The Criterion Collection

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by CoopFilm

Ohhh, it's definitely not, that's good advice. I think that's even more effective as horror.

Cannot emphasize this highly enough. I'm still recovering from the trauma, and it's been TWO YEARS.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by ZooTv

I read Lynch on Lynch about a month ago, which I can't recommend enough. The book is sourced completely from one-on-one interviews, and covers each respective era of the visionary auteur's distinguished career.

Thanks for the recommendation. I honestly don't even know if I'll have a lot of time to read because of the amount of reading I have for school right now.

Luckily I just got done with a streak of books and other articles, so I have some down time now.

Can you guys recommend me some really good books relating to directors, critics, screenplays, or the like? I would really appreciate it.

[Beta Man]

Titles were announced..... I'm so far out of the loop. I see Band of Outsiders, and 3:10 to Yuma.... looks to be yet another fun month.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by Beta Man

Titles were announced..... I'm so far out of the loop. I see Band of Outsiders, and 3:10 to Yuma.... looks to be yet another fun month.

He's back!

[Hawkguy]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Cannot emphasize this highly enough. I'm still recovering from the trauma, and it's been TWO YEARS.

Actually, Salo doesn't bother me at all. It's one of my very favorite films (I know it sounds like I've been saying that about a lot of films recently, but it's true!)...but I definitely will not ever show it to family members, they'd truly hate it. I can only think of one occasion when a film really 'traumatized' me (as in, made me actually feel sick)...but it never ever happens usually, because I try to know what to expect exactly when I'm going in to them (I completely spoil myself )

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

it seemed like a very busy horror film to me, so youre saying it's more like the first hour of HoTD?

Honestly, it's the exact same. The last 10 minutes end up at the same pace as the last 10 minutes of HoTD, but everything before that builds up tension really well. Only difference is that this film has some humor, which was completely missing from HoTD. That's not a bad thing, though, it totally works and makes the lead character way more likable, IMO, than the lead character of HoTD. So, yeah, I'd strongly recommend it to you.

[ZooTv]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Thanks for the recommendation. I honestly don't even know if I'll have a lot of time to read because of the amount of reading I have for school right now.

Luckily I just got done with a streak of books and other articles, so I have some down time now.

Can you guys recommend me some really good books relating to directors, critics, screenplays, or the like? I would really appreciate it.

Given your affinity for Rosemary's Baby & Repulsion, Roman by Polanski is another excellent read which I highly recommend. The hardcover is now long OOP, but could be easily scored via eBay.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Thanks for the recommendation. I honestly don't even know if I'll have a lot of time to read because of the amount of reading I have for school right now.

Luckily I just got done with a streak of books and other articles, so I have some down time now.

Can you guys recommend me some really good books relating to directors, critics, screenplays, or the like? I would really appreciate it.

A couple decent books I own are "how to read a film" by James Monaco and 'Film Theory and Criticism' by Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen. I'm still jn the process of reading the latter, but it's a pretty great read. It's got excerpts by Sergei Eisenstein, Vsevolod Pudovkin, Andre Bazin, Christian Metz and many others. If you pace yourself, it'll turn you on to so much, both theory and their writing aswell.

As far as essay writers, recently I've been digging through David Bordwell and Jonathan Rosenbaum's (whom I've read here and there) sites.

As far as reviews on current films I often read Dana Stevens. She's a pretty terrific writer even if I often disagree with her. Mubi.com is worthwhile too.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by ZooTv

Given your affinity for Rosemary's Baby & Repulsion, Roman by Polanski is another excellent read which I highly recommend. The hardcover is now long OOP, but could be easily scored via eBay.

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

A couple decent books I own are "how to read a film" by James Monaco and 'Film Theory and Criticism' by Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen. I'm still jn the process of reading the latter, but it's a pretty great read. It's got excerpts by Sergei Eisenstein, Vsevolod Pudovkin, Andre Bazin, Christian Metz and many others. If you pace yourself, it'll turn you on to so much, both theory and their writing aswell.

