The Criterion Collection

[SimBelm]

Originally Posted by rkish

I've already seen one of the two films available from the Kobayashi Eclipse set on Hulu...I Will Buy You...will have to work Black River into my schedule.

I'm the opposite where I've seen Black River and not the other. I enjoyed it that much that I'll probably wait until I can buy the Eclipse to see I Will Buy You.

Really glad to see Criterion get more of their Hulu catalog onto discs, hopefully Shinoda and Oshima are soon to follow.

[SpiderBaby]

Originally Posted by returnofthemack

gosh darng you criterion! now i have to buy another one of these fancy pants super special blu rays that will annoy me to no end with its whack packaging. i will just give it away if it annoys me too much. i might have forgivin them but when i got a bad copy of the game with the lame cover i never got a response from the dude who handles their cusotmer service and otherws did. whas up with that?

Oh stewardess, I speak jive

[returnofthemack]

Originally Posted by SpiderBaby

Oh stewardess, I speak jive

cappa towe my seppa tai? yeahhhh yeahhh

[rkish]

Originally Posted by SpiderBaby

I don't want to complain about cover art but this film is one of the most colorful films one will see, why you don't use that for the cover art is beyond me.

Agreed! I much prefer the MoC cover art over the Criterion...simple and colorful. I could have seen either of them using a scene from the film over artwork for either cover, though.

[rkish]

Originally Posted by SimBelm

I'm the opposite where I've seen Black River and not the other. I enjoyed it that much that I'll probably wait until I can buy the Eclipse to see I Will Buy You.

Really glad to see Criterion get more of their Hulu catalog onto discs, hopefully Shinoda and Oshima are soon to follow.

Thanks for the feedback on Black River! I enjoyed I Will Buy You...see if you can last until April to see it.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

rest in peace.

pro-b

Great director. RIP

[Monty70]

Originally Posted by SpiderBaby

They said they want to work on those World Cinema Foundation films and put them out for the first time on dvd and blu-ray. A stunning achievement, and great films from important filmmakers from places all over the world that they have ignored. They know that it will anger 95% of the people that are loyal to them (more company lovers than film lovers), knowing that they will say "Limite? Never heard of it, when will you release stuff I have heard of!". True story.

OK

[Scottie]

Oh nice!

I'm definitely in for Naked Lunch, Pierre Etaix, and Repo Man.

[BohemianGraham]

I'm with Spidey, just Gate of Hell for me thus far. Need to watch the others first. Also, wasn't sure which Richard III it was, Olivier or McKellen.

[moviebuffed]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Oh nice!

I'm definitely in for Naked Lunch, Pierre Etaix, and Repo Man.

Those are my picks as well. I'm ashamed to say I've never heard of Pierre Etaix and being a fan of Chaplin, Lloyd and Keaton just adds to my guilt. Looking forward to exploring the Etaix box set!!

[brandon_260]

I think I will upgrade Naked Lunch. I only purchased it within the last few months, but I wouldn't mind having it on blu. Not familiar with the other titles, but Repo Man, Gate of Hell, and Etaix seem like safe blind buys for me.

Originally Posted by EricJ

Way too gay-pride for me, but that was Burroughs' fault, not Cronenberg's.

This is extremely ignorant.

[The Great Owl]

As a way of celebrating Criterion's April announcements tonight, I decided to shake the dust off one of my favorite old CDs.



At first glance, Repo Man will probably be the only one from the April batch that I buy right away during that month. This is not a complaint, though, because I am glad that I will have an extra month to catch up on the March Criterion titles.

[Spire]

Originally Posted by SpiderBaby

not coming. They had to cancel the release 4 days ago.

Any more info on that? Cancelled for good or pushed to another month?

[DarkRyder]

I think he's just messing around since everyone here is asking for Eraserhead

[Spire]

Ah. Well nevermind then

[SpiderBaby]

Originally Posted by Spire

Any more info on that? Cancelled for good or pushed to another month?

Um, pushed to another month. Yeah. I think November. Maybe June. Don't count May out. August is looking good too. My money is on October.

[Spire]

[paul000]

Naked Lunch is going to look fantastic.

[oildude]

So sad about Nagisa Oshima. One of the greats has left us. He was the first Japanese director after Kurosawa who became familiar to me, when I rented Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence on VHS in the early 1990s. After that, I caught a couple more of his films when I could, but it wasn't until I found the Criterion Collection that I really learned to appreciate Oshima. MCML was one of the first two Criterions I ever bought. In addition to his mainline films in the Collection, anyone interested in Oshima should definitely look into Eclipse 21: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties.

[Grethiwha]

Hello Blu-ray.com Criterion community. I need somewhere on the internet to share my enthusiasm for that Kobayashi set. So excited! The only thing that could make it better was if it was blu-ray. Or included more films. Come to think of it, that Pierre Etaix collection is the same price even though it's blu-ray and contains 5 films and is a proper release with special features and stuff. What the hell? Well that's okay cause I'm in romantic love with Criterion at the moment. The four previously available Kobayashi films are some of my favourite films. And now they've just doubled the amount of available Kobayashi. Lemme break it down.

So Criterion seems to have hand-picked the most interesting films from Kobayashi's early period. The set is called "Masaki Kobayashi Against the System". His first feature film "The Thick-Walled Room" from 1953, featured on this set, was considered controversial at the time for its politically-charged subject matter and went unreleased until 1957. Between 1953 and 1956 Kobayashi directed mostly innocuous, studio-friendly domestic dramas. While I'd be interested in buying a "Masaki Kobayashi Respects the System" collection of these, to see them (I wish I had Hulu+ cause a lot of them have become available there recently), what's here is far more interesting.

"Black River", from 1957, was his last film before "The Human Condition". It released about the same time as "The Thick Walled Room" finally got out, when Kobayashi was free again to, er, go against the system. "Black River" is the only one on this set I've seen; it and "Inn of Evil" are available on the internet if you look for them, and they're the only ones besides the four widely available ones that you could even find, on the internet, until in the last year on Criterion's Hulu+ channel. Anyway, "Black River" is very good.

And then there's "The Inheritance". This is a film that he made right after "The Human Condition" and "Harakiri" and right before "Kwaidan" and "Samurai Rebellion". That's enough said for me.

Finally, "I Will Buy You" was made in the aforementioned period between 1953 and 1956 when Kobayashi was churning out studio-friendly films. Considering its inclusion in this set, perhaps it is the best and boldest film from this period.

But yeah, SO EXCITED FOR THIS.


Also, I blind-bought "Three Outlaw Samurai" since I can't find it online and it was totally worth it so I may have to do the same with "Ballad of Narayama" and "Gate of Hell" now. Loving these lower-priced obscure Japanese blus. Love the cover art.