The Criterion Collection

[aes3728]

Newsletter Clue gave us our next Chaplin- Limelight

[tama]

Originally Posted by aes3728

Newsletter Clue gave us our next Chaplin- Limelight

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by aes3728

Newsletter Clue gave us our next Chaplin- Limelight

Finally, its been a while now without a Chaplin release, my guess is the next one will be The Circus, now that we are getting closer to the final releases, it would be interesting to know how they will handle releases of The Kid, A Woman of Paris and A King in New York.

[SammyJankis]

The Criterion Designs book arrived today and I have to say it really is a well put together set (it better be with that price.) I haven't looked through it at great length yet, but I did take some pictures of a couple of pages I landed on. Figured they were worth sharing

[Show spoiler]

[dressedtokill]

Originally Posted by tama

Yes!!! I know I'll probably get a lot of flack for this but I think Charlie Chaplin is really overrated. I don't like his movies that much, but for some reason I just love Limelight. What a beautiful, touching and reflecting film…truly great!

[octagon]

Chaplin doesn't do a lot for me either but overrated is very much the wrong word.

The guy was a great actor and director and writer and producer and special effects coordinator and [pretty much any other filmmaking role] *and* he was an incredible athlete on top of all that.

And again, I don't even really like his films all that much but there's no question he was really good at just about everything he tried.

[lordmorpheus72]

Originally Posted by SammyJankis

The Criterion Designs book arrived today and I have to say it really is a well put together set (it better be with that price.) I haven't looked through it at great length yet, but I did take some pictures of a couple of pages I landed on. Figured they were worth sharing

[Show spoiler]

Wow, that's just amazing! Thanks for the preview pics of the book. It looks like it is well worth the money.

[RandyK]

Yes! More Chaplin =

[The Great Owl]

I'm good for Limelight.

Although I prefer Buster Keaton's brand of silent comedy, I do love the earnest emotional catharsis provided by the Charlie Chaplin films.

I own and love all of the Chaplin films in the Criterion Collection. I'd also like to have Chaplin's Mutual Comedies, but not enough to pay what they're asking now. I'm also inclined to wait until Flicker Alley starts selling them in regular cases instead of steelbooks.

[jw007]

I own every Chaplin film in the collection so adding Limelight is a no brainer for me. The Kid and A King in New York are the only other Chaplin films I'd still like to see on Criterion blu-ray.

[Vinyl]

I started my Chaplin collection with a bang... of sorts. I used the B&N 30% coupon to get City Lights. I got home and heard a noise from inside the case. Opened the case up and one of the top hook that hold the booklet in place was broken off.

Well, I have to go back and exchange it for the other copy they had in stock. Why didn't I just slow down and shake the box just in case, or do my smart move and get the one that is not in front?

Anyways, Definitely interested in Limelight. I wasn't familiar with in until the newsletter. I am really interested in the ending with Buster Keaton.

[lordmorpheus72]

In the last few sales I have picked up City Lights, Modern Times, and Gold Rush. I really enjoyed all three films. The last broadcast of the Criterion session (I forget what it's called) really sparked my interest in finally getting some Chaplin films. Before then, I just has just seen clips and snippets, and though I really liked what I saw, I never "got around" to watching any. So ery interested in Limelight.

Can someone help me out with the name of that broadcast? It was a live stream with some of the Criterion guys, I think Jon Mulvaney was one of them. thanks!

[WonderWeasel]

Originally Posted by Vinyl

I started my Chaplin collection with a bang... of sorts. I used the B&N 30% coupon to get City Lights. I got home and heard a noise from inside the case. Opened the case up and one of the top hook that hold the booklet in place was broken off.

Well, I have to go back and exchange it for the other copy they had in stock. Why didn't I just slow down and shake the box just in case, or do my smart move and get the one that is not in front?

Anyways, Definitely interested in Limelight. I wasn't familiar with in until the newsletter. I am really interested in the ending with Buster Keaton.

'Limelight' is a brilliant film. Although he's known for his silent comedies, the dialogue he wrote for it and 'The Great Dictator' (as well as the monologue at the end of the latter) make them my favorite Chaplin movies, though 'Modern Times' is a close 3rd, and Paulette Goddard is gorgeous in it.

[ElliesDad]

Originally Posted by octagon

Chaplin doesn't do a lot for me either but overrated is very much the wrong word.

[Show spoiler]
The guy was a great actor and director and writer and producer and special effects coordinator and [pretty much any other filmmaking role] *and* he was an incredible athlete on top of all that.

And again, I don't even really like his films all that much but there's no question he was really good at just about everything he tried

.

You are a gentleman, sir.

Several references to "The Horse Soldiers"...one of my favorite westerns ("The Searchers" and "The Big Country" tying for number one!) but I've been hesitant about a purchase in view of Casey Broadwater's 3.5 star pq rating. Anyone not happy with their purchase?

Very pleased to receive my Criterion replacement copy of "Summer Hours" in the mail yesterday, even though it took ten weeks (from 06 October, when I mailed in the defective disc) to complete the process. Had pretty much written it off, but not quite...hard to lose faith in a company like Criterion. Actually I was less concerned about not receiving a replacement than I was about the possibility of being disappointed by Criterion...