As far as essay writers, recently I've been digging through David Bordwell and Jonathan Rosenbaum's (whom I've read here and there) sites.

As far as reviews on current films I often read Dana Stevens. She's a pretty terrific writer even if I often disagree with her. Mubi.com is worthwhile too.

Thanks for the great recommendations, guys!

I'm watching Last Year At Marienbad now. I've watched 15 minutes so far and I don't know what to make of it. Hopefully it changes up a bit.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by CoopFilm

Actually, Salo doesn't bother me at all. It's one of my very favorite films (I know it sounds like I've been saying that about a lot of films recently, but it's true!)...but I definitely will not ever show it to family members, they'd truly hate it. I can only think of one occasion when a film really 'traumatized' me (as in, made me actually feel sick)...but it never ever happens usually, because I try to know what to expect exactly when I'm going in to them (I completely spoil myself )



Honestly, it's the exact same. The last 10 minutes end up at the same pace as the last 10 minutes of HoTD, but everything before that builds up tension really well. Only difference is that this film has some humor, which was completely missing from HoTD. That's not a bad thing, though, it totally works and makes the lead character way more likable, IMO, than the lead character of HoTD. So, yeah, I'd strongly recommend it to you.

Hmm I can see the genius of Salo in it's social commentary and the ability to make the audience contemplate their own relationship with violence and exploitation through it's distancing techniques. But damn, it's tough to (re)watch because it's meant to. It's kind of like Haneke's (whose favorite film is Salo) stance on the ideal spectator of his own films. If you see his film through, you were meant to see it (or something like that)

Have you written anything on Salo Coop? If so post a link.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Thanks for the great recommendations, guys!

I'm watching Last Year At Marienbad now. I've watched 15 minutes so far and I don't know what to make of it. Hopefully it changes up a bit.

great film. I for one was with it from the first frame. On the other hand, I've heard some people found the beginning to be impenetrable and pretentious.

Rosenbaum's piece: http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/?p=7918

Eberts 'Great Movie' review: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/...905300301/1023

[Hawkguy]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Hmm I can see the genius of Salo in it's social commentary and the ability to make the audience contemplate their own relationship with violence and exploitation through it's distancing techniques. But damn, it's tough to (re)watch because it's meant to. It's kind of like Haneke's (whose favorite film is Salo) stance on the ideal spectator of his own films. If you see his film through, you were meant to see it (or something like that)

Have you written anything on Salo Coop? If so post a link.

I haven't formally written anything about it (yet---though I'd love to write about films somewhere, but always talk myself out of it).

I think that the social commentary works, but isn't even really necessary. The first time I was watching it I tried to understand/read about it so that I could feel 'caught up' with all the metaphors it presented, but I gave up doing that because I was so glued to the film itself. I can't think of many films that had the same effect on me as Salo did the first time I saw it. I couldn't take my eyes off it..... I felt such a wide variety of changing emotions throughout it..all together, it's just such a lasting experience that doesn't come around much, to me...and that alone makes it stand out considerably. I'm usually impressed when a film can make the viewer feel a similar frustration as that which the film itself is displaying...and on that subject of evil in Antichrist, I don't see a better example of a film allowing a viewer to reflect on the nature of it than Salo, either.

I'd agree--it's not something you can re-watch much. I've seen it only a couple times, and I feel like the effect of that, too, wears off after so many viewings.

[Hawkguy]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

great film. I for one was with it from the first frame. On the other hand, I've heard some people found the beginning to be impenetrable and pretentious.

I was as well. I'm mesmerized by the film from the very start, and don't lose interest at all. I think those first couple minutes are some of the best moments of the film...it starts off very dream-like, and grows more and more nightmarish (to me) with its repetition, pace, and just this feeling the vast empty spaces give...

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

great film. I for one was with it from the first frame. On the other hand, I've heard some people found the beginning to be impenetrable and pretentious.

