The Criterion Collection

[smoss469]

Originally Posted by TJS_Blu

It's been a while since I saw Warner boxed sets at Sams. Costco puts them out at least a couple of times a year.

Guess I'll find out tomorrow!

[A Sith Lord?]

Re-Did my 2001 Space Odyssey... reasoning was I messed up the dimensions the first time. Printed it out and had the middle/spine wrong.

Here it is, and I decided to get rid of the earth blue I had in the boxes in the middle, and replace them with the black and white stroke.

[Brad1107]

Originally Posted by MasturB

Re-Did my 2001 Space Odyssey... reasoning was I messed up the dimensions the first time. Printed it out and had the middle/spine wrong.

Here it is, and I decided to get rid of the earth blue I had in the boxes in the middle, and replace them with the black and white stroke.

While it's a nice cover and i'm sure plenty of people here appreciate the amount of work you put into this, this is the wrong thread to post such things. It is not a criterion film (in the sense of blu-ray or even DVD) and there is a whole thread devoted to home made covers and such.

To be honest though I will never ever understand the idea of making custom covers. Just as I will never understand the obsession some people have with buying multiple editions of the same film just for the various slip covers and steel books.

[A Sith Lord?]

Originally Posted by Brad1107

While it's a nice cover and i'm sure plenty of people here appreciate the amount of work you put into this, this is the wrong thread to post such things. It is not a criterion film (in the sense of blu-ray or even DVD) and there is a whole thread devoted to home made covers and such.

To be honest though I will never ever understand the idea of making custom covers. Just as I will never understand the obsession some people have with buying multiple editions of the same film just for the various slip covers and steel books.

It's to make your collection look more uniform.

If there's one thing you can say I'm OCD about it's my blu-ray collection. I have slipcovers separated from non-slips, steelbooks together and of course criterions. Within the slipcover divide I have comic book flicks, action flicks, comedies, serious dramas etc. Same within steelbooks. Criterions are placed in numerical order, however I've separated the digipacks vs. standard cases.

The rest of my room is a mess and unorganized. The BD collection however is not.

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

That Val Lewton DVD set is one of my prized possessions. Those are some of the greatest horror films ever made. In fact, this Val Lewton set was my introduction to the brilliance of Jacques Tourneur, and it led me to purchase Night of the Demon/Curse of the Demon and Out of the Past, which now graces my avatar.

I know that I've harped on this a lot, but the Warner Film Noir Classic Collection box sets would be great buys if they are available during the above sale. I recently replaced my old Film Noir Classic Collection: Volume 1 set that was destroyed in a flood in 2009, and I also went back and found cheap copies of Volumes 2-5 from third-party Amazon sellers. I just finished watching Fritz Lang's Clash By Night from the Volume 2 set.

The old Warner Bros gangster films are perfect. We are fortunate to have Little Caesar and Public Enemy on Blu-ray now. There are so many more that need to be upgraded someday, though.

Owl, did you know Tourneur directed an episode of The Twilight Zone? A good one too-Night Call

[blkhrt]

Originally Posted by Brad1107

While it's a nice cover and i'm sure plenty of people here appreciate the amount of work you put into this, this is the wrong thread to post such things. It is not a criterion film (in the sense of blu-ray or even DVD) and there is a whole thread devoted to home made covers and such.

To be honest though I will never ever understand the idea of making custom covers. Just as I will never understand the obsession some people have with buying multiple editions of the same film just for the various slip covers and steel books.

You could say that about 90% of the posts in this thread, including the discussion of Val Lewton that is on the same page

[Show spoiler] Of course, the wide range of conversations is what some of us like about this thread! It can be a great place to interact with other people who love great films, whether those films are in the Criterion Collection or not

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by hoytereden

Owl, did you know Tourneur directed an episode of The Twilight Zone? A good one too-Night Call

Ohhhh yeah. "Night Call" was one of my favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone during my childhood. One of my neighborhood friends always used to recap this episode when we were telling ghost stories while camping out. When we saw the actual episode, though, we found that it was much scarier than the summary because of Tourneur's visual style.

