The Criterion Collection

[atfree]

Originally Posted by PrestonXI

Just tried to pre order some releases on Amazon using points and the site wouldn't allow it, saying points could not be used on pre order items. What?! I used to do this all the time. When did this policy begin? Does it apply to all Blu ray pre orders?

I ran into this as well a few weeks ago...and called AMEX (where I get my reward points). Since Amazon doesn't actually charge your card (and deduct the points) UNTIL the item actually ships, they can't actually account for your points. Theoretically, if you wanted to game the system, you could pre-order on Amazon using points (which wouldn't be actually deducted by your card holder until it shipped), then go and use the points again at another site. Then, when Amazon billed on the ship date there wouldn't actually be any points to apply to the purchase.

[brandon_260]

Man, some of these early Criterion essays are rough. I just finished watching Kwaidan and went to read the insert. The writer literally had nothing to say. It was simply him recounting each of the four tales, ending the retelling of each with a silly, unnecessary question.

[jlk5844]

Watched the sequels Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi over the past couple nights. Both did not live up to the greatness that is Koyaanisqatsi. Koyaan was apocalyptic, haunting, and depressing even at times, and I thought the juxtapositions were more masterly handled. Powa loses the sped up footage and favors slow motion, focusing on developing countries in the southern hemisphere as opposed to Koyaan's portrayal of northern hemisphere society. The film lost something from Koyaan. I appreciated the different approach in tone, this one being a little lighter, and I found the look at life in those areas of the world interesting if not too revealing. There are several memorable images, especially the opening of the film, but not as many as Koyaan. Aside from the recurring theme of Glass' music in this, which I have heard before and is excellent, I wasn't as impressed by the soundtrack this time around. These factors led me to be a little bored and underwhelmed with Powaqqatsi. It's still a decent sequel and worth watching, but not a must see like Koyaanisqatsi.

Naqoyqatsi was an utter disappointment to me. The authentic, visual charm of the first two films is replaced by heavy CGI and use of filters like a kid discovering them for the first time and going crazy with them. The result is a trippy experience that perhaps didn't have the intended effect by Reggio. The experience left me completely uninterested and frankly bored. I think the theme could have been better executed with imagery that isn't so manipulated. Maybe that's the point and I'm missing it, but that doesn't make for an enjoyable film. This felt as pretentious and artsy as it gets. There are some interesting visuals, but nothing really made an impact, and Glass' score makes the watch a little more bearable, but this is easily his weakest of the three films.

I'd say I enjoyed the 28 minute Anima Mundi, also directed by Reggio and scored by Glass and included in this set, more than either of these two sequels.

If I had to rate them:
Koyaanisqatsi - 5/5
Powaqqatsi - 3.5/5
Naqoyqatsi - 2.5/5
Anima Mundi - 4/5

Overall, I'd say if you're interested in the subject matter or the concept, which was what initially intrigued me knowing nothing about these films, I recommend picking up the set on sale. You get an excellent film and two good ones and a bad film that works as a curiosity, plus some good extras and the pq and aq are great.

[Polaroid]

Originally Posted by jlk5844

Watched the sequels Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi over the past couple nights. Both did not live up to the greatness that is Koyaanisqatsi. Koyaan was apocalyptic, haunting, and depressing even at times, and I thought the juxtapositions were more masterly handled. Powa loses the sped up footage and favors slow motion, focusing on developing countries in the southern hemisphere as opposed to Koyaan's portrayal of northern hemisphere society. The film lost something from Koyaan. I appreciated the different approach in tone, this one being a little lighter, and I found the look at life in those areas of the world interesting if not too revealing. There are several memorable images, especially the opening of the film, but not as many as Koyaan. Aside from the recurring theme of Glass' music in this, which I have heard before and is excellent, I wasn't as impressed by the soundtrack this time around. These factors led me to be a little bored and underwhelmed with Powaqqatsi. It's still a decent sequel and worth watching, but not a must see like Koyaanisqatsi.

