The Criterion Collection

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

What were your thoughts on La Notte?

Short version:
La Notte is a front runner for my favorite Criterion title of 2013.

Long version:
My pompously long-winded review of La Notte

[Scottie]

Is there any reason why coupon code "E8W9P3H" will not work?

[CHEЯNOБLY!]

Originally Posted by smoss469

For those complaining about lack of coupons or coupons with odd restrictions, just be glad you aren't buying instruments (specifically guitars and amps) from a website. The list of excluded brands is longer than the brands that'll take the coupon, it's a joke!

Lmfao, tell me about. Guitar Center might as well list what their coupons DO work on, because the exclusions list is longer than what you can actually buy. In fact, I wouldn't even call it a coupon.

[RebelPrince1986]

Originally Posted by iScottie

Is there any reason why coupon code "E8W9P3H" will not work?

As mentioned on every one of the past 50 pages, these coupon codes DO NOT work on Criterion titles.

[brandon_260]

I just finished the Rossellini/Bergman set myself. Stromboli was my least favorite, but I think that has to do with how drowsy I was last night and the ineffectiveness of the subtitles. The English was frequently hard to understand, but if you were to switch to the secondary subtitle track, most or all of the non-English dialogue lost its subtitles.

Europe 51 and Journey to Italy were both wonderful though. I appreciate the former a little more though. I thought the modernized take on a saint-like figure to aid the class struggle was an incredible subject to tackle.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Short version:
La Notte is a front runner for my favorite Criterion title of 2013.

Long version:
My pompously long-winded review of La Notte

Thank you, my good man! I will definitely comb through your piece right after I crank out my review for About Time (I like staying in the headspace of the film I just watched as I write, so I try to limit what I read).

I'm shocked that it gave Seconds such a run for its money! I'm counting down the days until I see this beaut in HD. It's like I haven't even seen it. Antonioni's films were meant to be seen in BluRay quality or better.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by brandon_260

I just finished the Rossellini/Bergman set myself. Stromboli was my least favorite, but I think that has to do with how drowsy I was last night and the ineffectiveness of the subtitles. The English was frequently hard to understand, but if you were to switch to the secondary subtitle track, most or all of the non-English dialogue lost its subtitles.

Europe 51 and Journey to Italy were both wonderful though. I appreciate the former a little more though. I thought the modernized take on a saint-like figure to aid the class struggle was an incredible subject to tackle.

I think that Stromboli is a great film, but the issue with the subtitles was a minor annoyance when I watched the English version. I watched both versions back to back, starting with the English version, so the subtitles were not a factor while watching the shorter Italian version.

I broke protocol with Europe '51 and watched the Italian version first, since it's the longest version of the two, and I wanted to see the originally-intended screen incarnation in its entirety before experiencing the English version which had several scenes removed. The English version has a vastly superior video transfer, though.

I rank the three films in order, with Stromboli being my least favorite and Journey to Italy being my favorite, but I was really captivated by Europe '51 and its subtext about polarization during the early Cold War era.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by RebelPrince1986

As mentioned on every one of the past 50 pages, these coupon codes DO NOT work on Criterion titles.

They can be applied manually in store with the help of a kind cashier

[JoeBuck]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

They can be applied manually in store with the help of a kind cashier

I sure hope I get a kind cashier on Sunday

[Lordy]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

They can be applied manually in store with the help of a kind cashier

"They can be applied manually in store with the help of a kind cashier"....few and far between at B&N I've discovered.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

They can be applied manually in store with the help of a kind cashier

When I first started shopping for Blu-rays, I tried to use the 20% or 15% coupons a couple of times in conjunction with 50% off Criterion sales at Barnes & Noble, but the clerks told me that they were unable to apply the coupon to the sale.

These days, I do not bother asking anymore. I'm fortunate in the first place to be getting a great deal with the 50% off plus standard membership discount, and the last thing in the world that I want to do is put a clerk on the spot about doing something that might be against store policy. It's usually only three or four dollars difference anyway.

I have no qualms, however, about attempting to utilize the coupons in conjunction with 50% off sale if I am placing an online B&N order. If the store website says that it's a go, then it's a go.

[spanky87]

Journey To Italy is by far the best film in that Rossellini/Bergman set. Tempted to buy that re-release poster in the Criterion shop.

Anyone ever buy posters from them? What's the quality like?

[jw007]

Originally Posted by SilentxStatik24

Yeah, Hunger is absolutely fantastic; a real-triumph of film-making. I find 12 Years A Slave to be a much better film but Hunger is one heckva debut!

