The Criterion Collection

[jetthead]

Originally Posted by Infernal King

My guess is I'm the only person in this thread who holds the following opinion but here goes:

No matter how many Kurosawa films I watch, none of them inspire me to want to see them again. I just can't jump on the popular bandwagon of him being "one of the greatest filmmakers of all time", although I certainly think he's a good one. Criterion has released a lot of his filmography but the more I see, the more I realize that this guy isn't for me.

That's pretty much how I feel about Bergman's films. They're good but after watching them, I feel no need to revisit them again.

I do love Kurosawa though...

[Infernal King]

Yeah, a lot of these "Master Filmmakers" have plenty of movies that are okay to watch once, but I fail to see the replay value... unless you're hosting a Film Studies course.

[Cvalda]

I can respectfully take or leave most Kurosawa, but I think Ran is a masterpiece that I can't wait to revisit again. Pity Criterion lost the Blu-ray rights to those bastards at Studio Canal.

Bergman also leaves me cold so far. Thought Cries & Whispers was a terrible, overrated, almost parodic slice of dated Eurotrash art cinema, and The Seventh Seal has iconic visuals but not much else. Still slowly making my way through his filmography, though.

[vertigo12314]

Originally Posted by Cvalda

I can respectfully take or leave most Kurosawa, but I think Ran is a masterpiece that I can't wait to revisit again. Pity Criterion lost the Blu-ray rights to those bastards at Studio Canal.

Bergman also leaves me cold so far. Thought Cries & Whispers was a terrible, overrated, almost parodic slice of dated Eurotrash art cinema, and The Seventh Seal has iconic visuals but not much else. Still slowly making my way through his filmography, though.

I would recommend his God's silence trilogy especially Winter Light. Faithless was also good. The Virgin Spring is my favourite of his. I also don't like a lot of his movies because he puts a lot of himself into it and that usually means lots of narcissism. That could be entertaining or not! LOL!

[SpiderBaby]

Originally Posted by Cvalda

Pity Criterion lost the Blu-ray rights to those bastards at Studio Canal.

This is like saying "pity Best Buy lost the right to sell Playstations to those bastards at Sony". I think you meant to say, "Pity Criterion lost the rights to release the films from Studio Canal's library that if it wasn't for SC, Criterion wouldn't of had them in the first place.".

[Kevin Holly]

Originally Posted by vertigo12314

I would recommend his God's silence trilogy especially Winter Light. Faithless was also good. The Virgin Spring is my favourite of his. I also don't like a lot of his movies because he puts a lot of himself into it and that usually means lots of narcissism. That could be entertaining or not! LOL!

Originally Posted by SpiderBaby

This is like saying "pity Best Buy lost the right to sell Playstations to those bastards at Sony". I think you meant to say, "Pity Criterion lost the rights to release the films from Studio Canal's library that if it wasn't for SC, Criterion wouldn't of had them in the first place.".

I think he may have been kidding.

[Ausjdm]

Did I read the last page wrong or was someone trying to pick between fanny & Alexander or Badlands? If so sorry to go against the grain here but i vote Badlands any day for me! malick is a master. I've loved every malick movie but to the wonder. Bergman. I've seen wild strawberrys and persona both were great (i bought 7th Seal in july havent seen yet) but I found Fanny & Alexander to be a drag...

Kurosawa I've seen Ran, rashoman, seven samurai and yojimbo (own high & low haven't seen yet) all were amazing works!

[Egbert Souse]

Originally Posted by SpiderBaby

This is like saying "pity Best Buy lost the right to sell Playstations to those bastards at Sony". I think you meant to say, "Pity Criterion lost the rights to release the films from Studio Canal's library that if it wasn't for SC, Criterion wouldn't of had them in the first place.".

It's not entirely StudioCanal at fault. Lionsgate wanted exclusive rights to the library, which is why Criterion had to take all of the films out of print eventually instead of whenever Lionsgate got around to doing their own editions.

