The Criterion Collection

[Carletty]

http://www.amazon.fr/Hommage-John-Ca.../dp/B00DWB8E7U
http://www.criterion.com/boxsets/558...tes-five-films

Will those two sets be identical in terms of picture quality and audio?

____
Haiaiai, now there are only 23 CC-films on my list for the November sale!

[GentleGiant]

Originally Posted by zkirkland

I watched Eyes Without A Face tonight. The score by Maurice Jarre makes me want to watch Lawrence of Arabia for the thousandth time. This movie is eerie personified and quite horrifying. I don't think I'll be picking up the Blu Ray in October but it was a great watch.

Ditto.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by jw007

I watched La Haine again a few nights ago, and wow, what an amazing film. I didn't think much of it the first time I saw it last year but now I think its quite an achievement, especially in the history of French society. It's too bad Kassovitz directed one of the worst sci-fi films of all time years later (Babylon A.D.), but La Haine is everything and then some.

It certainly is one of the best out there. When I saw it for the first time, I was blown away.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by jw007

I watched La Haine again a few nights ago, and wow, what an amazing film. I didn't think much of it the first time I saw it last year but now I think its quite an achievement, especially in the history of French society. It's too bad Kassovitz directed one of the worst sci-fi films of all time years later (Babylon A.D.), but La Haine is everything and then some.

Haha! Reminds me of Boaz Yakin in a way. How he went from Fresh to Safe I'll never know.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by zkirkland

I watched Eyes Without A Face tonight. The score by Maurice Jarre makes me want to watch Lawrence of Arabia for the thousandth time. This movie is eerie personified and quite horrifying. I don't think I'll be picking up the Blu Ray in October but it was a great watch.

Eyes Without a Face will likely be a Day One purchase for me, because I loved my DVD, but I definitely know what you mean.

I watched The Other online last night to decide whether or not to preorder the Twilight Time Blu-ray. My reaction to that film was similar to your above reaction. It's a great viewing, but I have no need to own it.

[mrjohnnyb]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Haha! Reminds me of Boaz Yakin in a way. How he went from Fresh to Safe I'll never know.

Or how Francis Ford Coppola went from The Godfather to Jack.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by mrjohnnyb

Or how Francis Ford Coppola went from The Godfather to Jack.

Or how Brian DePalma went from Casualties of War to The Bonfire of the Vanities.

[14728]

Originally Posted by jw007

Or how Brian DePalma went from Casualties of War to The Bonfire of the Vanities.

Or how Robert Altman went from 3 women and Nashville to Popeye.

[The Great Owl]

Roman Polanski's 1965 film, Repulsion, has a simple premise on the surface. Carol, a young woman played by Catherine Deneuve, becomes mentally unraveled when she is left alone in her apartment for several days while her sister is on vacation. Deneuve has an uncannily detached beauty that is somehow fragile and feral at the same time, and her expressions are integral to this role, where the invasive camera constantly prods at her character in the same way that one might prod a terrified animal in a cage. Carol exudes several outward signs of instability, and even the camera shots that do not focus specifically on her showcase the accelerated mental decay by way of strange spacial and structural maladies inside enclosed spaces, cracks in walls that are both real and imagined, disgusting images of food, and closed curtains or blockaded doors. The film is ambiguous as to what leads to Carol's insanity, although her hardened stare toward a man in an apparent family photo encourages a number of theories about possible abuse or incest in her past, but the insanity itself is conveyed with an effectiveness not often seen in a film with this subject matter.

The concept of trust reverberates with me to a greater extent with each subsequent viewing of Repulsion. Every day, we are surrounded by people and sharp objects, but we trust that these people are sane and that they will act in expected ways. We trust that a person on a bus will not strike us in the head when we look in another direction, women trust that the manicurists who handle their nails will not suddenly cut them, we believe that the dental hygienists know what they doing when placing sharp metal hooks in our mouths, and so on. Rarely has a film generated such a sense of unease when it comes to people and behavior, so the viewer may feel somewhat strange just walking down the street or walking into enclosed rooms after seeing this particular work. Since I inhabit an apartment, I cannot help but notice the eerie brush strokes that Polanski uses to paint the picture of apartment life, as he would later on in Rosemary's Baby and The Tenant.

Repulsion does not always bestow beautiful images upon us, but the film looks beautiful across the board on this Criterion Blu-ray. The high definition presentation shines in the way that the better black-and-white 1960s films do, and, for better or worse, we feel closer to the character of Carol than ever before. The audio presentation is quite good, and this is important for a film where the sense of dread is heavily dependent on the sounds of footsteps, the sounds of dripping water, or the absence of sound altogether. A commentary with Polanski and Deneuve offers helpful insights about the making of the film, while two short documentaries give additional background information about Repulsion's place as one of the understated greats of horror cinema.

Fans of other films in The Criterion Collection will probably enjoy a discussion about Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush in this movie, as well as an apparent homage to a bathtub scene in Clouzot's Diabolique.

[Edward J Grug III]

Originally Posted by 14728

Or how Robert Altman went from 3 women and Nashville to Popeye.

No, no, they are listing directors who did something great and then something terrible.

