The Criterion Collection

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by 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...

Here's a review that I wrote for A Day in the Country a few days ago.

Short version: This Blu-ray has my enthusiastic recommendation.

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by 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.

Yes indeed Owl! It's a terrific little film. I love my Midnight Movies DVD of it.
Another title from that series I'd like in the Collection would be The Man From Planet X. A very atmospheric early Sci-Fi title directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and co-starring Sally Field's mother Margaret! Ulmer had a next to nothing budget but did wonders with what little he had including using leftover sets from Joan of Arc.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by 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.

I have to admit that I've never really understood what it is that's so great about The Wizard of Oz. I mean, I do get it, in the sense that I understand how iconic the film has become. But even as a kid I never really thought it was all that great. And now, I can't stand it.

I don't know what it is. Maybe I'm just weird.

[belcherman]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

My list of the worst Best Picture winners:

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

Smile when you say that, pardner. Marty is one of my all-time faves. Agree with you about the others, except Around the World in 80 Days, which I haven't seen.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by joie

For 1939, "Wizard of Oz" should have won instead of "Gone With the Wind.

I might have agreed with you before I saw the 75th Anniversary restoration of Gone With the Wind at the Fox Theatre here in Atlanta this past summer.

The movie looks wondrous on Blu-ray, but seeing it at a proper showing on a big screen was really something else.

Vivien Leigh's Scarlett O'Hara is one of the greatest antiheroes in the history of cinema. It's really quite surreal to see the movie in a giant sold-out venue like Fox Theatre, surrounded by thousands of women who are cheering at Scarlett's key lines.

[SlickDamian]

Favorite Best Picture winners:

The Godfather, Part II
American Beauty
The Departed
The Silence of the Lambs
No Country For Old Men

Least Favorite:

The Last Emperor
The Deer Hunter
(Those are the only two that I've seen that haven't really thought worthy of the Oscar)

I have also really enjoyed and could probably put in the top five pretty easily:

Birdman
Lawrence of Arabia
Unforgiven
Dances With Wolves
Crash
The Hurt Locker
The Bridge on the River Kwai

[Angel Eyes]

Favorite BP Winners

Casablanca
The Godfather
Lawrence of Arabia
On the Waterfront
Godfather II

Least Favorite

Silence of the Lambs
Shakespeare In Love
Crash
The Artist
Chicago

[Iamspartacus]

I'm on a frankenheimer kick. Can anyone recommend Seconds as a blind buy?

[Andrew13]

Favorite BP Winners

Annie Hall
The Godfather Parts I & II
Casablanca
It Happened One Night
The Apartment

Least Favorite BP Winners

The Artist
The King's Speech
Titanic
Slumdog Millionaire
Crash

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I might have agreed with you before I saw the 75th Anniversary restoration of Gone With the Wind at the Fox Theatre here in Atlanta this past summer.

The movie looks wondrous on Blu-ray, but seeing it at a proper showing on a big screen was really something else.

Vivien Leigh's Scarlett O'Hara is one of the greatest antiheroes in the history of cinema. It's really quite surreal to see the movie in a giant sold-out venue like Fox Theatre, surrounded by women who are cheering at Scarlett's key lines.

Or sobbing to

[Show spoiler]Melanie's deathbed scene

as I experienced at one theatrical showing.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by belcherman

Smile when you say that, pardner. Marty is one of my all-time faves. Agree with you about the others, except Around the World in 80 Days, which I haven't seen.

Yeah, it's always sort of funny to see one of your favorites on someone else's worst list, or vice-versa. That's what makes these lists fun, really.

Maybe I should revisit it. Admittedly, it's been a while since I've seen it, and maybe I just wasn't in the mood, or something.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I might have agreed with you before I saw the 75th Anniversary restoration of Gone With the Wind at the Fox Theatre here in Atlanta this past summer.

The movie looks wondrous on Blu-ray, but seeing it at a proper showing on a big screen was really something else.

Vivien Leigh's Scarlett O'Hara is one of the greatest antiheroes in the history of cinema. It's really quite surreal to see the movie in a giant sold-out venue like Fox Theatre, surrounded by thousands of women who are cheering at Scarlett's key lines.

I'll bet. I saw it at a sold out Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, but that was 20-some years ago. But it was one heck of an experience.

Originally Posted by hoytereden

Or sobbing to

[Show spoiler]Melanie's deathbed scene

as I experienced at one theatrical showing.

This isn't saying you shouldn't do it by any means, but I always laugh a little when we feel it necessary to use SPOILER tags for something like Gone With The Wind or Citizen Kane.

[jayputter]

Originally Posted by mande2013

Favorite Best Picture winners:


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 know I'm in the minority, but I actually think Ordinary People is a much better film than Raging Bull and deserved the win. The performances in Ordinary People are amazing. It's my favorite Donald Sutherland performance ever and I can't believe it wasn't even nominated!

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by jayputter

I know I'm in the minority, but I actually think Ordinary People is a much better film than Raging Bull and deserved the win. The performances in Ordinary People are amazing. It's my favorite Donald Sutherland performance ever and I can't believe it wasn't even nominated!

