The Criterion Collection

[skylog]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Godzilla is one of the best titles in the Criterion Collection, and it earns five stars across the board in terms of the presentation and the supplements. It's a good idea to buy it now before the big remake comes out in a couple of weeks. I'll be revisiting mine before is go to see the new movie.

Barnes & Noble usually has their 50% off sale in July and November.

thank you Owl! done and done. the price was just too nice on amazon, even though i do prefer criterion.com when i can. it has been on my list for some time, and even though i read every great review i could find for some reason i could never just pull the trigger.

that said, i am quite excited and plan on doing the same.

thank you again!

[mrjohnnyb]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I'm having a fun time going through the Superman Anthology, although I've been outside for most of the weekend. I realized yesterday, though, that there are a few more Criterion connections, in addition to the obvious Glenn Ford connection.

Trevor Howard, from Carol Reed's The Third Man and Noel Coward's Brief Encounter, is one of the ill-fated Krypton elders who disagrees with Marlon Brando's Jor-El.

Which brings us to Marlon Brando himself, who appears on Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront.

Margot Kidder (Lois Lane) appears in Brian De Palma's Sisters.

The beautiful and talented Susannah York (Superman's Krypton mother) stars in Ronald Neame's Tunes of Glory.

Maria Schell, who played another one of the Krypton elders, appeared in Luchino Visconti's Le Notti Blanche.

Of course, Gene Hackman has a great role in Downhill Racer as well.

You forgot Ned Beatty as Otis who appears in Robert Altman's Nashville, Terrence Stamp as General Zod who stars in Steven Frears' The Hit, and Harry Andrews as 2nd Elder who appears in Peter Medak's The Ruling Class. And let's not forget that Gene Hackman was also in The Royal Tenenbaums. The last thing that you want to do is upset all of the Wes Anderson fans.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by iScottie

I'm pretty sure it's one of the funniest films in The Criterion Collection for me.
I remember watching it sometime last year with my family and we were all busting a gut at the antics these people pulled.

(I'm fairly sure Ernst Lubitsch, Preston Sturges, Jacques Tati and Charlie Chaplin are a little funnier than the arch-campiness Paul Bartel used to do for Roger Corman, but tastes will vary...)

Originally Posted by demonknight

RoboCop, Spinal Tap, or Life of Brian

(Hmm...yep, those too.)

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by mrjohnnyb

You forgot Ned Beatty as Otis who appears in Robert Altman's Nashville, Terrence Stamp as General Zod who stars in Steven Frears' The Hit, Harry Andrews as 2nd Elder who appears in Peter Medak's The Ruling Class, and Glenn Ford as Mr. Kent who stars in Delmer Dave's Jubal.

A great team of actors in Superman: The Movie. I had mentioned Glenn Ford in an earlier post, but in context to 3:10 to Yuma, and your mention reminds me that I need to watch my still-unwatched Blu-ray of Jubal.

I forgot about Ned Beatty's role in Nashville and Terrence Stamp's role in The Hit.

I'd really like to see a Blu-ray treatment of The Hit someday. The Criterion DVD looks great, but a high definition presentation would roll over that.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by EricJ

(I'm fairly sure Ernst Lubitsch, Preston Sturges, Jacques Tati and Charlie Chaplin are a little funnier than the arch-campiness Paul Bartel used to do for Roger Corman, but tastes will vary...)

Even though I specified it as "one" of the funniest, my wording was still a bit screwed up. I should have specified from what I've seen. I haven't seen any Lubitsch or Tati yet, but Charlie Chaplin will always be the king of comedy for me. Preston Sturges' films are hilarious to me, as well.

Life During Wartime never stood out on its own as a film that I would like in the least. It was definitely surprising, but like you said, there are funnier ones out there.

[Clare2904]

I am just back from watching the 2K restoration of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I have seen this before, at the start of my film watching career and just didn't get it. Whilst I don't think I will ever fully understand I certainly got a lot more out the film today than the first time around.

Well worth the trip downtown

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by fdm

If you have TCM, Adventures Of Barry McKenzie is one of the ones being shown. (And one of the films I haven't seen.)

