The Criterion Collection

[deepbreathsanddeath]

Originally Posted by Kbg1292

WOW. What a way to dive in the collection......

Works out to be roughly $660 worth of Criterions but consider this: that's basically 3 weekends of the usual drug and alcohol induced partying so many people go through. Criterions are great investments and they can easily be resold for $20 on eBay. If you've got the money, more power to you lol

[Snicket]

Originally Posted by Jr7936

even if you don't buy anything during the 50% sales they are great to experience blind buys. chances are someone is going blind buy a criterion cause they though they would like it or they heard great things about the movie

let's say they wind up hating it, now chances are they will want another criterion in trade for the one they didn't like

it's a cheap way to explore new criterion

I'll add that the trade forum here is a great way to exchange or sell (you can easily break even on a $20 title) Criterions you did not enjoy.

[Cinemave]

If you had to pick 1 (or maybe 2) of these what would you pick?

Kagemusha
Sansho the Bailiff
Rashomon
The Ballad of Narayama
Three Outlaw Samurai

I've seen Kagemusha and Rashomon, but I'm unsure if the others are better.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by Jr7936

even if you don't buy anything during the 50% sales they are great to experience blind buys. chances are someone is going blind buy a criterion cause they though they would like it or they heard great things about the movie

let's say they wind up hating it, now chances are they will want another criterion in trade for the one they didn't like

it's a cheap way to explore new criterion

Again, HULU+ is a cheaper alternative..

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by Cinemave

If you had to pick 1 (or maybe 2) of these what would you pick?

Kagemusha
Sansho the Bailiff
Rashomon
The Ballad of Narayama
Three Outlaw Samurai

I've seen Kagemusha and Rashomon, but I'm unsure if the others are better.

Kagemusha and Sansho the Bailiff.

At $15 Three outlaw Samurai is a great pick up too. Its similar to Sanjuro, Yojimbo and Seven Samurai...

[Snicket]

Originally Posted by Cinemave

If you had to pick 1 (or maybe 2) of these what would you pick?

Kagemusha
Sansho the Bailiff
Rashomon
The Ballad of Narayama
Three Outlaw Samurai

I've seen Kagemusha and Rashomon, but I'm unsure if the others are better.

I have not seen it myself, but have heard great things about 3 Outlaw Samurai.

[Se.Vero]

Originally Posted by Kbg1292

WOW. What a way to dive in the collection......

the wishlist i still have is far too much for my poor bank account...

saving money for a codefree player is next.

[shortmartin]

Originally Posted by sc1957

You sir, are a bad person.

Actually I think you're a very sane person. No one should expect to like EVERY film Criterion distributes. That would be no different than liking EVERY film that Sony or Universal put out.

I like every movie that Criterion puts out - except I didn't like Gray's Anatomy (liked Everything Is Going a lot), I found Salo, which I've seen twice, difficult to digest , and I haven't seen some of the experimental stuff (e.g., Frampton). But I'd say that yeah, I basically like all of their movies. Each one has at least something rewarding to it, whether it is because the movie is historically important or revealing, or because it is artistically on point. It's not so much that I like them because they're Criterion, but rather I believe that Criterion chooses movies that are indeed rewarding in one way or another. That said, I do think many of the movies in the Eclipse Series are underwhelming and just don't live up to the higher quality and reward factor of the main line of spine numbers.

[Judex]

Originally Posted by Cinemave

If you had to pick 1 (or maybe 2) of these what would you pick?

Kagemusha
Sansho the Bailiff
Rashomon
The Ballad of Narayama
Three Outlaw Samurai

I've seen Kagemusha and Rashomon, but I'm unsure if the others are better.

Sansho & Kagemusha. all of them are great films though. You should defiantly own all five.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by deepbreathsanddeath

Works out to be roughly $660 worth of Criterions but consider this: that's basically 3 weekends of the usual drug and alcohol induced partying so many people go through.

I'm petrified of the company you know, sir

[Abdrewes]

The Mubi Notebook on Jean-Luc Godard's latest:

[Show spoiler]

Cannes 2013. Camera Eye(s): Jean-Luc Godard's "Les trois désastres"

LES TROIS DÉSASTRES (JEAN-LUC GODARD, FRANCE/PORTUGAL)
SEMAINE DE LA CRITIQUE


It's no surprise that in undertaking his first 3D project (one third of 3X3D, a triptych that also includes Peter Greenaway and Edger Pêra), Jean-Luc Godard would do so much that everything else yet shot in the format looks meager and infantile by comparison (even the few notable filmmakers to have explored 3D's potential fall short of Godard's ambitions: Scorsese, Herzog, Paul W.S. Anderson). Also, it should not have been a surprise that 3D would make perfect sense for Godard's layering of texts and superimpositions, which command an even greater effect with the extra dimension. All of Godard's films, are, to an extent, about images, and here as much as ever he concerns himself with the apparatus, perspective, history (through images) and specifically 3D and digital's impact on these things, as well as on cinema itself.

Images rapidly leap from the screen as Godard quotes films, filmmakers, narrates, appears as himself. Footage shot for his next feature (also in 3D), Adieu au langage, is woven into the fabric of this rapid-fire short. He even takes frames from other 3D films: Cave of Forgotten Dreams, The Three Musketeers, Pina, and others. In seventeen minutes, Godard again expands the breadth of cinema's expressive potential and hints at new possibilities, bringing new properties out of digital texture and creating multiple planes of vision that interact in heightened dynamism.

