The Criterion Collection

[MifuneFan]

eh? eh?

[Show spoiler]Still can't wrap my head around this though

[Bucky]

I hope we see a Before trilogy box set. I bought the first two on dvd last year since it always seems like a bluray release is announced soon after I do that.

[kstebor]

I just found this link someone posted at criterionforum: http://otakon.tumblr.com/post/931310...-eyes-if-youve

Relevant quote: "Big thanks to Criterion for allowing us to screen the film, which is not scheduled for American release until mid-2015."

I agree it seems an unusual choice but I am in favor of it.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by kstebor

I agree it seems an unusual choice but I am in favor of it.

If they release it I'll almost certainly buy it. The trailer looks kind of cool.

And there's a pretty good chance I'll actually get around to watching it before I ever get around to finishing Hausu

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I (finally) watched my Criterion Blu-ray of The 400 Blows last night.

I've seen the movie several times by way of my old DVD, but the Blu-ray upgrade sat neglected at the bottom of my still-unwatched stack for almost a year.

I love how François Truffaut's feature-length directorial debut blends nostalgia, laughter, sadness, innocence, and maturity into such a fast-paced narrative that pulls the viewer along by way of visually intuitive camerawork.

While watching The 400 Blows, I always remember the crazy and dumb things that I did during childhood. When I was 11 years old back in 1983, I tagged along with my older brother and his friends while they broke into a hunting lodge in the woods behind our neighborhood. They had no malicious intent, but were just clowning around and trying to see if a break-in could be done. When the local police discovered that we were the culprits, they showed up at our houses, talked to all of our parents, and had us visit the police department and jail for a conference. It turns out that the police just wanted to scare the wits out of my friends and me so that we would avoid trouble in the future, and their plan worked. This was quite a terrifying experience for my 11 year-old self, and I have never forgotten the look, the smell, and the overall vibe of that city jail. The scene in The 400 Blows where Antoine Doinel is locked into his holding cell and we see the chicken wire of the cell from his point of view always brings back recollections of my own experience.

I'm sure that every adult clearly remembers that first moment during childhood when he or she got into real trouble...not just in trouble with parents or in trouble with the schoolteacher, but real trouble. I suspect that this is one reason why this Truffaut film has such a universal appeal.

Your story sounded like a Leave It To Beaver episode with the older brother and his friends part. Sounds like something Eddie Haskell would have suggested.
Looking back at my childhood it was more of a "I'm surprised that I wasn't killed" with some of the stuff my friends and I did back in the day. That was late '50s-early '60s so it was more Stand By Me (or LITB) stuff. Tree houses and bridges!

[Edward J Grug III]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

eh? eh?

[Show spoiler]Still can't wrap my head around this though

Weird! That does seem like it's the answer... And yet the reviews don't seem too promising...

[lordmorpheus72]

Originally Posted by mleask11

Don't know if this has already been posted but...

http://thefilmstage.com/news/before-...sion-and-more/

This is awesome.. thanks for sharing!!

[lordmorpheus72]

Continuing with my week of catching up on films, I'm starting tonight with The Great Dictator. Pretty excited about this one, after seeing other Chaplin films and really enjoying them, and this is my first Chaplin talkie... so a bonus.

Didn't make it to watch the 39 Steps last night, but rather ended up watching some of the bonus features of Touch of Evil. And tonight wasn't in a very serious mood, so figured I'd load up some Chaplin.

I may try 39 Steps after or maybe F for Fake, it seems very interesting. Still hoping to watch quite a few of these before my wife returns.... but don't want to rush the films, really want to enjoy them and the bonus features. I just have this large stack that I have some anxiety about getting through... anyone else have that?

[Meek12345]

Well, I just caved in and bought Ugetsu for $21.99 on Amazon. I look forward to the blu upgrade being announced next Thursday. I still wonder if the man with the cart in the New Years cartoon represents Fassbinder's The Merchant of Four Seasons and/or Ugetsu. I guess we will probably find out sometime this year.

I think that Ugetsu will be the last Criterion that I will purchase on DVD. Although, I guess I may pick up an Eclipse set or two in the future. I'm intrigued by the Nikkatsu Noir set. It's hard to go cold turkey on buying DVDs altogether because it appears that some movies and TV shows will never be available on blu.

