The Criterion Collection

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by filmmusic

Well, it's a happy musical, judging from the trailer, isn't it?
I especially loved the in-your-face sentimentalism of Umbrellas of Cherbourg!
I love crying in movies!

Well, yes, pretty happy, but after my frustrations with Umbrellas, it was the perfect film to watch just after.

If you love crying at movies you should check Lars Von Trier kind of musical Dancer in the Dark unfortunately I don't think there is a good blu-ray out there, at least not an English friendly one.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by pedromvu

If you love crying at movies you should check Lars Von Trier kind of musical Dancer in the Dark unfortunately I don't think there is a good blu-ray out there.

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[Show spoiler]

[Vidya]

Originally Posted by shadedpain4

Sorry to say I haven't, and won't get a chance to until sometime next week. Unfortunately, if you're looking for picture quality comparisons I'm probably not your guy. I don't have much of a critical eye for that stuff.

I can appreciate that. I'm sure detailed comparisons will crop up at some point. I wouldn't mind seeing your impressions regardless.

[Ray Jackson]

I finally watched The Brood last night.

Interesting horror movie, but didn't really love it.

Not nearly as good as Videodrome imo.

The acting, dialogue and music are all pretty underwhelming. And I'm of the opinion that a great score/soundtrack is particularly vital to the success of a low-budget horror film. I thought the music in The Brood was somewhat forgettable.

But I would disagree with the people who say it isn't scary.

I actually thought it was very scary in parts and contained an overall creepiness that was a little unnerving at times.

Certainly not the worst blind buy I've ever made.

...but far from one of the best.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

I finally watched The Brood last night.

Interesting horror movie, but didn't really love it.

Not nearly as good as Videodrome imo.

The acting, dialogue and music are all pretty underwhelming. And I'm of the opinion that a great score/soundtrack is particularly vital to the success of a low-budget horror film. I thought the music in The Brood was somewhat forgettable.

But I would disagree with the people who say it isn't scary.

I actually thought it was very scary in parts and contained an overall creepiness that was a little unnerving at times.

Certainly not the worst blind buy I've ever made.

...but far from one of the best.

Granted it's been a while since I've seen The Brood, but I agree: As I remember it, there was a lot of disturbing stuff going on. It's unsettling.

[pedromvu]

I saw some people commenting that they would later post their full thoughts on Code Unknown, I am looking forward to them

The more I think about it the more I think it is probably my favorite Haneke film, granted I am not much of a fan of him even though I like most of what I have seen, it is not like I highly expect what he does next.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

I finally watched The Brood last night.
...
I actually thought it was very scary in parts and contained an overall creepiness that was a little unnerving at times.

Agreed. The attack on the school teacher always unsettles me, in particular.

Without revealing spoilers, the ending and the final shot are perfect, just perfect, in terms of horror.

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

Granted it's been a while since I've seen The Brood, but I agree: As I remember it, there was a lot of disturbing stuff going on. It's unsettling.

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Agreed. The attack on the school teacher always unsettles me, in particular.

Without revealing spoilers, the ending and the final shot are perfect, just perfect, in terms of horror.

I thought it was a lot scarier than The Shining.

And I think The Shining is a much, MUCH better movie.

...one of my favorite films of all time.

[Scottie]

I'd say The Brood is my favorite Cronenberg film though I don't care for any of them, so...

[Polaroid]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

cue Polaroid's entrance in 3..

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[Show spoiler]

How can you not love Dancer in the Dark, Bjork is heartbreaking, shame she didn't pursue an acting career, but in a way it makes Dancer more special . Her music for it was perfect and so sad.

Has to be one of the best musicals (I will get slaughtered for that comment but its trueeee).

[AaronJ]

*sigh* Dancer in the Dark is so amazing, so depressing, and easily one of Lars' best films.

Yeah, sucks that there's only a Region B release. However, I plan on replacing my Samsung BDP with a region free, better, and non-Samsung player sometime soon (within the next month, hopefully).

It would be even better news if Criterion were coming out with a release of this stunning film, of course.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by Polaroid

How can you not love Dancer in the Dark, Bjork is heartbreaking, shame she didn't pursue an acting career, but in a way it makes Dancer more special . Her music for it was perfect and so sad.

Has to be one of the best musicals (I will get slaughtered for that comment but its trueeee).