By the way Oildude, ref. your comment on The Searchers about a hardened Civil War veteran, check out the AMC series Hell On Wheels if you haven't already (though I'm pretty sure you have!). Anson Mount's Cullen Bohannon is the quintessential rebel hardened Civil War veteran!!

[tallrichard]

I was surprised it took so long in the John Ford thread to mention the Quiet Man...

My 5 Favs are;

My Darling Clementine
The Searchers
The Quiet Man
They Were Expendable
Stagecoach

With honorable mention to:
The Informer
The Lost Patrol
The Prisoner of Shark Island
The Long Voyage Home

[SammyJankis]

Originally Posted by lordmorpheus72

Wow, that's just amazing! Thanks for the preview pics of the book. It looks like it is well worth the money.

I'm certainly enjoyin' it! Bit the bullet yesterday when it was in the $60 range on Amazon. Some of the artwork they didn't use is stunning.

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by WonderWeasel

'Limelight' is a brilliant film. Although he's known for his silent comedies, the dialogue he wrote for it and 'The Great Dictator' (as well as the monologue at the end of the latter) make them my favorite Chaplin movies, though 'Modern Times' is a close 3rd, and Paulette Goddard is gorgeous in it.

I'm partial to Monsieur Verdoux. Maybe it's the cynicism or the dark comedy that appeals to me.

[pro-bassoonist]

BERLINALE CLASSICS

Berlinale Classics: Three German Films to Celebrate World Premieres of Digitally Restored Versions

During the 65th Berlin International Film Festival, Berlinale Classics will be presenting the new digital versions of a first-rate selection of films. The series will be showing rediscovered films in brilliant picture and sound quality, as well as film classics whose elaborate restorations are sure to delight audiences all over again. So far three German films have been confirmed for the upcoming edition of the festival and all three are screening as world premieres. The complete Classics programme will be announced in mid-January.

Varieté (1925) by director E. A. Dupont is a German film classic from the silent film era, a crime of passion set in the circus milieu. In the lead is Emil Jannings, who was later to become the world’s first winner of an Oscar. The digital restoration of the film is being made in 2014/15 by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, in collaboration with the Filmarchiv Austria. The starting material consisted of a nitrate print from the Library of Congress in Washington and a nitrate print from the Filmarchiv Austria. The restored version will present the almost complete cut of the film for the first time again.
Martyn Jacques, artistic director of the band The Tiger Lillies, has composed a new score for the film. As he says: “For us the music we have made is very much from the heart. It is our circus music for a wonderful film.” The Tiger Lillies will provide the live accompaniment of the world premiere of the digitally restored version, which will be realised in cooperation with the film production and distribution company NFP*.

In Jahrgang 45 (Born in ’45) director Jürgen Böttcher takes a look at young people’s lives in the Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg in the 1960s. It is the only fictional film made by this documentary filmmaker, and was the last and most unusual in what became known as the DEFA “Plenum films”. The 11th Plenum of the Central Committee of the SED (United Socialist Party of Germany), which in 2015 will have convened 50 years ago, led to the most far-reaching ban on film in the history of German cinema: in 1965/66 twelve fictional DEFA features were banned, which meant almost an entire year’s production. Work on Jahrgang 45 was halted in 1966, somewhere between the rough and final cut of the film, and shelved. First screened in 1990, it was not until after its showing that the film was completed based on the original negative; the sound had to be resynchronised afterwards. Director of photography Roland Graf has contributed significantly to the digital restoration, which began in 2014 and will be concluded in 2015 by the DEFA Foundation in a 4K workflow.

In 1968, in her debut fictional feature, 9 Leben hat die Katze (The Cat Has Nine Lives), Ula Stöckl captured the attention of the international film world, and participated in many film festivals. Her film revolves around five women and focuses on the question of whether, and to what extent, the emancipation of women can succeed in a male dominated society. It is considered a landmark work of feminist cinema in Germany. Originally shot in Techniscope and printed in Technicolor’s dye transfer process, the film has been digitally restored based on the original negative by the Deutsche Kinemathek. A Technicolor print preserved by the Munich Film Museum served as reference for the digital colour grading.

“Two of the films we will be showing were processed as part of the BKM’s (the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media’s) offensive to digitise films,” says a pleased Rainer Rother, head of the Retrospective and artistic director of the Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen. In addition, Berlinale Classics will present a panel discussion on ”Digitising Film Heritage in the Future”.

Pro-B

[Clare2904]

I have just finished Clean, Shaven.

Wow, what a punch in the stomach that film is. The use of sound to get you inside the head of the main character is amazing and so haunting.

Whilst only available on DVD it is worth checking out. The issue of mental health is too often ignored, in film and real life

[nondiatonic]

I just watched Late Spring for the third time.

[Show spoiler] Although she is long gone before the movie begins, Noriko's mother/Shukicki's wife has such a strong presence in every scene. The two cuts to the urn late in the movie when Noriko and her father are in bed on their final vacation together are incredible.
It's a movie about the understanding and desire of happiness for others. I used to be slightly annoyed by the over abundance of smiling throughout the film, but now I understand it. It's part of the happiness theme. Noriko and her father both push for the happiness of the other, and in an ironic way they sacrifice their own happiness for which the other wants to promote so strongly.
And, even after seeing it multiple times, that last shot.... damn.