The Criterion Collection

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by exolstice

Best movie ever! Hopefully it comes out on Blu-ray some day.

Yes indeed! Lets hope it'll be the next Archers film to get a bluray release (Peeping Tom doesn't entire count, but that would be immaculate too!)

[Kevin Holly]

Originally Posted by CoopFilm

For me, personally, I try to get the newer titles I want first. Often times the older titles can be found for lower prices throughout the year, so they are usually a bit lower on my list of items to get during the sale.

This is good advice. Thank you.

Originally Posted by iScottie

Hunger, La Haine, Night Of The Hunter, On The Waterfront, Revanche, Traffic, and The Wages Of Fear!

I was kind of leaning to these anyways, so thanks for the input.


Thanks all for the advice.

[shadedpain4]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

I've been waiting on a price drop for the Lee Chang-dong DVD set on Amazon for awhile now. I may just have to pull the trigger on it as I don't think it will ever drop to an appealing price. .

I can vouch for, and recommend, the Peppermint Candy blu import.

I have Oasis on DVD but haven't watched it yet.

Still need Green Fish.

[MitchA17]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Of the recent movies on Criterion, as in movies released over the past ten years, Revanche wins the gold star.

Hunger or Fish Tank in my book.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by shadedpain4

I can vouch for, and recommend, the Peppermint Candy blu import.

I have Oasis on DVD but haven't watched it yet.

Still need Green Fish.

Thanks! I just bookmarked that Peppermint Candy release. I guess I have to wait for a good YesAsia sale now...

[UNCMT9]

Kiss Me Deadly or The Killing?

I really want to blind buy Marketa, but I've heard mixed reactions. Also need to pick up a Chaplin. How's the Great Dictator sound?

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by UNCMT9

Kiss Me Deadly or The Killing?

I really want to blind buy Marketa, but I've heard mixed reactions. Also need to pick up a Chaplin. How's the Great Dictator sound?

•As far as the main film itself, Kiss me Deadly over The Killing.

•The Great Dictator is indeed a fine choice! Buy with confidence.

[UNCMT9]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

•As far as the main film itself, Kiss me Deadly over The Killing.

•The Great Dictator is indeed a fine choice! Buy with confidence.

Thanks, Abdrewes! Have you seen Marketa Lazarova yet?

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by UNCMT9

Thanks, Abdrewes! Have you seen Marketa Lazarova yet?

I'm blind buying that tomorrow definitely (one of the seven CC Bluray releases currently available that I have not yet seen).

The Capsule from the Chicago Reader:

Czech filmmaker Frantisek Vlacil may have been eclipsed in the West by his countrymen Milos Forman and Jiri Menzel, but his work from the 60s and 70s has earned him a solid reputation at home: Marketa Lazarova (1966) was recently voted the greatest Czech film of all time in a national critics' poll. Adapted from an experimental novel by Vladislav Vancura, it concerns a feud between two pagan clans that have fallen under the dominion of Christian German overlords in the 13th century. One clan has converted to Christianity, and its patriarch has pledged his virginal daughter Marketa (Magda Vasaryova) to a convent; the other, brutish and superstitious, abducts the young woman during a skirmish with its rivals. Episodic in structure, the film proceeds like a folk saga, but its flashbacks, flash-forwards, and abrupt cuts give it a hallucinatory quality. The iconography recalls Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible, Bergman's The Seventh Seal, and Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, and the compositions can be bluntly symbolic and self-consciously arty. Yet Vlacil shot the film on location, insisting on historical authenticity, and his raw realism turns the countryside into a bleak hunting ground where new and ancient feuds settle into a tentative peace. In Czech and German with subtitles. By Ted Shen

[ParticleDan]

Originally Posted by UNCMT9

Kiss Me Deadly or The Killing?

I really want to blind buy Marketa, but I've heard mixed reactions. Also need to pick up a Chaplin. How's the Great Dictator sound?

The Killing's a better value as you also get Killer's Kiss (and it's the better film in my opinion.) As for Chaplin, i would rank them as:

1. Modern times
2 Gold rush
3 verdoux
4 dictator

[broganreynik]

Originally Posted by Stud Spider

Search for Eclipse 38. It's listed under "Masaki" rather than "Kobayashi".

Sweet! Thanks

[Clare2904]

Quick question, I have bought this film today and have tried to add to my Collection but it is not there I have changed the location "worldwide" too.

