The Criterion Collection

[rkish]

Originally Posted by BohemianGraham

Wait, the Nolan fans are all Farkers on Fark.com?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

I watched Harold and Maude, and forgot how much I enjoyed the film. Bud Cort is a bit disconcerting, as he looks like a young kid, yet had a really deep voice.

I also watched Late Spring and I can't wait until the B&N sale to grab it. I really enjoyed it, because I can sorta relate to Nori,

[Show spoiler] as I have several elder relatives who feel I should be married and popping out kids, as they had 3 kids by the time they were my age.

I'm glad you enjoyed "Late Spring"...besides the film, the blu-ray has a great documentary by Wim Wenders about Ozu and modern day Japan. That alone is worth the purchase and the main reason I double-dipped on it, as I already owned the BFI blu.

Speaking of which...Ozu Three Melodramas coming out next week!

[SpiderBaby]

Originally Posted by DarkRyder

I truly apologize if this is getting on anyone's nerves.

I have finished both Masculin Feminin and Made in U.S.A., and I must say WOW....what a waste of time they both were. Both films were boring, tedious, and full of the usual Godard tropes, but have been done so much before, and better, that these two films just felt like Godard treading over water.

The former film was okay, and had an occasional interesting moment, or two, but the latter...my god, I fell asleep in the middle and had to rewind when I woke up. While I don't mind plotless films, these two felt like they were about absolutely nothing.

What saddens me the most about Made in U.S.A. was the idea of playing with noir tropes seemed like a good idea, but the execution was just not good; as well, this would be the final Godard-Karina film, and what a stinker to end it all on. I probably could have gone through most of Godard's important films in the filmography and not feel like I missed much with these two.

Question, how far are you going through Godard's films? Did you need ways to watch his Dziga Vertov Group films or are you just doing the 60's?

[DarkRyder]

Originally Posted by SpiderBaby

Question, how far are you going through Godard's films? Did you need ways to watch his Dziga Vertov Group films or are you just doing the 60's?

I was able to create a list of some of his noteworthy films, and I'm going through that.

1. All the Boys Are Called Patrick (1957)
2. Charlotte et Son Jules (1959)
3. Breathless (1959)
4. Le Petit Soldat (1960)
5. Une Femme est une femme (1961)
6. Vivre sa vie (1963)
7. Les Carabiniers (1963)
8. Contempt (1963)
9. Bande a part (1964)
10. A Married Woman (1964)
11. Alphaville (1965)
12. Pierrot le fou (1965)
13. Masculin Feminin (1966)
14. Made in U.S.A. (1966)
15. Two or Three Things I Know About Her (1966)
16. La Chinoise (1967)
17. Week-End (1967)
18. Le Gai Savoir (1968)
19. British Sounds (1970)
20. Lotte in Italia (1971)
21. Tout va bien (1972)
22. Numero Deux (1975)
23. Ici et ailleurs (1976)
24. Suave qui peut (la vie) (1980)
25. Passion (1982)
26. Scenario du Film Passion (1982)
27. Prenom Carmen (1983)
28. Hail Mary (1985)
29. Nouvelle Vague (1990)
30. Germany Year 90 Nine Zero (1991)
31. Je vous salue, Sarajevo [TV] (1993)
32. Oh, Woe Is Me (1993)
33. JLG/JLG (1995)
34. Histoire(s) du cinema (1998)
35. Origin of the 21st Century (2000)
36. In Praise of Love (2001)
37. Notre musique (2004)


Edit: Also, I had a smaller list, but I figured the bigger list was better in order to get a bigger scope of things. I'm going to post the smaller list to hear what others say.

1. Breathless (1959)
2. Une Femme est une femme (1961)
3. Vivre sa vie (1963)
4. Contempt (1963)
5. Bande a part (1964)
6. A Married Woman (1964)
7. Alphaville (1965)
8. Pierrot le fou (1965)
9. Masculin Feminin (1966)
10. Made in U.S.A. (1966)
11. Two or Three Things I Know About Her (1966)
12. La Chinoise (1967)
13. Week-End (1967)
14. Sauve qu peut (la vie) (1980)
15. Passion (1982)
16. Je vous salue, Sarajevo [TV] (1993)
17. Histoire(s) du cinema (1998)
18. In Praise of Love (2001)

[oildude]

Originally Posted by rkish

Speaking of which...Ozu Three Melodramas coming out next week!