[mrjohnnyb]

Originally Posted by blkhrt

You could say that about 90% of the posts in this thread, including the discussion of Val Lewton that is on the same page

[Show spoiler] Of course, the wide range of conversations is what some of us like about this thread! It can be a great place to interact with other people who love great films, whether those films are in the Criterion Collection or not

I couldn't agree more!

This thread is really about sublime film-making and its transfer to blu-ray. It just so happens that Criterion Collection is the best at the second half of that equation.

[lordmorpheus72]

Originally Posted by blkhrt

You could say that about 90% of the posts in this thread, including the discussion of Val Lewton that is on the same page

[Show spoiler] Of course, the wide range of conversations is what some of us like about this thread! It can be a great place to interact with other people who love great films, whether those films are in the Criterion Collection or not

Agreed, and most discussions are spawned from CC releases end up "off topic." The nice thing is though, that lots of good recommendations are based off them... and they all end up leading to just good conversations. I can't count the number of times I've gotten great non-Criterion suggestions from Owl and others.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Ohhhh yeah. "Night Call" was one of my favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone during my childhood. One of my neighborhood friends always used to recap this episode when we were telling ghost stories while camping out. When we saw the actual episode, though, we found that it was much scarier than the summary because of Tourneur's visual style.

I remember my mom, normally a TZ fan, absolutely refused to watch the episode (even before the story concept was established) since old ladies getting ringing phone calls in the middle of the night absolutely freaked her out.
Definitely Tourneur creeps.

Originally Posted by blkhrt

You could say that about 90% of the posts in this thread, including the discussion of Val Lewton that is on the same page
Of course, the wide range of conversations is what some of us like about this thread! It can be a great place to interact with other people who love great films, whether those films are in the Criterion Collection or not

Although to be fair, Lewton and Torneur belong more in the thread than "Look what latest improvements I made to this wishful Photoshop figment of my imagination!"
Since Lewton and Torneur are not happy pink unicorns, and likely may show up on Criterion sometime.
(Well, okay, they're Warner, but I mean, in general...)

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Ohhhh yeah. "Night Call" was one of my favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone during my childhood. One of my neighborhood friends always used to recap this episode when we were telling ghost stories while camping out. When we saw the actual episode, though, we found that it was much scarier than the summary because of Tourneur's visual style.

Originally Posted by EricJ

I remember my mom, normally a TZ fan, absolutely refused to watch the episode (even before the story concept was established) since old ladies getting ringing phone calls in the middle of the night absolutely freaked her out.
Definitely Tourneur creeps.

It was also great due to the performance of the wonderful actress Gladys Cooper who played the mother from hell in Now, Voyager but in this, and another episode-Nothing in the Dark is quite sympathetic.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by EricJ

Although to be fair, Lewton and Torneur belong more in the thread than "Look what latest improvements I made to this wishful Photoshop figment of my imagination!"
Since Lewton and Torneur are not happy pink unicorns, and likely may show up on Criterion sometime.
(Well, okay, they're Warner, but I mean, in general...)

Well, Lewton & Tourneur's Cat People was released by Criterion on LD.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Well, Lewton & Tourneur's Cat People was released by Criterion on LD.

I'm sure Criterion would be more than delighted to take Cat People off Warner's hands.

Warner isn't inclined to license though.

Sure, there's Badlands but there have been zero indications that was anything other than a Malick driven exception.

It's unfortunate but that's just how it is these days.

On the possibly maybe sorta good news side, Warner Archives says they're going to be ramping up their output in 2014. Of course, they said that last year and, well, didn't. But if they're serious some of the Lewton stuff would be prime candidates.

[ShellOilJunior]

I saw two films this weekend: a re-watch of Blue Jasmine and Pasolini's Teorema. The Pasolini film was only being screened once and despite the blizzard here I figured this may be my only chance to ever see it in 35mm.

