The Criterion Collection

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by jw007

The only thing better than love and basketball is sex and basketball.

Sex with a basketball?

[jw007]

Originally Posted by Gacivory

Sex with a basketball?

Think Castaway with some rare outtakes with Tom Hanks and his soccerball, only swap it for a basketball.

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by jw007

Think Castaway with some rare outtakes with Tom Hanks and his soccerball, only swap it for a basketball.

But on his birthday the volleyball joins in.

[Jackie Scanlon]

I think this particular discussion has been done to the death now, but I just wanted to say this - I'm no fan of Love & Basketball at all, but anyone that has a problem with Criterion releasing it could, perhaps, do with remembering that this is the same company that released editions of Armageddon, Chasing Amy and Carnival Of Souls (the latter at a time when critical and public opinion of it was still "meh").

[Mike0284]

So this set was announce for release in Australia,



Could some or all of these be future Criterion releases as a set?

[yoloswegmaster420]

Originally Posted by Mike0284

So this set was announce for release in Australia,



Could some or all of these be future Criterion releases as a set?

You won't see all of these in a hypothetical Criterion set, since Shanghai Triad was already released by Film Movement here.

[Vinyl]

Yesterday I watched The Manchurian Candidate. It was very well done, and amazing thinking about it being released in 1962 aND then pulled from theaters after the assassination of JFK.

The reason I am posting about it was the interview with Errol Morris. There was something about it that made me feel uncomfortable. Watching the interview I felt very uncomfortable and he gave me a feeling that he was somewhere between weird and unhinged. He brings up some good points, but he talks like a conspiracy theorist I think he mentions progressives or some other term for people on the left leaning political spectrum. He also seems to be wary of women in general. At most think very negatively about them and their intentions. I understand that is due to his trying to figure out Janet Leigh’s character, maybe it was the way he was conveying his thoughts. What was he trying to convey in that interview?

[Benjis Dad]

Originally Posted by Mike0284

So this set was announce for release in Australia,

I need this.

It shall be mine.

That is all.

[ShellOilJunior]

Originally Posted by Vinyl

Yesterday I watched The Manchurian Candidate. It was very well done, and amazing thinking about it being released in 1962 aND then pulled from theaters after the assassination of JFK.

The reason I am posting about it was the interview with Errol Morris. There was something about it that made me feel uncomfortable. Watching the interview I felt very uncomfortable and he gave me a feeling that he was somewhere between weird and unhinged. He brings up some good points, but he talks like a conspiracy theorist I think he mentions progressives or some other term for people on the left leaning political spectrum. He also seems to be wary of women in general. At most think very negatively about them and their intentions. I understand that is due to his trying to figure out Janet Leigh’s character, maybe it was the way he was conveying his thoughts. What was he trying to convey in that interview?

Leigh's character is an enigma. Some of it has to do with the odd dialogue on the train

[Show spoiler](I suspect Marco is imagining it out of paranoia.)

. I'll have to watch that interview again. It's been several years.

[Show spoiler]

Eugenie Rose Chaney: Maryland is a beautiful state.

Bennett Marco: This is Delaware.

Eugenie Rose Chaney: I know, I was one of the original Chinese workmen who made the track on this stretch. But, em... nonetheless, Maryland is a beautiful state. So is Ohio for that matter.

Bennett Marco: I guess so, Columbus is a tremendous football town.

[Jackie Scanlon]

Originally Posted by Vinyl

The reason I am posting about it was the interview with Errol Morris. There was something about it that made me feel uncomfortable. Watching the interview I felt very uncomfortable and he gave me a feeling that he was somewhere between weird and unhinged. He brings up some good points, but he talks like a conspiracy theorist I think he mentions progressives or some other term for people on the left leaning political spectrum. He also seems to be wary of women in general. At most think very negatively about them and their intentions. I understand that is due to his trying to figure out Janet Leigh’s character, maybe it was the way he was conveying his thoughts. What was he trying to convey in that interview?

Admittedly I haven't watched that interview since I first got the disc, but from memory he's just talking about his takes on the world within the film and how it's presented isn't he? Doesn't he say something like Janet Leigh is the same as Angela Lansbury and they're just two women out there programming the men?

I never took anything he said as being applicable to the real world, and certainly don't remember him coming across anything like weird and/or unhinged (but then I've been familiar with him ever since the very late 80s/early 90s).

[Rayjg]

Originally Posted by bergman864

They were called out for their lack of African American directors specifically. With so few releases by African American directors it downplays the significance of black directors in the history of American cinema (and cinema in general). The same can be said of female directors. And now they're looking to correct both of those issues.

Fair enough, I'm just trying to figure out who are the directors who have been left out and therefore diminished in stature. I would assume it is slim pickings for the most dominate period of American film history since no black American filmmakers worked during the studio era for any of the major or semi-major studios. One of the few I know of who worked during this era, Oscar Micheaux, has never been described as a great or an even good director and unfortunately his films have not been well preserved with many lost. That started to very gradually change as we moved into the 70s but not significantly. I can only think of Bill Gunn, who didn't direct many films, and Gordon Parks and they already released Peebles. Maybe they could actually get Gunn's Stop! released finally now that they work with more major studios than ever before?

