The Criterion Collection

[deepbreathsanddeath]

On the topic of The Tree of Life, would you guys say the current price ($11.93) is a good one to blind-buy order at?

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by deepbreathsanddeath

On the topic of The Tree of Life, would you guys say the current price ($11.93) is a good one to blind-buy order at?

I believe that this is a wonderful price for a wonderful movie. Highly recommended if you are a Terrence Malick fan.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Like many other peeps in the Blu-ray.com forum, I watched Skyfall last night. I dare say that Skyfall has dethroned Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line and The Tree of Life for the best picture quality of any Blu-ray in my collection.

I post this here, because, during last night's viewing, I enjoyed how Skyfall pays homage to quite a few movies on the Criterion lineup. One pivotal scene in Skyfall is a fun nod to the sewer chase in The Third Man. The climax of Skyfall reminded me of Straw Dogs in many ways.

More than anything, though, Skyfall makes me think about Akira Kurosawa's Stray Dog, because of the character foils of James Bond and Silva. In Stray Dog, the police officer is presented as a character whose morality is unwavering, while the gun thief is presented as a character who allows circumstances to shape his morals. We see this again in Skyfall, since James Bond and Silva are characters with identical backgrounds just like the characters in Stray Dog. I won't go so far as to say that Sam Mendes had Stray Dog in mind, because this is a well-used character foil scenario, but I did find myself thinking of the Kurosawa film.

It goes without saying that Skyfall also made me think of Jean-Pierre Melville's films.

I too watched Skyfall last night. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it has better PQ than TTRL or TTOL, but it was definitely good looking and had excellent AQ.

This film honestly didn't even feel like a James Bond film. It felt like an action movie that was influenced by several other movies. Don't get me wrong, it was the best Bond film to date, in my opinion, and I truly enjoyed it regardless if it was influenced or not. Like you said, all I could think about was Straw Dogs during the final bit of the film.

I also couldn't help but feel some Home Alone elements

Originally Posted by deepbreathsanddeath

On the topic of The Tree of Life, would you guys say the current price ($11.93) is a good one to blind-buy order at?

Absolutely. It's a great film.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by deepbreathsanddeath

On the topic of The Tree of Life, would you guys say the current price ($11.93) is a good one to blind-buy order at?

As long as you love Terrence Malick, I would say yes. Just be prepared for his most nonlinear, experimental work. As long as you're okay with not "getting it" immediately, you'll be okay. The comparisons to 2001 are very warranted. My sister in law's friend was an extra in the film so they st down to watching it one day only to be so baffled by the creation sequence that they fast forwarded it to the scene she was in. Needless to say, if your diet of films tends to lean towards art house fare, it'll be pretty intelligible.
....But then again if your into art house films/Malick, you'd have seen it already..

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by iScottie

I too watched Skyfall last night. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it has better PQ than TTRL or TTOL, but it was definitely good looking and had excellent AQ.

Skyfall is a clear winner in my collection as far as the audio quality.

My assertion that Skyfall has the best picture quality in my collection is admittedly biased by my love of the source material (the cinematography by Roger Deakins), but the Blu-ray transfer is outstanding in every sense of the word.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

As long as you love Terrence Malick, I would say yes. Just be prepared for his most nonlinear, experimental work. As long as you're okay with not "getting it" immediately, you'll be okay. The comparisons to 2001 are very warranted. My sister in law's friend was an extra in the film so they st down to watching it one day only to be so baffled by the creation sequence that they fast forwarded it to the scene she was in. Needless to say, if your diet of films tends to lean towards art house fare, it'll be pretty intelligible.
....But then again if your into art house films/Malick, you'd have seen it already...(

It's a mixed bag when one recommends Malick's The Tree of Life as a blind-buy these days without knowing a person's familiarity with Malick's films.

I saw The Tree of Life on the day of release at a local indie theater, and, upon returning home, I wrote a long-winded glowing review of the film on Facebook. Over the following weeks and months, several Facebook friends mentioned to me that they had decided to see The Tree of Life after reading my review and had been bored to tears by the movie. They could not fathom why I have so much love for a movie where "nothing ever happens."

This happens a lot in my world, though...

My favorite movie of 2010 was Anton Corbijn's The American, which stars George Clooney as a covert assassin and weapons craftsman. I raved about The American for weeks on Facebook, only to receive several harshly negative opinions of the movie by friends who were bored while watching it.

Still, I keep plowing forward, like a stubborn old bull, and recommending my favorite thought-provoking movies to my circle of friends without worrying about how they will respond to the films.