Naqoyqatsi was an utter disappointment to me. The authentic, visual charm of the first two films is replaced by heavy CGI and use of filters like a kid discovering them for the first time and going crazy with them. The result is a trippy experience that perhaps didn't have the intended effect by Reggio. The experience left me completely uninterested and frankly bored. I think the theme could have been better executed with imagery that isn't so manipulated. Maybe that's the point and I'm missing it, but that doesn't make for an enjoyable film. This felt as pretentious and artsy as it gets. There are some interesting visuals, but nothing really made an impact, and Glass' score makes the watch a little more bearable, but this is easily his weakest of the three films.

I'd say I enjoyed the 28 minute Anima Mundi, also directed by Reggio and scored by Glass and included in this set, more than either of these two sequels.

If I had to rate them:
Koyaanisqatsi - 5/5
Powaqqatsi - 3.5/5
Naqoyqatsi - 2.5/5
Anima Mundi - 4/5

Overall, I'd say if you're interested in the subject matter or the concept, which was what initially intrigued me knowing nothing about these films, I recommend picking up the set on sale. You get an excellent film and two good ones and a bad film that works as a curiosity, plus some good extras and the pq and aq are great.

I think you missed the point wit the 3rd film - it was meant to look digital and fake and obvious CGI.

It was looking and exploring how EVERYTHING is now digital and fake - the first two films focuses on real life and physical issues, the 3rd counter this and just shows us how fake thing can be, how chaotic an messy it is.

Although, I think he is more successful with this message in Visitors, and Naqoqatsi isn't perfect, but it does work and what it was trying to put forward - the score reflects the imagery so well.

I think as you said, Koyaanisqatsi is the highlight of the trilogy and most successful.

Koyaanisqatsi beats Ron Frickes films, however Ron Frickes are more successful that the other films in Qatsi Trilogy.

I agree with your rating only I would give Naqoqatsi a 3, but need to rematch as I only saw years ago.

Im just rambling haha sorry - but yeah check out Ron Frickes films, especially Samsara which on bluray is MIND BLOWING.

This explains it better than I can:

NAQOYQATSI - Concert Cinema

More important than empires, more powerful than world religions, more decisive than great battles, more impactful than cataclysmic earth changes, NAQOYQATSI chronicles the most significant event of the last five thousand years: the transition from the natural milieu, old nature, to the "new" nature, the technological milieu.

Nature has held earthly unity through the mystery of diversity. New nature achieves this unity through the awesome power of technological homogenization. NAQOYQATSI is a reflection on this singular event, where our subject is the medium itself, the wonderland of technology. The medium is our story. In this scenario human beings do not use technology as a tool (the popular point-of-view), but rather we live technology as a way of life. Technology is the big force and like oxygen it is always there, a necessity that we cannot live without. Because its appetite is seemly infinite, it is consuming the finite world of nature. It is in this sense that technology is NAQOYQATSI, a sanctioned aggression against the force of life itself - war life, a total - war beyond the wars of the battlefield.

NAQOYQATSI takes us on an epical journey into a land that is nowhere, yet everywhere; the land where the image itself is our location, where the real gives way to the virtual. As the gods of old become dethroned, a new pantheon of light appears in the integrated circuit of the computer. Its truth, becomes the truth.

Extremes of promise and spectacle, tragedy and startling hope fuse in a digital tidal wave of image and music. In a poetic nanosecond, NAQOYQATSI give utterance to a new world coming, a new world here.

Some of the techniques, yes seem dated but I think it is fitting, it gives us something to compare modern day technology and effects to the time the film was made, when the digital change happened. Visitors kind of does this, it shows the same sort of message on a smaller level as Naqoqatsi only using more modern special effects and technology, as simple as the hand gestures when using the tablet which was hidden. Or th opening shot of the gorilla.

It also shows the birth of these technologies and effects which is nostalgic and quite nice I feel.

[jlk5844]

Originally Posted by Polaroid

I think you missed the point wit the 3rd film - it was meant to look digital and fake and obvious CGI.

It was looking and exploring how EVERYTHING is now digital and fake - the first two films focuses on real life and physical issues, the 3rd counter this and just shows us how fake thing can be, how chaotic an messy it is.

Although, I think he is more successful with this message in Visitors, and Naqoqatsi isn't perfect, but it does work and what it was trying to put forward - the score reflects the imagery so well.

I think as you said, Koyaanisqatsi is the highlight of the trilogy and most successful.

