The Criterion Collection

[Polaroid]

Originally Posted by filmmusic

So, you haven't seen any Ivory film? (I've also seen The Europeans, so that's 5 in total)
To me they are the most beautiful period films.
I consider them genre-defining films.

Nope D: although my mum has! :P

[silverlakephil]

Originally Posted by demonknight

Blind Chance
Breaker Morant
The Honeymoon Killers
Mister Johnson
Moonrise Kingdom
A Room With a View

Probably will get Blind Chance and Moomrise Kingdom. I'm not really big on period dramas like Room With A View. I got bored with Picnic at Hanging Rock halfway through. I'm not famiiar with the Australian director at all, and I'll inverstigate further with Honeymoon Killers, it looks interesting. I know there was a punk band with the same name.

[prior]

While I didn't like The Double Life of Veronique all that much, A Short Film about Killing or A Short Film about Love... those would be great additions to CC.

Don't know Blind Chance, sounds great.

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by octagon

How many 'Criterion Completists' are there really, though?

Are there large numbers of people who post 'gotta have all of them' month after month after month?

I don't see it.

Probably not large numbers of people, but I do personally know one. He has every blu/dvd and is working back through laserdiscs. I actually sold him the CC laserdiscs I still had.

[Vinyl]

Glad to see upgrade of Honeymoon Killers in there. Hopefully we keep up at least one upgrade a month, and fingers crossed for two every so often.

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by Polaroid

Does this mean The Decalogue will be released much late now

Which is okay, since the restoration isn't finished yet, as far as I've heard.

[shadedpain4]

Originally Posted by Bates_Motel

Probably not large numbers of people, but I do personally know one. He has every blu/dvd and is working back through laserdiscs. I actually sold him the CC laserdiscs I still had.

Man, that's some hobby! I'm blu only (when it comes to collecting the collection).

[Scottie]

I totally forgot about announcements.

The only film that I'm guaranteed to purchase is Blind Chance.

I'm sure all of them will be good for a view, but nothing else really stands out for me. It's funny because just yesterday I was thinking that The Honeymoon Killers would be announced for an upgrade and low and behold, it is slated for September.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by iScottie

I totally forgot about announcements.

Was wondering where you were lol

[malakaheso]

So we have two films by Bruce 'bland' Beresford and not one by many great international directors? I guess fans of Breaker Morant will be happy because there were apparently problems with the Aussie disc. Mister Johnson is a real dull and forgettable film. How many people are going to buy that? They may as well have released Don's Party hah


This is Criterion's weakest announcement in a long time. I love K.K but Blind Chance is definitely not one of his better films, even if the narrative structure was innovative for its time.

[oildude]

Originally Posted by filmmusic

Ha! Breaker Morant!
I knew those hats in the newsletter were like those on Breaker Morant!
(although someone else had mentioned it first I think)

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...stcount=100347

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

Was wondering where you were lol

Weekly reset on Destiny had me sidetracked.

I ate dinner and was setting up The Wire for my evening viewing and I was like "OH SHIT, CRITERIONNNNNN!" so I ran to get my computer and they were already up.

[MifuneFan]

minister_x was the first to point out Breaker Morant possibly being the soldiers in the drawing, back in January

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...stcount=118491

Originally Posted by minister_x

Was just taking a look through the New Year picture and comparing it to HD transfers Criterion has put on iTunes* (and trying to match the unknowns up). Could the soldiers be representing Breaker Morant?

Also, A Master Builder arrived in HD on iTunes within the past month or so - not that the clue for that one was unclear!

*See the Criterion PDF in my signature and look for green coloured titles (those not released on DVD are listed on the last page).

[oildude]

Originally Posted by jmclick

Black Robe would be a fantastic addition to the Collection!

Agreed. And Tender Mercies.....have wanted that one on Blu-ray forever.

[Polaroid]

So....

Lets guess next months announcement :P I kid.

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by shadedpain4

Man, that's some hobby! I'm blu only (when it comes to collecting the collection).

Well, he's a filmmaker, but the problem is, he rarely watches any of the movies. But he does watch the extras.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by jmclick

So many films from the mid-fifties were exhibited in a variety of aspect ratios; I know there's been a lot of debate about the "proper" ratio for titles like Columbia's On the Waterfront (Criterion's release includes 1.33, 1.66, and 1.85), Universal's There's Always Tomorrow, and Allied Artists' Riot in Cell Block 11, just to name three.

Personally, I want to see a film "as it was originally released to theatres", which is why I loathe pan-and-scan presentations and avoid them as I would the plague, and why I had no desire to see MGM's bastardized "widescreen" presentation of Gone With the Wind. That said, if a film was originally shown in multiple aspect ratios, I'm easy going enough to be able to pick one and be satisfied with it. Looking at the comparison frames for Riot in Cell Block 11, I don't see any visual information "missing" from the 1.33 samples, and I suspect that the original newsreel footage which is shown at the beginning of the film was probably shot in the Academy ratio, so I'm good with Criterion's presentation as is.

I have enormous respect for Bob Furmanek as a film historian and researcher, but I sometimes think that people are too focused on specifications that they are missing what's in front of their eyes. All of Furmanek's research points to Riot in Cell Block 11 being intended for 1.66 projection, and yet I'm one of those who think that the 1.33 presentation looks better (Robert Harris, no slouch himself when it comes to cinematographic knowledge, also thinks that). I had my own disagreement with Furmanek regarding Kino's BD of Marty. I've studied the composition from scene to scene, and the 1.33 presentation look right to me. I even tried zooming the picture up to 1.78, and it looked too cramped.

Bottom line is that for matted widescreen films, there's enough play in the compositions that that one can reasonably argue that there's no one "correct" ratio.

[ShellOilJunior]

Mister Johnson seems to bode well for a potential Too Much Johnson release.

[filmmusic]

So, this month has the release that excited me more in all 2015 so far:
A Room with A View.
(then it was Watership Down and Five Easy Pieces standalone release)

[Joe Dalek]

Originally Posted by malakaheso

This is Criterion's weakest announcement in a long time. I love K.K but Blind Chance is definitely not one of his better films, even if the narrative structure was innovative for its time.

If Criterion now has access to all of the Kino/Facets-released stuff, Blind Chance makes some sense in that it shares themes with The Double Life of Veronique. Visually they are far apart but I can see this being a table-setter for the rest of his catalogue for those who may only be familiar with his more glamorous final films.