The Criterion Collection

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by monorail91

That's the most explicit of Fellini's films I've seen though. His films all have adult content and serious undertones, but it's more subtle; even

[Show spoiler]the orgy at the end of La Dolce Vita

you could miss if you weren't paying attention. I almost didn't like Amarcord, because it seems so much more vulgar than his other works - I like em sexy but classy!

His color films brought in the orgiastic vulgarity, even when it had a "theme" like Satyricon (which, as Roger Ebert wrote, was a statement on "why the 60's Summer of Love would never have lasted", as seen through one who had grown up on ancient "hometown" stories of Roman indulgence)--And Amarcord has so much more of a local feeling than the later nonsensical "eww!" of Casanova or Citte del Donna, where he just wanted to enjoy the cultural heritage of being a total Italian-chauvinistic perv.
Once Woody Allen started plagiarizing Fellini and Bergman films in the 80's, it's easy to see the connection between the crazy-relatives/wartime-boyhood 40's Rome of "Amarcord" and the crazy-relatives/wartime-boyhood 40's Long Island of "Radio Days".

Originally Posted by jw007

I guess I just became more of a "completist" in recent months ever since I started posting on this forum regularly as I feel the need to share my "hauls" and favorite films. But maybe I should go back in time and just be a casual Criterion fan and not someone who is now obsessed with it. How do I reverse the addiction?

I'm trying to be funny here, but it keeps turning serious:
Addiction, any addiction, becomes your religion. The drug is the god, the shooting up is the worship. It rewires your brain, so that your other priorities, which don't deliver the satisfaction, don't become prime priorities in your life or social circle anymore--You don't see why you should spend your money on anything else anymore.

Most addicted Criterion buyers literally have gone beyond the ability do distinguish between watching a Criterion title to learn about some new life/mind-altering foreign classic of film literature sight-unseen that they'd never heard of before, and buying a Criterion title to learn about some new life/mind-altering foreign classic of film literature sight-unseen that they'd never heard of before. To Watch is to Buy, and to Buy is to Watch. They will both teach you, it promises, and both actions are the devotion.
To conquer the addiction, any addiction, is, like the movie says, Trainspotting--Rewire your brain (or at least, in this case, the part of it that watches movies) back into the world again, step outside and bring the other priorities back into your experience again:
- Can you go cold turkey?--Can you NOT buy Criterions for a month? Or is it just a fun little hobby you do to be social, and you can quit any time you want?
- How do you feel when people suggest/tell you not to do it? Does it feel like they're "intruding" on your life, making personal judgments on your identity, or "telling you what to do" because they've got some stick up their hinder and "don't understand" how cool you've worked the hobby into your personal routine? Is it more comforting to stay social, snicker at the do-gooding detractors behind their backs, and have a sense of unity hanging out witht the cool underground/Internet social circle of the Folks Who Understand? If it was personal friends who tried to intervene, would you choose the hobby over the friends?
- Would discovering a classic on Kino, or Cohen Collection, be as "meaningful" as the discovery of a rare movie on Criterion? Is it the movie you discovered, or the feeling that your "dealer" delivered the goods again?
- Must they be Blu-ray, and proudly bought with your own money, from your One True loyal Amazon or Barnes & Noble source that makes them such a "personal" acquisition? If you wanted to see the movie, could you watch it on DVD? Is it about the movie, or the Blu-ray?
- Is it about the buying? Would you watch it for free, if your local library had a DVD copy, for a seven day rental? Would you watch it streaming, for an entire $7.99 month of HuluPlus?

It helps to start asking these questions early, while you still CAN answer them without defending them.
Just because chocolate, or gambling, or mall-shopping, won't send you to the emergency room doesn't mean they don't start tinkering around upstairs once you start saying that it's, well, just part of my lifestyle, and just me!

[octagon]

Originally Posted by EricJ

Is it more comforting to stay social, snicker at the do-gooding detractors behind their backs,...