I'm down w/ Bjork. She sang a song (from this movie, I believe) at the Oscars and everyone was abuzz with the "she's weird," "what the heck was that?" comments. Lady Gaga comes on an award show in a meat outfit and she's some kind of genius. Yeah, I know... she was "born that way" - born just safe enough for popular consumption. that is, with a little swaddling from the powers that be.

sorry for the digression.

[shadedpain4]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

I'm down w/ Bjork. She sang a song (from this movie, I believe) at the Oscars and everyone was abuzz with the "she's weird," "what the heck was that?" comments. Lady Gaga comes on an award show in a meat outfit and she's some kind of genius. Yeah, I know... she was "born that way" - born just safe enough for popular consumption. that is, with a little swaddling from the powers that be.

sorry for the digression.

Icelandic musicians are the way to go.

[pedromvu]

The first review from the Apu Trilogy on the site is up, I don't think it was posted here yet:

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Pathe...138792/#Review

[Gerby]

Originally Posted by Polaroid

How can you not love Dancer in the Dark, Bjork is heartbreaking, shame she didn't pursue an acting career, but in a way it makes Dancer more special . Her music for it was perfect and so sad.

Has to be one of the best musicals (I will get slaughtered for that comment but its trueeee).

I agree, easily one of the best musicals I've ever seen.

[pedromvu]

Just by looking a few scenes from the Pather Panchali blu, and unless I had the bad luck of skipping to the only problematic places I have to disagree with a 5 star PQ, is one thing that an enormous amount of work have been done to make it look as good considering the sources circumstances, but if it can't look as good as originally it isn't perfect, unless we are awarding the restoration itself of what can be done today.

On the other hand I was skipping through the new Spartacus and that does look as good as new, amazing, and the audio sounds great too.

[JoeBuck]

Originally Posted by pedromvu

Just by looking a few scenes from the Pather Panchali blu, and unless I had the bad luck of skipping to the only problematic places I have to disagree with a 5 star PQ, is one thing that an enormous amount of work have been done to make it look as good considering the sources circumstances, but if it can't look as good as originally it isn't perfect, unless we are awarding the restoration itself of what can be done today.

On the other hand I was skipping through the new Spartacus and that does look as good as new, amazing, and the audio sounds great too.

It certainly wont be getting any better than this given the circumstances of the materials.
In my opinion it fully warrants the 5 star rating, especially of youve seen how it used to look in past releases.

[The Great Owl]

As someone who was unfamiliar with the history of Pather Panchali and the other two films in The Apu Trilogy, I simply went into the Criterion discs with no basis of comparison. What I saw were three black-and-white films that all look beautifully detailed in high definition. Based on my initial viewings alone, I have no argument with the five-star designation to the video quality from this site.

To quote a Bruce Springsteen song title, we're living in the "glory days" of home video, and we're pretty fortunate to have all of these amazing releases just a few computer mouse clicks away.

[SkyAntoine]

Finished Brazil yesterday and watched 2/3 of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I think I'm trippin' today. I need to follow up with some Ozu to even things back out.

I wouldn't say that I love the films, but they really hold your attention and are some of the most interesting titles in the collection without a doubt. The dialogue in FALILV is phenomenal and vision for Brazil is unbelievable. Both are solid 8/10's...not masterpieces IMO, but darn good.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by pedromvu

Just by looking a few scenes from the Pather Panchali blu, and unless I had the bad luck of skipping to the only problematic places I have to disagree with a 5 star PQ, is one thing that an enormous amount of work have been done to make it look as good considering the sources circumstances, but if it can't look as good as originally it isn't perfect, unless we are awarding the restoration itself of what can be done today.

On the other hand I was skipping through the new Spartacus and that does look as good as new, amazing, and the audio sounds great too.

I generally agree with the logic you are applying here, but I happen to think that PP looks incredible. I'm not sure what scenes you are referring to, although it has been well documented that some of the original negative had been completely lost (burnt) which rendered parts of the film unusable.

It'd be hard to fault the presentation for those scenes especially considering that what they did do with what they had to work with is pretty incredible.

Have you seen the short documentary about how they restored the films? About how the burned negative went to Italy and then came back, etc. ? That might change your mind about it being anything short of 5 stars. Even my wife was impressed and she's not too seasoned a viewer.