Sad to say, I don't have TCM. In our Comcast structure, it's part of a package that contains no other channels that either my wife or I were interested in, so we got a different package that had other channels that she was interested in.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Clare2904

Some complain about size
Some complain about artwork
Some complain about extras
Some complain about Wes Anderson
Some complain about dual format
Some complain about upgrades
Some complain about the films announced
Some complain about the announcement being late or delayed a day or two

EVERYONE COMPLAINS ABOUT SOMETHING!

You forgot this one:

Some complain about other people complaining.

On edit: Oops. Looks like someone beat me to the punch with this one.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Sad to say, I don't have TCM. In our Comcast structure, it's part of a package that contains no other channels that either my wife or I were interested in, so we got a different package that had other channels that she was interested in.

Dump her.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Sad to say, I don't have TCM. In our Comcast structure, it's part of a package that contains no other channels that either my wife or I were interested in, so we got a different package that had other channels that she was interested in.

Originally Posted by octagon

Dump her.

She is now pouting. And saying that it was a mean thing to say on her birthday. She also pointed out that I should tell you that she ordered HBO so that I could watch the new season of Game of Thrones (well, and so we could both watch John Oliver's Last Week Tonight).

But actually, it was my idea not to get the package with TCM. I know from experience (from when I was still single) that if I had TCM I'd be spending far too many hours in front of the TV screen. Well, far more than the far too many I do now.

[Clare2904]

Originally Posted by jayembee

She is now pouting. And saying that it was a mean thing to say on her birthday. She also pointed out that I should tell you that she ordered HBO so that I could watch the new season of Game of Thrones (well, and so we could both watch John Oliver's Last Week Tonight).

But actually, it was my idea not to get the package with TCM. I know from experience (from when I was still single) that if I had TCM I'd be spending far too many hours in front of the TV screen. Well, far more than the far too many I do now.

Happy Birthday Mrs Jayembee

I hope your Hubby treated you well today (as he should every day) If he hasn't, steal his Criterions

[RojD]

Originally Posted by Clare2904

I am just back from watching the 2K restoration of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I have seen this before, at the start of my film watching career and just didn't get it. Whilst I don't think I will ever fully understand I certainly got a lot more out the film today than the first time around.

Well worth the trip downtown

Ditto! Saw that print last summer and was very moved by it. It was close to my best cinema experience of the year if not the best. I think it's possible to just go on and on about 2001 -- it's technique, ambition, interpretations -- but at the end, it's just a helluva time at the movies. And like you, I saw it early on, when I was just realizing there was more to movies than fanzines (tho that was in its initial run in my case). Good to hear someone else had the same response.

[Dumbhuman]

Originally Posted by EVERYONE LIES

I can't imagine anyone that collects Criterion watches DVD. Why they didn't pull the plug on the format is beyond me. Are kids watching Persona in the Minivan?

I watch at least a few DVDs every week, but then again I consider myself much more a fan of cinema than a collector of anything. If I just sat around waiting for various companies to determine what I watch by their calendar of glacially paced Blu-ray releases then my film knowledge would be very poorly limited indeed.

Yes, at this stage, I'd prefer to have everything on Blu-ray as well, but I also appreciate having DVDs to lend out to those whose desire to be engaged by films outstrips their home audio/visual technology.

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Sad to say, I don't have TCM. In our Comcast structure, it's part of a package that contains no other channels that either my wife or I were interested in, so we got a different package that had other channels that she was interested in.

My daughter has Comcast and loves TCM so I naturally assumed she had it. Was surprised to hear she didn't because she said pretty much the same thing you did. It was packaged with sports channels, etc. she didn't want. I'm fortunate in that Time Warner (at least in my area) has it as part of their basic tier along with another favorite of mine METV.

Originally Posted by jayembee

She is now pouting. And saying that it was a mean thing to say on her birthday. She also pointed out that I should tell you that she ordered HBO so that I could watch the new season of Game of Thrones (well, and so we could both watch John Oliver's Last Week Tonight).

But actually, it was my idea not to get the package with TCM. I know from experience (from when I was still single) that if I had TCM I'd be spending far too many hours in front of the TV screen. Well, far more than the far too many I do now.