Teorema is out there (although more restrained than I anticipated). It involves Terence Stamp a mysterious visitor to a wealthy family. He seduces them all, male and female (even the maid!), and changes them forever. Many believe Stamp's character is a god and Pasolini is showing us how people react to "spiritual awakenings".

I'm still thinking through what I saw. It's definitely worth a watch if you can find it somewhere.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by octagon

So far I've watched Brief Encounter and In Which We Serve and absolutely love the set. I expected In Which We Serve to be a bit more sappy and sentimental and was pretty pleasantly surprised at just how much I liked it overall.

Brief Encounter flat out floored me. It sounds like you agree so I'm not going to blather on but yeah, flat out floored.

I can't remember what I paid but I got it during a B&N sale and I'm sure after coupons and whatnot I'm sure I've already gotten my money's worth out of the set.

Since posting this a few weeks ago I've watched Blithe Spirit, This Happy Breed and several more supplements.

This is a really, really good set.

This Happy Breed was similar in tone and sentiment to In Which We Serve and at least as good if not a little better.

Blithe Spirit was a mixed bag but kind of in a good way. Some of the darker humor didn't mix seemlessly with some of the more romcom farce elements but the whole thing was pretty fun overall. And while Kay Hammond's makeup is every bit as ugly in motion as it is in the screenshots after a while it kinda starts to work. Or at least it stops being distracting.

And the Coward material in the supplements is absolutely fascinating. All of the supplements I've sample so far have been very interesting but I could have listened to hours and hours of Coward anecdotes.

On a bang per buck basis this set is hard to beat.

[ShellOilJunior]

Originally Posted by octagon

I'm sure Criterion would be more than delighted to take Cat People off Warner's hands.

Warner isn't inclined to license though.

Sure, there's Badlands but there have been zero indications that was anything other than a Malick driven exception.

It's unfortunate but that's just how it is these days.

On the possibly maybe sorta good news side, Warner Archives says they're going to be ramping up their output in 2014. Of course, they said that last year and, well, didn't. But if they're serious some of the Lewton stuff would be prime candidates.

At the Wexner talks Criterion referred to WB as partners. . .

[JoeBuck]

Originally Posted by ShellOilJunior

At the Wexner talks Criterion referred to WB as partners. . .

They also said they had a pre-code film from Warners too.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by ShellOilJunior

At the Wexner talks Criterion referred to WB as partners. . .

Well what else is he going to call them? The dicks who won't license anything?

Originally Posted by JoeBuck

They also said they had a pre-code film from Warners too.

Oh yeah, that's true. Was like toward the end of 2012? I kind of remember it as being a month or two before the 2013 New Year's hint.

[Clare2904]

I have mixed up the release date for The Great Beauty, I thought it was Feb not March.

Does anyone know if pre-orders are included in the upcoming (hopefully) Criterion website 24 hour flash sale?

Thanks

[The Great Owl]

I stumbled across this list tonight while I had the Val Lewton films on the mind, and am sharing it here, since it's heavily Criterion-related...

Slant Magazine's 100 Greatest Horror Films of All Time

Criterion inclusion spoilers...

99. House
95. The Phantom Carriage
88. The Vanishing
67. Kuroneko
60. M
56. Dead Ringers
51. Carnival of Souls
50. Onibaba
45. The Night of the Hunter
31. The Brood (upcoming Criterion?)
20. Peeping Tom
17. Eyes Without a Face
14. Repulsion
13. Vampyr
12. Videodrome
3. Rosemary's Baby

I encourage all of you to go through the entire list at your leisure, because there are a great many non-Criterion films that I'd love to see picked up as titles at some point...
Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now
Pulse (2001)
Several Val Lewton production films (The Cat People, The Leopard Man, I Walked With a Zombie, The Seventh Victim, etc.)

This is probably the best horror films list that I've ever seen when it comes to including some seriously unsettling works that are unrecognized in popular culture. The short paragraphs on each film are decent reads.