The Criterion Collection

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by 14728

Do you think there's any possibility of Criterion releasing a complete Chaplin, Wes Anderson, Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, or any Director-Related collections in the future? I've been holding off on some of their releases, but it's getting hard to hold myself back!

Don't hold yourself back, what advantage is there to having a boxed collection instead of the individual movies?

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by Blu Titan

Just watched Sword of Doom again...just awesome fun with Nakdai at his best .

I dunno, I found that film very uninvolving, the guy was an a-hole from start to end, there was no sense of evolution or layering to the character. Also, Nakadai sat stone-faced through most of it, so I would not consider it as better than his performances in Ran / Harakiri / Kill! or many other cool movies he did.

I saw The Innocents last night. I'm no stranger to the film, having previously gone through the Fox DVD, the BFI DVD and the BFI blu, but it was again a pleasure to catch this immaculate terror film. The new restoration handily bests the BFI transfer in terms of contrast gradation and detail. Of the new extras, I loved the video essay by cinematographer John Bailey where he discusses the work of Freddie Francis on the film, technically breaking down various scenes. It was a first-rate film school lecture.

[Polaroid]

Here is a selection of hi res Criterion artwork.

Most are at 2000 px mark so I can't see any issues with it being blown up (just don't go too extreme! but most printer websites do warn if there are any problems.

If you guys want more I can see what else I can get hands on. Also don't blame me if they ain't perfect I got these from a 3rd party site - just helping :P

Some I had to tweak to remove the Criterions sticker to adjust size but yeah...

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/85up9vvql...NgVQ4ZYva?dl=0

I will add more to this link as i go along oh and I added the original Rosemary's Baby artwork as opposed to Criterions because its amazing.

Oh btw they aren't all CMYK yet... (Also colors show correct on my laptop hit weird on my phone - probs due to them being CMYK and not RGB... I'll check later)

[Priam]

Hi guys, just wondering if you pre-order the Dressed to Kill blu on Amazon now, it's guaranteed you get the 2nd printing right? It's at 22.49 and I just wanted to be sure.

[CriterionBlues]

Originally Posted by Priam

Hi guys, just wondering if you pre-order the Dressed to Kill blu on Amazon now, it's guaranteed you get the 2nd printing right? It's at 22.49 and I just wanted to be sure.

I wonder whether it is guaranteed, or maybe they reduced the price to offload the already produced first printings. My feeling is this will be the second printing.

The upside to getting the first printing is you can get a replacement disc from Jon Mulvaney and get a collector's item. The downside is that Criterion outrage will resume again.

[CriterionBlues]

By the way, here is the 2015 Geekfest episode.

http://criterionblues.com/2015/08/23...2015-geekfest/

I gush about Blu-Ray.com I think around the 40-45 minute mark. And then again at the very end. It's a long episode and is some serious geeking out and discussing rumors, so take your time with it.

[SkyAntoine]

Watched "Bicycle Thieves" last night for the first time. Everything I've heard about it was not hyperbole. Although I knew where the movie was heading the entire time I was completely absorbed into the film. These films that strip down to the essence of emotion seem to reach me more than anything else.

Will this be released on blu ray at some point? The DVD packaging with the book is superior to the most recent plain box releases we're seeing.

Any Criterion favorites of neorealism recommended? I haven't seen "Umberto D" and not sure if Rossellini's 3 film set was considered neorealism since they were a little after his first works.

[CriterionBlues]

Originally Posted by SkyAntoine

Watched "Bicycle Thieves" last night for the first time. Everything I've heard about it was not hyperbole. Although I knew where the movie was heading the entire time I was completely absorbed into the film. These films that strip down to the essence of emotion seem to reach me more than anything else.

Will this be released on blu ray at some point? The DVD packaging with the book is superior to the most recent plain box releases we're seeing.

Any Criterion favorites of neorealism recommended? I haven't seen "Umberto D" and not sure if Rossellini's 3 film set was considered neorealism since they were a little after his first works.