Koyaanisqatsi beats Ron Frickes films, however Ron Frickes are more successful that the other films in Qatsi Trilogy.

I agree with your rating only I would give Naqoqatsi a 3, but need to rematch as I only saw years ago.

Im just rambling haha sorry - but yeah check out Ron Frickes films, especially Samsara which on bluray is MIND BLOWING.

This explains it better than I can:



Some of the techniques, yes seem dated but I think it is fitting, it gives us something to compare modern day technology and effects to the time the film was made, when the digital change happened. Visitors kind of does this, it shows the same sort of message on a smaller level as Naqoqatsi only using more modern special effects and technology, as simple as the hand gestures when using the tablet which was hidden. Or th opening shot of the gorilla.

It also shows the birth of these technologies and effects which is nostalgic and quite nice I feel.

That's great that you got more out of the movie, but for me, it didn't work. I did acknowledge that this could be the intention, but the result isn't an engaging movie, and again that could be intentional, but why have it if it can't produce a message in an engaging way. I thought it was supposed to be about war, but I didn't get that sense at all really, and there are several images that don't contribute to this theme and have no reason for being there that I could discern. I didn't get an actual theme of technology being ubiquitous and taking over either, unless it's just that the film is entirely CG/filter nonsense and that it just represents in that respect how saturated our lives are with it. I didn't gel with that idea. I think Reggio could have taken a different avenue and explored his idea in a more coherent and entertaining manner. That's the joy with these kinds of film experiences, they can be completely different for different people.

[jlk5844]

Originally Posted by Polaroid

Im just rambling haha sorry - but yeah check out Ron Frickes films, especially Samsara which on bluray is MIND BLOWING.

Oh definitely. I have had Baraka and Samsara on my wishlist since around the time I discovered the Qatsi Trilogy last fall. I actually had the opportunity to see Samsara theatrically at my art house theater near my university in late 2012 but I knew almost nothing about it and didn't attend. Now I wish I had. But at least the Blu-ray looks spectacular.

[Polaroid]

Originally Posted by jlk5844

Oh definitely. I have had Baraka and Samsara on my wishlist since around the time I discovered the Qatsi Trilogy last fall. I actually had the opportunity to see Samsara theatrically at my art house theater near my university in late 2012 but I knew almost nothing about it and didn't attend. Now I wish I had. But at least the Blu-ray looks spectacular.

Oh damn you missed out - the visuals in this are as I said mind-blowing, the details on the bluray is incredible, one of the best transfers I have probably seen on bluray.

I need to rewatch though only seen once >.<

Baraka was ok, had some amazing parts and also weak parts sadly, can't remember if the song wa used in film, but the trailer for Baraka was incredible with Dead Can Dance piece.

BARAKA TRAILER - YouTube

(incredible piece of music!)

Need to watch all the way through but Chronos looks great, bought on DVD and not watched yet, only saw a few clips online.

Heres Chronos full:

CHRONOS (1985) HD - YouTube

I love these films (Experiences?) - exploring life and showing it off, or even showing how bad it can be - and exploring different cultures, its incredible. You don't realise how much beauty/suffering there is out there though....

Originally Posted by jlk5844

That's great that you got more out of the movie, but for me, it didn't work. I did acknowledge that this could be the intention, but the result isn't an engaging movie, and again that could be intentional, but why have it if it can't produce a message in an engaging way. I thought it was supposed to be about war, but I didn't get that sense at all really, and there are several images that don't contribute to this theme and have no reason for being there that I could discern. I didn't get an actual theme of technology being ubiquitous and taking over either, unless it's just that the film is entirely CG/filter nonsense and that it just represents in that respect how saturated our lives are with it. I didn't gel with that idea. I think Reggio could have taken a different avenue and explored his idea in a more coherent and entertaining manner. That's the joy with these kinds of film experiences, they can be completely different for different people.

haha no worries, it wasn't my favourite film, and was hard to sit back and enjoy, but I liked the themes and ideas behind it.

