The Criterion Collection

[*DrStrangelove*]

From what I've seen so far in no order:

High and Low
Vivre Sa Vie
Rushmore
Yojimbo
Seven Samarai
Breathless
Sanjuro
Band of Outsiders
The Bad Sleep Well
Paths of Glory
The Killing

There's still a lot I have to watch thou

[drbikeshorts]

Originally Posted by ShellOilJunior

I don't think there were many surprises. The results seem to match the general feelings of this thread and its comments.

Maybe I'm surprised Battle of Algiers didn't get more love. I think it's one of the best packages Criterion has ever released.

Thanks for organising all the polls - good fun
I'm also surprised about Battle of Algiers - even other masterpieces bow down before this amazing film. On top of that, the packaging and artwork are great.

[dr.mabuse]

That's really a tough one to answer.
There are so many brilliant flicks in the collection...

I'd say mine are:

Army of Shadows
Diabolique
Seven Samurai
The Killing
The Red Shoes
The Seventh Seal
The Night of the Hunter
Last Year at Marienbad
M
Paths of Glory

(haven't seen 12 Angry Men, Fanny and Alexander and Three Colors though...)

[SpiderBaby]

Originally Posted by stobbart

Top 10 (for today at least) in no particular order:

1) Coup de torchon
2) Chungking Express
3) Still Walking
4) Empire of Passion
5) Fishing with John
6) Forbidden Games
7) Port of Shadows
8) Dillinger is Dead
9) When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
10) Kicking and Screaming

I don't like everything in your list, but this is the type of lists from people I am interested in.

[unclemat]

Originally Posted by Beta Man

See.... my list is already flawed, because this one is probably in my top 5, yet I omitted it from my top 10

That's why I don't make lists


EDIT:

and push comes to shove, I bet "Bigger than Life" would knock a couple off my list too.

De gustibus non est disputandum, but Night of the Hunter is seriously quiet an overhyped POS in every regard. One of the top Criterion disappointments for me, maybe right there with Blow Out, another piece of film-making garbage.

[rkish]

Originally Posted by unclemat

De gustibus non est disputandum, but Night of the Hunter is seriously quiet an overhyped POS in every regard. One of the top Criterion disappointments for me, maybe right there with Blow Out, another piece of film-making garbage.

I would agree that no one should dispute anyone's taste in films...but I still find it a bit hard to believe that you find NOTH to be such a piece of crap. The performances by Mithcum and Gish alone are noteworthy.

[georgec]

High and Low is a pleasant surprise for best catalog BD.

[jrsl76]

Funny how many people hate Salo. I was ecstatic that it was being upgraded.

[ChadFL]

Originally Posted by toddly6666

So what's everyone's Criterion Top 10 lists? It's a list of your favorite Criterion films (regardless of video/audio/extras quality). Here's mine:

1. Modern Times
2. French Cancan
3. Rushmore
4. Sullivan's Travels
5. The Two of Us
6. Night of the Hunter
7. Days of Heaven
8. Time Bandits
9. Bigger than Life
10. L'Atalante

Well I own the vast majority of the Criterion Blu-Rays but no DVD's so I'll base my top-10 releases off the Blu-Ray catalog.

Paris, Texas
The Great Dictator
Seven Samurai
The Battle of Algiers
Repulsion
The Thin Red Line
Paths of Glory
Modern Times
America Lost and Found: The BBC Story
Island of Lost Souls

[DetroitSquirreL]

1) Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence
2) My Life as a Dog
3) Crumb
4) The Great Dictator
5) Modern Times
6) If...
7) The Last Emperor
8) Kiss Me Deadly
9) M
10) The Island of Lost Souls


(not in order)

[SlickDamian]

Originally Posted by BohemianGraham

There's waaaay too many good titles within the collection, these are all the ones I've watched. Bolded are ones I've enjoyed, italicised are ones I own:

[Show spoiler]
2 - Seven Samurai
4 - Amarcord
5 - The 400 Blows
10 - Walkabout
11 - The Seventh Seal
12 - This Is Spinal Tap - not the Criterion edition unfortunately.
13 - The Silence of the Lambs
18 - The Naked Kiss
19 - Shock Corridor
20 - Sid & Nancy - again, not the CC edition
24 - High and Low
29 - Picnic at Hanging Rock
31 - Great Expectations
32 - Oliver Twist
35 - Diabolique
36 - The Wages of Fear
37 - Time Bandits - again, no CC edition
40 - Armageddon - ugh
44 - The Red Shoes
51 - Brazil
52 - Yojimbo
53 - Sanjuro
57 - Charade
61 - Monty Python’s Life of Brian - not the CC edition
63 - Carnival of Souls
65 - Rushmore
78 - The Bank Dick
82 - Hamlet
91 - The Blob
93 - Black Narcissus
99 - Gimme Shelter
103 - The Lady Eve
105 - Spartacus - alas, it's the craptastic universal copy
112 - Playtime
119 - Withnail and I - UK import
135 - Rebecca
138 - Rashomon
140 - 8½
157 - The Royal Tenenbaums
164 - Solaris
167 - The Complete Monterey Pop Festival - not going to bother breaking down spines 168 and 169
175 - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
176 - The Killers - only saw the Burt Lancaster version though
219 - La strada
230 - 3 Women
235 - The Leopard
236 - Mamma Roma
267 - Kagemusha
276 - The River
294 - The Browning Version
300 - The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
302 - Harakiri
307 - Naked
319 - The Bad Sleep Well
320 - Young Mr. Lincoln
330 - Au revoir les enfants
336 - Dazed and Confused
338 - Equinox
358 - Pandora’s Box
374 - Bicycle Thieves
385 - Army of Shadows
387 - La Jetée/Sans Soleil - only watched La Jetée
391 - If....
396 - Ace in the Hole
409 - Days of Heaven
421 - Pierrot le fou
431 - The Thief of Bagdad
477 - Bergman Island - Seventh Seal bonus feature
483 - Repulsion
488 - Howards End
503 - Lola Montès - depends on the mood I'm in to enjoy this
507 - Bigger Than Life
516 - Stagecoach
521 - Mystery Train
537 - The Magician
538 - Paths of Glory
539 - House
541 - The Night of the Hunter
543 - Modern Times
544 - Head - favourite film
545 - Easy Rider - good, but overrated
546 - Five Easy Pieces
547 - Drive, He Said
548 - A Safe Place
549 - The Last Picture Show
550 - The King of Marvin Gardens
552 - Broadcast News
555 - Sweet Smell of Success
556 - Senso
558 - Topsy-Turvy
561 - Kes - too depressing for me, poor Kes
562 - Blow Out
563 - Something Wild
564 - Pale Flower
565 - The Great Dictator
566 - Insignificance
568 - Kiss Me Deadly
570 - Zazie dans le métro
571 - Black Moon
575 - The Killing
583 - The Four Feathers - watching it tonight
584 - Kuroneko - technically I own it
586 - Island of Lost Souls
591 - 12 Angry Men
594 - Godzilla - technically I will own it, saw the English cut
[B]600 - Anatomy of a Murder[/B] - technically I will own it
Bombay Talkie
Maurice
Shakespeare Wallah
Elephant Boy
Jungle Book

There's also a lot I need to catch up on/buy still.

Woah, you didn't like The Silence of the Lambs, Mystery Train, Bicycle Thieves, and Solaris? I'm very surprised. Lambs is one of the best mainstream films ever in my opinion. Mystery Train is perfectly dreary. Thieves is classic storytelling at its best. And Solaris is enthralling. But to each his or her own! Variety is the spice of life.