I am picking up Late Spring in the July B&N sale. I am also re-thinking my choice last November to pass on the Late Ozu Eclipse Set thinking I would get the Region B blu-rays instead. However, the sad fact is I will not be going Region Free anytime soon, so I might as well get the DVD set for now.

I finished the Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu Eclipse set a couple of nights ago. Excellent set. My favorite was Mr. Thank You. Whimsical on the surface, yet deeply layered, with damning social commentary reminiscent of Mizoguchi but done in a lighter style.

[P@t_Mtl]

Originally Posted by rkish

Speaking of which...Ozu Three Melodramas coming out next week!

Please don't remind me

Originally Posted by oildude

I am picking up Late Spring in the July B&N sale. I am also re-thinking my choice last November to pass on the Late Ozu Eclipse Set thinking I would get the Region B blu-rays instead. However, the sad fact is I will not be going Region Free anytime soon, so I might as well get the DVD set for now.

Get the set if you have no plan on going "region free" for now. The five movies in that set are worth it but Late Autumn alone made this worth every penny (in my very humble opinion)

[ccfixx]

Here ya go...

[Show spoiler]

[rkish]

Originally Posted by oildude

I am picking up Late Spring in the July B&N sale. I am also re-thinking my choice last November to pass on the Late Ozu Eclipse Set thinking I would get the Region B blu-rays instead. However, the sad fact is I will not be going Region Free anytime soon, so I might as well get the DVD set for now.

I finished the Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu Eclipse set a couple of nights ago. Excellent set. My favorite was Mr. Thank You. Whimsical on the surface, yet deeply layered, with damning social commentary reminiscent of Mizoguchi but done in a lighter style.

Glad you enjoyed the Shimzu set...it's got tastes of Mizo, Ozu, and Naruse. Hard to say which film was my favorite...I enjoyed them all. But Mr. Thank You was a wonderful film.

I really enjoyed the AE Mizo blu box...I hope they'll release the other two films from the Eclipse set and some other surprises.

[rkish]

Originally Posted by P@t_Mtl

Please don't remind me



Get the set if you have no plan on going "region free" for now. The five movies in that set are worth it but Late Autumn alone made this worth every penny (in my very humble opinion)

Like I mentioned earlier...any Ozu release is a must for me...much like Chris's Bergman pilgrimage. BFI's goal is to release all 32+ of his existing films before the end of 2012.

Now that AE has released those older Mizo films on blu, I hope they get any/all of the Naruse films that BFI and MoC have released on DVD.

[dag]

I had resolved to watch fewer movies this year, and in the last number of weeks I had to get ready for my trip, which I returned from earlier this week, but I realised that I was getting too far behind in my Criterion viewing. So this evening after work I went down to the video store and picked up Being John Malkovich (which I just finished watching), Certified Copy, and The Gold Rush.

[Don Corleone]

Is the B2G1 free sale for criterions, it seems most of them have a sale price of 39.99

[SpiderBaby]

Originally Posted by ccfixx

I received my blu-ray copy of The Samurai Trilogy today, and it appears that Criterion now has a 2-disc custom blu-ray case. It's an overlapping 2-disc case similar to their DVD cases. My top disc was knocking around in the case from coming unhinged, as well.

I really hope this doesn't mark the end of digipak boxsets/2-disc releases. I don't think I should worry too much since the Lean set had them and that wasn't more than a couple months ago.

Edit: Guess I'll use this post for predictions too for the rest of the year:

Tomorrow:

Wender's Boxset (4 films)
Children of Paradise
Umberto D
Bitter Rice or Paris Belongs to Us

October:

The Blob
Week End
Rosemary's Baby
Grey Gardens
Another Czech films Eclipse set

November:

Pasolini's Trilogy of Life
Sunday Bloody Sunday
The Soft Skin
Paris nous appartient (Paris Belongs to Us)
and an upgrade

December:

Y tu mama tambien
Wild Strawberries

[CHEЯNOБLY!]

Originally Posted by RojD

I get annoyed with voiceover, too, and I think weak filmmakers use it when they can't do the visuals in a comprehensive way. But I don't find that in Malick; in fact, I think his use of voiceover is pretty unique and adds to the richness of his films rather than subbing for quality. Malick voiceover is usually a character commenting on an action--in support or counterpoint--and the voice gives us one more stream of info to handle as we watch the film. And the voiceovers aren't always reliable. Voiceover is most distanced from the action in Thin Red Line, but you find that same musing voice in all the Malick I've seen. I think it adds a lot.

