The Criterion Collection

[hallospaceboy]

Originally Posted by Professor Echo

‘58 Guy here:

VERTIGO

I agree with you all here, dismissing the 50's (and the 80's ad he has done) is just plain wrong. I love a lot of films from both era's I could never say I would discount a whole decade like that.

I am a huge QT fan, but thats where I just outright disagree with him. He does like being provocative, so I assume thats whats driving a lot of his commentary around this.

[Professor Echo]

Originally Posted by hallospaceboy

I am a huge QT fan, but thats where I just outright disagree with him. He does like being provocative, so I assume thats whats driving a lot of his commentary around this.

He says stuff like a middle schooler on the debating team, trying to get attention and distracting the judges from seeing that the opposing team is better. He tends to do that in his movies too, let loose a big shock here and there to REALLY get attention. Sometimes it works in hiding an overall lack of originality and substance in his movies, but sometimes it just works as a shock for shock's sake.

[Reddington]

I can forgive Tarantino pretty much anything (being brash, dogmatic, provocative, etc.) because of his sheer love of films and cinema. He's all over the place in the Video Archives podcasts, but (for me) always entertaining, and passionate. And as he's responsible for two of the best movie experiences I've ever had - the 70mm roadshow version of The Hateful Eight, and Once Upon a Time...in America - I'm happy to give him a free pass.

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by Professor Echo

And didn’t he say the entire decade of 1950’s cinema was worthless? He knows his acolytes breathlessly hang on his every word so like most demagogues he wants to see how much he can get away with. He also loves the spotlight it brings him. Rather than influencing his cult following to abjectly reject an entire period of film history why not inspire them to explore it for themselves? Blanket rejections tend not to be a good thing in the long run.

That's a misrepresentation of what he was saying. He qualified it by pointing out that filmmakers of the 50s were handcuffed by the Production Code, while filmmakers in the 80s were handcuffed by the post-New Hollywood corporate oversight.

I don't necessarily agree with all of his points, but there was more nuance to what he was saying than just "Duh, the 50s sucked" or whatever else people were getting outraged about.

[Professor Echo]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

That's a misrepresentation of what he was saying. He qualified it by pointing out that filmmakers of the 50s were handcuffed by the Production Code, while filmmakers in the 80s were handcuffed by the post-New Hollywood corporate oversight.

I don't necessarily agree with all of his points, but there was more nuance to what he was saying than just "Duh, the 50s sucked" or whatever else people were getting outraged about.

I wasn't aware there was a qualifier to his statement so that does make it less incendiary. But he could have amended his opinion by saying that great films were made anyway regardless of the production code stranglehold. I wouldn't summarily dismiss them all. I do feel however that the code was ludicrous and wound up helping to infantilize a generation or two with its juvenile prudishness. In many ways we have suffered as a country because of it as all places and people eventually do by the horrors of imposed censorship. As part of film history though the late 50's-early 60's era is fascinating to study when the code begins rusting away.

[Professor Echo]

Originally Posted by Ishai

There are a lot of filmmakers who aren't interested in home media and criticizing them because they didn't pick the better format is just silly. Who cares? .

Who cares is right. But we do live in a celebrity obsessed culture and like it or not some misguided dopes do look upon celebs as role models. Best not to get me started on that!

[Fellini912]

In my opinion, Tarantino’s films went downhill after Kill Bill Vol.1. His movies after Kill Bill Vol.1 seem very cartoony, student films with high production value.

From my perspective, Inglorious Basterds is Looney tunes meet WW2.

[jshaide]

Wondering if they’ll be a fancy box set announced sometime this week for November—something bigger than the regular announcements would contain??

[Hammerlover]

So the clip of FREAKS that Criterion provided, while nice overall, doesn't quite reach the immaculate heights of a Warner Archive restoration...but then I really didn't expect it to; WAC is the best in the business. For example, just compare Criterion's BD of CAT PEOPLE to WAC's THE GHOST SHIP/BEDLAM and ISLE OF THE DEAD. I'm convinced Warner holds back the best restorations to release itself.

[Mushi Minion]

I'm not sure The Ghost Ship is the best example to go with when that one digitally erased a moth that was relevant to the scene.

[Rayjg]

That poor moth. And that was his one screen credit too

[Professor Echo]

Originally Posted by Rayjg

That poor moth. And that was his one screen credit too

Especially tough when your sister played MOTHRA. Sibling rivalry like you wouldn’t believe.

[MifuneFan]

DVDBeaver's review of Dreams 4K is up. Looks great. Nice improvement in colors, brightness levels, and depth.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film11/4K_U...ams_4K_UHD.htm

BD (top) / 4K (below)




A couple more:

[Show spoiler]

[Hammerlover]

Originally Posted by Mushi Minion

I'm not sure The Ghost Ship is the best example to go with when that one digitally erased a moth that was relevant to the scene.

They have since corrected that; however, even with the flaw, it's 99.9% stunning compared to maybe 80% for Criterion's Lewton offering.

[Hammerlover]

Originally Posted by Rayjg

That poor moth. And that was his one screen credit too

His agent didn't see the light.

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by Hammerlover

They have since corrected that; however, even with the flaw, it's 99.9% stunning compared to maybe 80% for Criterion's Lewton offering.

Did they correct it for the US version? I thought they only corrected it for the UK WAC release?

[hawkikwah]

Originally Posted by Axl Rose

The only thing i wish as far as packaging is that Criterion would stick to a height with their digipacks.

I wish their booklets were all just standard booklets, when they start doing the foldout booklets that expand into one long page, I find them hard to hold and a bit hard to read.

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by jshaide

Wondering if they’ll be a fancy box set announced sometime this week for November—something bigger than the regular announcements would contain??

I’ve been watching a lot of Wim Wenders lately.

A WW set would be incredible.

…but I’m surprised that a Kurosawa set hasn’t come out already.

[jshaide]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

I’ve been watching a lot of Wim Wenders lately.

A WW set would be incredible.

…but I’m surprised that a Kurosawa set hasn’t come out already.

Oh hey, I did a little Wenders career span in the spring--went really totally deep cut! If you're region free, I def recommend the Curzon set!

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by hawkikwah

I wish their booklets were all just standard booklets, when they start doing the foldout booklets that expand into one long page, I find them hard to hold and a bit hard to read.

I think it was kind of neat when they fit the theme of the release, like for Ace in the Hole, and His Girl Friday, both looking like newspapers, but otherwise I'd rather they stuck to proper normal booklets too.