[retablo]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Roman Polanski's 1965 film, Repulsion, has a simple premise on the surface. Carol, a young woman played by Catherine Deneuve, becomes mentally unraveled when she is left alone in her apartment for several days while her sister is on vacation. Deneuve has an uncannily detached beauty that is somehow fragile and feral at the same time, and her expressions are integral to this role, where the invasive camera constantly prods at her character in the same way that one might prod a terrified animal in a cage. Carol exudes several outward signs of instability, and even the camera shots that do not focus specifically on her showcase the accelerated mental decay by way of strange spacial and structural maladies inside enclosed spaces, cracks in walls that are both real and imagined, disgusting images of food, and closed curtains or blockaded doors. The film is ambiguous as to what leads to Carol's insanity, although her hardened stare at a man in an apparent family photo encourages a number of theories about possible abuse or incest in her past, but the insanity itself is conveyed with an effectiveness not often seen in a film with this subject matter.

The concept of trust reverberates with me to a greater extent with each subsequent viewing of Repulsion. Every day, we are surrounded by people and sharp objects, but we trust that these people are sane and that they will act in expected ways. We trust that a person on a bus will not strike us in the head when we look in another direction, women trust that the manicurists who handle their nails will not suddenly cut them, we believe that the dental hygienists know what they doing when placing sharp metal hooks in our mouths, and so on. Rarely has a film generated such a sense of unease when it comes to people and behavior, so the viewer may feel somewhat strange just walking down the street or walking into enclosed rooms after seeing this particular work. Since I inhabit an apartment, I cannot help but notice the eerie brush strokes that Polanski uses to paint the picture of apartment life, as he would later on in Rosemary's Baby and The Tenant.

Repulsion does not always bestow beautiful images upon us, but the film looks beautiful across the board on this Criterion Blu-ray. The high definition presentation shines in the way that the better black-and-white 1960s films do, and, for better or worse, we feel closer to the character of Carol than ever before. The audio presentation is quite good, and this is important for a film where the sense of dread is heavily dependent on the sounds of footsteps, the sounds of dripping water, or the absence of sound altogether. A commentary with Polanski and Deneuve offers helpful insights about the making of the film, while two short documentaries give additional background information about Repulsion's place as one of the understated greats of horror cinema.

Fans of other films in The Criterion Collection will probably enjoy a discussion about Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush in this movie, as well as an apparent homage to a bathtub scene in Clouzot's Diabolique.

Notice, too, how

[Show spoiler]the man in the picture (her father) looks like the man who forced himself into her room. I do't think it's ambiguous at all as to what happened to her, and made her fear men so much. If anything, to me, that last shot us the final piece of the puzzle that DOES tell us why she's gone insane.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by retablo

Notice, too, how

[Show spoiler]the man in the picture (her father) looks like the man who forced himself into her room. I don't think it's ambiguous at all as to what happened to her, and made her fear men so much. If anything, to me, that last shot us the final piece of the puzzle that DOES tell us why she's gone insane.

I saw that as well. It's a good indicator, but I still love how Polanski does not spell anything out for us in clear letters. In the photo, she could be glaring at her father with hatred or simply staring with the same faraway look that she does throughout the movie.

Apparently, beautiful crazy women are still not finished with me yet today, because the Twilight Time Blu-ray, Leave Her To Heaven, just arrived at my doorstep. I'll be watching it tonight.

[Abdrewes]

Billy, this is true. Our sexuality often plays a big part in engaging with the romantic films we watch. But the strange this is that I am a straight male, yet many of my favorite romantic films are definitely not hetero--Bound, Mulholland Drive, Brokeback Mountain, Boys Don't Cry, etc.

Off tangent:

I just bought Cronenberg on Cronenberg & Scorsese on Scorsese.

[Scottie]

Nice review, Owl! Repulsion is probably in my Top 10 Criterions.

[smoss469]

Thanks for the feedback on Le Grande Illusion!

[MitchA17]

Since today was the last day of Barnes and Noble's Member Weekend (Members get 20% off instead of 10%), I decided to splurge a little and combine it with their B2G1 sale, so I picked up:

Harold & Maude
Heaven's Gate
Slacker (My 200th Blu-ray!)

I also picked up The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the book written by Greg Sestero, the actor who plays Mark in The Room. This is the book I've been most excited about reading this year since learning it was going to exist.

I love great cinema, don't get me wrong, but I have a more curious (perverse?) fascination with total cinematic failures. I can sit all day and talk about what I think Lynch was saying with Eraserhead, but I could talk for weeks about what the hell is up with The Room. Hopefully, this book will be a fascinating plunge into the depths of recounting working with a genius/madman like Tommy Wiseau, and perhaps contain insight about the creative process and the influence a director has over their creation.

If not, reading crazy stories about Tommy Wiseau will still make for an amazing book.

[starman15317]

I really hope that someone heads over to the Criterion trading thread and has an interest in trading for my copy of Howards End.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Off tangent:
I just bought Cronenberg on Cronenberg & Scorsese on Scorsese.

Oh nice, I have those. Do you have Herzog on Herzog? That is one of the most entertaining film books I've read. My Best Fiend is practically just a filmed version of what Herzog talks about Kinski in this book.

[Mansinthe]

next criterions im gonna pick up are probably all the Kubrick movies

[fdm]

Originally Posted by MitchA17

Since today was the last day of Barnes and Noble's Member Weekend (Members get 20% off instead of 10%)...

Funny nobody seemed to have mentioned this anywhere on this site until it was over. Suppose it could have been local to a whole different set of stores than the last time I heard about one of these weekends. Was it posted somewhere and I just missed it?

(Edit) Somebody posted about it on dvdtalk, where it says Sunday is the last day. No details about which stores may be participating.