Rosenbaum's piece: http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/?p=7918

Eberts 'Great Movie' review: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/...905300301/1023

Originally Posted by CoopFilm

I was as well. I'm mesmerized by the film from the very start, and don't lose interest at all.

So far I believe they're at this party now and they keep going back to the year before. I watched about 30 minutes, but I'm not in the mood, so I'm probably going to go to bed in a few.

[pro-bassoonist]

FINAL PRESS SHEET:

BAND OF OUTSIDERS

Four years after Breathless, Jean-Luc Godard reimagined the gangster film even more radically with Band of Outsiders. In it, two restless young men (Sweet Movie’s Sami Frey and Eyes Without a Face’s Claude Brasseur) enlist the object of both of their fancies (Pierrot le fou’s Anna Karina) to help them commit a robbery—in her own home. This audacious and wildly entertaining French New Wave gem is at once sentimental and insouciant, effervescently romantic and melancholy, and it features some of Godard’s most memorable set pieces, including the headlong race through the Louvre and the unshakeably cool Madison dance sequence.

1964 • 95 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In French with English subtitles • 1.33:1 aspect ratio

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New digital master of Gaumont’s recent high-definition restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• Visual glossary of references and wordplay found in Band of Outsiders
• Exclusive interviews with cinematographer Raoul Coutard and actor Anna Karina
• Excerpts from a 1964 interview with director Jean-Luc Godard, including rare behind-the-scenes footage from the film
• Filmmaker Agnès Varda’s 1961 silent comedy Les fiancés du pont Mac Donald, starring Godard and Karina and featuring other members of the Band
of Outsiders cast
• Godard’s original theatrical trailer and the 2001 U.S. rerelease trailer
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by poet and critic Joshua Clover, Godard’s character descriptions for the film’s 1964 press book, and an interview with the director from the same year

TITLE: Band of Outsiders (BLU-RAY EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2266BD
UPC: 7-15515-10641-2
ISBN: 978-1-60465-729-6
SRP: $39.95
STREET: 5/7/13


JUBAL

A trio of exceptional performances from Glenn Ford (3:10 to Yuma), Ernest Borgnine (Marty), and Rod Steiger (On the Waterfront) form the center of Jubal, an overlooked Hollywood treasure from genre master Delmer Daves (3:10 to Yuma). In this Shakespearean tale of jealousy and betrayal, Ford is an honorable itinerant cattleman, befriended and hired by Borgnine’s bighearted ranch owner despite his unwillingness to talk about his past. When the new hand becomes the target of the flirtatious attentions of the owner’s bored wife (Valerie French) and is entrusted by the boss with a foreman’s responsibilities, his presence at the ranch starts to rankle his shifty fellow cowhand, played by Steiger. The resulting emotional showdown
imparts unparalleled psychology intensity to this western, a vivid melodrama featuring expressive location photography in Technicolor and CinemaScope.

1956 • 100 minutes • Color • Stereo • 2.35:1 aspect ratio

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Kent Jones

TITLE: Jubal (BLU-RAY EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2262BD
UPC: 7-15515-10611-5
ISBN: 978-1-60465-726-5
SRP: $29.95
STREET: 5/14/13


3:10 TO YUMA

In this beautifully shot and acted, psychologically complex western, Van Heflin (Shane) is a mild-mannered cattle rancher who takes on the task of shepherding a captured outlaw, played with cucumber-cool charisma by Glenn Ford (The Big Heat), to the train that will take him to prison. This apparently simple plan turns into a nerve-racking cat-and-mouse game that will test each man’s particular brand of honor. Based on a story by Elmore Leonard (Get Shorty), 3:10 to Yuma is a thrilling, humane action movie, directed by the supremely talented studio filmmaker Delmer Daves (Jubal) with intense feeling and precision.

