The Criterion Collection

[GentleGiant]

Originally Posted by ijustblumyself

Jules and Jim is my least favourite Truffaut. The writing is poor and he attempts to make up for it by injecting it with all the style he can muster (even though it just ends up becoming distracting because the first 20 minutes or so feels like a poorly paced montage).

It's funny, I started watching it but I just couldn't get past those starting minutes. You hit the right spot with your point about "style". Something about that editing style in the opening rubbed me the wrong way, so much so that I thought if the entire movie was gonna be like that, it would be totally unendurable for me.
I guess I'll try and give it another chance at some point to see if maybe I missed something the first time, and there were some good things to come later on.

[Vinyl]

Originally Posted by cakefactory

Nope, I had the same reaction. I found it a tedious bore. Usually with the "classics" I can find some hook to at least appreciate it, but I really found nothing good about it at all.

No one ever talked about High and Low, so it was the one Kurosawa Criterion blu-ray I hadn't picked up! I think I will do so right now. I didn't really even know what it was apart from not being a samurai movie. Going to get Harakiri as well, since it's been getting so much love as a response to the Kwaidan announcement.

Both those movies are great movies that people don't talk about much. To me, it is just an understood.

Ironically, Tatsuya Nakadai plays great roles in both of those movies as well as a story in Kwaidan.

[filmmusic]

Originally Posted by jmclick

I got totally spoiled yesterday on my birthday. My family members have ordered me:

Broadcast News
Hiroshima Mon Amour
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
The Long Day Closes
The Night Porter
People on Sunday

and I received enough cash and B&N gift cards to buy another dozen Criterions next week before the sale ends. It was quite a nice and unexpected surprise ... usually I get a couple of shirts, some new socks and one or two pieces of antique Vaseline glass, which is more than enough. I have the best family ever!

It's great when you have family members and friends that buy you for presents what they know you like.
Unfortunately my family doesn't know (and even if they did they wouldn't know how to order), and a friend that knows, doesn't want to buy me what I like, because it would be too "predictable".

[Polaroid]

Is there any lists or can someone list all the new leaflets that feature a poster when unfolded?

thanks!

[kuro_sawa]

Originally Posted by cakefactory

No one ever talked about High and Low, so it was the one Kurosawa Criterion blu-ray I hadn't picked up! I think I will do so right now. I didn't really even know what it was apart from not being a samurai movie. Going to get Harakiri as well, since it's been getting so much love as a response to the Kwaidan announcement.

Both films you mentioned are 5 star classics, I doubt you'll be disappointed. They are both intense at times, have style to spare and will keep you glued to the screen.

Originally Posted by Polaroid

Is there any lists or can someone list all the new leaflets that feature a poster when unfolded?

thanks!

Don't Look Now and Satyricon stick out for me, both would look great on the wall (if it were possible to iron them )

[Polaroid]

Originally Posted by kuro_sawa

Both films you mentioned are 5 star classics, I doubt you'll be disappointed. They are both intense at times, have style to spare and will keep you glued to the screen.



Don't Look Now and Satyricon stick out for me, both would look great on the wall (if it were possible to iron them )

That my entire reason for asking, they do make great posters and for $5 a poster, you can't complain.

I know Night and the City and The French Lieutenant's Woman has them but forgot what other release have them

Omg the Satyricon one is AMAZING. As much as I find the leaflets annoying - I never noticed the positives of it, they can feature posters with the release, although they could put posters in alongside booklets like Che, but oh well! Would have been nice if they were all posters.

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by spanky87

Days of Heaven, Badlands, and Thin Red Line are all essential to own. These films comprise the period before Terrence Malick disappeared up his own ass.

While I agree that his use of poetic/abstract voice-over is starting to become a bit redundant and borderline pretentious, I would say that Tree of Life is as good anything he's ever done.

...incredible work of art.

Haven't had the chance to see Knight of Cups.

Will this ever be released on blu-ray?

[InTheMood]

A while ago someone on this forum hinted at an apparent price glitch on Amazon.com for the Agnes Varda boxset. It was out of stock but I still ordered it just in case.

Now it seems it's been shipped! 22.99$ for the boxset + shipping!

As of this post the price is still the same on the site and it's also shown as out of stock. It remains to be seen if the package arrives or not. It was shipped yesterday but they haven't charged me yet. Strange.

[BobbyMcGee]

Originally Posted by InTheMood

A while ago someone on this forum hinted at an apparent price glitch on Amazon.com for the Agnes Varda boxset. It was out of stock but I still ordered it just in case.

Now it seems it's been shipped! 22.99$ for the boxset + shipping!

As of this post the price is still the same on the site and it's also shown as out of stock. It remains to be seen if the package arrives or not. It was shipped yesterday but they haven't charged me yet. Strange.

Thanks! Ordered one.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

While I agree that his use of poetic/abstract voice-over is starting to become a bit redundant and borderline pretentious, I would say that Tree of Life is as good anything he's ever done.

...incredible work of art.

Haven't had the chance to see Knight of Cups.

Will this ever be released on blu-ray?

Well, the film itself won't be released in the US until 11 December.

And I absolutely love Tree of Life.

[BobbyMcGee]

Originally Posted by filmmusic

I saw Easy Rider a couple of weeks ago, and I found it a real chore to sit through (except for the Jack Nicholson scenes)!
Maybe I didn't "get it" because I'm not an American?
I don't know..

Here is a start:
http://www.criterion.com/current/pos...-wild-at-heart

[rezpekt]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

Well, the film itself won't be released in the US until 11 December.

Nope, it's been delayed until next year.

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by rezpekt

Nope, it's been delayed until next year.

That doesn't make any sense to me.

