The Criterion Collection

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

If you're willing to drop big money is say import, but CC's gotta release it sometime down the road.

PS: Glad to see you liked Zero Dark Thirty. A harsh but essential look at the last ten years.

I'll just leave it on my Wish List for now. Also, I totally agree. It was a fantastic film. All I could think to myself was how difficult of a job it truly was. It wasn't simply locating Bin Laden, it was going through the entire network until they were with the closest people to him.

All it essentially took was one person to change the world. Nobody had any faith in her, but she came through.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by iScottie

I'll just leave it on my Wish List for now. Also, I totally agree. It was a fantastic film. All I could think to myself was how difficult of a job it truly was. It wasn't simply locating Bin Laden, it was going through the entire network until they were with the closest people to him.

All it essentially took was one person to change the world. Nobody had any faith in her, but she came through.

There's no denying the sacrifice she made and that's why it has stuck with me. I felt her loss at the very end of the film. Ten years of her life..for what? Was it all worth it? The film doesn't say.

It's a damn shame Bigelow wasn't nominated for Best Director because it was as assured as Pontcorvo's Battle of Algiers or David Fincher's Zodiac. That was the snub, not Affleck's (although his work on Argo was very good).

Criterion related: My Cousin, my brother and I watched The Game. I still have some problems with the film, but there's so much to reccomend: an intriguing premise, a committed central performance by Mike Douglas & typical Fincher technical mastery.

Does any one have a preference in terms of audio? That near field mix blew me away.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

There's no denying the sacrifice she made and that's why it has stuck with me. I felt her loss at the very end of the film. Ten years of her life..for what? Was it all worth it? The film doesn't say.

It's a damn shame Bigelow wasn't nominated for Best Director because it was as assured as Pontcorvo's Battle of Algiers or David Fincher's Zodiac. That was the snub, not Affleck's (although his work on Argo was very good).

Criterion related: My Cousin, my brother and I watched The Game. I still have some problems with the film, but there's so much to reccomend: an intriguing premise, a committed central performance by Mike Douglas & typical Fincher technical mastery.

Does any one have a preference in terms of audio? That near field mix blew me away.

Yeah, I was really taken back when she was in the restaurant with her friend and her friend asked her if she had any friends. She had no sort of life because all of her time was dedicated to tracking down this cruel terrorist. It did pay off, but like you said, it took a huge tole on her life.

On the subject of The Game, I listed to the default audio and I was really impressed by it. I hardly had to turn my TV up and it felt sort of like surround sound. Why aren't you a big fan of the film? It was definitely one of Fincher's most unique films and it has several nice twists throughout. Is it my favorite of his? Probably not.

[DarkRyder]

Ordered Despair and I Only Want You To Love Me (DVD). I had GCs laying around since Christmas, so I figured might as well.


Still have $30 towards Amazon, so I may get The Third Generation next, but the Fassbinder collections look nice as well. Hmm...

[Hawkguy]

Originally Posted by DarkRyder

Ordered Despair and I Only Want You To Love Me (DVD). I had GCs laying around since Christmas, so I figured might as well.

Great items to use them on, as the prices rarely change on them...I learned that after getting tired of waiting.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Would you guys recommend waiting for a John Cassavetes Criterion set or import the Germany set?

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

If you're willing to drop big money is say import, but CC's gotta release it sometime down the road.

It's not big money. I got the German set for a little over $36 shipping included.

That said, I haven't watched any of them yet and only popped a couple in to confirm that they were region-free (they are). I tried to play one of the supplements and it looks like it won't play unless the player will convert 50i > 60i or the tv can handle 50i natively. There doesn't appear to be a wealth of extras either.

From what little I've seen so far it's a pretty decent set (and the price was definitely right) but if I had to guess I would think a Criterion release would be significantly better.

If you're not going to watch them for a while I'd say wait.

(edit: oh, and no English subs on the German set, should that matter to you)

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by octagon

It's not big money. I got the German set for a little over $36 shipping included.

That said, I haven't watched any of them yet and only popped a couple in to confirm that they were region-free (they are). I tried to play one of the supplements and it looks like it won't play unless the player will convert 50i > 60i or the tv can handle 50i natively. There doesn't appear to be a wealth of extras either.

From what little I've seen so far it's a pretty decent set (and the price was definitely right) but if I had to guess I would think a Criterion release would be significantly better.

If you're not going to watch them for a while I'd say wait.

(edit: oh, and no English subs on the German set, should that matter to you)

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the Concorde Video extras are Region B locked. It doesn't really make much sense, but I guess that's how the cookie crumbles.

Originally Posted by retablo

If you mean Chastain's Maya, that character was fictitious. It was a composite of many people who worked to bring Bin Laden down.

I figured she had a lot of help, but if I recall correctly, during interviews she said that her character was based on a woman in the CIA who had a huge impact on bringing down Bin Laden. They never revealed her identity as she is in deep undercover somewhere in the world right now.

[tenia]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Does any one have a preference in terms of audio? That near field mix blew me away.

I tested a bit, and chose the Near Field.

[Blu-Velvet]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Would you guys recommend waiting for a John Cassavetes Criterion set or import the Germany set?

