The Criterion Collection

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by troysayshi

The 39 Steps certainly is.

All of the Hitchcock Criterion films are outstanding. The 39 Steps is my favorite of his early works, but The Man Who Knew Too Much and The Lady Vanishes are right up there as well.

[SammyJankis]

Originally Posted by DarkRyder

Yeah, I've seen that, that's why I'm saying I hope they announce it. The timing would be right. I love Yi Yi, and I have been wanting to see Yang's other works, so fingers crossed.

Ditto. I adore Yi Yi.

Maybe throw in an Ozu and we'd have the best month ever.

[UNCMT9]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

All of the Hitchcock Criterion films are outstanding. The 39 Steps is my favorite of his early works, but The Man Who Knew Too Much and The Lady Vanishes are right up there as well.

Originally Posted by Chrysagon

I have TLV and The 39 Steps. The 39 Steps is a favorite of mine. If you like North By Northwest I think you will like The 39 Steps. Similar plot line. It may not be as polished as NBNW but it's Hitchcock all the way. TLV is a bit slow to get going but gets on a roll and on track once on the train, and never stops. Sorry, couldn't resist the pun.

My Hitchcock collection includes: The Lady Vanishes, The 39 Steps, Notorious, North by Northwest, and Spellbound. Like to add: Vertigo.

Originally Posted by troysayshi

The 39 Steps certainly is.

Thank you all for your responses. I may have to pick these up at the next B&N sale!

[Scottie]

I just watched all of the David Lynch shorts on The Criterion Collection's Hulu channel, as they are free for this week. A lot of the shorts left room for interpretation, which immediately sparked an interest in me to research more about them. I think that as a whole, all of the shorts are creepy in some fashion. I think the colors specifically give off a very haunting mood, with the backgrounds usually being dark and the characters' faces being pale white. Also, the soundtracks in each of the shorts add to the mood, as well. Anyway, here are my thoughts:

The Alphabet
This is the eeriest of David Lynch's shorts, in my opinion. I interpreted this short as a loss of innocence. When we usually see or hear the alphabet, we associate it with little children and youth. However, the alphabet in this short was given a very bizarre mood with the main character, the young girl who appears to be in distress, as the focal point. I find it interesting that this short was inspired by a dream that David Lynch's niece had. Pretty interesting, if you ask me.

The Amputee
After watching both versions of this, I prefer Version 1, or the longer version. We start off by hearing this woman Catherine Coulson, writing a letter recounting certain aspects of her life. However, as soon as David Lynch enters as the nurse, we forget all about the letter and become engrossed in him cleaning her legs. The way that the short ends with the question prompt by Catherine Coulson is haunting. It adds a lot of suspense and also makes the viewer wonder if we missed something very interesting unfolding throughout the course of the letter writing process.

The Grandmother
This was probably my least favorite David Lynch short. It was a lot longer than all of the other ones combined and it wasn't as creepy or bizarre, in my opinion. With that being said, it did have a good story about how this abused and neglected boy grew this grandmother out of a seed and she brought him great joy and comfort until her inevitable demise. Grandmothers are usually always seen as the nurturing and comforting kind, so with her in his life, the boy was able to have a positive person in his life for once.

Premonition Following An Evil Deed
This reminded me a lot of Blue Velvet. It seems like there's a mystery surrounding a murder victim, the victim's family, and a group of criminals involved in strange experiments. All I know is that I would love David Lynch to make a film strictly about this one short. I like the way that David Lynch directed this short and the way the clips were spliced together. It definitely gives off a very eerie vibe.

Six Men Getting Sick
Being that it was his first short film, I think it was a good introduction into the bizarre world of David Lynch, even if it did have that annoying siren sound on repeat.

[Abdrewes]

Time to watch Last Temptation of Christ again.

[vader4]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Time to watch Last Temptation of Christ again.

Great Sunday movie!

[Yami]

The recent 4K restoration of Tokyo Story is getting released on Blu-Ray in Japan in July. Wouldn't be surprised to see Criterion announce it tomorrow.

[MitchA17]

Originally Posted by vader4

Announcements are just 2 days away and I'm hoping for a good month because these are the last movies that will be available when the sale comes. Here's what I'm hoping for:
Any Lars Von Trier
Any Akira Kurosawa
Any Federico Felini
Any Harmony Korine
My Dinner with Andre
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Aguirre, The Wrath of God

Any of these and I would be ecstatic!

Ditto Life Aquatic, Aguirre (any Herzog, really), Felini, Korine, and Von Trier. I would love to own Criterion blus of:

Dancer in the Dark (but only watch it maybe once every five years)

The Kingdom (I'd sell my firstborn to Criterion if this happened)

[randomzombie]

I've been lurking this thread for awhile and I finally decided to sign up for an account back in February. This is a great place to learn about films I might never have thought to watch in the past, so thank you all for the wonderful/snarky/insightful/enthusiastic comments.

All that being said, I bought Yi Yi a few weeks ago and was finally able to watch it Friday night. Omg. For a movie that has

[Show spoiler]a wedding, an attempted suicide, a suggested inappropriate teacher/student relationship which leads to murder, a comatose grandmother who eventually dies, someone who has an implied nervous breakdown, and a funeral

Yi Yi is a masterpiece of subtle realism. Every character was interesting and felt so very real, even Yang Yang with his preternatural ability to realize the half truths of life at such a young age.

Min Min's breakdown scene really got to me.

[Show spoiler]"I have nothing to say to mother. I tell her the same things everyday, what I did in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening. It only takes a minute. I can't bear it. I have so little. How can it be so little? I live a blank. Every day...every day. I'm like a fool."