[Yami]

A new batch of titles have been uploaded to Hulu, including quite a lot of Ozu and Fassbinder and a trio of Oshima.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

It's a mixed bag when one recommends Malick's The Tree of Life as a blind-buy these days without knowing a person's familiarity with Malick's films.

I saw The Tree of Life on the day of release at a local indie theater, and, upon returning home, I wrote a long-winded glowing review of the film on Facebook. Over the following weeks and months, several Facebook friends mentioned to me that they had decided to see The Tree of Life after reading my review and had been bored to tears by the movie. They could not fathom why I have so much love for a movie where "nothing ever happens."

This happens a lot in my world, though...

My favorite movie of 2010 was Anton Corbijn's The American, which stars George Clooney as a covert assassin and weapons craftsman. I raved about The American for weeks on Facebook, only to receive several harshly negative opinions of the movie by friends who were bored while watching it.

Still, I keep plowing forward, like a stubborn old bull, and recommending my favorite thought-provoking movies to my circle of friends without worrying about how they will respond to the films.

The American is a fabulous film. As a huge Malick/Antonioni/Tarkovsky and in general "slow cinema" fan, I just think attention spans are shorter today. "Stuff" needs to happen now to abate the audiences boredom. It doesn't matter if it means anything, it just has to hit all the bases. Yes, The Avengers are kicking alien ass, but does it really mean anything? Is Whedon trying to say something intelligent or is it all a fabricated construct to keep butts in their seats?

*Seeking answers within the cinematographic elements such as camera placement, editing, length of shot, type of lens used.....seems to be lost on modern audiences. What is happening isn't nearly as important as HOW it's being told. If they were one and the same, The Thin Red Line would be no different than Pearl Harbor.*

[ccg1978]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

As long as you love Terrence Malick, I would say yes. Just be prepared for his most nonlinear, experimental work. As long as you're okay with not "getting it" immediately, you'll be okay. The comparisons to 2001 are very warranted. My sister in law's friend was an extra in the film so they st down to watching it one day only to be so baffled by the creation sequence that they fast forwarded it to the scene she was in. Needless to say, if your diet of films tends to lean towards art house fare, it'll be pretty intelligible.
....But then again if your into art house films/Malick, you'd have seen it already..

Very Experiemental work! I still need to rewatch in order to catch everything I missed!

[Fellini912]

Originally Posted by EricJ

And yet...we see...throughout Bergman's films...the continual--
(Oh, wait, sorry, I've been binge-viewing The Story Of Film on Netflix; I don't usually praise foreign directors very slowly in whispery singsong Irish/Welsh accents. )

Me, I tend to not put as much depth in Bergman's "faith" movies that tell us it's all a bowl of pits: We know that Ingmar grew up in a near-medieval household of repressive Swedish Protestantism, which is tantamount, or worse, to growing up in a Catholic household and showing off all your childhood demons about that. At least Ken Russell and Luis Bunuel had excuses for lame schoolyard sniping, or at least thought they did at the time.
It's hard for any Protestant not born in Oslo to fully comprehend Ingmar's fearmongering about "The Church is here to scare us to our eventual deaths!", since, well, shoot me for having a normal, well-adjusted childhood, where nobody lashed the Fear Of God into me or locked me into woodsheds.
As a result, most people make the naive benefit-of-the-doubt mistake of trying to analyze Bergman as making some Deep Important Point about existentialism, and not just basically being a drama-king sympathy-hound Bill Maher with better B/W cinematography.

To invalidate ones art or arguments brought about due to the artists childhood experiences, is modern criticism's sleight of hand. It really dissuades the questions imposed by the art work in hand.

Today's criticism in general always pertains to person's childhood. Thankfully we been moving away from Freudian explanations lately in film and literary criticism (which psychologists have moved on decades ago). Yes, there is a psychological factor in play but it is not all due to the artist's childhood, and gives no reason to avoid the questions given by the artwork.

The "naughty or traumatized child displays his rebellion" has become a lazy, cliche of modern criticism. Again it avoids the main argument brought about by the art work. The same goes with some schools in criminology.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

My favorite movie of 2010 was Anton Corbijn's The American, which stars George Clooney as a covert assassin and weapons craftsman. I raved about The American for weeks on Facebook, only to receive several harshly negative opinions of the movie by friends who were bored while watching it.

Still, I keep plowing forward, like a stubborn old bull, and recommending my favorite thought-provoking movies to my circle of friends without worrying about how they will respond to the films.

Thinking back, I found The American to be very boring. I was waiting for something big to happen, but nothing really did.

I guess the whole thing that turned me off about the movie was the ending. It wasn't the ending I was looking for, so I think part of my anger stems from that.

