The Criterion Collection

[Figster]

Thank you for the replies, I am better off getting the eclipse set on DVD then.

[jrsl76]

Originally Posted by jayembee

No, Ingmar Bergman is in first place, with seven films: The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Smiles of a Summer Night, Fanny and Alexander, The Magician, Summer Interlude, and Summer with Monika. Eight if you count the forthcoming Autumn Sonata.

Kurosawa's in second place, with six films: Seven Samurai, High and Low, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Rashōmon, and Kagemusha.

Jean-Luc Godard is in third place, with five films, but John Cassavettes will soon join him.

There are a bunch of directors with four films.

Originally Posted by Edward J Grug III

You're only counting Blu-Rays.

I just took a look at the Collection and if you take away different versions and the films directed by others from Bergman's count, he has 21 films he directed in the collection between Eclipse and the mainline Criterion.

Kurosawa has 26 (including Madadayo, only in the AK100 set as of now). In fact Kurosawa only has 5 movies he directed that haven't been released by Criterion - Those Who Make Tomorrow, The Quiet Duel, Derzu Uzula, Akira Kurosawa's Dreams and Rhapsody In August.

Realizing that his last 3 films have not been released to Blu and the fact that Criterion has access to MGM and potentially has access to Warner Bros. titles, I hope that they finally give us those plus Madadayo in a Late Kurosawa Blu-ray and DVD box set.

[Blu-Velvet]

Originally Posted by jrsl76

I just took a look at the Collection and if you take away different versions and the films directed by others from Bergman's count, he has 21 films he directed in the collection between Eclipse and the mainline Criterion.

Kurosawa has 26 (including Madadayo, only in the AK100 set as of now). In fact Kurosawa only has 5 movies he directed that haven't been released by Criterion - Those Who Make Tomorrow, The Quiet Duel, Derzu Uzula, Akira Kurosawa's Dreams and Rhapsody In August.

Realizing that his last 3 films have not been released to Blu and the fact that Criterion has access to MGM and potentially has access to Warner Bros. titles, I hope that they finally give us those plus Madadayo in a Late Kurosawa Blu-ray and DVD box set.

More Kurosawa can only be good, especially if it's on Blu-ray! More Bergman too, for that matter (among others)! Kurosawa and Bergman seem to be the "poster boys" of the Criterion foreign releases, along with selected Godard. It would be nice to see more Truffaut and others on Blu-ray as well, especially more silents, but overall Criterion is doing a fantastic job of making an important selection of non-mainstream films available, whatever they may be.

[jetthead]

Originally Posted by Blu-Velvet

More Kurosawa can only be good, especially if it's on Blu-ray! More Bergman too, for that matter (among others)! Kurosawa and Bergman seem to be the "poster boys" of the Criterion foreign releases, along with selected Godard. It would be nice to see more Truffaut and others on Blu-ray as well, especially more silents, but overall Criterion is doing a fantastic job of making an important selection of non-mainstream films available, whatever they may be.

I would also add Chaplin to the list for more Blu-ray releases.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by Kevin Ridge

As far as the battle of Bonds for 83, I still think Octopussy was better.

Well I thought the scene in Octopussy where Bond is dressed up as clown was rather representative of what the franchise had gone into once Moore took on the mantle
I like NSNA a lot, except for the necessary evil that the plot was a rehash of Thunderball.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by ravenus

Well I thought the scene in Octopussy where Bond is dressed up as clown was rather representative of what the franchise had gone into once Moore took on the mantle
I like NSNA a lot, except for the necessary evil that the plot was a rehash of Thunderball.

At the time, I thought Octopussy (wait, we can say that now?) had the better action scenes, and NSNA had a wretchedly squalid, jokey and lowbrow "off-brand" tone to it, without Broccoli's champagne polish.
Having seen them again, I'll concede that Octo was the film where Moore tells a tiger to "Sit!" ( ), but that NSNA still had Rowan Atkinson pushed into a swimming pool.

Originally Posted by jrsl76

Kurosawa has 26 (including Madadayo, only in the AK100 set as of now). In fact Kurosawa only has 5 movies he directed that haven't been released by Criterion -I hope that they finally give us those plus Madadayo in a Late Kurosawa Blu-ray and DVD box set.