Timothy Hutton's performance blew me away, as did MTM's. I saw it in the theater when I was like 12 or 13, and it was a very powerful experience.

[WonderWeasel]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

I have to admit that I've never really understood what it is that's so great about The Wizard of Oz. I mean, I do get it, in the sense that I understand how iconic the film has become. But even as a kid I never really thought it was all that great. And now, I can't stand it.

I don't know what it is. Maybe I'm just weird.

I've never understood the praise heaped on it, either. It's not a bad movie, but I can think of about a dozen fantasy films I'd choose to watch before it.

Also, I'm from Kansas, so all of the inane "How are Dorothy and Toto?" jokes I've heard over the years may have helped to subconsciously influence my opinion of the film.

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

I'll bet. I saw it at a sold out Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, but that was 20-some years ago. But it was one heck of an experience.



This isn't saying you shouldn't do it by any means, but I always laugh a little when we feel it necessary to use SPOILER tags for something like Gone With The Wind or Citizen Kane.

You never know. I don't use them and somebody screams "I didn't know she dies!" Oops.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by hoytereden

You never know. I don't use them and somebody screams "I didn't know she dies!" Oops.

Oh, I understand. Believe me. It's just sorta funny.

[oildude]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

How Green is My Valley is a wonderful, wonderful movie. It is not as good as The Maltese Falcon or Citizen Kane, but, on its own terms, it was highly deserving of the Best Picture honor.

Originally Posted by jmclick

The point you made about How Green Was My Valley is right on the money. I personally would have voted for The Maltese Falcon as Best Picture of 1941, but it's not HGWMV's fault that it was the Academy's choice that year, and it winning status doesn't diminish its brilliance.

I tend to be a contrarian to the general critical views that have developed over the intervening years - Citizen Kane is lauded as the greatest American film ever made, but I enjoy How Green was my Valley a lot more than Welles' epic. It is an often overlooked great John Ford classic; in one of the supplements on the blu-ray, it is mentioned that late in his life he chose HGWMV out of all his body of work as his personal best to showcase at a retrospective on great directors. The supplements also delve into how the impact of HGWMV's mix of traditions, family values, social upheaval, the life of a mining community, their shared joys, loss, and pain, all arriving at the cusp of America's entry into WWII, resonated with the public in a way Welles' film never could. The academy got it right.

How Green was my Valley is the film that launched child actor Roddy McDowell into stardom, and when you watch his performance in this film, you will understand why he generated so much praise. Also in a breakout role is 19-year old Maureen O'Hara a decade before she starred in The Quiet Man.

Having said all that, I think The Maltese Falcon was also deserving, and is rewatched by me more often.

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

I have to admit that I've never really understood what it is that's so great about The Wizard of Oz. I mean, I do get it, in the sense that I understand how iconic the film has become. But even as a kid I never really thought it was all that great. And now, I can't stand it.

I don't know what it is. Maybe I'm just weird.

Originally Posted by WonderWeasel

I've never understood the praise heaped on it, either. It's not a bad movie, but I can think of about a dozen fantasy films I'd choose to watch before it.

Also, I'm from Kansas, so all of the inane "How are Dorothy and Toto?" jokes I've heard over the years may have helped to subconsciously influence my opinion of the film.

When I was a kid, in the olden days of 3-4 TV channels max, it was an annual event for The Wizard of Oz to be shown on network TV. It was a Big Deal, trust me. Like Christmas in Spring to a kid back then. If you missed it; wait a year to see it again. We didn't even own a color TV till I was a teenager so I didn't even experience the technicolor of Oz until then and, of course, that added so much more to seeing it from that time onward. Maybe it's special to me because of those memories and yes; the flying monkeys and the house falling on the wicked witch scared the hell out of me back then!

[oildude]

Originally Posted by hoytereden

When I was a kid, in the olden days of 3-4 TV channels max, it was an annual event for The Wizard of Oz to be shown on network TV. It was a Big Deal, trust me. Like Christmas in Spring to a kid back then. If you missed it; wait a year to see it again. We didn't even own a color TV till I was a teenager so I didn't even experience the technicolor of Oz until then and, of course, that added so much more to seeing it from that time onward. Maybe it's special to me because of those memories and yes; the flying monkeys and the house falling on the wicked witch scared the hell out of me back then!

My experiences were exactly the same as a child in the 1970s. Once a year was all you got. I recall seeing it one year for the first time ever on a color TV and thinking it looked so beautiful. This was also when cable was first appearing, and most of the local networks signed off and turned to snow sometime after midnight on weeknights. Only on weekends would they extend into the wee hours. I used to stay up really late watching monster movies back then. Where I lived, it was sometime in the early 1980s when a few network stations went to 24 hr programming. So, yeah, in that kind of TV climate The Wizard of Oz was a really big deal.

We also went outside and played a lot more, so we never felt deprived. Pong was pretty cool though when it came out.