[Polaroid]

Originally Posted by rezpekt

Nope, it's been delayed until next year.

I wouldn't trust that article lol

[soarinsteven]

Yesterday being such a hot, humid summer day I decided to go through my hulu queue, and watch some Criterions!

I Married a Witch - This was quite a fun, silly, but clever little romp with a nice, breezy pace to it. Veronica Lake what a bombshell. The only other thing I've seen her in is Sullivan's Travels. Want to see more of her! Can't believe she was only 4'11.'' Gotta love how camera angles and such can disguise an actor's height so well. Fredric March was a serviceable co-star here. I wish they cast someone with a bit more charm, and age appropriate. He was 44 to her 19 when filming.

Gate of Hell - This took a little time for me to warm up to the story and characters, but my god, what ravishing use of color in the cinematography, costumes, and production design. Beautiful and lush even on a hulu stream! One could imagine Vincente Minnelli, Douglas Sirk, Powell and Pressburger all swooning over this back in its original release. The third act is really well done. I liked that our lead or 'hero' of the movie was essentially the bad guy in the movie.

Black Moon - Unfortunately, I had to end my run yesterday on the most frustrating, beguiling, vexing title. I think I placed this in my queue solely on Louis Malle's name alone. Bad idea. I was quite entranced for the first half hour or so, and was quite taken by it's peculiar lead actress, and the Wonderland in hell imagery that I almost didn't noticed that no distinguishable dialogue is spoken in the first 30 minutes. Once it settles in a bit, and introduces the other characters tho. The movie just becomes increasingly bizarre and W-T-F.

Very difficult trying to figure out what Louis Malle was aiming for here. The only theme I took away was that humans had all but killed themselves,(and that poor eagle! ) and the animals were soon to take over, and replace the humans. Would love to hear from the some of the film's fans here on their interpretations.

[mca213]

Is The Last Picture Show going to get a solo release? I have no interest in the box set.

[Vinyl]

Originally Posted by soarinsteven

Black Moon - Unfortunately, I had to end my run yesterday on the most frustrating, beguiling, vexing title. I think I placed this in my queue solely on Louis Malle's name alone. Bad idea. I was quite entranced for the first half hour or so, and was quite taken by it's peculiar lead actress, and the Wonderland in hell imagery that I almost didn't noticed that no distinguishable dialogue is spoken in the first 30 minutes. Once it settles in a bit, and introduces the other characters tho. The movie just becomes increasingly bizarre and W-T-F.

Very difficult trying to figure out what Louis Malle was aiming for here. The only theme I took away was that humans had all but killed themselves,(and that poor eagle! ) and the animals were soon to take over, and replace the humans. Would love to hear from the some of the film's fans here on their interpretations.

I feel the same way about Zazie dns le metro. I am interested in it and i am tempted to get it. It does seem to be a bit incoherent to me, though.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by rezpekt

Nope, it's been delayed until next year.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by mca213

Is The Last Picture Show going to get a solo release? I have no interest in the box set.

No

[oildude]

Originally Posted by soarinsteven

Black Moon - Unfortunately, I had to end my run yesterday on the most frustrating, beguiling, vexing title. I think I placed this in my queue solely on Louis Malle's name alone. Bad idea. I was quite entranced for the first half hour or so, and was quite taken by it's peculiar lead actress, and the Wonderland in hell imagery that I almost didn't noticed that no distinguishable dialogue is spoken in the first 30 minutes. Once it settles in a bit, and introduces the other characters tho. The movie just becomes increasingly bizarre and W-T-F.

Very difficult trying to figure out what Louis Malle was aiming for here. The only theme I took away was that humans had all but killed themselves,(and that poor eagle! ) and the animals were soon to take over, and replace the humans. Would love to hear from the some of the film's fans here on their interpretations.

I have posted several times on Black Moon since its release on BD, including a couple of months ago. I have high regard for it, a film I encountered for the first time on Criterion as a blind buy. I think of it as Louis Malle’s homage to Lewis Carroll in an interpretation of a journey through female puberty that is uniquely Malle, an experience viewed through a lens of Alice in Wonderland re-imagined for the sexual revolution and the 1970s. Set against a dystopian backdrop of an ultimate war between the sexes, a young teenage girl trying to escape the conflict falls down the rabbit hole. This is the background and setting, but not what the film is ultimately about. Almost every thing we see is a surreal representation of an internal journey by the girl, Lily. The main theme is that Lily is transitioning out of childhood, interpreted by Malle as a lonely private journey of the bewildering, chaotic, violent, and weird, a path of strange unknowns and feelings. The film is filled with metaphors for a girl's sexual awakening. Lily navigates a tortuous path toward impending womanhood, in a Wonderland filled with Carroll-like nonsensical characters rich with satire and symbolism and sometimes nothing at all.

I think Black Moon is ahead of its time, yet looking at it some forty years later I also feel it is dated by the passage of time as it reflects heavily some of the prevailing social movements of the 1970s. It is one of my favorite Criterions that I find highly rewatchable, although it most definitely is not for everyone, and I do not recommend a blind buy unless someone is aware of what they are about to get into. The surprising thing about this for me is Black Moon is normally the kind of bizarre surreal film I stay far away from, yet I found it to be an amazingly rich experience that really clicked for me. I understood what it was saying and just went with it. I came to it completely oblivious of what it was about. I think had I bothered to read up on it ahead of time, I might have steered clear of it thinking it would not be to my liking. This is a prime example of why I admire Malle and look forward to seeing more of his work.


I picked up Valerie and Her Week of Wonders as part of the current B&N sale. I think I am most intrigued by it as another look at similar girl-to-woman themes as those expressed in Malle's film.