[Oblivion138]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

Okay.. my turn to ask the community for a recommendation! I’m not really into blind buys, but there are a few films for which I have such a strong feeling that I will be pleased that I will occasionally trust me gut and pull the trigger. Heaven’s Gate as a blind buy worked out for me. I knew, prior to seeing it, that it had amazing cinematography. Watching it in SD just wasn’t going to cut it.

With that being said, I am certain that I will be buying Paris, Texas. In order to get free shipping, I need to (and want to, of course!) pick another.
Here are a few that I am considering:

M - I love Peter Lorre and I figure that it would be somewhat of a companion piece to the 3 early Hitchcock films which I do own.

Fanny and Alexander – I really liked the film Au Revoir les Enfants and while that movie may not have much in common with F & A, I like the idea of an epic foreign film telling a coming of age story. And, of course, I like the fact that it is considered Bergman’s most accessible film.

My Life as a Dog – same logic as F & A aside from the use of the adjective, ‘epic.’

Modern Times – my taste has just now been refined to the point where I can really appreciate silent films – that and the fact that these blu-ray restorations always make my jaw drop. I just saw City Lights for the first time and really enjoyed it. The universality of the story was most appealing and the boxing sequence was pure magic.

Or I could buy Badlands or Au Revoir les Enfants – two films I have seen and regard highly.

Any others I should be considering?

These are all GREAT choices, and while M and Badlands are tempting to suggest, I have to go with Chaplin. Modern Times is one of his very best, and still one of the funniest films ever made.

[drawohua]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

That's the plan. Late Spring was mentioned frequently during the commentary track for Tokyo Story, so I am intrigued.




I understand where you're coming from, but King Kong (1933) was at the top of my list on the 1930s poll, and it's one of my all-time top ten films.

It's tough for me to justify ranking King Kong over Stagecoach, The 39 Steps, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Public Enemy, City Lights, The Rules of the Game, La Grande Illusion, The Petrified Forest, Vampyr, Pepe Le Moko, The Wizard of Oz, and others. That was a great decade for movies.

In the end, though, King Kong is the epitome of why I grew up loving cinema.

Recently I got a chance to watch Tokyo Twilight (1957) in Cinema, it has a quite different tone from other Ozu's film (the most pathetic one according to many critics), but it's equally amazingly good.

[UncleBuckWild]

Casa Italiana - Department of Italian Studies at New York University in collaboration with The Criterion Collection -
held a presentation of the new boxset "3 Films by Roberto Rossellini starring Ingrid Bergman".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQKmznOqEZo

[Alloptions]

Originally Posted by toddly6666

Yup, they have video stores here - I rented the dvd. Video stores mainly carry USA videos, Hong Kong videos, and some UK videos. Im assuming the Japanese video store situation sucks because Japanese videos are so damn expensive?

Which part of Hong Kong is the store in? I would for sure like to know where to rent Criterion. Buying Criterion in Hong Kong is too expensive.

[momaw]

Based on all the great chatter on Tokyo Story and Late Spring I have just placed an order for them. I always intended to add them to my Japanese centric criterion collection but feared they would lead to further purchases of Ozu eclipse sets.

Since I was already paying international shipping I also added Gate of Hell. I already have the UK Masters of Cinema version, but I really love my Criterions so as a true snob "upgraded" purely for the packaging. This is the part where I now am told the UK release is better and I wasted my $15 ha ha. Of course if I was smart I would have ordered these with my earlier order of the Zatoichi box set and saved a little more shipping.

Now to continue my patient wait for an uncut criterion blu-ray of Kwaiden and a criterion Kurosawa's The Lower Depths blu-ray.

[RiFiFi1955]

Quick thought on Paris, Texas here. I want some opinions on this.

