The Criterion Collection

[adamhopelies]

My top five best picture winners.

It Happened One Night
The Lost Weekend
Annie Hall
The Godfather Part 2
The French Connection

[octagon]

Favorite Best Picture winners? Hmmmm...

Casablanca
All About Eve
The Apartment
Rocky
The Silence of the Lambs

[The_Iceflash]

Originally Posted by jw007

Isn't James Cameron too big for Criterion?

Probably. Besides, I don't how a Criterion could top the current Blu-ray.

[mande2013]

This is unrelated, but it's weird. I recently contacted Jon Mulvaney about a Criterion with damaged packaging I received in the mail, and usually he'll send a replacement assuming your honesty, but this time he told me to go to Paypal, but then I contacted Claire, and she agreed to just send me one. Did I do something to unwittingly get on Mulvaney's bad side or something? Or was it a by-the-book intern who actually wrote to me? Who knows.

[SammyJankis]

In no particular order:

The Apartment
It Happened One Night
No Country for Old Men
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Lawrence of Arabia

[SammyJankis]

Watching this video makes it certain that I will surely be buying Don't Look Now if the flash sale occurs tomorrow. No way I can wait until B&N.

[AaronJ]

My list of the best Best Picture winners:

Gone With The Wind
Casablanca
Lawrence of Arabia
The Godfather Part II
Birdman

My list of the worst Best Picture winners:

The Greatest Show on Earth
Marty
Around the World in 80 Days
Oliver!
Crash

[jayembee]

My five favorite Best Picture winners, in descending order:

Casablanca
Lawrence of Arabia
It Happened One Night
Annie Hall
The Best Years of Our Lives

Runners-up:

All Quiet on the Western Front
The Apartment
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Marty
No Country for Old Men

I won't list my choices for five worst winners. I try not to think about them.

[mande2013]

Favorite Best Picture winners:

Annie Hall
The French Connection
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Lawrence of Arabia
Amadeus
The Godfather I/II

Most unfairly maligned Best Picture winner:
The English Patient (not a masterpiece but doesn't deserve all the hate)
-Doctor Zhivago, which isn't actually a BP winner, I think deserves more hate

Least Favorite Best Picture winners (this one is easy):
Birdman
Forrest Gump
The Silence of the Lambs
Ordinary People

I actually dislike The Silence of the Lambs way more than I do The English Patient, and this is coming from someone who would make a case for either Contempt or Jacques Rivette's Le Pont du Nord as the greatest film ever made.

And why does The French Connection get so little love? I would expect it to be up there with the *great* seventies films like The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, Chinatown, and Taxi Driver and so on.

Or do The French Connection and The English Patient suffer for having beat out "film school" favorites, in the former case A Clockwork Orange, and in the latter Fargo?

By the way, I stopped caring about the Oscars back when I was about 20 or so (I'm 26 now). After all, this is a Criterion thread, and there isn't much crossover between the choices of AMPAS and those of Criterion, but it's fun to play the parlor game anyway

[captveg]

5 Favorite BP winners:

1. The Godfather
2. No Country for Old Men
3. Patton
4. Dances with Wolves
5. Lawrence of Arabia


5 Least Favorite

1. Cimarron
2. Oliver!
3. Around the World in 80 Days
4. Mutiny on the Bounty
5. My Fair Lady


(I have not seen Cavalcade or Tom Jones)

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by captveg

5 Favorite BP winners:

1. The Godfather
2. No Country for Old Men
3. Patton
4. Dances with Wolves
5. Lawrence of Arabia


5 Least Favorite

1. Cimarron
2. Oliver!
3. Around the World in 80 Days
4. Mutiny on the Bounty
5. My Fair Lady


(I have not seen Cavalcade or Tom Jones)

But ... how ... but ... wait ... noooooooo.

[captveg]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

But ... how ... but ... wait ... noooooooo.

Just not a fan. At all. Bored me to death, honestly.

Then again, this was off the top of my head. I wonder what it would be if I looked up my actual film scores on my 1-10 scale...

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by captveg

Just not a fan. At all. Bored me to death, honestly.

Then again, this was off the top of my head. I wonder what it would be if I looked up my actual film scores on my 1-10 scale...

Fair enough. I just adore that movie is all. Honestly, it almost made my Top 5 favorite winners. Heh.