Madadayo is on HuluPlus's Criterion collection--
It's not one to knock yourself out for, ie. "A Life in Six Retirement Dinners"--Each of which goes on for fifteen to twenty unbroken minutes of screentime, as we clearly get the idea that Kurosawa is allegorically throwing his own retirement dinner, and filming every painful, self-congratulatory, sake-toasting second of it.
(And the whole plot of the lost cat was to show the teacher's hidden sentimental side, but since we never get to see what sides the teacher ever showed besides being ironical at testimonial dinners, his concern over the cat just comes off a bit "Kookoo, kookoo.... " Alzheimer-y.)
As for why his students are so loyal, we'd know if we ever saw more of him than Kurosawa probably did; otherwise it comes off like that complaint about Dead Poets Society that "Robin Williams only taught one class of poetry!"

And this coming from a viewer who thought Rhapsody in August was.....okay.

[jetthead]

Originally Posted by ravenus

Well I thought the scene in Octopussy where Bond is dressed up as clown was rather representative of what the franchise had gone into once Moore took on the mantle
I like NSNA a lot, except for the necessary evil that the plot was a rehash of Thunderball.

I'd take Never Say Never Again over Octopussy every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Moore's absurd comic approach to the role was really grating to me especially after how good For Your Eyes Only was. When I was 10 years old, I thought Moore was the best Bond but as I got older I began to realize he may have been the worst.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by jetthead

I'd take Never Say Never Again over Octopussy every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Moore's absurd comic approach to the role was really grating to me especially after how good For Your Eyes Only was. When I was 10 years old, I thought Moore was the best Bond but as I got older I began to realize he may have been the worst.

Here's my review of Octopussy from the "50 Years of Bond" thread.

And my review of Never Say Never Again from yesterday in the same thread.

Neither of these are particularly highlights of the Bond canon, but Octopussy is the winner between the two for me simply on account of the pacing, the old-school matinee tribute approach, the outstanding pre-credits sequence, and, well, Kristina Wayborn.

Both movies are distinctly early 1980s time capsule affairs. A scene in Never Say Never Again with arcade games at a charity ball is the ultimate campy rush, though.

Bringing this conversation back on topic, Criterion should release Octopussy as a title.

[The Great Owl]

I watched John Ford's The Quiet Man on Blu-ray last night. Wow...just...wow. It's the type of film that I'll have to be in a specific mood to revisit, but it looks absolutely splendid, and it really put a smile on my face after this first viewing.

We need The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance in the Criterion Collection.

[Yami]

If anyone needs any further convincing about the awfulness of the Madame De... transfer, just toggle between these two screencaps:

720p iTunes download upscaled to 1920x1080
Criterion Blu-Ray



I'm not a fan of screencapture comparisons and I've said so in the past but I think this really illuminates the awfulness of the Madame De restoration/transfer. I have my fingers crossed that Gaumont sees sense and delays their French release to rectify the problems.

[lordmorpheus72]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

We need The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance in the Criterion Collection.

I second that! One of my favorite Westerns, and Jimmy Stewart movies.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Yami

If anyone needs any further convincing about the awfulness of the Madame De... transfer, just toggle between these two screencaps:

720p iTunes download upscaled to 1920x1080
Criterion Blu-Ray

Holy schnikes. Looks like they went a little heavy on the forest scrubbing.

I was admittedly unaware of The Earrings of Madame de... until the recent Blu-ray announcement, after which I've been reading repeated raves to the effect of, "You're not a real fan of cinema unless you love this movie and unless you have this movie in your collection...blah blah blah."

I am intrigued by all of the acclaim of the movie, I always enjoy my belated discoveries of monumental filmmakers (Powell/Pressburger, etc.), and the movie looks to be right up my alley, but I don't think that the world will crumble to the ground if I wait a little longer to dive into The Earrings of Madame de... Given all of the controversy, a better transfer may be on the horizon.

[Mansinthe]

Originally Posted by Yami

If anyone needs any further convincing about the awfulness of the Madame De... transfer, just toggle between these two screencaps:

720p iTunes download upscaled to 1920x1080
Criterion Blu-Ray

holy shit, something went totally wrong there. looks like the photoshop filter "oil painting" XD

[SammyJankis]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Holy schnikes. Looks like they went a little heavy on the forest scrubbing.

