The Criterion Collection

[Joe Dalek]

Happy birthday Lena Dunham!

[Akijama]

Here's something for the fans of Frank Perry

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=220091

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by Akijama

Here's something for the fans of Frank Perry

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=220091

If only Last Summer would get released.

[Scottie]

Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt is a mixture of both Monsieur Verdoux and The Night of the Hunter. The funny thing is both films were released later, so I guess this film inspired them.

[Banned User]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I have The Twilight Zone: The Complete Series Blu-ray box set on its way to me in the mail. What were the issues on the first pressing of Season One? I'm assuming that I'll have a newer pressing, but I want to know what to look for just the same.

I had the original with the issues. Certain episodes would just freeze up or skip. Annoying, but luckily I got them replaced and they work fine. This was fixed long before the Complete series was out.

[pro-bassoonist]

I just finished viewing Medium Cool.

Simply an extraordinary film and a superb presentation by Criterion. This film will have your blood boiling and head spinning.

It is difficult to argue against the all-around impressive package Criterion put together for Mr. Kazan's On the Waterfront, but Medium Cool may just turn out to be this year's most exciting release.

This is American Cinema at its very, very best - powerful, thought-provoking, incredibly well directed!

Regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum, you've got to admire Haskell Wexler's vision. because the film could not be any more relevant today, 44 years after its release.

Do not miss this release!

(Our review is coming up later tonight).

Pro-B

[Badas]

^

Ordering now.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum, you've got to admire Haskell Wexler's vision. because the film could not be any more relevant today, 44 years after its release.

Do not miss this release!

(Our review is coming up later tonight).

Pro-B

I'm thankful that the first time I will experience it will be in high definition. Can't wait to read the review

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Roninblues

I'll be interested on your take of this film. A blind buy for me but I enjoyed it.

I loved Rapture. It's such an understated beauty of a film, and it should have been released by Criterion just so it would not be limited to 3,000 fans and potential fans. Rapture was a blind buy for me as well, but I'm also pretty sure that it was a blind buy for 95% of the people who have purchased it so far, because it basically received zero recognition until the Blu-ray came out last year.

Great work all around from Patricia Gozzi (Leon Morin, Priest), Dean Stockwell (Paris, Texas), Gunnel Lindblom (The Seventh Seal), Melvyn Douglas (The Changeling), and even Sylvia Kay (Wake in Fright).

The Twilight Time release of Rapture is outstanding, except that I wish that English subtitles were available. This may sound strange to most people, but I like to watch older movies with subtitles during the first viewing, just to make sure that I do not miss out on any dialogue. It's no big deal in this instance, though.

Next up: Experiment in Terror

I was hoping to find time to watch my Criterion Blu-ray of Sweet Smell of Success tonight, but I'll probably wait until tomorrow unless I'm feeling particularly wide awake after Experiment in Terror. I only have three more still-unwatched Blu-rays left to watch before I'm completely caught up with my collection. The Twilight Zone: The Complete Series will be arriving in the mail in a few days, though, and I'll be uncaught up all over again.

[JHas]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

I just finished viewing Medium Cool.

Simply an extraordinary film and a superb presentation by Criterion. This film will have your blood boiling and head spinning.

...

Do not miss this release!

(Our review is coming up later tonight).

Pro-B

Have had this pre-ordered for a while, looking forward to the review.

I finally broke down and bought the "Punishment Park" import, expecting "Medium Cool" be just as much a unique counter cultural film as that was.

[*PREACHER*]

[Show spoiler]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

I just finished viewing Medium Cool.

Simply an extraordinary film and a superb presentation by Criterion. This film will have your blood boiling and head spinning.

It is difficult to argue against the all-around impressive package Criterion put together for Mr. Kazan's On the Waterfront, but Medium Cool may just turn out to be this year's most exciting release.

This is American Cinema at its very, very best - powerful, thought-provoking, incredibly well directed!

Regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum, you've got to admire Haskell Wexler's vision. because the film could not be any more relevant today, 44 years after its release.

Do not miss this release!

(Our review is coming up later tonight).

Pro-B

Looking forward to the movie and the review...I know it'll be aces.

Thanks Pro-B!!!

[Brad1963]

Originally Posted by hoytereden

If only Last Summer would get released.

I'm hoping it is The Swimmer.

[Akijama]

Originally Posted by Brad1963

I'm hoping it is The Swimmer.

