The Criterion Collection

[Clare2904]

Originally Posted by shadedpain4

My find of the year was this on ebay for $3.50 shipped. There was no photo or description, so I had my doubts on what would arrive, but it came in perfect shape.

Have we ever figured out why there is no Hou Hsiao Hsien in the collection? Some weird rights issues?

Film club pick of the week is Dust in the Wind. I really fancy Summer at Grandpa's too.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by jacobsever

I don't know if you think I'm bashing Criterion or what, but I (at one time) owned over 100 Criterion blu rays. I was actually up-to-date ad owned every blu ray Criterion had released. Unfortunately, I had to sell a chunk of them to fund a cross country move. But I still have a good deal of Criterion blu rays and dvds.

And I'm not sure if you've ever imported one of these South Korean releases, but they include a very great amount of bonus/supplemental features as well as having very nice artwork/packaging/art cards/etc.

well, at least you put them on my radar. I hadn't heard of them before. cool looking stuff, but not for me.

[ShellOilJunior]

Originally Posted by jacobsever

That's cool. Money is not really an issue for me. And Plain only release one film per month. So it's well within my budget, sorry if you're not in the same financial boat.

I hadn't heard of Plain before you mentioned them. They seem to do some good work. Nothing wrong with more buying options for consumers.

[SlickDamian]

I'd really like to see Criterion including digital copies with their discs. I know that they have Hulu, but that's an additional service that needs to be paid for. Many studio releases include a digital copy and DVD copy, so Criterion, being a premium label, should include a digital copy, in my opinion. Especially since they no longer give us a DVD (which I actually liked, except for the obnoxious digipaks).

[SlickDamian]

Originally Posted by ShellOilJunior

"I'm not dead!"

She's smoking hot in that picture.

[Clare2904]

Originally Posted by SlickDamian

She's smoking hot in that picture.

Jimmy ain't looking too shabby either

[jw007]

Originally Posted by I KEEL YOU

I love Slacker more than the way more popular Dazed and Confused. Is it just me or are all the kids in Dazed and Confused complete self-centered pricks that you (or I personally) wouldn't want to hang out with? I suppose that may be the point of the movie, since it tries to portray that all kids want to do in that age is get drunk, get high and get laid.

I find the characters in Slacker way more interesting and varied. It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books is such a relaxing little experiment film, it helped me fall asleep many times, and I swear I don't mean that as an insult.

Yes, I remember watching Linklater's experimental little film and I remember a scene where he was sitting on a bus for what felt like eons, just looking out the window thinking and wondering. I can relate to shots like that because I've done the same thing myself plenty of times traveling on buses/trains over the years. I need to watch that one again!

What makes the characters in Slacker so much more interesting is that they're so diverse in age range. You have little kids jumping on Coca Cola vending machines and then you have old men talking about Charles Whitman while trying to calm down a home intruder waving around a gun and then some guy who sits in a room all day watching snuff film VHS tapes and carrying around television sets on his back and a young woman who happened to be carrying around a famous celebrity's biological matter in a glass of formaldehyde or something and then a bunch of young people drinking beers and talking about the Smurfs and Hare Krishnas. Just really interesting and funny stuff. Sorry for the spoilers.

[joie]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

poor me.. I'm stuck with the most respected home video distribution company in the world.

I like BFI, too.

[TomN245]

Originally Posted by shadedpain4

My find of the year was this on ebay for $3.50 shipped. There was no photo or description, so I had my doubts on what would arrive, but it came in perfect shape.

Hou Hsiao-Hsien has to be one of the finest directors out there. I bought a full collection a while ago after renting A City of Sadness from my uni library on VHS. Even though his films would be great releases, I like how no-one knows him and you have to explore cinema for a few years before you find him. A big pay-off IMO.

Taiwanese Cinema News: MOC (the UK releasers of the WCP) said that a rights problem with Yang's A Brighter Summers Day has been resolved and that a release is a lot more likely now. Probably good in America as well.

[TomN245]

Originally Posted by ChromeJob

Not to sound pedantic, but I've been watching this series on Netflix called THE STORY OF FILM: A JOURNEY ... I don't know the background of this series, but its one of the best I've seen in a long while. For those who are not familiar with some of these 1950s, 1960s, 1970s films by "the masters," it would be a good primer on why they are notable, why Criterion has chosen their films. ... The series is also darned entertaining, at least to me.

I've seen the whole series twice. Cousin's voice is so damn relaxing. It's an excellent look into film. I like the alternation between world cinema in one episode to American cinema in the next. There is alot of cinema missed, but its about as good as a series like this can get. Really recommended.