I don't think I'd call it a crutch, either. It's a style element, like jump cutting, nondiegetic sound or long tracking shots.

I was a little conflicted about Tree of Life, too, because idea-centered films that develop idea at the cost of story and character don't usually resonate with me. I did love the story and visuals, though. Fortunately, I saw The Mill and the Cross and Melancholia at about at the same, so I was a little more receptive to movies like that than usual. It's not his best (as far as I'm concerned), but it was interesting to see what he'd do with a flat-out film essay.

That to me is part of said weakness; that the voiceover needs to explain how the character reacts or feels...the actors in the scene can do that. In his more recent films, I agree Malick's use of voiceovers have gone beyond simplistic narration or explanation, but I don't feel that was the case with Badlands or Days of Heaven at all, but it fit Badlands perfectly because what is most intriguing to the audience is this young girl and why she would run off with a sociopath...her POV is welcomed. It seemed far weaker in DOH.

To your other point, at the risk of being ostracized to the outskirts of this website, I didn't find that Tree of Life had much of a concept worth watching to begin with. I know there was a script, but it honestly felt like he shot a bunch of scenes and threw voiceover on top to string the scenes together in an afterthought. Idk...as much as I disliked it, I will watch it again at some point. Since it was so lauded by the uber elite critics (Ebert has already claimed it as one of the best films of all-time and it was only released last year!!?), I can't help wonder if I missed something, because it did nothing for me. I agree with you, as of this moment, I find it his weakest film.

Maybe you are right, and it is just a style element, but because he has relied on it so heavly in every film, I won't be convinced until I see him make a film with no VO at all.

[Yami]

I'm going to guess:

Heaven's Gate
Apu Trilogy
Hotel du Nord
Children of Paradise
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Grey Gardens

[SpiderBaby]

Originally Posted by Yami

I'm going to guess:

Heaven's Gate
Apu Trilogy
Hotel du Nord
Children of Paradise
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Grey Gardens

Bold titles would be nice. The Carne film has been on Hulu for a while (same with stuff like the Oshima films). Forgot about the Rivette film on there (Paris Belongs to Us), I added that to the November prediction, but wouldn't be surprised to see that tomorrow.

[DarkRyder]

To all those Week End fans,

I have a copy of that is 99 minutes long, but I noticed on the IMDB and Hulu page it is between 103-105 minutes. Is this version missing scenes or something important to the film?

[captveg]

Originally Posted by DarkRyder

To all those Week End fans,

I have a copy of that is 99 minutes long, but I noticed on the IMDB and Hulu page it is between 103-105 minutes. Is this version missing scenes or something important to the film?

Is yours a PAL release? Because that would be the runtime difference right there (PAL being 4% sped up).

[DarkRyder]

Frame rate is 30 FPS! I don't think that is right at all, ugh...


Thanks for the heads up though, I didn't even think to check the frame rate.

[ravenus]

Watched the Japanese version of Godzilla with the commentary of David Kalat. The commentary is informative and interesting, but I was never too comfortable with the flippant sing-song tone that Kalat had through the length of the film, and especially in the context of discussing Japanese public sentiment in the aftermath of the Bikini Atoll incident.

[Gardenofstone10]

Originally Posted by Don Corleone

Is the B2G1 free sale for criterions, it seems most of them have a sale price of 39.99

Where is the sale at? Even at 40 bucks, still an awesome deal to pay 80 rather than 120

[ShellOilJunior]

Originally Posted by DarkRyder

I truly apologize if this is getting on anyone's nerves.

I have finished both Masculin Feminin and Made in U.S.A., and I must say WOW....what a waste of time they both were. Both films were boring, tedious, and full of the usual Godard tropes, but have been done so much before, and better, that these two films just felt like Godard treading over water.

The former film was okay, and had an occasional interesting moment, or two, but the latter...my god, I fell asleep in the middle and had to rewind when I woke up. While I don't mind plotless films, these two felt like they were about absolutely nothing.

What saddens me the most about Made in U.S.A. was the idea of playing with noir tropes seemed like a good idea, but the execution was just not good; as well, this would be the final Godard-Karina film, and what a stinker to end it all on. I probably could have gone through most of Godard's important films in the filmography and not feel like I missed much with these two.

Agreed about Made in the U.S.A. I know there's several people here that enjoy it but it's a mess. It was really tough to get through it for me.