It's The Swimmer Check the link https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=220091

[smoss469]

I just received 3 new Criterion BD's today.

"The Man Who Knew Too Much"
"The 39 Steps"
"Ministry of Fear"

Can't wait to get watching.

[Brad1963]

Originally Posted by Akijama

It's The Swimmer Check the link https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=220091

Wow! How did I miss this?

[Abdrewes]

Just a heads up, I am conducting a poll of the 20 best films of the 1920's:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...48#post7548148

[*PREACHER*]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Just a heads up, I am conducting a poll of the 20 best films of the 1920's:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...48#post7548148

Nice...I have some homework to do!!!

[DasMarcos]

Tonight the wife and I were treated to "On the Waterfront"! I thought the score for the film was well done, and memorable as well. What can be said about the performances, especially for Marlon Brando? I'm surprised it took me so long to finally watch it but I'm so glad that my first experience was with the Criterion BD with the 1.66 aspect ratio.

I'm cycling through the special features right now and they are all a treat. Bonus points for seeing another superb performance by Lee J. Cobb.

[Scottie]

Having completed Shadow of a Doubt and Rope today as part of the Hitchcock Collection, I can rank the films in the following order (from what I've seen):

Shadow of a Doubt - it was a really great suspense film from the beginning until the end. I think Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright were fantastic in it. I can't help but feel as if there was an incestuous undertones throughout the film. I understand that Charlie respected and looked up to her uncle, but it just seemed a little more than just niece / uncle.

Saboteur - this film reminded me a lot of The 39 Steps, specifically with the plot. We see a man on the run from the beginning until the end, spanning various states until justice is served at the end. It was really fun.

Rope - I didn't really enjoy this film. I've never been a big fan of one location films for the entire movie and I went into this film with high expectations. I understood the general plot of the film, but I thought it would have expanded far beyond the apartment building. It was a lot of dialogue and somebody like myself who wasn't really looking forward to that, especially tonight, it dragged on for me. I think the storyline was decent, with James Stewart getting into the minds of these two amateurs looking to pull off the perfect murder, but I wish there would have been more to it. From what I've read, there are a lot of homosexual undertones in the film, specifically between Brandon and Philip. They seemed a lot closer than friends, in my opinion, throughout the entire film. I also learned that both actors were gay in real life, as well as the composer and screenplay writing, if I recall correctly. I think it's neat that they touched on such a prominent topic nowadays in the 1940s.

[shortmartin]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Heaven's Gate is superb. I think I need to see it another time before I can chime in. What trips me is being able to come up with the right verbiage to defend the completely unsubtle politics.

The comparison with Visconti is apt. Both the Leopard and Heavens Gate have very gorgeous widescreen ball sequences.

Both ball sequences are amazing, with spectacular, dynamic dance choreography, and the costumes and sets are a feast for the senses. I prefer Leopard's scene only because it feels much richer and multifaceted in terms of how we experience the characters' relationships to the dancing, the festivities, and each other.

Another similarity between Leopard and Heavens Gate is in the area of combat scenes, with both movies using very well choreographed battle set-ups and a focus on the impact of war on ordinary people and their involvement in theaters of battle. Heavens Gate is unmatched in its evocation of a kind of frontier violence that sits right along the lines between law and lawless, perhaps not unmatched, indeed echoes of and resonances with Straw Dogs are evident throughout this movie.

[Show spoiler]I'm thinking, for example, of the use of cabins and log framing as the set-up for gun battle sequences and the ways that cabins become the spatial environment for representing and encountering violence . . . among many other resonances.

Yet another similarity between the Leopard and Heavens Gate has to do with character development - here again, imo, Leopard is far superior - and the way both films revolve around the arc of a male character - Lancaster in the Leopard, and Kristofferson in Heavens Gate - whose life spans historically changing worlds, so that a personal moral and emotional life is bound up with the wider affairs of a nation and systems of government, and whose process of aging takes on the tone of these wider transformations.

I finished Heavens Gate tonight, and it's now definitely up there in the top tier of westerns for me. Of course, it's not perfect, some elements are uneven, but it is truly unique and really tries to capture a grand story, to hone in on the dark side of things, and to push the envelope and innovate in terms of replicating history in and for the cinema.

Leopard
Heavens Gate
Straw Dogs (I love this film . . . but I'm a sucker for historical epics . . . and the near-perfection of the first, and the shameless sweep and attention to realism of the second, force me to put them ahead).