Funny that you mention that, as we talk about Bicycle Thieves and the consensus is yes, it will be upgraded and probably as a high priority. It is a benchmark film.

I would recommend the other De Sica works. Umberto D is a must, and in my opinion so is Shoeshine, which is arguably his first neo-realist film. Even The Children Are Watching Us, which many would argue is pre-realism, is worth a look.

Not sure which Rosselini set you meant (War Trilogy or Bergman?). I've seen 2/3 of each and they are both excellent. War Trilogy is more neorealist, although the Bergman films are close.

And if you like those, then next you could explore Visconti or even Renoir's Toni, which was a huge influence on all the neorealist filmmakers (Visconti was an AD on the film).

[SkyAntoine]

Originally Posted by CriterionBlues

Funny that you mention that, as we talk about Bicycle Thieves and the consensus is yes, it will be upgraded and probably as a high priority. It is a benchmark film.

I would recommend the other De Sica works. Umberto D is a must, and in my opinion so is Shoeshine, which is arguably his first neo-realist film. Even The Children Are Watching Us, which many would argue is pre-realism, is worth a look.

Not sure which Rosselini set you meant (War Trilogy or Bergman?). I've seen 2/3 of each and they are both excellent. War Trilogy is more neorealist, although the Bergman films are close.

And if you like those, then next you could explore Visconti or even Renoir's Toni, which was a huge influence on all the neorealist filmmakers (Visconti was an AD on the film).

I just started the podcast this morning so I look forward to hearing what is said on Bicycle Thieves and other potential releases.

I have the Bergman trilogy, but may pick up the War trilogy when the next flash sale rolls around. I'm going to watch "Umberto D" today and try to squeeze in "Day for Night". I also went back and watched the Post-war Cinema episode of "The History of Film" on Netflix this morning. I revisit that series often after watching several essential films from the cinematic periods. Eventually I may have to get the book.

[CriterionBlues]

Originally Posted by SkyAntoine

I just started the podcast this morning so I look forward to hearing what is said on Bicycle Thieves and other potential releases.

I have the Bergman trilogy, but may pick up the War trilogy when the next flash sale rolls around. I'm going to watch "Umberto D" today and try to squeeze in "Day for Night". I also went back and watched the Post-war Cinema episode of "The History of Film" on Netflix this morning. I revisit that series often after watching several essential films from the cinematic periods. Eventually I may have to get the book.

It is a lengthy episode so you might not get to that Rosselini War Trilogy discussion, but I would recommend against getting the DVD release soon. It is a strong candidate to get upgraded and hopefully with more features.

Let me know what you think of Umberto D.

I'm also going to delve into Day for Night soon.

[ParaOK]

Originally Posted by CriterionBlues

I wonder whether it is guaranteed, or maybe they reduced the price to offload the already produced first printings. My feeling is this will be the second printing.

The upside to getting the first printing is you can get a replacement disc from Jon Mulvaney and get a collector's item. The downside is that Criterion outrage will resume again.

I was under the impression the release was moved from August to September to eliminate the 1st printing altogether and only offer the 2nd printing?

[The Great Owl]

This YouTube video ought to keep you people interested for a good eight minutes, since it includes several great Criterions.

Examples of Surrealism in Cinema

[Show spoiler]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBLvGOuDCls

I've seen The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, Metropolis, Freaks, The Wizard of Oz, Spellbound, Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bete), The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Mon Oncle, Last Year at Marienbad, Carnival of Souls, The Haunting, 8 1/2, Alphaville, Repulsion, Blow-Up, Persona, Weekend, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Barbarella, Yellow Submarine, Head, A Clockwork Orange, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Don't Look Now, Amarcord, Zardoz, A Boy and His Dog, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Tenant, The Man Who Fell to Earth, House, Eraserhead, Jubilee, Suspiria, Alien, Phantasm, Life of Brian, Time Bandits, The Evil Dead, Scanners, Pink Floyd: The Wall, The Thing, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, Videodrome, Repo Man, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Brazil, Labyrinth, Hellraiser, Evil Dead II, Beetlejuice, Dead Ringers, Jacob's Ladder, Edward Scissorhands, 12 Monkeys, Being John Malkovich, Donnie Darko, Big Fish, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Sunshine, Black Swan, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

Funnily enough, most of the gaps in my knowledge are from the past couple of decades.