[bergman864]

Originally Posted by Rayjg

Fair enough, I'm just trying to figure out who are the directors who have been left out and therefore diminished in stature. I would assume it is slim pickings for the most dominate period of American film history since no black American filmmakers worked during the studio era for any of the major or semi-major studios. One of the few I know of who worked during this era, Oscar Micheaux, has never been described as a great or an even good director and unfortunately his films have not been well preserved with many lost. That started to very gradually change as we moved into the 70s but not significantly. I can only think of Bill Gunn, who didn't direct many films, and Gordon Parks and they already released Peebles. Maybe they could actually get Gunn's Stop! released finally now that they work with more major studios than ever before?

Those are all good names. And as I said previously, they've been woefully underrepresented in the DVD & Blu-ray age. I'm glad they're finally releasing a Melvin Van Peebles boxset.

P.S. I wouldn't mind seeing Rick Famuyiwa's first two films in the collection.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by yoloswegmaster420

You won't see all of these in a hypothetical Criterion set, since Shanghai Triad was already released by Film Movement here.

That's not necessarily a deal-breaker. Criterion included The Serpent's Egg in their Bergman set at virtually the same time (there was literally a 2-week gap; and I literally mean "literally") that Arrow Academy released a standalone version. I wouldn't be surprised if Criterion could work out some sort of accommodation with Film Movement, if it came to that.

[the sordid sentinel]

Got my French gangster fix on this week..checked out Rififi, Le Samourai, and Le Cercle Rouge. All 3 are highly rewatchable and 3 of my favorite Criterions. Alain Delon..what more can be said? That guy was born to stand in front of a camera.

[yoloswegmaster420]

Originally Posted by jayembee

That's not necessarily a deal-breaker. Criterion included The Serpent's Egg in their Bergman set at virtually the same time (there was literally a 2-week gap; and I literally mean "literally") that Arrow Academy released a standalone version. I wouldn't be surprised if Criterion could work out some sort of accommodation with Film Movement, if it came to that.

You could be right but Criterion also weren't able to include 'Fellini's Casanova' for their Fellini boxset, so there is always that possibility that the other labels aren't always so accommodating.

Someone on Criterionforum was kind enough to provide the list of U.S rightsholders for the other films in the Yimou/Li boxset:

Sony also has several of these films in the U.S. (The Story of Qiu Ju, Curse of the Golden Flower, Coming Home). I don't believe MGM has Raise the Red Lantern and To Live anymore so at least those are probably up for grabs, along with Red Sorghum (an ex-New Yorker title) and Ju Dou (which had a very early DVD release from Pioneer but has been unavailable for years, outside of a truly wretched DVD from some sketchy outfit called "Razor").

[BunyipPouch]

Originally Posted by Jackie Scanlon

I think this particular discussion has been done to the death now, but I just wanted to say this - I'm no fan of Love & Basketball at all, but anyone that has a problem with Criterion releasing it could, perhaps, do with remembering that this is the same company that released editions of Armageddon, Chasing Amy and Carnival Of Souls (the latter at a time when critical and public opinion of it was still "meh").

I like Love & Basketball and I think it's a very solid movie. I won't be buying it because I already have a serviceable, good-quality blu ray, but I think the Criterion release is fine. I'm sure a lot of people will enjoy it, and that's the goal.

That being said, I think the argument of "Criterion has released shitty movies in the past so please remember that before criticizing new releases" is a bad one.

[nitin]

Can I just say a lot of words were spent to basically say a variation on 'Why doesnt Criterion release the movies I want?'

[Jackie Scanlon]

Originally Posted by BunyipPouch

I like Love & Basketball and I think it's a very solid movie. I won't be buying it because I already have a serviceable, good-quality blu ray, but I think the Criterion release is fine. I'm sure a lot of people will enjoy it, and that's the goal.

That being said, I think the argument of "Criterion has released shitty movies in the past so please remember that before criticizing new releases" is a bad one.

You've misunderstood what I meant (although I didn't word it particularly well to be fair) - I'm not saying Love & Basketball is shitty (it's just not my cup of tea at all) and nor am I criticising Criterion for releasing it, my point is that Criterion have released plenty of very very mainstream films of different genres - and, yes, some of them objectively "iffy" (in terms of quality) - in the past and they don't really deserve any criticism for doing that. Variety is the spice of life and all that - if they released nothing other than 80s Iranian films, 40s Japanese films, and Godard and Bergman box sets, that would alienate large chunks of the customer base they've built up over the years.

One of the regular mantras over in the UK boutique threads is that a mainstream "crowd pleasing" release goes to help fund other more niche releases that forum members might be far more interested in, and so the more the merrier.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by nitin

Can I just say a lot of words were spent to basically say a variation on 'Why doesnt Criterion release the movies I want?'

The horror of having spine number gaps in THE COLLECTION

[dvining]

Originally Posted by ravenus

The horror of having spine number gaps in THE COLLECTION

Starting with #1...