I don't think I can answer this one. I haven't yet been able to wait for the do-gooding detractors to turn their backs before snickering at them.

Sorry

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by octagon

I don't think I can answer this one. I haven't yet been able to wait for the do-gooding detractors to turn their backs before snickering at them.

I remember the last time I was flat-out kicked off the board for a week at the request of a few hardcore regulars, for making mere jokes about comparing Criterionista behavior to drug addiction.

I was accused of the most TERRIBLE crimes, to punish my credibility--
I was clearly "trolling" to be nasty. People wondered whether I "hated Criterion", and had some "personal grudge" against the company for my "attacking" private Criterion-fan behavior in its place. I must have been trying to "prevent" innocent fans from doing what they loved so dearly, like the Grinch on Mt. Crumpet. Folks stepped to say "Okay, who's in with me for the buying spree!...We know we love it!", just to enforce cool tribalism over the idea that individual behavior could be re-evaluated or changed, just because some stranger dared to breach the gates and say mean things about it...Oh, I'm sorry, about the PEOPLE who did it. Remember, the hobby and the identity must always go hand in hand.

Search the backwaters of Internet, and you'll find marijuana legalizationists snickering at the world behind their backs, and posting clips from cheesy old 30's movies as if this was what mainstream people in 2013 thought or looked like. Look far enough, you might still find boards (if they haven't been shut down yet), where anorexic cases gather to exchange suicidal poetry, and tell each other "Don't let the world tell you what to do!" when they whine about their parents "forcing" them to get medical help.
It's always easy to make a Pirate Club Treehouse when you want to think that a select group knows better than the mainstream. When you're building one past the age of ten, though, the question carries a little more social responsibility.
Spending money on what you don't need, to the point that it reaches catastrophic consequences in your own life, isn't "cool" just because you can privately in-joke about it with other catastrophic spenders who've learned how to rationalize it off rather than make simple changes in their own mirror.

[Pantsflakes]

Once they kicked me off for making a joke about how citizen Kane was bad and garbage pail kids was good

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Pantsflakes

Once they kicked me off for making a joke about how citizen Kane was bad and garbage pail kids was good

(Well, that wasn't because of the opinion, that was just because you're so darned corny, amateur and unoriginal. )

[14728]

Originally Posted by jw007

Hi...but I do this! I only buy Criterion Blu-rays during the 50% sales twice a year at B&N. I load up from anywhere between 15-30 films during each sale. I'm currently at 20 purchases and counting during the current sale. I only buy 4 films on each visit. Part of this is due to my coupons I use that I want to maximize with my purchases. I've made 5 visits and bought 4 films on each one. Between sales I rent Criterions from my local libraries and then make a checklist of which films I liked and aim to buy when the next sale strikes! That's how I roll. Sounds like you do the same thing too.

That's a clever idea, but it wouldn't work for me because my library is being rebuilt. I still picked up a couple of criterions at the sale, including Safety Last, The 400 Blows, and Wild Strawberries.

[Pantsflakes]

Originally Posted by EricJ

(Well, that wasn't because of the opinion, that was just because you're so darned corny, amateur and unoriginal. )

Why thank you, that completely sounds like me

[Tin Drum]

Originally Posted by EricJ

[Show spoiler]I remember the last time I was flat-out kicked off the board for a week at the request of a few hardcore regulars, for making mere jokes about comparing Criterionista behavior to drug addiction.

I was accused of the most TERRIBLE crimes, to punish my credibility--
I was clearly "trolling" to be nasty. People wondered whether I "hated Criterion", and had some "personal grudge" against the company for my "attacking" private Criterion-fan behavior in its place. I must have been trying to "prevent" innocent fans from doing what they loved so dearly, like the Grinch on Mt. Crumpet. Folks stepped to say "Okay, who's in with me for the buying spree!...We know we love it!", just to enforce cool tribalism over the idea that individual behavior could be re-evaluated or changed, just because some stranger dared to breach the gates and say mean things about it...Oh, I'm sorry, about the PEOPLE who did it. Remember, the hobby and the identity must always go hand in hand.