Frankly, I don't know if I go w/o TCM. Just tonight they showed a gem I'd never seen-Intimate Lighting. Czech New Wave that had one of the funniest closing scenes I've seen in ages. Yes, I watch it a lot but I rarely watch network programming other than sports, otherwise it's METV and PBS as far as TV watching goes.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by RojD

Ditto! Saw that print last summer and was very moved by it. It was close to my best cinema experience of the year if not the best. I think it's possible to just go on and on about 2001 -- it's technique, ambition, interpretations -- but at the end, it's just a helluva time at the movies. And like you, I saw it early on, when I was just realizing there was more to movies than fanzines (tho that was in its initial run in my case). Good to hear someone else had the same response.

2001: A Space Odyssey was, for me, the movie that changed everything. Prior to that, movies for me were just stories, like books but told with pictures. The only thing that really counted were the plots and characters, and dialogue. I saw 2001 (twice) during its initial release in 1968 when I was 14½ -- and on a deep-curved Cinerama screen at that -- and for the first time I saw movies as an art form, and I looked at movies very differently from that point on.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by hoytereden

Frankly, I don't know if I go w/o TCM. Just tonight they showed a gem I'd never seen-Intimate Lighting. Czech New Wave that had one of the funniest closing scenes I've seen in ages. Yes, I watch it a lot but I rarely watch network programming other than sports, otherwise it's METV and PBS as far as TV watching goes.

Well, for about a five-year period that I had TCM, I not only watched it a lot, but I pretty much taped (on SuperVHS) every pre-1970 movie that I didn't have on LD or DVD. Yeah, I'm probably missing a lot of good foreign films, but to be honest, there isn't a whole lot that I'm interested in seeing -- at least from the Warner, MGM, and RKO catalogs -- that I don't have access to.

[The Great Owl]

I was at a "disadvantage" for my initial viewing of 2001: A Space Odyssey, because I had already read the Arthur C. Clarke novelization, which he had written as he completed the screenplay with Stanley Kubrick, prior to seeing the movie.

I am glad that I had a handle on what was going on, but part of me wishes that I had seen the movie before reading the novelization so that I could develop my own interpretation of what was happening in the final scenes.

I had the same "disadvantage" for my recent viewing of a certain Scarlett Johannson film that should not be discussed in this thread (haha), because I had read the Michel Faber novel before seeing the movie.

[ijustblumyself]

Originally Posted by jayembee

2001: A Space Odyssey was, for me, the movie that changed everything. Prior to that, movies for me were just stories, like books but told with pictures. The only thing that really counted were the plots and characters, and dialogue. I saw 2001 (twice) during its initial release in 1968 when I was 14½ -- and on a deep-curved Cinerama screen at that -- and for the first time I saw movies as an art form, and I looked at movies very differently from that point on.

2001, as well as Mulholland Drive, had the exact same effect on me. Watched both in the same weekend.

[scottpcusa]

My wife gave me a copy of The Uninvited on BD for my birthday today! She played Stella Meredith in a theatre production of The Uninvited at the University of Kentucky almost 20 years ago!

[belcherman]

Originally Posted by hoytereden

Frankly, I don't know if I go w/o TCM. Just tonight they showed a gem I'd never seen-Intimate Lighting. Czech New Wave that had one of the funniest closing scenes I've seen in ages. Yes, I watch it a lot but I rarely watch network programming other than sports, otherwise it's METV and PBS as far as TV watching goes.

I have TCM as part of the basic FIOS package and I'm hooked. My biggest problem with it is that it gets in the way of me catching up on my backlog of blu rays. I can pretty much find a TCM movie every night that I want to watch. For instance, last night I watched Dear Heart and tonight it will be either Love in the Afternoon or Ball of Fire. I love TCM and it's probably the only reason that I even have cable. If they offered it as an internet service like Hulu Plus or Warner Archive for $10 per month, I would seriously consider cutting out cable altogether.

Ivan Passer also directed a great movie called Cutter's Way (aka Cutter & Bone), a late '70s early 80s post-Vietnam paranoia movie in the vein of Chinatown and The Conversation.