1957 • 92 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • 1.85:1 aspect ratio

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• Alternate 5.1 surround soundtrack, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio on the
Blu-ray edition
• New interviews with author Elmore Leonard and Glenn Ford’s son and biographer, Peter Ford
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Kent Jones
TITLE: 3:10 to Yuma (BLU-RAY EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2260BD
UPC: 7-15515-10581-1
ISBN: 978-1-60465-724-1
SRP: $39.95
PREBOOK: 4/16/13
STREET: 5/14/13


MEDIUM COOL

It’s 1968, and the whole world is watching. With the U.S. in social upheaval, famed cinematographer Haskell Wexler (Days of Heaven) decided to make a film about what the hell was going on. His debut feature, Medium Cool, plunges us into that moment. With its mix of scripted fiction and seat-of-the-pants documentary technique, this story of the working world and romantic life of a television cameraman (Jackie Brown’s Robert Forster) is a visceral, lasting cinematic snapshot of the era, climaxing with an extended sequence shot right in the middle of the riots surrounding the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. An inventive commentary on the pleasures and dangers of wielding a camera, Medium Cool is as prescient a political film as Hollywood has ever produced.

1969 • 110 minutes • Color • Monaural • 1.85:1 aspect ratio

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 4K digital restoration, approved by director Haskell Wexler, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• Two audio commentaries, one featuring Wexler, actor Marianna Hill, and editor Paul Golding, the other featuring historian Paul Cronin
• New interview with Wexler
• Look Out Haskell, It’s Real!, a fifty-five-minute documentary about the making of Medium Cool, produced by Cronin and featuring interviews with Wexler, Golding, actors Verna Bloom, Peter Bonerz, and Robert Forster, Chicago historian Studs Terkel, and others
• Excerpts from Sooner or Later, a documentary by Cronin about Harold Blankenship, who plays the adolescent Harold in the film
• Original theatrical trailer
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic and programmer Thomas Beard

TITLE: Medium Cool (BLU-RAY EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2264BD
UPC: 7-15515-10631-3
ISBN: 978-1-60465-728-9
SRP: $39.95
STREET: 5/21/13


LIFE IS SWEET

This moving film from Mike Leigh (Topsy-Turvy) is an intimate, invigorating, and amusing portrait of a working-class family in a suburb just north of London—an irrepressible mum and dad (Alison Steadman and Jim Broadbent) and their night-and-day twins, a bookish good girl and a sneering layabout (Claire Skinner and Jane Horrocks). In it, Leigh and his typically brilliant cast create, with extra*ordinary sensitivity and craft, a vivid, lived-in story of ordinary existence, in which even modest dreams (such as the father’s desire to open a food truck) carry enormous weight. Perched on the line between humor and melancholy, Life Is Sweet is captivating, and it was Leigh’s first international sensation.

1990 • 103 minutes • Color • 2.0 surround • 1.85:1 aspect ratio

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New high-definition digital restoration, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• New audio commentary featuring director Mike Leigh
• Audio recording of a 1991 interview with Leigh at the National Film Theatre in London
• More!
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic David Sterritt

TITLE: Life Is Sweet (BLU-RAY EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2258BD
UPC: 7-15515-10561-3
ISBN: 978-1-60465-722-7
SRP: $39.95
STREET: 5/28/13


Attention Canada: All May Titles Are Available in All Canada.

Pro-B

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Thanks for the great recommendations, guys!

I'm watching Last Year At Marienbad now. I've watched 15 minutes so far and I don't know what to make of it. Hopefully it changes up a bit.

I'm partly with Roger Ebert, who, while respecting the film, thought Resnais was deliberately Punking us, with Pauline Kael who called it "The snow job at the ice palace", and with Hazel Flynn of the Hollywood Citizen-News, who reviewed it at the time as "a lot of pseudo-artistic HOOEY!"

The Medved Brothers, pre-Golden Turkeys, were in agreement, making this one of the few Criterion movies (along with Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible and Antonioni's Zabriskie Point) to make their 50 Worst Movies book:

"Giorgio Albertazzi rattles off a list of objects in the hotel, sounding as if he was the builder taking a last inspection before opening.
The film's fashion inspired several fads upon its arrival...Fortunately, the public did not imitate every detail of the characters, and continued to speak in coherent sentences, register facial expressions, and move their bodies once in a while."