Search the backwaters of Internet, and you'll find marijuana legalizationists snickering at the world behind their backs, and posting clips from cheesy old 30's movies as if this was what mainstream people in 2013 thought or looked like. Look far enough, you might still find boards (if they haven't been shut down yet), where anorexic cases gather to exchange suicidal poetry, and tell each other "Don't let the world tell you what to do!" when they whine about their parents "forcing" them to get medical help.
It's always easy to make a Pirate Club Treehouse when you want to think that a select group knows better than the mainstream. When you're building one past the age of ten, though, the question carries a little more social responsibility.
Spending money on what you don't need, to the point that it reaches catastrophic consequences in your own life, isn't "cool" just because you can privately in-joke about it with other catastrophic spenders who've learned how to rationalize it off rather than make simple changes in their own mirror.

[Show spoiler]

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by aewb

Seriously though, it's crazy that CC does not have any Rivette in the collection.

Good call. I would die for Celine and Julie go Boating.

[Yami]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Good call. I would die for Celine and Julie go Boating.

New Yorker have been prepping a Blu release of that.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by Yami

New Yorker have been prepping a Blu release of that.

Hopefully we do get it this Fall. Is that still a possibility?

[Yami]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Hopefully we do get it this Fall. Is that still a possibility?

Anything is possible, New Yorker don't really say much

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by jw007

I'm thinking of selling off my Criterion DVD duplicates to a used record exchange store here while their values are still intact. The question is, what is the best outlet to sell off my used Criterion DVDs? I think I'm better off with my used record store chain than Ebay.

The used store near me is where I've sold off my DVDs. I would admittedly get more money by selling a lot of them individually through eBay or something of the sort, but the used store is fair, and I generally get a comparable amount of money to the amount that I would get from selling back to Amazon through their sell program.
The significant difference is that I can simply take 25 or 50 DVDs to the store all at once instead off having to ship them individually to buyers and being hassled with emails about product quality, etc.
I mean, I'm pretty anal about keeping my movies in good condition, and each and every one of my old DVDs and my current Blu-rays are in the same condition that they were when I purchased them, but it's nonetheless pleasant not to deal with eBay customers and such.

I've financed most of the acquisition of my current Blu-ray collection (295 right now) by selling off my old collection of 600 or so DVDs. It's not just about money, although that's a big part of it. I do not like to hoard multiple copies of movies on DVD and Blu-ray, so I instantly get rid of any DVD that I've upgraded or plan to upgrade to Blu-ray. I don't like clutter.

Aside from my movie collection and my CD collection, I'm a minimalist. I live in a large one-bedroom apartment, and I could easily fit all of my personal possessions into one of the smaller U-Haul trucks. I run several marathon and ultramarathon races each year, so I do not let anything in my life distract me from running or from meeting friends to go to a race. I don't have any sort of cable television service, so I wouldn't even own a television if not for Blu-rays and online movies.

[dannyfriar]

Not only did I order 6 CC BR from Barnes and Noble, I have now gone and ordered Ministry of Fear from Amazon! To be fair, it was only $17 with no tax, and free shipping, so I couldn't really pass it up

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Here's my list of "second priority level" Criterion Blu-rays that I would like to own, but that I did not rush out to buy with my first priority titles.
The ones in italics are titles that I owned on DVD, sold in anticipation of buying the Blu-ray, but have not yet got around to buying the Blu-ray. The ones in regular font will be blind buys.

I've seen Bigger Than Life, Design For Living, The Killing, Ministry Of Fear, and Robinson Crusoe On Mars.

Bigger Than Life was a good psychological thriller. It was one of the most unique ones that I've seen because cortisol was an element that added to the madness.

Design For Living was very average, in my opinion. I thought it would have been better than it was, but I was relatively disappointed.