[dtyner92]

Originally Posted by The Bronx Bull

Plans for the B&N sale next week:

Definite

Persona
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Ivan's Childhood
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (DVD)

Maybe

Judex (I enjoyed Eyes Without a Face - not sure if I'll pick this one up)
L'Eclisse
Rififi (already own the DVD copy - worth the upgrade?)
Red River (The packaging is really depressing to me - way too large)

Originally Posted by spargs

Been away from my daily stalking and sporadic posting on this thread for a couple weeks, and just noticed while reading through old posts here that Criterion issued the replacement case for [B]The Night of the Hunter... quickly hopped onto Criterion's site and ordered it, and paired it with the DVDs of The Friends of Eddie Coyle and Downhill Racer.

Now I'm ready for the July B&N sale!

Yes Bronx Bull, definitely worth the upgrade for Rififi. It's a beautiful transfer!

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by Polaroid

.

ahh.. so that's where your avatar is from.. just looked at the screenshots because you guys are talking about these films.

didn't know.

[Polaroid]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

ahh.. so that's where your avatar is from.. just looked at the screenshots because you guys are talking about these films.

didn't know.

Ah yes Check them out :P they are pretty awesome :P

[jlk5844]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

ahh.. so that's where your avatar is from.. just looked at the screenshots because you guys are talking about these films.

didn't know.

After watching the film I got it

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by Polaroid

Ah yes Check them out :P they are pretty awesome :P

hmm.. well, I know next to nothing about these films, but I'm imagining a valid comparison to the film Silent Light.....

am I far off?

[Polaroid]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

hmm.. well, I know next to nothing about these films, but I'm imagining a valid comparison to the film Silent Light.....

am I far off?

don't know that film, but recognise is >.<

Just watch the Koyaanisqatsi trailer - and its basically a longer version of that, its an incredible experience

[smoss469]

For the B&N sale, I'm thinking of:

Sweet Smell of Success
Wages of Fear
Youth of the Beast
1 or 2 Eclipse Sets (Postwar Korasawa, Samuel Fuller, Shochiku)
Marketa Lazarová

[zoodermin]

Originally Posted by smoss469

For the B&N sale, I'm thinking of:

Sweet Smell of Success
Wages of Fear
Youth of the Beast
1 or 2 Eclipse Sets (Postwar Korasawa, Samuel Fuller, Shochiku)
Marketa Lazarová

Both Sweet Smell and Wages of Fear are highly recommended. I bought Marketa in the last sale and still haven't watch it!

[brandon_260]

Marketa Lazarova was the best (non-upgrade) film released by Criterion last year.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by The Bronx Bull

The Great Owl - I have a request for you, if you would be so obliged to appease. I know a while back you started going through almost all of the film noir in existence; can you list your top ten favorite film noir with a one sentence description expounding on your thoughts of the film?

I did miss this post earlier. This is easier said than done, because there are so many great film noirs. I mean, these were all B-movies to an extent, but many of them are quite monumental when viewed with a contemporary eye.

I don't want to spend all day doing this, so I'll simply make a quick Top 10 off the top of my head.

1. Out of the Past
Between Jacques Tourneur's beautiful visuals, the story's many picturesque settings, and some of the snappiest dialogue in cinema, this is not only my favorite film noir, but it's also my favorite movie of all time. Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, and Kirk Douglas knock it out of the park.

2. The Maltese Falcon
This is a close second, and I mean a close second, behind Out of the Past. The movie's firecracker wit resonates even more today, and Humphrey Bogart is at his most iconic.

3. Double Indemnity
This Billy Wilder film is "Film Noir 101." As Eddie Muller states in one of the supplements, the entire essence of film noir can be summarized by one line. "I killed him for money - and a woman - and I didn't get the money and I didn't get the woman."

4. In a Lonely Place
This Humphrey Bogart film noir takes the genre down into its deepest and darkest depths of bleakness, but the effect is so perfectly crystalline that the movie never seems overbearing.

5. The Third Man
The Third Man is one of the most visually striking works of cinema that you'll ever see, and Carol Reed seemed incapable of making a boring shot. Orson Welles is a force of nature in this one.

6. Detour
This 1945 film noir is, as the title implies, the ultimate make-a-wrong-choice-and-you're-doomed-forever flick. Ann Savage is so brilliantly incendiary as the dame that you never want to meet. Sadly, this public domain movie may never see a proper high definition treatment, but you won't be nitpicking about picture quality if you sit down to watch the Image Entertainment DVD edition.

