

American Factory (2019)

https://twitter.com/NetflixFilm/stat...28780245073920

Atlantics (2019)

https://twitter.com/NetflixFilm/stat...28780245073920

Janus Films + National Film Archive deal (upwards of 30 films), including:

All My Good Countrymen (1968)
The Cremator (1969)
Distant Journey (1949)
From Saturday to Sunday (1931)
Marketa Lazarova (1967)
Three Nuts for Cinderella (1973)

https://criterioncast.com/news/janus...-to-the-states

Melvin Van Peebles Box Set consisting of:
The Story of a Three Day Pass (1968)
Watermelon Man (1970)
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)
Don't Play Us Cheap (1972)
Baadasssss! (2003)

https://www.indiewire.com/2021/05/th...es-1234637051/

Mississippi Masala (1991)

https://twitter.com/MiraPagliNair/st...80434408337412

Solo con tu pareja (1991)

https://www.reddit.com/r/criterion/c...luray_upgrade/

[jjhunsecker]

Originally Posted by dressedtokill

The Defiant Ones is readily available from Eureka if you really want it,

I know the day I order the Eureka edition is the day Criterion announces their version

[jjhunsecker]

Originally Posted by jayembee

And The Last Picture Show is available in the America Lost and Found set. Yeah, I'm sure Hunsecker is referring to it being available separately, but it's nonetheless available.

I certainly mean as a separate release , like they gave "Easy Rider" and "Five Easy Pieces" . There are too many films in the BBS box set I have no interest in for me to justify buying it

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by jjhunsecker

I certainly mean as a separate release , like they gave "Easy Rider" and "Five Easy Pieces" . There are too many films in the BBS box set I have no interest in for me to justify buying it

I'm right there with you.

I'm perfectly A-OK with Criterion releasing box sets, but I would really appreciate standalone releases of films at some point in the future. Obviously not everything would sell well, but the vast majority would.

[whiteberry]

Originally Posted by Scottie

Another thing I'm going to be adding to the OP -- a rumor/confirmed list.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
https://tulsaworld.com/entertainment...eb9596feb.html

[mja345]

Originally Posted by Frankie S

The more noir and neo-noir in the collection, the happier I’ll be, and my Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema, Essential Fellini and Complete Films of Agnes Varda box sets won’t be remotely devalued by Deep Cover’s presence. FWIW, I don’t much care for Armageddon or The Rock, but each to their own. Deep Cover is far better than both IMO - it’s a blast, Goldblum and Fishburne are both on top form. First day purchase for me.

"Deep Cover" is a fantastic film that has a great deal of trenchant commentary about the crack epidemic and the genesis of America's drug war. Charles Martin Smith's character, a corrupt DEA agent, is easily the nastiest character in the film and one of the nastiest characters in any 90s film. It's certainly not some empty-headed, throwaway crime thriller.

It's fine if people think that there are many superior early to mid 90s crime films than "Deep Cover", as the 90s had a ton of excellent action/crime films. "Goodfellas", "King of New York", "One False Move", "Red Rock West", "Heat", "The Last Seduction", etc. are all great films, but it doesn't take away from what a great film "Deep Cover" also is.

[TenYearLurker]

Originally Posted by Vigojean

I ****ed up.

I agree, most of your posts over the last few pages have been unnecessarily snotty, reductive, dismissive nonsense. Deep Cover is great; nobody cares that you prefer Romeo Is Bleeding or Pulp Fiction. One has nothing to do with the other, and your personal tastes have zero correlation to or influence on what Criterion chooses to release (thank god).

[tatterdemalion]

Originally Posted by jayembee

I've never thought about it in terms of whether any given year (or even month) is underwhelming, overwhelming, or just whelming. I only think about whether I'm interested in each of the individual releases.

(Well, OK, if they announced five releases in a given month that I think are all mind-blowingly awesome, I'd probably think that month's announcement was overwhelming.)

Same here. What I like about Criterion is every month they will have at least one movie that I want. I can't really say that about other companies who do two, three, four times as much or more releases a month. Kino does a bleep load of releases a month now and there are certain months where I'm interested in zero of their films, but am glad for those who want the ones that are coming out. Next to Criterion, Kino is the boutique label I own the most films from.

Like you I buy from all over the world, so the only problem I'm having with Criterion of recent is they're finally releasing in the US bluray's that I've already purchased. Three months straight now, The Human Condition, Mirror and After Life, with last December's Mouchette...so I still better not see Two English Girls announced since I just bought that recently from Artificial Eye. (Guaranteed now for November!)

[ravenus]

Although I had the 1984 disc since some time, I only put it on today. I'd previously seen the film on television in the 90's (probably in a P&S version). It introduced me to the work of George Orwell, for which I am very grateful. Of course, it does bug me a little that the bulk of people know Orwell only for Animal Farm and this one, but that doesn't take away from the fact that 1984 is a terrific book, and this adaptation is a strong one. It could not have been easy distilling the essence of such a powerful book (and Orwell himself wasted no words), but Radford is mostly successful. Some of the dogma is less emphasized, and Winston's conversion towards the end is a little hurried, but it still works, and if like with me, it inspires you to go to the source material, that's all for the better. John Hurt is in great form as the protagonist Winston, who under a totalitarian socialist regime begins to harbor thoughts of rebellion even if only in a personal way. Richard Burton as the man Winston eventually comes up against brings tremendous presence to the part, and Susanna Hamilton is very credible as the girl Winston trysts with as part of his personal rebellion.