[Show spoiler]I think the film is remarkable in almost every way except for one aspect of the film, and that is Travis's evolution throughout the film, the 180 he makes from the beginning to end just seems very far fetched to me. I know all the key elements in that Wenders wanted to show a man lost and finding his way again but when we first meet Travis he is more than just a lost soul. Frankly for the first hour of the film he is far from being in any so-called right state of mind. I just think the switch was flipped too quick for me in how his character evolved. It was almost like overnight he made this magical recovery. I think it is the film's only real flaw but a big one it be. I think we should have met Travis, a down on his luck loner who lost his way instead of the mentally unstable, unpredictable Travis we do first meet in the film or if not that more time should have been spent on him heeling and recovering to get back to a functional member of society(this option would have made the film longer which would have been ok or they could have used editing and tricks with time to convey his progress too). Also not to say Travis was back to his old self by the end of the film because he was obviously still overwhelmed with issues and emotions but compared to the beginning of the film...well it is like a complete 180. I never really hear anyone talking about this, did anyone else get this same impression to any degree?

[Rich Pure Doom]

Originally Posted by Infernal King

Yeah, a lot of these "Master Filmmakers" have plenty of movies that are okay to watch once, but I fail to see the replay value... unless you're hosting a Film Studies course.

Couldn't disagree more.

[Rich Pure Doom]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

Okay.. my turn to ask the community for a recommendation! I’m not really into blind buys, but there are a few films for which I have such a strong feeling that I will be pleased that I will occasionally trust me gut and pull the trigger. Heaven’s Gate as a blind buy worked out for me. I knew, prior to seeing it, that it had amazing cinematography. Watching it in SD just wasn’t going to cut it.

With that being said, I am certain that I will be buying Paris, Texas. In order to get free shipping, I need to (and want to, of course!) pick another.
Here are a few that I am considering:

M - I love Peter Lorre and I figure that it would be somewhat of a companion piece to the 3 early Hitchcock films which I do own.

Fanny and Alexander – I really liked the film Au Revoir les Enfants and while that movie may not have much in common with F & A, I like the idea of an epic foreign film telling a coming of age story. And, of course, I like the fact that it is considered Bergman’s most accessible film.

My Life as a Dog – same logic as F & A aside from the use of the adjective, ‘epic.’

Modern Times – my taste has just now been refined to the point where I can really appreciate silent films – that and the fact that these blu-ray restorations always make my jaw drop. I just saw City Lights for the first time and really enjoyed it. The universality of the story was most appealing and the boxing sequence was pure magic.

Or I could buy Badlands or Au Revoir les Enfants – two films I have seen and regard highly.

Any others I should be considering?

TOUGH decision between Modern Times, M, and Fanny and Alexander. Honestly all three of those NEED to be in any serious film fan's collection. With a gun to my head, I'll take Modern Times

[smoss469]

Just finished The Warped Ones, the back of the case mentions Godard and I know why. I really felt like I was watching Breathless but with a Japanese cast.

Didn't care for Breathless, but I did like The Warped Ones a little better.

[Cvalda]

Originally Posted by SpiderBaby

This is like saying "pity Best Buy lost the right to sell Playstations to those bastards at Sony". I think you meant to say, "Pity Criterion lost the rights to release the films from Studio Canal's library that if it wasn't for SC, Criterion wouldn't of had them in the first place.".

Let me clarify: the "bastards" bit is because the Blu-ray release that Studio Canal themselves prepared and rolled out almost worldwide is a highly underwhelming upscale that most definitely pales compared to what Criterion was preparing to release.

[drawohua]

Originally Posted by Alloptions

Which part of Hong Kong is the store in? I would for sure like to know where to rent Criterion. Buying Criterion in Hong Kong is too expensive.

Tak Fak Shopping Centre in Mong Kok, Hong Kong sell Criterion Blu-ray for 235HKD, and usually they have in stock a couple days before the official release day!
but usually I go to Amazon/ CC official page to buy Blurays, it is still the cheapest after adding the shipping fee.

[jw007]

I just got back from seeing 12 Years a Slave! What an amazingly realistic and powerful film this was. Wow. The world needs more movies like this. I can think of a few such as Amistad, The Color Purple and Roots (TV series), but this is one of the finest films of its kind. No doubt about it. Steve McQueen is one of the most talented new directors around. Yes, this guy is going to be nominated for plenty of awards. I think this film will get at least half a dozen Oscar nominations.