The Criterion Collection

[oildude]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I stopped by a local used CD/used movie store on the way home from work and found mint-condition Criterion Blu-rays of Kes and World on a Wire on the shelf for $15 apiece.

As one might reasonably guess, these two Blu-rays subsequently migrated a few miles south from the store shelf to my shelf.

There was also a mint-condition Criterion Blu-ray of Fish Tank for $15 at the store, but the premise of that particular title doesn't really quicken my pulse. No disrespect to fans of that film, of course, but I'm just not feeling it.

Awesome. Kes and World on a Wire are two of the best foreign language films in the Criterion Collection.

Seriously, though. Both are excellent.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by SlickDamian

Eating Raoul is my least favorite film in the Criterion Collection. And my least favorite film that I own. I just didn't get it at all.

So glad you said this...

Eating Raoul is to date the ONLY Criterion blu-ray I ever bought and sold in-person to a used record/media store.

It's a film that made me sick. I actually hated this movie and I cannot say this for many films I've seen. It was despicable.

Maybe I just didn't get the black comedy.

Maybe I had the wrong mindset going into watching this.

Maybe I was foolish treating this as a blind-buy.

The bottom line is, I'll watch it again sometime in the future, but for now its still a movie I just didn't like. Thanks, SlickDamian, for agreeing with me too.

[JoeBuck]

Originally Posted by jw007

So glad you said this...

Eating Raoul is to date the ONLY Criterion blu

ray I ever bought and sold in-person to a used record/media store.

It's a film that made me sick. I actually hated this movie and I cannot say this for many films I've seen. It was despicable.

Maybe I just didn't get the black comedy.

Maybe I had the wrong mindset going into watching this.

Maybe I was foolish treating this as a blind-buy.

The bottom line is, I'll watch it again sometime in the future, but for now its still a movie I just didn't like. Thanks, SlickDamian, for agreeing with me too.

Haha, Im the exact opposite in your line of thinking and think it might even be the Criterion blu Ive watched the most.
Gonna be showing it to my girlfriend this Thursday cause shes never seen it.
Could seriously never get tired of it, to me it almost seems like John Waters lite.
Speaking of John Waters, heres to hoping Criterion can cut a deal with Warners to get his early stuff

[PowellPressburger]

Originally Posted by jw007

So glad you said this...

Eating Raoul is to date the ONLY Criterion blu-ray I ever bought and sold in-person to a used record/media store.

It's a film that made me sick. I actually hated this movie and I cannot say this for many films I've seen. It was despicable.

Maybe I just didn't get the black comedy.

The film isn't for everyone I wish it could have been a little less amateurish but I think that is why some like it. I love the line at the start of the film when Paul is selling wine and someone asks for a particular kind and he says something along the lines of might as well have this because they won't be able to appreciate it. (I Know I butchered this) but I got the biggest laugh from it. Working at Suncoast back when the first Harry Potter film was being released on DVD and you could pre-order the pan/scan or the widescreen version and whenever people would say full frame or pan/scan I would kind of cringe and at one time I told a customer they might as well just pre-order the VHS if they were going to watch it that way haha (keep in mind I wasn't pushing the film just the best presentation at that time. I've never seen any Potter film yet. nothing against them just never wanted to)

shocked the way you described it you make it sound like you watched Sweet Movie haha I think Eating Raul is quite tame when it comes to any shock value.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by JoeBuck

Haha, Im the exact opposite in your line of thinking and think it might even be the Criterion blu Ive watched the most.
Gonna be showing it to my girlfriend this Thursday cause shes never seen it.
Could seriously never get tired of it, to me it almost seems like John Waters lite.
Speaking of John Waters, heres to hoping Criterion can cut a deal with Warners to get his early stuff

Oh dude, totally... John Waters fans would eat Eating Raoul apart (no pun intended). For those movie buffs who are shameless and pretty much desensitized to the most perverted content (the opposite of a prude I would say), then this film is your bible.

Now its time to eat some Raaaaaaa...men....nope i mean ramen...not ra-men. whatever that is?!