[punisher]

just watched RED ..did not realize it is the 3rd part of the trilogy...fantastic film!!!!

watching the supplements..then get my head on straight on watch them in proper order

[LloydChristmas]

hey guys, I'm new to the CC, but as this is the "Criterion Collection Discussion", I thought I'd ask which ones I should buy first... Any opinions? I just started my new addiction with Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas and Darjeeling Limited.

[italy12]

Originally Posted by LloydChristmas

hey guys, I'm new to the CC, but as this is the "Criterion Collection Discussion", I thought I'd ask which ones I should buy first... Any opinions? I just started my new addiction with Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas and Darjeeling Limited.

Based on your affinity for English-language films, (what I gathered from your first 2 picks) I'd say you can't go wrong with films like:

Bigger Than Life
Charade
Paths of Glory
Night of the Hunter
12 Angry Men

[LloydChristmas]

Originally Posted by italy12

Based on your affinity for English-language films, (what I gathered from your first 2 picks) I'd say you can't go wrong with films like:

Bigger Than Life
Charade
Paths of Glory
Night of the Hunter
12 Angry Men

Actually I'm fine with most foreign language films, and I have Paths of Glory and 12 Angry Men on my list to buy next. Haven't seen the other 3 but will probably check out Charade as it sounds like my kinda film.

Originally Posted by Joe Dalek
Buy movies you like and will watch more than once. That's key to enjoying your purchases.

But if you aren't familiar with the other Criterion titles, you picked a good time to hop on the forum. Go through the last few pages of this thread. Many of us recently voted on the best (and worst) of Criterion for 2011 -- you will find the results within the past few pages. Also, people have been posting their
own Criterion "top 10" lists. That should give you some titles to check out.

That's a pretty good idea and I am doing it now haha

[italy12]

Originally Posted by LloydChristmas

Actually I'm fine with most foreign language films, and I have Paths of Glory and 12 Angry Men on my list to buy next. Haven't seen the other 3 but will probably check out Charade as it sounds like my kinda film.

If that is the case, you definitely should check out films like Army of Shadows and Le Cercle rouge, or High and Low for starters...that is, if you have not yet seen these.

[Cocophone]

Originally Posted by DetroitSquirreL

1) Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence
(not in order)

I have come very close to buying this one so many times but I get something else every sale.

I'm a David Bowie fan too and love The Man Who Fell to Earth in DVD and Blu

[JHas]

I'm sure I am missing some that would be top 10 for me, but off the top of my head in no particular order:

Grand Illusion
Andrei Rublev
The Wages of Fear
Brazil
The Seventh Seal
Ivan The Terrible (counting I and II as one)
Army of Shadows
Under the Volcano
Hunger
Kiss Me Deadly

[oildude]

Originally Posted by SpiderBaby

This changes all the time, so I'll just do 5 quick:

Berlin Alexanderplatz
L'Atalante
Japanese Summer: Double Suicide
Tout va Bien
The Night of the Hunter

A bunch of filmmakers (Eisenstein, Sirk, Carne, Pasolini) I want to add, but my favs are not released by Criterion.

You have touched on something I have noticed about the "my favorite Criterion" lists when they come around every few months. I think some of the best movies in the collection are in the Eclipse series and these are almost always overlooked.

After taking the plunge into the Eclipse sets during the November B&N sale, these are the only Criterions I have been watching lately. The 8 blu-rays I bought during the sale sit on the shelf. I will get to them eventually, but for now I am discovering many wonderful new films. I am about to dive into Oshima's Outlaw Sixties next, having just finished the Samuel Fuller set. I am more excited about discovering so many great little gems in the Eclipse sets than I am about most of the new films Criterion is releasing.

Although I have made the switch to blu-ray and am reluctant to buy DVDs anymore, the fact is that the films in these sets are unlikely to ever see upgrades, so there is no sense in holding out like I did for so long with the Larisa Shepitko films.

[Yankees0222]

Originally Posted by jrsl76

Funny how many people hate Salo. I was ecstatic that it was being upgraded.

I completely agree.... It was definitely one of my most anticipated upgrades