There is no filmmaker who more eagerly adopts new tools and puts them to use so inventively and potently. In one shot, the foreground is out of focus in such a way that it causes discomfort—a new way of interrupting complacent viewing. Godard has used the layering of images in the past to bring new meanings to them, combining separate things to create new ideas. With 3D, the degree to which he uses contrastive depth can develop new ways of making meaning and complicating juxtaposition. Godard muses on the (d)evolution of perspective in art, and the coming (already here?) dictatorship of digital, but, as with most of Godard’s late films, it's the sheer aesthetic beauty here that is most overwhelming. One shot of his and Anne-Marie Miéville's dog, Roxy, surrounded by colorful, digital ecstasy, is transparently emotional, and finds some sort of optimism amidst Godard's intensely trenchant cine-sermon. ■

[Page14]

Originally Posted by deepbreathsanddeath

Works out to be roughly $660 worth of Criterions but consider this: that's basically 3 weekends of the usual drug and alcohol induced partying so many people go through. Criterions are great investments and they can easily be resold for $20 on eBay. If you've got the money, more power to you lol

Funny!

I try to look at it in a similar way to what you say above. Just last night, without giving it a whole lot of thought, I spent at least $75 (probably closer to $100) to see a meaningless baseball game (between gas, ticket, refreshments, parking) that will hardly be a memory soon enough. Yet, I can hem and haw and squawk about paying $70 for a great bluray box set that could bring enjoyment many times over. It's interesting how we can let loose spending money on one thing, yet be so frugal about spending it on something that in the long run, might be more worthwhile/beneficial/substantial.

[Snicket]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

The Mubi Notebook on Jean-Luc Godard's latest:

It's amazing he is still going.

[Kbg1292]

Originally Posted by Page14

Funny!

I try to look at it in a similar way to what you say above. Just last night, without giving it a whole lot of thought, I spent at least $75 (probably closer to $100) to see a meaningless baseball game (between gas, ticket, refreshments, parking) that will hardly be a memory soon enough. Yet, I can hem and haw and squawk about paying $70 for a great bluray box set that could bring enjoyment many times over. It's interesting how we can let loose spending money on one thing, yet be so frugal about spending it on something that in the long run, might be more worthwhile/beneficial/substantial.

Well put. I went back to Amazon and bought two additional movies with the $$ I've saved from not smoking cigs for 9 days. Talk about blowing $ on something with no value. I hope to look back two years from now when I'm re-watching one of these movies, and be glad that I spent my money on this rather than a few packs of smokes (assuming I remain committed to the quit)

[UNCMT9]

Starting Cronos on Hulu right now.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Page14

I try to look at it in a similar way to what you say above. Just last night, without giving it a whole lot of thought, I spent at least $75 (probably closer to $100) to see a meaningless baseball game (between gas, ticket, refreshments, parking) that will hardly be a memory soon enough. Yet, I can hem and haw and squawk about paying $70 for a great bluray box set that could bring enjoyment many times over. It's interesting how we can let loose spending money on one thing, yet be so frugal about spending it on something that in the long run, might be more worthwhile/beneficial/substantial.

Well said.

I generally pay $75 to $100 a few times a year to register for marathon races. Each race only lasts me four and half hours or so (I'm slow as hell.), but I end up with a medal and some cool memories that last me forever. I also recently paid $140 for two tickets to see a New Order concert here in July, because they've always been one of my favorite bands and I've never seen them live before because they haven't toured this area in decades.

On the other hand, though, I know that the $148 that I spent for The Twilight Zone box set or the $61 that I spent for the America Lost and Found box set will pay for itself several times over, and, in fact, these sets have already paid for themselves in terms of the time that I've already spent watching them.

I try to achieve a decent balancing act between spending money on movies that I'll enjoy forever and spending money on making my own movies of fun life experiences with friends that will play in my memory forever. If I only have enough money for one, then I'll choose the latter, but I'm pretty happy and fortunate when I have enough for both.

I'm sitting out the current Best Buy sale in part because I'm pretty much at the point where I've already upgraded my essential favorite Criterion DVDs to Blu-ray, and am down to the "second tier level" Criterions that I like, but will not revisit quite as often. I want think it through and set some priorities among the second tier Criterions to buy during the July sale at Barnes & Noble (if that happens this time around).

[lastemp3ror]

Is this America Lost and Found collection worth it? Are they all solid titles?

[I KEEL YOU]

Originally Posted by Snicket

It's amazing he is still going.

I bet so many people think he's dead, and has been for a while because all the movies he's known for have been made many decades ago. I also suspect some think this about Francis Ford Coppola as well.

[bluesilo]

Originally Posted by Cinemave

If you had to pick 1 (or maybe 2) of these what would you pick?

Kagemusha
Sansho the Bailiff
Rashomon
The Ballad of Narayama
Three Outlaw Samurai

I've seen Kagemusha and Rashomon, but I'm unsure if the others are better.

Personally speaking the only two I've seen are Sansho the Bailiff and
Rashomon. I'd highly recommend them.

[bluesilo]

Originally Posted by UNCMT9

Starting Cronos on Hulu right now.

Just watched my Blu-ray of this on Sunday. While not as fantastic as some of the other criterions I've watched lately (Badlands and Brazil), its an entertaining movie.

If you do enjoy it, the Blu-ray has this really cool extra where you get to look into Del Toro's Man Cave. I hope there's a part 2 on Devil's Backbone.