Trailer:

The Story of Film: An Odyssey Trailer - YouTube

[Namuhana]

I just started watching The Story of Film and I'm really digging it. I had heard that Cousin's accent was difficult to listen to (by a few people), but I find nothing wrong with it. I've only seen the first episode, but I'm excited to see the rest of the odyssey.

[Vendetta-akk]

Just read the Friends of Eddie Coyle review. I've never seen this, but I loved gangster and heist films. I should probably check this out!

[Yami]

If you like The Story of Film, I encourage you to see Cousins' film A Story of Children and Film - a wonderful feature length essay.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by SlickDamian

She's smoking hot in that picture.

I've seen Rear Window a great many times in my life, but the theatrical screening that I attended this past October was my first time seeing the movie on a big screen. The character nuances and levels of set detail really jumped out out me in a way that they had not before.

When viewed on a big theater screen, the "Torso Girl" sequences might just be the sexiest moments in cinema. Everyone else can have the Sharon Stone Basic Instinct scene, the Blue is the Warmest Color lovemaking scenes, and so on. I'll go with Torso Girl. That was really something else in the theater.

Alfred Hitchcock had a way of depicting certain moments as our eyes would actually see them in real life (as he himself explained about the scene in The Birds when the camera zoom-jumps three times at the image of a man's eyeless corpse). The Torso Girl scene captures the offbeat eroticism of seeing such things when peeping into someone's window when that person is not aware that you are watching.


(Apologies for dragging this thread into the gutter today, but, hey, I did mention a Criterion title in this post.)

[dwk]

Originally Posted by SlickDamian

I'd really like to see Criterion including digital copies with their discs. I know that they have Hulu, but that's an additional service that needs to be paid for. Many studio releases include a digital copy and DVD copy, so Criterion, being a premium label, should include a digital copy, in my opinion. Especially since they no longer give us a DVD (which I actually liked, except for the obnoxious digipaks).

Problem is that a lot of the titles they release they do not own the digital rights and including it on some releases but not other releases can be a bit of a headache.

[shadedpain4]

Originally Posted by TomN245

Hou Hsiao-Hsien has to be one of the finest directors out there. I bought a full collection a while ago after renting A City of Sadness from my uni library on VHS. Even though his films would be great releases, I like how no-one knows him and you have to explore cinema for a few years before you find him. A big pay-off IMO.

Taiwanese Cinema News: MOC (the UK releasers of the WCP) said that a rights problem with Yang's A Brighter Summers Day has been resolved and that a release is a lot more likely now. Probably good in America as well.

This is still available at places like JSDVD for a reasonable price, and this is also available on blu.

The only copy of City Of Sadness I've come across with English subtitles doesn't translate the intertitles. Thankfully those are translated online.

Great news about the Yang film.

[the sordid sentinel]

Originally Posted by Namuhana

I just started watching The Story of Film and I'm really digging it. I had heard that Cousin's accent was difficult to listen to (by a few people), but I find nothing wrong with it. I've only seen the first episode, but I'm excited to see the rest of the odyssey.

I am also currently watching that series on Netflix. Have made it to the next to last episode. Fabulous stuff. Don't know how anyone could find that voice hard to understand, I think it is great.

[demonknight]

2nd Annual Criterion Bingefest

1. Crumb- #533
2. Something Wild- #563
3. Eraserhead- #725
David Lynch's debut sure is something. It's first half manages to unnerve by doing nothing except have an eerie atmosphere. The second half becomes a confusing series of events that can only be described as pure Lynch. I liked it quite a bit. 4/5
4. Drive, He Said- #547
Jack Nicholson's kinda sorta directorial debut (he went uncredited for The Terror) is some pretty solid work. It's a lost gem of the early 1970s. A highlight in a great set (of course referring to BBS). 4/5

In fact, the BBS set was a great buy for me, seeing as it was mostly a blind buy. The only one I wasn't crazy about, having not seen A Safe Place or not finished King of Marvin Gardens, was Last Picture Show.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by demonknight

2. Something Wild- #563

I really need to edge Something Wild to the top of my still-unwatched list, because I've owned the Blu-ray for several months now. The soundtrack is ace.

[demonknight]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I really need to edge Something Wild to the top of my still-unwatched list, because I've owned the Blu-ray for several months now. The soundtrack is ace.

Have you seen it? It's amazing! Weird combination of shenanigans comedy and intense thriller.