7. Criss Cross
Burt Lancaster starred in a great many film noir masterpieces, and this 1949 Robert Siodmak film showcases him in a beautiful this-will-not-end-well story.

8. Sweet Smell of Success
This is another film noir home run for Burt Lancaster, and I still believe that it may be Criterion's best high definition transfer of a black-and-white film.

9. The Big Heat
I cannot let this go without putting a Fritz Lang film on the list. The Big Heat is brutal and explosive, with perfect roles by Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame.

10. Private Hell 36
This scrappy Don Siegel film is a wild card on this personal top 10 noir list of mine, but I love how it delves deeply into the psyches of two characters whose lives are wrecked in different ways by temptation and guilt.

Honorable mention: The Night of the Hunter
I did not include The Night of the Hunter in the top 10, because it stretches the parameters of the genre definition a little too much for my taste, but I will fully concur with anyone who does with to place it on the top of a film noir countdown. Just think of this one as a great film that defies genre classification.


That was tough, and the list might very well change if I were to start writing it again. I left out a lot of great ones, namely The Big Combo, Ace in the Hole, Sunset Boulevard, The Killing, Killer's Kiss, Kiss Me Deadly, Laura, On Dangerous Ground, Pitfall, Dark City, The Asphalt Jungle, Act of Violence, Nightmare Alley, Hell's Half Acre, City That Never Sleeps, Scarlet Street, The Woman in the Window, The Hitch-Hiker, The Lady from Shanghai, and...actually...I'd better stop writing.

Also, I'm nowhere close to having seen all of the film noirs. There are a lot of ones in my still-unwatched DVD list here at home. The above list may change by the minute.

EDIT: I meant to type a list off the top of my head without editing, but I somehow forgot about The Big Heat when I was typing, so I had to go back and insert it into the list, kicking out The Big Combo.

[ultlife2013]

Nice list! Is any foreign cinema also capable of being part of the Film Noir?

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Polaroid

I think you missed the point wit the 3rd film - it was meant to look digital and fake and obvious CGI.

Was it supposed to look corny and outdated (ie., like the hippies that showed up at Occupy Wall Street trying to pretend it was the 60's)?

I tried to find some actual POINT to what was the theme of the central movie, and I just couldn't find one. Even the "Nature made artificial" theme got too mixed up with the "War" themes, and the trailer and the above ad copy did a better job of putting those two abstract ideas together than the movie did. Seems like everyone knew what this movie was About, except for the director.

And then the fact that Reggio's just borrowing some of his old licks at random.
We get the "Video clouds" gag, which he already used to much more haunting effect in Powaqqatsi (and was more stinging commentary in the birth-of-cable 80's when the third world was just starting to get satellite dishes), a scene of alternating religious symbols with corporate logos is pure , and his last shots of suggesting "the future" by showing a baby against a field of stars is just...oh, man. Who let Grandpa play his Cat Stevens records again?
But the real crime is that although Glass's music is good, there's no tunes that stick in the memory. The same reason nobody remembers Anima Mundi.

Koyaanisqatsi beats Ron Frickes films, however Ron Frickes are more successful that the other films in Qatsi Trilogy.

Chronos is basically a time-lapse travelogue without as much ponderous commentary (and lots of Paris shots since it was made for the Paris museum), but Stearns' music makes up for it. It's just better than Powaqqatsi, and much less muddy.
Although you had to have seen the Grand Canyon scenes in the original IMAX showing for full effect of the music.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by ultlife2013

Nice list! Is any foreign cinema also capable of being part of the Film Noir?

That depends on who you ask. Strictly speaking, noir was a 'uniquely American' art form but in practical terms a lot of filmmakers in a lot of places made films very similar in tone and style to American noir.

People like to point to High and Low as an example of Japanese noir but Pale Flower is my go to.

French crime dramas (Rififi, Elevator the Gallows, Bob le Flambeur) can be very noirish.

And then there's Nordic Noir (which I suppose is technically Nordic Neo Noir) from The Vanishing and Insomnia up to things like Dragon Tattoo and a boatload of really interesting tv shows.

And this isn't even getting into the foreign films and filmmaking schools that contributed to noir before the fact.