[jmclick]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

As to Citizen Kane, I think it's got to be fairly clear that it simply wasn't understood by most of the people seeing it at the time. Sure, the techniques, both in cinematography and in storytelling, are now the sort of thing that we take for granted now. But then? NO way. I'm pretty sure that a lot of people walked out of Kane thinking, "WTF did I just watch?!"

I'm not sure I agree with your analysis of Citizen Kane's initial reception, especially as it pertains to the critical community and the motion picture industry. Audiences may not have recognized it as a groundbreaking innovation, but the people who were making movies back then certainly did. It was nominated for 9 Oscars (an impressive tally) and won 1, for Best Original Screenplay.

But remember, this was the studio era, and each studio "encouraged" their contract employees to vote for native product. As an independent production released by RKO-Radio, Citizen Kane did not have an automatic broad base of support among the Academy voters. Moreover, the studios were much more dependent on the press than they are today, and the knowledge that publishing powerhouse William Randolph Hearst was black-balling the film would have definitely had an impact on its Oscar chances.

In terms of the critical fraternity, Citizen Kane was named the year's Best Film by the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle, two prestigious organizations that were less influenced by Hearst's anti-Kane campaign.

We tend at times to forget that the Oscars reflect only a handful of members that work within the motion picture industry. They don't necessarily indicate box office popularity, audience enthusiasm, critical worth, or future historical appraisal. Sometimes they "get it right" (i.e., our personal opinions coincide with the Academy's concensus), but more often than not, they don't.

[tallrichard]

The Apartment
The Lost Weekend
It Happened One Night
The Godfather Part 2
The French Connection

Wasted votes,
Gandhi
You Can't Take It With You
Driving Miss Daisy

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by jmclick

I'm not sure I agree with your analysis of Citizen Kane's initial reception, especially as it pertains to the critical community and the motion picture industry. Audiences may not have recognized it as a groundbreaking innovation, but the people who were making movies back then certainly did. It was nominated for 9 Oscars (an impressive tally) and won 1, for Best Original Screenplay.

But remember, this was the studio era, and each studio "encouraged" their contract employees to vote for native product. As an independent production released by RKO-Radio, Citizen Kane did not have an automatic broad base of support among the Academy voters. Moreover, the studios were much more dependent on the press than they are today, and the knowledge that publishing powerhouse William Randolph Hearst was black-balling the film would have definitely had an impact on its Oscar chances.

In terms of the critical fraternity, Citizen Kane was named the year's Best Film by the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle, two prestigious organizations that were less influenced by Hearst's anti-Kane campaign.

We tend at times to forget that the Oscars reflect only a handful of members that work within the motion picture industry. They don't necessarily indicate box office popularity, audience enthusiasm, critical worth, or future historical appraisal. Sometimes they "get it right" (i.e., our personal opinions coincide with the Academy's concensus), but more often than not, they don't.

Yes, those are all excellent points. I'd thank your post, but ... I'm out of thanks.

[joie]

5 best Best Picture winners, from the beginning:

Broadway Melody (1929)
Grand Hotel
Rebecca
Casablanca
All About Eve

For 1939, "Wizard of Oz" should have won instead of "Gone With the Wind."
With six selections, my next would have been "An American in Paris." All but "Broadway Melody" are available on blu-ray.

[Archedamian]

My Favorite BP Winners:

Lawrence of Arabia
Patton
Amadeus
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Gladiator
It Happened One Night


My Least Favorite BP Winners

How Green Was My Valley
Cimarron
The Deer Hunter
Forrest Gump
Cavalcade

[The Great Owl]

This is coming out of left field, but I asked a Kino Lorber representative in another thread if they had It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1961), and I was told that another studio has that film right now.

It's been a while since Criterion has unleashed a glorious old-school sci-fi movie, and It! The Terror from Beyond Space would be a fine candidate. The movie was a precursor of sorts to Planet of the Vampires (1965) and Alien (1979).

I doubt that Criterion is the studio in question, but it's fun at least to enjoy the thought for a little while.

[Andrew13]

Looking towards the flash sale, any have some insight to share on A Day in the Country? Absolutely love The Rules of the Game and Grand Illusion, considering it as a blind buy, but the 40 minute running time is making me hesitate...