I can't wait to see that new movie of his... I might go see it this weekend in fact.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by spanky87

Journey To Italy is by far the best film in that Rossellini/Bergman set. Tempted to buy that re-release poster in the Criterion shop.

Anyone ever buy posters from them? What's the quality like?

I've never purchased a poster or any other accessory item from the Criterion website, but I am posting a reply here simply to compliment you on your new avatar. Let's hope that it is a good luck charm for future Criterion announcement days.

[spanky87]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I've never purchased a poster or any other accessory item from the Criterion website, but I am posting a reply here simply to compliment you on your new avatar. Let's hope that it is a good luck charm for future Criterion announcement days.

Right on man. I had a different Shanghai avatar earlier this year and figured it was time to bust another one out to hype the upcoming blu-ray. Super stoked. I've promised myself I wouldn't watch it again before it's released so hopefully it's very early 2014. Criterion would be sweet.

Orson Welles and his DP really knew how to photograph Hayworth. Every frame with her is avatar worthy.

[ravenus]

So what did I see last...?

Brazil

Previously I had only seen this movie on a television broadcast in the 90's. That was so long ago I can't even say which version of the film it was (either the 94 min studio version or the 132 min "negotiated" version). I remember being wowed by the visuals, especially the dream segments, but thought the tone was somewhat hodge-podge. I was hesitant as to whether the director's cut would not prove a self-indulgent trudge; I like Terry Gilliam's style but his films, including The Holy Grail and Adventures of Baron Munchausen have not been unqualified winners for me. So it was essentially in one of those great Amazon deals where this 2-BD set was available at more than 60% off that I picked it up.

In an unmistakably 80's version of the future, Jonathan Pryce's character is by day a lowly unambitious clerk in a Big Brother spirit bureaucratic monolith that governs people's lives, and in his dreams, an Icarus-like hero flying to his beloved. Then one day, he meets the woman of his dreams, and she turns out to be a tough-talking truck driver who may be connected to various acts of bombing carried out in the city. Fantasy and reality (at least what goes for reality in a Gilliam film) collide with extreme force and the consequences can only be life-changing.

Brazil has a lot of parallels with George Orwell's novel 1984 and if you can spare the time, make for an interesting double-bill with Michael Radford's excellent film adaptation of that novel. To be frank, Brazil is more shallow, and in its attempt to be simultaneously humorous and bleak exhibit a certain wobbliness of tone. But its shortcomings by way of depth and character are made up in great measure by the enthusiasm of the production and the spectacular visual design. Sure. some of the stuff is ham-fisted allegory, but it's still fun to look at. The sets and props are quite amazing, and the dream sequences especially are quite memorable. I would imagine that this director's cut runs a lot closer to the 1984 style than the other editions.

Criterion's blu-ray feature disc provides a solid presentation of the director's cut. It's not demo material, a little dull in its color scheme even in the dream segments, and I do wonder if a more modern scan would not have extracted greater detail and texture, but what we have here is very good indeed and well worth having. Haven't yet started on the extras but there's a truckload of 'em, including the massively truncated and modified studio version (as a separate encode), director's commentary, numerous making of's, even an hour-long documentary on the controversy surrounding the intense battle between Terry Gilliam and the studio that led to the various versions of Brazil.

[brandon_260]

Originally Posted by spanky87

Journey To Italy is by far the best film in that Rossellini/Bergman set. Tempted to buy that re-release poster in the Criterion shop.

Anyone ever buy posters from them? What's the quality like?

I was looking at the posters the other day. I asked something about them, don't recall at this point, but never heard an answer. I'm really interested in the Vivre sa vie and L'avventura posters. If I make an order, I may throw in Journey to Italy now.

[vader4]

So for tomorrow I would be happy with

- Any film from Andrei Tarkovsky
- Any film from Akira Kurosawa
- Any film from Lars Von Trier
- Any film from Nicolas Winding Refn
- Any film from Harmony Korine
- The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
- Mulholland Drive

Especially Mulholland Drive, I don't think I can go another month without that announcement!

[octagon]

I could go for some Lars. Maybe if I watched The Element of Crime in HD I could figure out what the **** I watching

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by brandon_260

I just finished the Rossellini/Bergman set myself. Stromboli was my least favorite, but I think that has to do with how drowsy I was last night and the ineffectiveness of the subtitles. The English was frequently hard to understand, but if you were to switch to the secondary subtitle track, most or all of the non-English dialogue lost its subtitles.

I hate when Criterion doesn't add an SDH option to some of their films, there were some parts on the recent Satyajit Ray films that weren't easy to understand due to the audio quality.

And in this case they even have the subtitles already since they appear on the English version so i don't know what's up with that

Once i contacted Mulvaney about that and he never answered.