The Criterion Collection

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by Professor Echo

Chaplin was the George Lucas/William Friedkin revisionist goofball of his day. I don't think ANY of Chaplin's "preferred versions" are as good as his originals. That's why I still watch the DVD of THE KID and don't care about the Criterion edition. YMMV.

Tati tinkered too (say that fast a few times!)

[AdmiralNoodles]

Originally Posted by Warm Gun

I'm disappointed that Netflix hardly seems to add new Criterion Blu-rays to their collection anymore. Search almost any Criterion release from the last few years and you will find only the DVD or nothing. I don't expect the service to be around much longer. I'll keep renting until it's over.

SOME DVD Netflix I receive are BD. But it's really far and few.

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

Have you tried the local library? Many are still getting the blu-rays.

I should do this.

Criterion doesn't need to release this anymore. Goes for 27 other titles they're too late on.

[Warm Gun]

Originally Posted by AdmiralNoodles

SOME DVD Netflix receive are BD. But it's really far and few.

Many Blu-rays are even disappearing. Too many discs not coming back in good shape, I guess. The talk above about Chaplin's The Kid made me wanna check Netflix, out of curiosity. I rented the Blu-ray about four years ago. Now it's gone.

[UnbelievableMontages]

Rant time about Amazon Prime shipping, this is horrifying. I don't even know how they came to the conclusion that it was okay to ship Essential Fellini in a bag? What is the point of subscribing to Prime when they poorly packaged and shipped big items like this?

[BamaDullard]

Send an email complaining about it so they can hopefully correct it. It was probably just some random associate responsible for the packaging.

[UnbelievableMontages]

Originally Posted by BamaDullard

Send an email complaining about it so they can hopefully correct it. It was probably just some random associate responsible for the packaging.

I asked them to send a replacement in a box, but I'm not sure if they will. Amazon's customer service is pretty useless when it comes to how they ship items. I thought it'd be pretty common sense an item this big should be shipped in a box.

[BamaDullard]

Originally Posted by UnbelievableMontages

I asked them to send a replacement in a box, but I'm not sure if they will. Amazon's customer service is pretty useless when it comes to how they ship items. I thought it'd be pretty common sense an item this big should be shipped in a box.

I have the box set too. I’m trying to think of how it could even fit in a non-trash bag. It’s the shape of a pizza box.

[UnbelievableMontages]

Originally Posted by BamaDullard

I have the box set too. I’m trying to think of how it could even fit in a non-trash bag. It’s the shape of a pizza box.

The bag was much bigger than the box, it was triple its size, but the bag was real flimsy and there was no protection inside. It looked like it came from a dumpster too.

[MifuneFan]

That's pretty bad. I thought Criterion was putting each of the sets in its own boxes, like they did with the Godzilla set, guess not. Perhaps only if you got it directly from Criterion?

[yoloswegmaster420]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

That's pretty bad. I thought Criterion was putting each of the sets in its own boxes, like they did with the Godzilla set, guess not. Perhaps only if you got it directly from Criterion?

I ordered mine from Amazon and it came within its own box.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by yoloswegmaster420

I ordered mine from Amazon and it came within its own box.

Hm. I wonder how many people get them with and without boxes. Perhaps this was a return that he got?

[Kyle15]

Amazon took my Bergman set out of its own shipping box and stuck it in an oversized box without protection. Dinged corner, got a small refund for it so not all was lost.

They honestly pull garbage like that sometimes! Very bizarre.

[Ned Brainard]

Originally Posted by Scottie

Which version of The Gold Rush do you guys prefer?

I've admittedly never been able to get into the 1942 version as the narration threw me off when I started it. From what I understand, though, it's Chaplin's preferred version.

I don't have the visceral hatred for the 1942 redux version that some evince. It's an interesting artifact from a period of time when silents were viewed in the same way we may view 8-track today. The last thing Chaplin wanted was to be viewed as a figure of the past and nostalgia. He frequently sought to be as relevant as possible. Of course, the irony is that the 1942 version feels far more quaint and dated today while the 1925 cut still maintains a certain epic grandeur. That said, I can't hate on the 1942 version that much as it did give us Chaplin's musical score which when played in isolation works with the film splendidly.

Originally Posted by Professor Echo

Chaplin was the George Lucas/William Friedkin revisionist goofball of his day. I don't think ANY of Chaplin's "preferred versions" are as good as his originals. That's why I still watch the DVD of THE KID and don't care about the Criterion edition. YMMV.

In my opinion, the 1971 cuts really don't hurt the film that much if it at all. The cut material essentially consists of (A) Edna Purviance in agony and (B) Coogan's biological father feeling remorseful for being a jerk and dead-beat. For point A, the recut contains enough footage to establish that Purviance is in anguish so the additional footage exceeds the "effective concentration." For point B, the father is already superfluous to the film so him being repentant at best adds a little nuance but nothing vital to the story. I absolutely believe though that a full restoration of this cut should have been a no-brainer, and you'll have to pry my collection of the David Shepard DVDs from my cold dead hands.

Originally Posted by Egbert Souse

Perhaps Chaplin even doubted whether the narration worked that well since he didn't do the same for his other films.