[hoytereden]

TCM is having a "fight night" lineup tonight that includes a couple of what I consider the best boxing films ever made:

The Set-Up It's a RKO film so I assume it's a Warner property. If Criterion can't get it I at least hope Warner would do Noir boxsets like they did with the DVD versions.
The Harder They Fall A Columbia film so maybe there's a chance for it to get in the Collection.

[StLouisRibs]

Originally Posted by hoytereden

TCM is having a "fight night" lineup tonight that includes a couple of what I consider the best boxing films ever made:

The Set-Up It's a RKO film so I assume it's a Warner property. If Criterion can't get it I at least hope Warner would do Noir boxsets like they did with the DVD versions.
The Harder They Fall A Columbia film so maybe there's a chance for it to get in the Collection.

Rocky II wins the best boxing film bout, in a surprise upset.

[jw007]

Does anyone here think filmmaker Michael Moore has a place in the Criterion Collection? Say what you will about the man (many people think he's an abomination), but one of the most controversial/searing documentary films Bowling for Columbine still doesn't have a blu-ray release, and I don't see MGM releasing it anytime soon due to its controversial content and thought-provoking, timely themes. It's a highly entertaining film (

[Show spoiler]Michael Moore pisses off Charlton Heston at his doorstep at the end of the movie.... Moore walks into the homes of Canadians with their doors being unlocked....etc.

).

[ElliesDad]

Originally Posted by jw007

Does anyone here think filmmaker Michael Moore has a place in the Criterion Collection? Say what you will about the man (many people think he's an abomination), but one of the most controversial/searing documentary films Bowling for Columbine still doesn't have a blu-ray release, and I don't see MGM releasing it anytime soon due to its controversial content and thought-provoking, timely themes. It's a highly entertaining film (

[Show spoiler]Michael Moore pisses off Charlton Heston at his doorstep at the end of the movie.... Moore walks into the homes of Canadians with their doors being unlocked....etc.

).

A place in the Criterion Collection? No. Were you really entertained by this individual's treatment of the aging and vulnerable Mr. Heston, who had invited him into his home (under false pretenses) and treated him with cordiality and respect only to be ambushed and ridiculed by Moore in the crudest and most boorish manner possible. Many of us found it simply embarrassing, especially considering the relative character and accomplishments of the two men.

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by hoytereden

The Harder They Fall A Columbia film so maybe there's a chance for it to get in the Collection.

Then they could do a double feature of The Harder They Come & The Harder They Fall.

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by Bates_Motel

Then they could do a double feature of The Harder They Come & The Harder They Fall.

Better yet, double it with another Bogart/Columbia-In A Lonely Place.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by jw007

Does anyone here think filmmaker Michael Moore has a place in the Criterion Collection?

No. Not now. Not ever.

Fahrenheit 9/11 is one of the top five worst movies that I have ever seen. Every single sequence in that movie twisted facts by placing interviews and news footage out of context, and Moore's primary function as a humorist does not even come through in a remotely fun sense.

Don't get me wrong. I do think that irony and biting satire do have a place in cinema if handled in a skillful way. Moore's films, by contrast, come across like loud car commercials on second-tier late night cable channels.

I'm generally not a fan of deceitful manipulation of real-life people for the sake of cinema, though. One reason why I have avoided the Criterion Blu-ray of Shoah, for instance, is because I despise the idea that people's interviews were apparently used in the film without their knowledge or consent after they were assured by the filmmaker that the questions were "off the record." The intent, however noble and historically relevant, does not excuse the deceit, in my opinion. Ideally, cinema, even (actually, especially) cinema involving fictional stories, should be art at its most honest and forthright.

This sort of thing touches a personal hot button with me, because I had a rough go back in the late 1990s when I worked as a county health inspector, and my work with restaurant inspections was adversely affected by local cable news channel reporters who interviewed me and then used the recorded sound bites to twist my words entirely out of context. This is the main reason why I do not watch television news anymore.