Hopefully, Criterion will upgrade the following titles soon:

Sullivan's Travels
The Killers
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
Bob le flambeur (In my dreams Criterion gets the rights back to this one)

Hey Scottie! Wasn't there some sort of confirmation by Criterion at the last Wexner chat that Sullivan's Travels will be upgraded soon?

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by hoytereden

Your story sounded like a Leave It To Beaver episode with the older brother and his friends part. Sounds like something Eddie Haskell would have suggested.
Looking back at my childhood it was more of a "I'm surprised that I wasn't killed" with some of the stuff my friends and I did back in the day. That was late '50s-early '60s so it was more Stand By Me (or LITB) stuff. Tree houses and bridges!

My childhood was sort of like Leave It to Beaver, except...except that it was in color.

In truth, my friends and I did a lot of relatively dangerous things when we were kids, in terms of climbing tall trees, doing insane bike stunts, having pellet gun wars, and such. We may have even started a fire or two.
The incident that I described in my above post, though, was my only real brush with the law during childhood.

Since I grew up in a semi-rural area, my childhood was sort of like a late 1970s/early 1980s version of Stand By Me. My childhood pretty much echoed everything in that movie except for the music and the clothes.

A few years ago, my parents told me that, when I was 12 years old or so, they would be watching television together, they would see that old commercial that said, "It's 8:00 PM. Do you know where your children are?", and they would just look at each other and crack up laughing. They had no clue where I was most of the time.

To steer this ship back into Criterion waters, I'll say that The 400 Blows strikes another nerve with me in a good way, because it brings back memories from those moments when I was afraid of falling behind everyone else with the lessons in school. Those moments when I didn't quite "get" a certain instruction or a certain lesson, but was afraid to ask questions in front of the class.

[JJJ225]

Originally Posted by mleask11

Don't know if this has already been posted but...

http://thefilmstage.com/news/before-...sion-and-more/

This would, of course, be amazing.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by Meek12345

Hey Scottie! Wasn't there some sort of confirmation by Criterion at the last Wexner chat that Sullivan's Travels will be upgraded soon?

I wouldn't mind knowing if there's any firm word on Sullivan's Travel either.

I'm close to putting in an Amazon.uk order and I've been on the fence about adding the Arrow release.

[Rich Pure Doom]

Originally Posted by octagon

I wouldn't mind knowing if there's any firm word on Sullivan's Travel either.

I'm close to putting in an Amazon.uk order and I've been on the fence about adding the Arrow release.

I watched my Arrow blu the other night and certainly don't regret it.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by Meek12345

Hey Scottie! Wasn't there some sort of confirmation by Criterion at the last Wexner chat that Sullivan's Travels will be upgraded soon?

I believe they said they were working on a restoration or wanted to or something, but it looks positive!

[The Great Owl]

Sad news...

Rod Taylor, the lead star of The Time Machine (1960) and The Birds (1963), passed away on Wednesday at the age of 84.

He also starred in Giant (1956), Separate Tables (1958), Fate is the Hunter (1964), Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point (1970), and in one of my favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone, "And When the Sky Was Opened."

This hits me harder than usual, because Taylor was one of the first actors whom I recognized during my childhood, since I was a fan of The Time Machine, The Birds, and that episode of The Twilight Zone at an early age.

I'd like to think that he simply stepped back into his time machine and is heading back into the distant future to find Weena again.

[shadedpain4]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Sad news...

Rod Taylor, the lead star of The Time Machine (1960) and The Birds (1963), passed away today at the age of 84.

He also starred in Giant (1956), Separate Tables (1958), Fate is the Hunter (1964), Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point (1970), and in one of my favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone, "And When the Sky Was Opened."

I'd like to think that he simply stepped back into his time machine and is heading back into the distant future to find Weena again.

I love The Time Machine. Sorry to hear about Rod.

If anyone is looking for a hunt for weird and crazy bargains on ebay, look for a seller called "estocks_usa". They sell stuff super cheap, frequently have no pictures of the items, and never seen to have any descriptions of items. I found this for $3.50 shipped. I ordered something today from them called "Akira Kurosawa Tale DVD". I have absolutely no idea what that is, but for $3.25 shipped i figured I'd find out.