I understand that it is a Criterion via Janus Films but I don't see how that would make a difference.

Any ideas?

[Xtempo]

Originally Posted by Clare2904

Quick question, I have bought this film today and have tried to add to my Collection but it is not there I have changed the location "worldwide" too.

I understand that it is a Criterion via Janus Films but I don't see how that would make a difference.

Any ideas?

it doesn't appear to be in the DVD database so you wouldn't be able to add it. If it existed it would be in the US part of the database.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by Clare2904

Quick question, I have bought this film today and have tried to add to my Collection but it is not there I have changed the location "worldwide" too.

I understand that it is a Criterion via Janus Films but I don't see how that would make a difference.

Any ideas?

Check this thread out (I've never added stuff BTW):

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=183549

[vega2K]

I am not an avid Criterion collector, I feel the price point is too high in general. But when there is a sale, I do buy. I have enjoyed The Game, Rosemary's Baby, Anatomy of a Murder. and several others... But one blind buy just baffles me. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)... I just can't get through watching it. I've tried, but after three attempts, I just can't seem to get it. So my question to you Criterion junkies is, from what perspective should I watch the movie? What should I appreciate/ take away from it? Does it ever get better after the first half hour? Is it a comedy???? Yes it's from 1934, but I have watched many other movies from that era that I could sit through.... twice. Can anyone educate me before I convert it into a door stop???!!!

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by vega2K

I am not an avid Criterion collector, I feel the price point is too high in general. But when there is a sale, I do buy. I have enjoyed The Game, Rosemary's Baby, Anatomy of a Murder. and several others... But one blind buy just baffles me. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)... I just can't get through watching it. I've tried, but after three attempts, I just can't seem to get it. So my question to you Criterion junkies is, from what perspective should I watch the movie? What should I appreciate/ take away from it? Does it ever get better after the first half hour? Is it a comedy???? Yes it's from 1934, but I have watched many other movies from that era that I could sit through.... twice. Can anyone educate me before I convert it into a door stop???!!!

The Man Who Knew Too Much is one of my favorite Criterion titles of the year, and I love every minute of it, but my advice to someone who is wavering on the film is to enjoy the work of one of cinema's most underrated actors back in the day, Peter Lorre. He lends just the right amount of entertaining menace to the role.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

The Man Who Knew Too Much is one of my favorite Criterion titles of the year, and I love every minute of it, but my advice to someone who is wavering on the film is to enjoy the work of one of cinema's most underrated actors back in the day, Peter Lorre. He lends just the right amount of entertaining menace to the role.

How do you think it stacks up against the Jimmy Stewart version?

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

How do you think it stacks up against the Jimmy Stewart version?

I didn't really like the Peter Lorre version, but I also wasn't a big fan of the Jimmy version either.

I think the Jimmy one was better, but I liked the locations better and shorter running time in the 1935 one. Short, sweet, and to the point.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by vega2K

So my question to you Criterion junkies is, from what perspective should I watch the movie? What should I appreciate/ take away from it? Does it ever get better after the first half hour? Is it a comedy???? Yes it's from 1934, but I have watched many other movies from that era that I could sit through.... twice. Can anyone educate me before I convert it into a door stop???!!!

A combination of comedic and dramatic elements is a Hitchcock staple. Sometimes the comedy is more toward the dry, witty end of the spectrum. Sometimes (and this is one of them, The Lady Vanishes might be another) the comedy is of a broader, almost slapstick/vaudeville variety.

And like a lot of other Hitchcock films, you have to take this one on its own terms. The story doesn't really make a lot of sense. It's not a modern, realistic drama. It's a showcase for interesting characters, interesting situations, fun dialogue and some pretty cool visuals.

I'm not a huge fan of early Hitchcock but I've warmed up to them quite a bit over the years.

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

How do you think it stacks up against the Jimmy Stewart version?

I think the Stewart version tries too hard at times. Everything is a little too self-consciously 'big'. This one seems more comfortable in its own skin.

Maybe this is largely a function of my own expectations but the first one has a certain charm that's lacking in the remake.

[Lutz]

Just got VIDEODROME blu in the post and pleasantly surprised they kept the VHS packaging from the DVD - I had the impression the blu was just a normal plastic case with the outer artwork.