I was admittedly unaware of The Earrings of Madame de... until the recent Blu-ray announcement, after which I've been reading repeated raves to the effect of, "You're not a real fan of cinema unless you love this movie and unless you have this movie in your collection...blah blah blah."

I am intrigued by all of the acclaim of the movie, I always enjoy my belated discoveries of monumental filmmakers (Powell/Pressburger, etc.), and the movie looks to be right up my alley, but I don't think that the world will crumble to the ground if I wait a little longer to dive into The Earrings of Madame de... Given all of the controversy, a better transfer may be on the horizon.

It's a fine film, but I'm (apparently) one of the few that doesn't hold it that highly.

Those screenshots, though.. Yikes. Really, that's just a shame.

[italy12]

Originally Posted by Yami

If anyone needs any further convincing about the awfulness of the Madame De... transfer, just toggle between these two screencaps:

720p iTunes download upscaled to 1920x1080
Criterion Blu-Ray



I'm not a fan of screencapture comparisons and I've said so in the past but I think this really illuminates the awfulness of the Madame De restoration/transfer. I have my fingers crossed that Gaumont sees sense and delays their French release to rectify the problems.

But how does it look in motion?

[Abdrewes]

After seeing Elysium, I suddenly have a newfound appreciation for Things to Come. As far as speculative science fiction, it is much, much more thought provoking. I hope to dust off my copy soon...

[jw007]

Originally Posted by bayoozen

Yes. And what you just said has already happened. Corporations already own our government. Corporations rule the world by producing the food (Monsanto, etc) and they own what goes into the mind (tv, movies, education system, the news). It's scary but true.

Yet the most amazing thing is, most people really seem to think there is no danger to our lives with corporations taking over the world. Some people even think its a great thing to have more powerful corporations in charge. To many, capitalism is a wonderful thing. But what people don't realize is we are slowly losing our privacy, freedom and personal choices. What really is happening is, the corporations are making sure there are enough international laws in place so they can make elite decisions when that time comes for governments to be liquidated in favor of an alliance of corporations prior to the one world government. I think Things to Come may be more disturbing and ominous than ever, because it is only after another world war when at that point people will accept anything that seems to signify order and stability, no matter how ethical or unethical this new world government is. In the film's case, it was a utopian and seemingly ethical order, but in reality I doubt any powerful world government would be "good" or benevolent. The most disturbing thing is, people will think the world government is really great and after most of civilization is destroyed, the survivors won't have history books or internet anymore and will accept whatever comes. Distant future generations will be clueless and apathetic to history. As long as they have "progress" and "stability", they will no longer care about control over their lives. After natural resources are decimated and synthetic materials are scarce, they will accept a barcode or imprint burned into their skin so they could make purchases and live "in society". These humans will have no recollection of past history and live as if the one world government was the only government that ever existed. It will be completely totalitarian and people will not care just how public their lives are, as long as they have food, water, shelter and existence. Finally, there will be a deceiving sense of "peace" or new age world religion that will be widely accepted as being true, but it will just be another trick to control the masses and eventually consume them.

[lordmorpheus72]

Originally Posted by Mansinthe

holy shit, something went totally wrong there. looks like the photoshop filter "oil painting" XD

i was thinking along those same lines... or a motion blur... just bad either way.

[deepbreathsanddeath]

Reminds me of how Sword in the Stone looks on blu-ray. Just hideous. Bad Criterion! BAD! *smacks nose with rolled up newspaper*

[Tin Drum]

Originally Posted by lordmorpheus72

I second that! One of my favorite Westerns, and Jimmy Stewart movies.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is one of the all time great westerns, IMO. A wonderful film.

-

I saw a western this weekend - the original 3:10 to Yuma. I'm still digesting the last minute of the film, but everything before it was just mesmerizing. Gorgeous photography and excellent performances. Ford makes it look all too easy! But it's Heflin that gives the key performance. An amazing turn.

I also watched The Battle of Algiers and, again, another excellent presentation of video and audio from Criterion. The film is raw, gritty and extremely fast paced. I haven't even had the time to delve into the wealth of extras but the history behind the real life encounter has me eagerly anticipating them.