They have like 250,000 things for sale, so if you like mysteries and the thrill of the hunt...

[jmclick]

Originally Posted by lordmorpheus72

Continuing with my week of catching up on films, I'm starting tonight with The Great Dictator. Pretty excited about this one, after seeing other Chaplin films and really enjoying them, and this is my first Chaplin talkie... so a bonus.

Didn't make it to watch the 39 Steps last night, but rather ended up watching some of the bonus features of Touch of Evil. And tonight wasn't in a very serious mood, so figured I'd load up some Chaplin.

I may try 39 Steps after or maybe F for Fake, it seems very interesting. Still hoping to watch quite a few of these before my wife returns.... but don't want to rush the films, really want to enjoy them and the bonus features. I just have this large stack that I have some anxiety about getting through... anyone else have that?

Oh, yes, I know what you mean about the anxiety of getting through your stack of unwatched blu-rays! In my case, I think I feel a tinge of guilt about adding any new purchases to the stack until I've started to make a dent in it!

However, I seem to be watching the films at the right time and at the right pace for me. I really enjoyed immersing myself in Clouzot's The Wages of Fear and then Diabolique recently, and I'm just not quite ready to let them go and focus on anything else right now. I watched the films and all the supplements, and then I researched them and the director online and read through all the books that referenced them in my personal library.

Now I'm debating between making a shift from Clouzot to Hitchcock (you've sparked my interest in seeing The 39 Steps and maybe revisiting The Lady Vanishes along with Foreign Correspondent), or doing a 180 degree turn and riding the Old West along with John Wayne in (Stagecoach and Red River). Who knows? I also recently won a copy of Bergman's The Magician on blu-ray at eBay, so I may be off doing the Bergman thing if it arrives any time soon.

That's the great thing about having a personal film library, isn't it, that we have the incredible luxury of seeing the films we want to see, when we want to see them? It's hard to believe that 70 years ago, people either saw a film when it played for two or three nights at a cinema near them ... or risked never seeing it at all, barring a possible reissue. It makes me grateful to be living now, in what I think will end up being considered the Golden Age of Home Theatre!

[jmclick]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Sad news...

Rod Taylor, the lead star of The Time Machine (1960) and The Birds (1963), passed away today at the age of 84.

He also starred in Giant (1956), Separate Tables (1958), Fate is the Hunter (1964), Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point (1970), and in one of my favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone, "And When the Sky Was Opened."

This hits me harder than usual, because Taylor was one of the first actors whom I recognized during my childhood, since I was a fan of The Time Machine, The Birds, and that episode of The Twilight Zone at an early age.

I'd like to think that he simply stepped back into his time machine and is heading back into the distant future to find Weena again.

Oh, that is sad news. I transferred some of the interviews he did on TCM regarding The Time Machine and The Birds to DVR just last week, and was thinking about what an underrated actor he was.

RIP, Mr. Taylor.

[oildude]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Sad news...

Rod Taylor, the lead star of The Time Machine (1960) and The Birds (1963), passed away on Wednesday at the age of 84.

He also starred in Giant (1956), Separate Tables (1958), Fate is the Hunter (1964), Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point (1970), and in one of my favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone, "And When the Sky Was Opened."

This hits me harder than usual, because Taylor was one of the first actors whom I recognized during my childhood, since I was a fan of The Time Machine, The Birds, and that episode of The Twilight Zone at an early age.

I'd like to think that he simply stepped back into his time machine and is heading back into the distant future to find Weena again.

Oh, wow. I had this exact same thought.

[lemonski]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Sad news...

Rod Taylor, the lead star of The Time Machine (1960) and The Birds (1963), passed away on Wednesday at the age of 84.

That's very sad news indeed. I watched one of his early films recently, a crummy colour noir called Hell on Frisco Bay alongside Alan Ladd. Even then you could see how charismatic he was, he had movie star written all over him.

Anyway, I jumped on to imdb.com to read the obituary, all they seem to be interested in is the top 10 past moments of the Golden Globes. How typical

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I'd like to think that he simply stepped back into his time machine and is heading back into the distant future to find Weena again.

Well said.