Most importantly, though, the song that played for the video, Ride's "Leave Them All Behind", is one of my favorite tracks of the 1990s, and it brings back a lot of college memories.

[CriterionBlues]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

This YouTube video ought to keep you people interested for a good eight minutes, since it includes several great Criterions.

Most importantly, though, the song that played for the video, Ride's "Leave Them All Behind", is one of my favorite tracks of the 1990s, and it brings back a lot of college memories.

Too. Many. Amazing. Sensations.

Well done, Owl.

[oildude]

I have a confession: I have never seen a Preston Sturges film. Two are sitting on my shelf bought as blind buys in recent Criterion sales. Until last night I had yet to crack one open. I decided to watch The Palm Beach Story. In the future, when someone asks for recommendations (as they inevitably do during Criterion sales) I now have a new one to give them.

The Palm Beach Story is a riot. Hollywood put out a lot of films to entertain the home front and keep up its spirits during the dark days of the Second World War. Lighter fare like comedies and farces took on new urgency. Released in 1942, The Palm Beach Story is surprisingly frank in its subject matter of failed marriage, the availability of quickie divorces, golddiggers, and sex. The supplemental material in the Blu-ray package from Criterion makes it clear that Sturges had to tone down parts of his script to get past the studio censors and Hays Code watchdogs. What we see on the screen is an intelligent comedy with an edge to its shenanigans. Most of all, it is filled with characters with whom we can all relate interacting in identifiable ways while making absurd or improbable decisions. The situational humor becomes all the more enjoyable, such as when Joel McCrea, in a hurry to chase down his wife Claudette Colbert as she flees their apartment to seek a divorce, loses his pajama bottoms and has his robe on half backwards, thus giving an eyeful to old lady tenants and a crowded elevator of people.

The old saying they don't make 'em like they used to has no better example than The Palm Beach Story. It is as fresh today as in the 1940s. Fast paced, it wastes no time in getting to the plot; an opening montage plays out during the credits that provides the few minutes of backstory. We are shown events in quick cuts that are as confusing as they are kinetic - a wedding day is in progress, the groom (Joel McCrea) is racing frantically, changing between tuxedoes, the priest and the guests at the church are checking their watches, a distraught maid faints multiple times at seeing something off-camera, a woman is shown tied and gagged in a closet struggling to escape, the bride (Claudette Colbert) rushes out of the house in her gown stepping over the prostrate maid on the floor, the bride and groom arrive at the church in the nick of time and the breathless ceremony begins, followed by text on the screen that informs us "And they lived happily ever after..."

.....Or did they?" At this point we move forward five years and Preston Sturges's fractured fairy tale begins. Financial problems and personality differences tear at the fabric of the marriage. Joel McCrea is a now a struggling architect living in NYC, broke but determined to make it big. His wife, Claudette Colbert, has no identifiable skills to improve their situation on either the domestic or employment front except for her cleverness, beauty, and ability to attract men. Early on in the story, she begins to understand how to use these assets to better their lives, although in a way her husband cannot accept.

What follows is pure magic, a laugh-out-loud farcical comedy as Claudette Colbert hatches a scheme to get a quick divorce in Palm Beach, Florida, find a rich man, marry him, and get financial backing for her husband's business. Joel chases his wife to Florida, and along the way we are introduced to an old man known as The Weenie King, a train car full of drunken middle aged millionaires called the Ale and Quail Club who are on their way to a hunting trip and proceed to rip the joint apart with some of the funniest scenes in the film, a billionaire nerd (Rudy Vallee) no doubt modeled on the Rockefellers, his man-hungry multi-divorced sister (Mary Astor) who talks incessantly and takes a shine to Joel McCrae, her foreign boyfriend-of-the-moment who is prone to hilarious pratfalls and a dislike for Joel McCrae, and a supporting cast of bartenders, porters, hotel clerks, cabbies, and policemen to round out the picture and give it a personality that will stay with you after the credits roll. Claudette Colbert is phenomenal in this. McCrea also does great work in the role of the straight man foil and long-suffering husband. And as for that confusing opening montage that will fade from your thoughts as this careening clown car of a film rolls across your screen, it is brought back in the final moments with a clever reveal.

