The Criterion Collection

[The Great Owl]

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I kinda wish they had used the final freeze shot for the cover. One of the most haunting images on film.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Utter brilliance!

[Abdrewes]

Just saw The Horse Thief. What an amazing film, I would love to see CC or anybody, really, release it on BluRay. It would look absolutely stunning!

[Mansinthe]

after seeing all these great criterion movies the last few days (double life of veronique, solaris , seventh seal, repo man), i defintily will have to check out more movies in the next sale

on my "buy" list are already

ivans childhood
cul de sac
seconds
the magician
days of heaven
night of the hunter
things to come
letter never send


eclipse Series nikkatsu noir , kobayashi, kurahara , oshima

[the sordid sentinel]

Originally Posted by Mansinthe

todays criterion movie for me:

The seventh seal , i absolutly loved this movie from the beginning till the last second. the dark humor was just awesome (if we are lucky my wife is dead !).

pretty great movie , and the video quality for a B/W movie is simply stunning.

Just happened to watch that one tonight as well after watching Wild Strawberries last night. Love both movies and the questions they ask about existence..stuff that bounces around in my head often.

You are right about the image quality..stunning. LOVE B/W photography. When you see the clips in the Woody Allen feature you can tell what an amazing job whoever handled the restorations of those films pulled off.

[noddinoff]

I cant wait until october when eyes without a face finally gets released on blu ray. Almost picked up the criterion dvd at barnes and noble for 15$ on sale but I decided to wait for the blu.

[Blu Titan]

When can we expect the next wave of announcements?

[Kevin Ridge]

Regarding The Wages of Fear ending....

[Show spoiler]Should I be laughing at it? What a silly thing for Mario to do. Really enjoyed movie though. Some great suspense.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by Blu Titan

When can we expect the next wave of announcements?

Next week!

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Kevin Ridge

Regarding The Wages of Fear ending....

[Show spoiler]Should I be laughing at it? What a silly thing for Mario to do. Really enjoyed movie though. Some great suspense.

[Show spoiler]The Wages of Fear has a bleak fatalism from the beginning, with respect to the four major characters, and even to many of the peripheral characters, as evidenced by a suicide early in the film. These are not necessarily likeable characters, and the fact that they were basically willing to undertake what most of us would consider a suicide mission resonates for the entirety of their adventures once the journey begins. The way that I see it, death had already chosen the four characters from the start, and it was just a matter of each of them falling victim to the whims of randomness.

I was pulling for the characters to succeed once the trucks started rolling, because of the sheer spectacle and the displays of crazy courage, but, even during my first viewing, I could not quite envision any sort of bright future for any of these men. Mario escaped death so many times during the movie, but he was also quite reckless with himself and others while doing so. It was just a matter of time before death found him at last, and the timing reminds us that death is never "convenient" for anyone's schedule.

The bleak ending also drives home the points about the exploitation of these workers for the oil company in a sobering way.

The way that the Mario's fate plays out during the actual ending does look oddly comical, especially to today's viewers, but that's part of the bleak appeal. It seems to wonder, since there is no point to anything whatsoever, why not laugh your way over the edge of the cliff?

[octagon]

Originally Posted by Kevin Ridge

Regarding The Wages of Fear ending....

[Show spoiler]Should I be laughing at it? What a silly thing for Mario to do. Really enjoyed movie though. Some great suspense.

[Show spoiler]I didn't laugh but my eyes rolled halfway down the hall. I don't know, maybe TGO is right. Maybe that was really bold in 1953. But to me it just seemed cheap and manipulative.

[Abdrewes]

I was checking out Slate just now and I stumbled across Dana Steven's Karen Black obituary.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/...sy_pieces.html

[mrjohnnyb]

Originally Posted by octagon

[Show spoiler]I didn't laugh but my eyes rolled halfway down the hall. I don't know, maybe TGO is right. Maybe that was really bold in 1953. But to me it just seemed cheap and manipulative.

The final message of The Wages of Fear:

[Show spoiler]When man ultimately gets his capital, he becomes reckless.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by mrjohnnyb

The final message of The Wages of Fear:

[Show spoiler]When man ultimately gets his capital, he becomes reckless.

Maybe I've been watching too many episodes of That 70s Show but the final message seemed more like

[Show spoiler]'Don't be a dumbass'

.

[The Great Owl]

I just finished watching Wings (1927). I'm speechless. The technical brilliance with the timing of the battle sequences on air and land would have been impressive had Wings been filmed today, but I'm floored that they pulled it off back then. The plot is obvious by today's standards, but it's still an emotional punch in the stomach. I'm about to venture into the Wings thread to write a longer review of sorts, but I know that the movie has a following here in this thread.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I just finished watching Wings (1927). I'm speechless. The technical brilliance with the timing of the battle sequences on air and land would have been impressive had Wings been filmed today, but I'm floored that they pulled it off back then. The plot is obvious by today's standards, but it's still an emotional punch in the stomach. I'm about to venture into the Wings thread to write a longer review of sorts, but I know that the movie has a following here in this thread.

You should see director William A Wellman's The Ox-bow Incident, it's Clint Eastwood's favorite film, and and oh my, it's pretty damn great....I think I have a new UO.

[BTTF_]

Does anyone know if the Cassavetes box set is going to be the only release of those films or if they will also be sold separately also? The criterion page says it is a box set and the release calendar on this site begs to differ. Anyone?

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by BTTF_

Does anyone know if the Cassavetes box set is going to be the only release of those films or if they will also be sold separately also? The criterion page says it is a box set and the release calendar on this site begs to differ. Anyone?

It will be a box for sure, much alike the BBS one I would think.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by BTTF_

Does anyone know if the Cassavetes box set is going to be the only release of those films or if they will also be sold separately also? The criterion page says it is a box set and the release calendar on this site begs to differ. Anyone?

The release calendar here just reflects a database oddity. Sometimes the contents of box sets will get individual entries, sometimes they won't.

For instance, the America Lost and Found set has never been broken up but A Safe Place and The Last Picture Show and the rest all have individual database entries.