The Killing is probably the best on the list. It's Kubrick pre-2001 and it's also one of the best film-noirs that I've seen to date. It comes with The Killer's Kiss, so you get two films for the price of one!

Ministry Of Fear was a neat little film-noir film. It's not the best that I've seen, but it was highly entertaining for the 80-90 minutes that it was on for.

Robinson Crusoe On Mars is definitely one of those films that you either like or you don't. Judging by some of the sci-fi films in your collection, I'd say you'd really like it. I didn't necessarily mind it, as I found it generally unique and entertaining, but it wouldn't be something that I'd probably watch again, especially any time soon.

[Joe Dalek]

Originally Posted by jw007

The question is, what is the best outlet to sell off my used Criterion DVDs? I think I'm better off with my used record store chain than Ebay.

Your results will vary with a store, but from personal experience you will get $10 or less per in-print title. Usually less. Sometimes a lot less.

With eBay you are much more likely to get a good price (I've consistently sold in-print Criterion BDs and DVDs on eBay for $20-$25 each), but it's more work.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by EricJ

- Would discovering a classic on Kino, or Cohen Collection, be as "meaningful" as the discovery of a rare movie on Criterion? Is it the movie you discovered, or the feeling that your "dealer" delivered the goods again?

I don't make any real distinction between buying a desired movie from Criterion, Olive Films, Twilight Time, Warner Bros., or from any other studio. My $5 copy of The Great Escape on Blu-ray and my $10 copy of Rio Bravo on Blu-ray both rock my world just as much as a Criterion edition would.

I am, however, intrigued at movies that The Criterion Collection adopts as titles. If a previously unfamiliar movie is announced for a Criterion release, I send my feelers out and investigate. Letter Never Sent and Marketa Lazarova are two such movies that captured my attention this way, and I'm grateful that they did.

I do admittedly prefer buying Criterions from the woman in the miniskirt who works in the Barnes & Noble media section down the street some of the time to buying movies online, but I've never really thought of that as a Criterion addiction problem.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Robinson Crusoe On Mars is definitely one of those films that you either like or you don't. Judging by some of the sci-fi films in your collection, I'd say you'd really like it. I didn't necessarily mind it, as I found it generally unique and entertaining, but it wouldn't be something that I'd probably watch again, especially any time soon.

I used to own Robinson Crusoe on Mars on Criterion DVD before I sold the DVD copy in anticipation of upgrading to Blu-ray. I simply have not got around to buying the Blu-ray yet. I really did like the movie a lot, but there are a lot of other Criterions that I've prioritized above that one to upgrade. I'll be in a specific mood to revisit that movie in time, and will probably upgrade then.

[Mansinthe]

I don't make any real distinction between buying a desired movie from Criterion, Olive Films, Twilight Time, Warner Bros., or from any other studio.

same here, i only want the best editon of a movie with the most bonus features. , but i prefer to get a movie from lets say MoC, studiocanal or AE for 1/2 or less of the criterion release price if at least picture / audio quality is the same as the criterion release.

same for OOP movies, i would never get a 200$ criterion if there is a UK release with overall the same quality for 15$

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Mansinthe

same for OOP movies, i would never get a 200$ criterion if their is a UK release with overall the same quality for 15$

This may rock a few boats here in this thread, but I'm of the belief that there will, in time, be future releases of The Third Man that are comparable to the quality of the Criterion Blu-ray in picture quality. There's just no way that we've seen the last of that movie in the Blu-ray format. If Criterion does not pick that movie up again sometime in the next decade, then someone else will likely release a near-perfect edition of the movie that holds up just as well. Until then, I'd probably be just as happy owning the StudioCanal edition for $15. For now, I'm holding on to my Criterion DVD of the movie, because it looks splendid on my TV.

I'm not above paying a few more bucks than normal for a desired out-of-print Criterion (I paid $60 for Pierrot Le Fou and have no regrets whatsoever.), but the current asking prices for the Criterion Blu-ray of The Third Man are beyond my scope of motivation.