I got SHADOWS and FACES, which I think are his key films, in the BFI region-free editions at a reasonable price from Amazon.co.uk. If the others eventually get individual Criterion releases I might get them as well.

[SpiderBaby]

Originally Posted by DarkRyder

Ordered Despair and I Only Want You To Love Me (DVD). I had GCs laying around since Christmas, so I figured might as well.


Still have $30 towards Amazon, so I may get The Third Generation next, but the Fassbinder collections look nice as well. Hmm...

Nice.

Hard to tell ya what to choose next, but The Third Generation is a great film and one of my favorite Fassbinder films (can't rank them). The dvd is wonderful, even for the package lovers (slipcover and clear case). The price is always cheap for some strange reason (figure a film like this always sees a $20-30 price range with other companies). The film features a huge group of Fassbinder regulars, so that is always fun. Highly recommended.

[Blu-Velvet]

Originally Posted by CoopFilm

When I showed it to a couple of other people a few months ago...after the film ended I was quiet for a little while, absorbing the emotions and appreciating just how brilliant it is, as I always do when I watch a great film. They were so confused at why I would be affected by a film. Seriously, nobody I know ever feels anything when they watch a film...their first reaction is always to leave and get on to doing the next thing instead of stopping to think about it.

People like that really shouldn't bother watching films. At least not until they've taken a class in how to watch and understand what a film really is. Some films are about the human experience and/or thought-provoking philosophical ideas, and cannot really be "enjoyed" as a superficial plot of characters performing actions to achieve some sort of final goal that's wrapped up at the end, and some people just can't comprehend that concept. Other films are just as interesting, if not more so, as documents recording attitudes, customs, and artifacts of their era (or sometimes as pure cinematic style), than as usually predictable plots of characters and actions. The best can be enjoyed on all levels, but the average moviegoer seems oblivious to anything but the most obvious (which explains a lot of Hollywood's big-budget releases).

[tonylopez]

Just noticed several titles of Criterion blurays are currently on sale. The Game is $16.49!

[BLOFELD]

I just got through viewing Criterion's remastered version of "Badlands" (1973) on Blu-Ray and the quality is spectacular. I mean they really over did it this time. Just unbelievably stunning. If you haven't done so already take some time out to view this picture while it's out on Blu-Ray.

[capnnarcolepsy]

Originally Posted by tonylopez

Just noticed several titles of Criterion blurays are currently on sale. The Game is $16.49!

Here's a direct link to the sale titles for anyone interested. It's today only.

[Blu-Velvet]

Originally Posted by capnnarcolepsy

Here's a direct link to the sale titles for anyone interested. It's today only.

Hmm... Maybe I'll finally upgrade BRAZIL to Blu-ray. I wasn't all that crazy about THE GAME when I saw it theatrically during its original release, but that's really a tempting price for a Criterion release.

[metaridley]

I was going to wait and pick up this conversation after everyone was through fanning themselves over the latest Criterion announcement but what can I say, I'm not very patient.

Originally Posted by joie

I can think cynically and can think that someone initialized/changed the database entry to boost his/her movie count. We have the problem with "Stagecoach" and some others, too. With "On the Waterfront," which was originally llisted as two movies, a documentary in the supplements was counted as a second movie.

The consequence of this is that I've had to start counting SKUs instead of movies, which itself can create a problem when a "set" is involved: If a "set" contains three movies, my movie count is off by two. Solution: I don't buy sets anymore! And of the ones I still have, I've been able to find an entry for each of the singles, add them to my collection, then put the set in a "not owned" special category in my collection (so no movies from it are counted).

Personally, I think the rule for claiming that an SKU contains more than one movie should be that the front cover indicates that there is more than one movie; for example, the 2-movie Dirty Harry SKU and the double feature with Robert Rodriquez' El Mariachi and Desperado. Those two SKUs are accurately counted as containing two movies.

I definitely think you're onto something. I really would prefer my Blu-ray collection on here to be accurately reflected and not artificially inflated so I'm with you on this one. That's certainly an interesting way of manufacturing an accurate Blu-ray count but I'm not sure I'll be going down that route. More power to you, though.

Maybe pro-bassoonist can help out here, if no one else is willing to?

My original question:

So I just bought Au Revoir Les Enfants and I'm wondering why Blu-ray.com counts the Criterion package as containing 2 movies (The Immigrant being included) when other Blu-rays like The Double Life of Veronique also have short films (which The Immigrant could be classified as).

[jrsl76]

I guess SKU counts work for me. I wish there was some more uniformity in how things are counted. When I got Hollis Frampton, my movie count went up by like 25!

[KrugerIndustrial]

A little disappointed that this sale is only for 6 titles. Hopefully they'll add more to that list.

[capnnarcolepsy]

Originally Posted by KrugerIndustrial

A little disappointed that this sale is only for 6 titles. Hopefully they'll add more to that list.

It's just because it's a daily deal. Normally it would be one specific random Blu-Ray title getting a discount for today. In this scenario, it's kind of awesome of Amazon to throw six titles together for it.

As I was looking through all of the titles, though, there are some excellent/decent third party and used prices for a lot of different titles. Definitely worth taking a look through if you've got some time to kill.

[hoytereden]

The Amazon prices were too good to pass up so:
The Game
Rosemary's Baby
have been added to my criterion collection.