There's little to say about the new transfer which was supervised by the DoP (Roger Deakins, who's as hands-on as it gets) and approved by the director, other than it looks terrific. There are specific color tones which were applied under Deakin's instructions to replicate the original look of the film (Deakins talks about how for the original release they did a bleach bypass of a print). The mono sound is mostly good, although I found sometimes dialog in crowd scenes is hard to keep up with amidst the crowd noise, and in general I had to raise my receiver volume a few notches above my usual.

I saw all the on-disc extras, including a retrospective chat with Radford, and a separate one with Deakins (I was thinking it would have been better with them together but perhaps that was not practical). There's a video essay on different screen incarnations of 1984, and a very short archival BTS look at the film's shooting. It would have been nice if Criterion could have included one of the previous adaptations as a bonus even in a compromised form (I can see the Peter Cushing version as a lo-fi recording on Youtube at least, but no idea about the copyright status), but this is even now a fine release.

[bergman864]

Originally Posted by tatterdemalion

Same here. What I like about Criterion is every month they will have at least one movie that I want. I can't really say that about other companies who do two, three, four times as much or more releases a month. Kino does a bleep load of releases a month now and there are certain months where I'm interested in zero of their films, but am glad for those who want the ones that are coming out. Next to Criterion, Kino is the boutique label I own the most films from.

Like you I buy from all over the world, so the only problem I'm having with Criterion of recent is they're finally releasing in the US bluray's that I've already purchased. Three months straight now, The Human Condition, Mirror and After Life, with last December's Mouchette...so I still better not see Two English Girls announced since I just bought that recently from Artificial Eye. (Guaranteed now for November!)

I have the Artificial Eye release of Two English Girls and have been hesitant to grab the others because Criterion might release Truffaut's work. But I can't complain about a label making excellent films available to those who may not have a Region Free player or use Criterion as an introduction to world cinema.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by tatterdemalion;18912069[SPOILER

[Show spoiler]Same here. What I like about Criterion is every month they will have at least one movie that I want. I can't really say that about other companies who do two, three, four times as much or more releases a month. Kino does a bleep load of releases a month now and there are certain months where I'm interested in zero of their films, but am glad for those who want the ones that are coming out. Next to Criterion, Kino is the boutique label I own the most films from.

Like you I buy from all over the world, so the only problem I'm having with Criterion of recent is they're finally releasing in the US bluray's that I've already purchased. Three months straight now, The Human Condition, Mirror and After Life, with last December's Mouchette...

so I still better not see Two English Girls announced since I just bought that recently from Artificial Eye. (Guaranteed now for November!)

Originally Posted by bergman864

I have the Artificial Eye release of Two English Girls and have been hesitant to grab the others because Criterion might release Truffaut's work. But I can't complain about a label making excellent films available to those who may not have a Region Free player or use Criterion as an introduction to world cinema.

The entire Artificial Eye Truffaut set was going for around $40 USD a couple years ago. I took a quick look on eBay and idk... I guess it's "rare" now.

You get Two English Girls, Shoot the Piano Player, Finally, Sunday, and A Gorgeous Girl Like Me, and The Woman Next Door all in one set. Unless CC releases a Truffaut box, some of those won't see the light of day in the U.S. for years.

I thought the transfer for Two English Girls was lackluster and am hoping CC can do better with it. It was already a few years ago that I saw it, so I could be misremembering or maybe just under-valuated it.

[mca213]

For rumors, aren't they releasing an Atom Egoyan boxset which includes The Sweet Hereafter ?

I though that was confirmed somewhere?

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

The entire Artificial Eye Truffaut set was going for around $40 USD a couple years ago. I took a quick look on eBay and idk... I guess it's "rare" now.

[Show spoiler]
You get Two English Girls, Shoot the Piano Player, Finally, Sunday, and A Gorgeous Girl Like Me, and The Woman Next Door all in one set. Unless CC releases a Truffaut box, some of those won't see the light of day in the U.S. for years.

I thought the transfer for Two English Girls was lackluster and am hoping CC can do better with it. It was already a few years ago that I saw it, so I could be misremembering or maybe just under-valuated it.

I got that AE set for when it was 20 GBP, and it was one of the best deals ever, since all the films had generally strong transfers and I think almost all of them had commentaries. Even at twice that price, it'd be worth considering. With Two English Girls, I think the grain was less tightly resolved than ideal but otherwise it was pretty good for a vintage feature.

[bergman864]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

The entire Artificial Eye Truffaut set was going for around $40 USD a couple years ago. I took a quick look on eBay and idk... I guess it's "rare" now.

You get Two English Girls, Shoot the Piano Player, Finally, Sunday, and A Gorgeous Girl Like Me, and The Woman Next Door all in one set. Unless CC releases a Truffaut box, some of those won't see the light of day in the U.S. for years.

I thought the transfer for Two English Girls was lackluster and am hoping CC can do better with it. It was already a few years ago that I saw it, so I could be misremembering or maybe just under-valuated it.

I've been dragging my feet on the ones I want from that set. The problem is not knowing what they may release. I don't want to finally buy a few and then Criterion announces them in the next few months. Knowing that, in both the Bergman and Fellini sets, they released films they previously didn't have makes me a bit anxious.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by mca213

For rumors, aren't they releasing an Atom Egoyan boxset which includes The Sweet Hereafter ?

I though that was confirmed somewhere?

I seem to recall something about them releasing an Egoyan set, but not sure where. I've got the Artificial Eye set, so it's no big for me if Criterion does or doesn't.

I just wish to hell we could get Felicia's Journey on Blu-ray.

[jkoffman]

Originally Posted by gbm82

There's already a great release for that one... but I'm in for the box

Sweet Sweetback is currently out-of-print though. I was just about to buy it before seeing this post.