For anyone who doesn't already own Yi Yi, I highly recommend you give it a buy come the Barnes and Noble half off sale, if not before.

Last night I watched Leon, Morin and quite enjoyed it as well. I have been meaning to pick it up for awhile but the OOP announcement forced my hand and I'm quite glad it did. Such a shame that this movie is going OOP though.

I listened to the little bit of commentary that was included. There is a 3 hour long cut of Leon, Morin?!? Ugh. I want it so badly.

Has that version ever been screened anywhere?

Hope I haven't bored anyone. Lol. I'm now off to watch Army of Shadows for the first time. Woohoo.

[Sherlock_Jr]

Originally Posted by Yami

The recent 4K restoration of Tokyo Story is getting released on Blu-Ray in Japan in July. Wouldn't be surprised to see Criterion announce it tomorrow.

The 4K restoration of Tess is already out in several countries, but it still han't been announced by any company in the US. So don't expect an immediate announcement just because it's coming out in another region.

[majorkonig41]

Originally Posted by vader4

Announcements are just 2 days away and I'm hoping for a good month because these are the last movies that will be available when the sale comes. Here's what I'm hoping for:

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

An infinite amount of titles deserve the Blu-ray treatment before this does, but it is getting irritating having to hear about it every month. Criterion just needs to put it out already, sort of like a mercy kill, so we don't ever have to hear about it again.

[Yami]

Originally Posted by Sherlock_Jr

The 4K restoration of Tess is already out in several countries, but it still han't been announced by any company in the US. So don't expect an immediate announcement just because it's coming out in another region.

Indeed but this is is a different situation to Tess. Tess has only been out for a short time in Region B areas, while Tokyo Story has been out in Region B for nearly 3 years now. That release isn't the new restoration but seeing as it's possibly Criterion's highest profile title that hasn't yet been upgraded, I would assume that they've been waiting on a new restoration - which is being released in another Region A territory in July with English subtitles. If Criterion don't want to lose sales, it would do them good to release it in July. That's only a possibility though.

[Sherlock_Jr]

Originally Posted by Yami

Indeed but this is is a different situation to Tess. Tess has only been out for a short time in Region B areas, while Tokyo Story has been out in Region B for nearly 3 years now. That release isn't the new restoration but seeing as it's possibly Criterion's highest profile title that hasn't yet been upgraded, I would assume that they've been waiting on a new restoration - which is being released in another Region A territory in July with English subtitles. If Criterion don't want to lose sales, it would do them good to release it in July. That's only a possibility though.

Depends if the restored Tokyo Story is Region locked or not, which it probably will be. It took them 14 months to put out Repo Man after the MOC version debuted, and 12 months for Two Lane Blacktop. Just saying, don't expect it day and date with another region's release because that rarely happens.

[Yami]

Originally Posted by Sherlock_Jr

Depends if the restored Tokyo Story is Region locked or not, which it probably will be.

Both Japan and the US are in Region A so region locking doesn't matter in this case.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by randomzombie

Last night I watched Leon, Morin and quite enjoyed it as well. I have been meaning to pick it up for awhile but the OOP announcement forced my hand and I'm quite glad it did. Such a shame that this movie is going OOP though.

I listened to the little bit of commentary that was included. There is a 3 hour long cut of Leon, Morin?!? Ugh. I want it so badly.

Has that version ever been screened anywhere?

Hope I haven't bored anyone. Lol. I'm now off to watch Army of Shadows for the first time. Woohoo.

Welcome aboard!

I'm glad that you enjoyed Leon Morin, Priest. I agree that I'd love to see a longer cut of that film.

Let us know how you think of Army of Shadows.

[Sherlock_Jr]

Originally Posted by Yami

Both Japan and the US are in Region A so region locking doesn't matter in this case.

True. But I doubt very seriously they will "lose sales" if they don't put it out right away. It's expensive to import from Japan, and it seems like half the Criterion buyers wait until a 50% off sale regardless. It's not like it's a must have Day 1, to me, anyway. It'll come, hopefully sooner rather than later.

[P@t_Mtl]

A bit outside of Criterion if I may for a second, just finish with Tim Burton's Dark Shadows. Been a fan of the TV series for 25 years and when I saw the trailer last year, it really looked like they had mess this one very badly. I must say I was surprise and it was a pleasant one. The movie is far from what the trailer made it looked liked. They change a few things and Depp was actually good as Barnabas Collins. I am really confuse as to why to choose to make the trailer that way and made the movie look like a silly stupid comedy?

[brandon_260]

Originally Posted by P@t_Mtl

A bit outside of Criterion if I may for a second, just finish with Tim Burton's Dark Shadows. Been a fan of the TV series for 25 years and when I saw the trailer last year, it really looked like they had mess this one very badly. I must say I was surprise and it was a pleasant one. The movie is far from what the trailer made it looked liked. They change a few things and Depp was actually good as Barnabas Collins. I am really confuse as to why to choose to make the trailer that way and made the movie look like a silly stupid comedy?

I think this is, bar none, the worst film of 2012.

[P@t_Mtl]

Originally Posted by brandon_260

I think this is, bar none, the worst film of 2012.

Really? I actually enjoyed it and believe me I wasn't really expecting to do so. From the trailer I really wasn't impress. I don't if the reason might be that I seen the entire 1200+ episodes three times already made a difference?

[Edward J Grug III]

Originally Posted by brandon_260

I think this is, bar none, the worst film of 2012.

There is no possible way it is worse that That's My Boy.