The Palm Beach Story is a wonderful film. Sturges takes the romantic comedy to new heights of enjoyment, giving the viewer a wacky tale where an improbable chain of events plays out with such honesty that along the way it gives us a peek into the universal absurdities of love, life, and marriage. The fact it gets such little mention here makes me think many haven't seen it yet.

I cannot wait to dig into Sullivan's Travels. I have seen the light, and the name of the light is Preston Sturges.

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

This YouTube video ought to keep you people interested for a good eight minutes, since it includes several great Criterions.

Examples of Surrealism in Cinema

[Show spoiler]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBLvGOuDCls

I've seen The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, Metropolis, Freaks, The Wizard of Oz, Spellbound, Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bete), The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Mon Oncle, Last Year at Marienbad, Carnival of Souls, The Haunting, 8 1/2, Alphaville, Repulsion, Blow-Up, Persona, Weekend, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Barbarella, Yellow Submarine, Head, A Clockwork Orange, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Don't Look Now, Amarcord, Zardoz, A Boy and His Dog, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Tenant, The Man Who Fell to Earth, House, Eraserhead, Jubilee, Suspiria, Alien, Phantasm, Life of Brian, Time Bandits, The Evil Dead, Scanners, Pink Floyd: The Wall, The Thing, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, Videodrome, Repo Man, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Brazil, Labyrinth, Hellraiser, Evil Dead II, Beetlejuice, Dead Ringers, Jacob's Ladder, Edward Scissorhands, 12 Monkeys, Being John Malkovich, Donnie Darko, Big Fish, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Sunshine, Black Swan, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

Funnily enough, most of the gaps in my knowledge are from the past couple of decades.

Most importantly, though, the song that played for the video, Ride's "Leave Them All Behind", is one of my favorite tracks of the 1990s, and it brings back a lot of college memories.

If Mulholland Drive isn't on that list then something is seriously wrong.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by oildude

I also got a kick out of The Palm Beach Story. It's a criminally underrated Criterion title.

I owned Sullivan's Travels, The Lady Eve, and Unfaithfully Yours on Criterion DVD, but I still haven't made it around to watching my Blu-ray upgrade of Sullivan's Travels. Soon.

[mja345]

"The Palm Beach Story" is a lot of fun. Kind of a prototype for a screwball comedy. Mary Astor is really hilarious in it. She appears late in the film and steals the show. Colbert is also terrific, as you mentioned oildude. "Sullivan's Travels" isn't quite as funny as "The Palm Beach Story", but great nonetheless.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

If Mulholland Drive isn't on that list then something is seriously wrong.

Perhaps the omission of Mulholland Drive from the list is indicative that it is one of the most surreal films in history. It may just be an enigma that we have to figure out, sort of like the movie itself.

Either that, or the creator of the video simply didn't like the film.

[jmclick]

Originally Posted by oildude

I have seen the light, and the name of the light is Preston Sturges.

I can't wait for the day when you first see The Lady Eve. It's not only one of Preston Sturges' best films, I think it's one of the best films ever made ... a sly, knowing comedy that just gets better and better with every viewing. Even the trailer is hysterically funny, with its tongue-in-cheek use of the word "vexy", with must surely have caused a few censors to raise their eyebrows in consternation. And the film delivers "vexiness" in spades. Here's hoping Criterion with upgrade it soon so that you won't have to languish in a state of delayed gratification for too much longer!

[KilloWertz]

I haven't seen The Lady Eve either. Actually, I haven't seen a Preston Sturges film yet. I picked up both The Palm Beach Story and Sullivan's Travels during the last B&N sale though, and I fully expect the days I watch each of them to be glorious days.