Originally Posted by Monty70

Eraserhead is one man's extremely personal exploration into such topics as the responsibility of the propagation of our species, the eccentricity of relationships, dreams and their relationship to waking "reality", and the big one, where do we go (if anywhere) when we die.

I have never seen another film that captures so closely the experience of my dreams.

Although, MOSTLY dreams--
Again, compare it to Lynch pulling out his REM dream-style in the now-iconic climax of Episode 3 of Twin Peaks ("Zen and the Skill of Catching a Killer"), where Kyle MacLachlan actually is having a possibly prophetic night-time mare, and Lynch trotted out all the trimmings.
Like MacLachlan and Jack Nance, we've all been the staring, out-of-it protagonist of our own stories, unable to say anything deep, and trying to make sense of the hysterically portentious things we think the other characters are saying, backwards, forwards, or otherwise, while atonal music and long, repetitious action drone on without us:

[Show spoiler]

Iconic and uncanny dream scene from Twin Peaks - YouTube

In Peaks' case, we know this is a more technically accurate than usual dream sequence, but sheesh, is it so hard to figure out HERE?

[octagon]

And for the last time, get the **** off his lawn.

[The Great Owl]

I love Last Year At Marienbad, but I won't even pretend to say that I understand it. It's such an eerily gorgeous work of cinema that I want to see on a theater screen one day.

With many films of this sort, I simply put my brain on autopilot and let the film steer me where it wants me to go, instead of the other way around. Like Fellini's 8 1/2, Last Year At Marienbad is a film that I want to pause at random just to take in the full detail of various still frames.

It is fun to kick explanations back and forth after the fact, though.

[Show spoiler]Are the characters ghosts who are repeating moments for eternity?
Is the movie an interpretation of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth?
Is the woman reliving a murder or rape to come to terms with trauma?
Is the woman's husband imagining multiple interactions between his wife and the other man out of jealousy or insecurity?

It's all good.

I loved Criterion's recent post with the color stills from Last Year At Marienbad, although I would never want the film itself to be colorized.

[Page14]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

The next time I'm presented with a 50% off Criterion sale at Barnes and Noble, I'd like to go for the America Lost and Found: The BBS Story.

Most everything else can be purchased gradually one-by-one as I get decent coupon emails from Barnes and Noble or if I stumble across great sales, like I did today.

I've learned not to set foot in the Criterion section of Barnes and Noble unless I have a coupon.

That's high on my list for the next big sale too. It looks like I'm going to have to order it online as none of my (2) local B&Ns carry it in store. (I thought I had bought it once before from a local store, only to find out that I had inadvertently purchased the DVD set, NOT the bluray. A caution to all to look at the packaging carefully if you buy this, as it's easy to miss the DVD signage/logo on the box).

[KrugerIndustrial]

Just watched The Wages of Fear for the first time. Way better than the Friedkin remake, and the ending was brilliant. That said, I found the beginning to be too slow(even by my standards - I love slow films). It's a shame because once the real story starts, it's a nerve-wracking roller coaster of pure tension.

Reminded me a lot of Ice Cold in Alex.

[Cinemach]

Originally Posted by ZooTv

I read Lynch on Lynch about a month ago, which I can't recommend enough. The book is sourced completely from one-on-one interviews, and covers each respective era of the visionary auteur's distinguished career.

That's the place to start with Lynch books. When embarking on critical readings of any director/auteur, direct interviews or writings like this are a great place to begin, before moving onto second- or third-party critical interpretations.

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Yeah, it takes a very skilled craftsman to pull horror off and even when it does work they are superficial thrills. One moment that nearly gives me a heart attack every time is the Dumpster scene in Mulholland Drive and the glimpses of "the blonde" on the bed. I nearly have to look away

A masterful depiction of the nightmare and fear manifest. Yet at the end, turns out to be nothing at all...