However, I will be willing to give the film another try as I found elements of it to be neat - specifically the building of the gun.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Thinking back, I found The American to be very boring. I was waiting for something big to happen, but nothing really did.

I guess the whole thing that turned me off about the movie was the ending. It wasn't the ending I was looking for, so I think part of my anger stems from that.

However, I will be willing to give the film another try as I found elements of it to be neat - specifically the building of the gun.

Stuff was happening, you just weren't looking in the right place.

Edit: if you plan on owning all of the collection, be prepared for similarly plotted, paced and shot films.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Stuff was happening, you just weren't looking in the right place.

I think the problem stems from me walking into the movie expecting an action film, but it was more of a drama.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by iScottie

I think the problem stems from me walking into the movie expecting an action film, but it was more of a drama.

Expectations shouldn't matter, a film shouldn't be expected to fit into the cookie cutter mold you want it to. Genre doesn't matter, if fact when a film throws away all resemblance of genre and for the most part is something new and original (although it's heavily indebted to the works of Antonioni and Sergio Leone), that should be noted. It's evident that The American is not gonna be a typical turn your brain off actioner from the start.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Expectations shouldn't matter, a film shouldn't be expected to fit into the cookie cutter mold you want it to. Genre doesn't matter, if fact when a film throws away all resemblance of genre and for the most part is something new and original (although it's heavily indebted to the works of Antonioni and Sergio Leone), that should be noted. It's evident that The American is not gonna be a typical turn your brain off actioner from the start.

I completely understand. It's just I bought the movie thinking it was going to be an action film and I kept waiting for the action to come and I inevitably wasn't focusing on the more subtle things.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by iScottie

I completely understand. It's just I bought the movie thinking it was going to be an action film and I kept waiting for the action to come and I inevitably wasn't focusing on the more subtle things.

I like movies that show characters thinking through situations. This is why Le Samouraï is my favorite film, and it's also why I love movies like The American and No Country For Old Men.

Most movies today do not show characters thinking things through. The American followed George Clooney's character as he thought his way around corners and evaluated his surroundings on a constant basis.

Le Samouraï has a rather brilliant sequence where Jef Costello realizes that someone has been inside his flat because of the way that his pet bird is behaving in the cage. Many of the scenes in The American had the same sort of luxurious attention to subtle detail.

I can understand how one would believe that The American is more of an action film. This is one reason why I dislike a lot of current movie trailers. My favorite movie of 2012, The Grey, is completely different in tone than what the horrible movie trailer might lead one to believe.

[JHas]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I can understand how one would believe that The American is more of an action film. This is one reason why I dislike a lot of current movie trailers. My favorite movie of 2012, The Grey, is completely different in tone than what the horrible movie trailer might lead one to believe.

They even tried to market Malick's "The New World" as a freaking action film!

[octagon]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

My favorite movie of 2010 was Anton Corbijn's The American,...

Whoa, I don't know where I even got this idea but I would have bet (and obviously lost) serious money that The American was Soderbergh.

It's funny how things can get stuck in your head whether they belong there or not.

(and yeah, very cool film)

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I like movies that show characters thinking through situations. This is why Le Samouraï is my favorite film, and it's also why I love movies like The American and No Country For Old Men.

Most movies today do not show characters thinking things through. The American followed George Clooney's character as he thought his way around corners and evaluated his surroundings on a constant basis.

Le Samouraï has a rather brilliant sequence where Jef Costello realizes that someone has been inside his flat because of the way that his pet bird is behaving in the cage. Many of the scenes in The American had the same sort of luxurious attention to subtle detail.

I can understand how one would believe that The American is more of an action film. This is one reason why I dislike a lot of current movie trailers. My favorite movie of 2012, The Grey, is completely different in tone than what the horrible movie trailer might lead one to believe.

I understand what you mean.

No Country For Old Men was a good movie, but again, it didn't settle right with me. I'm going to re-watch it as I haven't seen it since the DVD release and hopefully get a new feel for it.

I personally feel that since posting on this forum and watching Criterions, I've learned to understand films better and see new sides to them.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by iScottie

I understand what you mean.

No Country For Old Men was a good movie, but again, it didn't settle right with me. I'm going to re-watch it as I haven't seen it since the DVD release and hopefully get a new feel for it.

I personally feel that since posting on this forum and watching Criterions, I've learned to understand films better and see new sides to them.

Awesome, I think seeing isn't enough. There are a number of great introduction to film books and essays out there. It's essential to go through some of them step by step. The works of Andre Bazin comes to mind.