The 2000 Image DVD features a reconstruction of the 1921 cut using the deleted footage, the 1972 reissue version, and a re-edit of that version's score. Just like how The Circus has a modified version of its 1969 reissue cut that simply changes the opening titles to just text and music (sans Chaplin's vocals) and also has some speed correction. An approximation, but by no means original. I would have been curious to see the 16mm print in its entirety that Criterion sourced the original main titles and intertitles from for the supplement

Press materials from the 1942 version state that Chaplin would go ahead with a narrated version of The Circus if the new version of The Gold Rush was well-received which it was both critically and commercially. Why Chaplin didn't go ahead with that project is subject to some speculation but I would wager it was the combination of his Maury Povich situation, wooing Oona, and his work on Monsieur Verdoux. He did commission Hanns Eisler to score The Circus sometime in the late 1940s, but nothing emerged from that project. Chaplin had a frugal side to him so it's not surprising that he never revisited films for the purpose of rescoring them unless he had to - case in point why he reissued City Lights in 1951 intact instead of adding narration to it.

Has anyone taken the time to compare the Criterion version of The Kid to previous versions? Since most of the new version is not derived from Roy Export materials, I'd be curious to know if the camera takes and/or angles are the same.

[tatterdemalion]

Originally Posted by hoytereden

Tati tinkered too (say that fast a few times!)

In his case it worked because 25 years later we get boat shark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7YpAxeu7t8

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by tatterdemalion

In his case it worked because 25 years later we get boat shark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7YpAxeu7t8

My second favorite sight gag in the film. Right behind the funeral wreath.

[AdmiralNoodles]

Originally Posted by Warm Gun

Many Blu-rays are even disappearing. Too many discs not coming back in good shape, I guess. The talk above about Chaplin's The Kid made me wanna check Netflix, out of curiosity. I rented the Blu-ray about four years ago. Now it's gone.

I've been debating on adding Barry Lyndon, Being There, and Easy Rider to my rental queue to see if the Blu-rays are the Criterion. Have checked with a lot of titles, around a dozen, and now it's solely DVD without the Blu-ray disc option.
That's fine though.

[Warm Gun]

Originally Posted by AdmiralNoodles

I've been debating on adding Barry Lyndon, Being There, and Easy Rider to my rental queue to see if the Blu-rays are the Criterion. Have checked with a lot of titles, around a dozen, and now it's solely DVD without the Blu-ray disc option.
That's fine though.

I rented Being There in March 2018 and Easy Rider in February 2017. Being There was the older Warner Brothers Blu-ray. Can't remember Easy Rider for sure, but I think it was the older Sony Blu-ray.

[drownsoda]

Originally Posted by UnbelievableMontages

Rant time about Amazon Prime shipping, this is horrifying. I don't even know how they came to the conclusion that it was okay to ship Essential Fellini in a bag? What is the point of subscribing to Prime when they poorly packaged and shipped big items like this?

That's bad, but the nice thing about Amazon is they are pretty good about returns and refunds. I've had some doozies with them. For example, I ordered a copy of Scream Factory's Road Games a year or so ago, and when it arrived, it was in a plastic sealed bag (not shrink-wrapped), and upon opening the case, the disc inside was a DVD of some random television show I had never heard of. Not long after that, I ordered Criterion's Come and See, and received it in an opened bubble mailer (literally the perforated strip had been pulled off the top) with the case crushed to pieces and the disc scratched. More recently, I got a copy of Seconds that had been warped from heat exposure; the case had literally distorted, and the disc was bowed and did not play properly.

That being said, I've noticed that a lot of Criterion titles in Barnes & Noble stores are also wrecked before making it to the shelves. I saw lots of titles during the recent 50% off sale that were tattered and beaten up. At $19.99 a pop, some people might not care, but I'd prefer not to get damaged goods. It's even worse when they're at the exorbitant $39.99 price point. If I see a title on the shelf that has damaged artwork like that that's punctured and/or torn, I frankly won't buy it. Last week when I was in a B&N during their sale, I even saw a copy of Notorious on the shelf that was placed in a DVD case(??) I don't know if it's just me, but it seems the quality control of Criterion's output has taken a nosedive since they moved manufacturing to Mexico some years back. I have a few titles where the printing job on the artwork is shoddy (my copy of Night Train to Munich has smudges of dark ink blended into the back artwork, which should be a solid taupe color), and I've also noticed that a lot of times the artwork sleeves are shoved into the case unevenly (either too high or too low), which causes the edges of the spine to bulge out/tear along the top or bottom.

A couple of years ago, I bought the Ingmar Bergman set at a B&N, which I'd reserved for in-store pick up. When I got it home and looked closer, I saw that there was a slash across the front corner from a boxcutter, and when I actually opened up the set, the large book that holds all the discs appeared to have been compressed/crushed to the point that you could not slide the discs out of the angled slits, because they had been completely flattened. I returned it the next day and got a pristine one, no problem. During this recent B&N sale, I bought the Fassbinder BRD trilogy, and realized after bringing it home that the copy I got was missing the booklet it was supposed to come with—I had noticed when buying it in the store that it seemed like the outer box was bowing inward, but I just thought maybe it had been shrink-wrapped too aggressively—but nope, it was missing the book. I am assuming this was also a fluke oversight in the manufacturing process. Like with the Bergman set, I was able to bring it back to the store and they gave me a set that had the book.

[drownsoda]

Also, does anyone know if Criterion plans on upgrading Thieves' Highway to Blu-ray anytime soon? It's the last Jules Dassin film in their catalogue that is still available on DVD only. Their recent upgrade of Pickup on South Street gives me hope it may be in the pipeline. It'd be another perfect pairing for input from Imogen Smith.

[randian]

Originally Posted by drownsoda

Also, does anyone know if Criterion plans on upgrading Thieves' Highway to Blu-ray anytime soon?

I got the Region B from Arrow instead of waiting.