[ShellOilJunior]

Originally Posted by jw007

Does anyone here think filmmaker Michael Moore has a place in the Criterion Collection? Say what you will about the man (many people think he's an abomination), but one of the most controversial/searing documentary films Bowling for Columbine still doesn't have a blu-ray release, and I don't see MGM releasing it anytime soon due to its controversial content and thought-provoking, timely themes. It's a highly entertaining film (

[Show spoiler]Michael Moore pisses off Charlton Heston at his doorstep at the end of the movie.... Moore walks into the homes of Canadians with their doors being unlocked....etc.

).

I think many of Moore's films don't yet have blu-ray releases because they're trendy- they're a product of their time like F-911 which was DOA after the 2004 election. I like Capitalism because it's still very, very relevant but doubt it will get a blu-ray release. Moore's docs are emotional essays.

[Yami]

I watched Satyajit Ray's The Coward (Kapurush) last night, intended to be screened alongside The Holy Man (Mahapurush) but I only had time for the former. It's a superb, economical film that focuses on a man's coincidental reunion with his former lover who he spurned due to the social expectations that he claimed to disdain.

The flashback to the highly emotive moment where they went their separate ways was the highlight for me. Soumitra Chatterjee seems like a man who is internally wrestling with himself, finding that he is unable to follow through with what he believes - even for the woman he loves. Unable to mount a "one-man revolution", to use a quote from his ex-lover's now-husband in discussion about the caste system, against the expectations of society that he is expected to meet.

[monorail91]

Originally Posted by CriterionBlues

Yikes. It sure is.

Oh well, from one B&N sale to another.

Its spine # is gone too! So there'll be a new 768 in town?

[LPMA]

I'm not normally much of a documentary guy, but I'd love to see Capturing the Friedmans get the Criterion treatment.

[mrjohnnyb]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

No. Not now. Not ever.

Fahrenheit 9/11 is one of the top five worst movies that I have ever seen. Every single sequence in that movie twisted facts by placing interviews and news footage out of context, and Moore's primary function as a humorist does not even come through in a remotely fun sense.

Don't get me wrong. I do think that irony and biting satire do have a place in cinema if handled in a skillful way. Moore's films, by contrast, come across like loud car commercials on second-tier late night cable channels.

I'm generally not a fan of deceitful manipulation of real-life people for the sake of cinema, though. One reason why I have avoided the Criterion Blu-ray of Shoah, for instance, is because I despise the idea that people's interviews were apparently used in the film without their knowledge or consent after they were assured by the filmmaker that the questions were "off the record." The intent, however noble and historically relevant, does not excuse the deceit, in my opinion. Ideally, cinema, even (actually, especially) cinema involving fictional stories, should be art at its most honest and forthright.

This sort of thing touches a personal hot button with me, because I had a rough go back in the late 1990s when I worked as a county health inspector, and my work with restaurant inspections was adversely affected by local cable news channel reporters who interviewed me and then used the recorded sound bites to twist my words entirely out of context. This is the main reason why I do not watch television news anymore.

I can understand your disdain for Moore, but I do think that his films Roger and Me and Bowling for Columbine strike an important chord. Sometimes lying to the person you are interviewing is the only way to get the truth.

Hypocritical? Yes, but also informative and eye-opening. Like the Wisconsin man who called up the Governor pretending to be one of the Koch brothers, it gave people the chance to see the true colors of a corrupt politician.

While I think this sort of thing is okay with high-profile politicians (and sorry Heston fans, I do lump Mr. "From my cold dead hands" into that category,) I do feel bad when a working-class health inspector is bullied by the press. So, was your job sort of like Donald Sutherland's in the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers?

[Mystic]

The review posted on this site of the "Friends of Eddie Coyle" state that the picture quality could have been improved. I'm a fan of this film, and would like to hear from people (who own the Criterion disc) regarding their opinions with respect to the picture quality.

[PowellPressburger]

I haven't picked up Friends of Eddie Coyle yet on BLU but even though the reviews aren't ecstatic I still have to own the blu. This was one of the Criterion titles that got a DVD release and was passed over for BLU in the earlier days of BLU. I still want Downhill Racer upgraded.

Will pick up Friends o E C at Barnes this weekend for sure.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by mrjohnnyb

So, was your job sort of like Donald Sutherland's in the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers?

Yes, that's almost right on the button.