Watching Ikiru, I was really disappointed by the transfer.
The same flaws that plagued the dvd version are still very much present in the blu-ray. There's still white lines down the middle of the frame in certain scenes and the night scenes look terrible imo. There's this constant wavy light thing going on that's incredibly distracting. I don't know what the technical term for it is.
I'm sure the Criterion people did the best they could with the source material they were working with.
...the negatives must have been in horrendous condition.
Quote:
This new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution from a Scanity film scanner from a 35 mm fine-grain master positive, the best remaining film element for Ikiru whose original negative no longer exists.
It saddens me no end that exquisite movies like this no longer have the original negatives, yet we have near-pristine negatives for every shitty movie Cecil B. DeMille ever made because he never threw anything away.
For me his worst effort easily has to be Alien 3 followed by The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but for me Benjamin Button is in one of the top even if it is very different stylistically to almost all his other works.
I'd agree that Alien³ is Fincher's worst, but I quite liked his version of Dragon Tattoo. Even preferred it to Oplev's original. With the caveat that I haven't seen The Social Network yet (and don't plan to), I'd say the only film of his other than Alien³ that I don't like unreservedly is Gone Girl.
"This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it."
Thanks for the responses and for giving me some perspective. Many good points made, and all very agreeable as far as I'm concerned. Having just seen both Drive, He Said and A Safe Place fairly recently, and each for the first time, I conclude that they are both among the bottom-tier CC titles I've seen, though I will continue to slightly prefer A Safe Place for the stated reasons. Special thanks to belcherman for the Dorothy Parker quote. And Drive, He Said did indeed have a coherent story, but not really anything else in my opinion.
My recommendations coincide with filmmusic's, except that I would also add All I Desire, which features an outstanding performance by Barbara Stanwyck, some great cinematography, and some classic Sirk themes.
I agree with jmclick, both in his agreement with filmmusic's choices, and his addition of All I Desire.
What is the earliest a film has been released on Criterion following the original studio release? I thought there has always been a 3 year plan on other titles (i.e Moonrise, Llewyn Davis).
No surprise it is coming, but I wouldn't expect until 2017.
What is the earliest a film has been released on Criterion following the original studio release? I thought there has always been a 3 year plan on other titles (i.e Moonrise, Llewyn Davis).
No surprise it is coming, but I wouldn't expect until 2017.
Dazed and Confused was released by Criterion two months after the Universal BD was released.
I have the entire Blu-ray catalog, I am now working on adding OOP titles. I hear some of those OOP titles may come back. Also some of the DVD releases may not get a Blu-ray equivalent. Can you help me identify some of the OOP titles which won't be re-released and less likely BD upgrade candidates? thanks
Sorry, but that's like asking for the results of next November's US elections. There isn't anybody here (or possibly even at Criterion itself) that can say for certain what will or won't be released down the road.
Generally speaking, the only reason any Criterion title goes OOP is because Criterion lost the rights to it. And while it's possible that they might re-acquire the rights (it's happened, but not often), chances are they won't. So I wouldn't count on any of their OOP titles coming back. It's actually happened more often with titles they originally had on laserdisc, but never put out on DVD than with DVD-only titles that went OOP.
Boyhood, A Brighter Summer Day, Paris Belongs to Us, and A Poem is a Naked Person.
If this pans out to be true, and I'm confident that it will, then this is sure to be the month to beat.
Of those four, only Paris Belong To Us is pulling me. 60s French cinema is hard to resist. I hope the fifth release is Louis Malle's Elevator To The Gallows.
The Third Man, but since it is now out of the collection, my vote is either Night of the Hunter or Ride the Pink Horse. But all of the Criterion noirs are good to great.
I have not yet seen Night and the City or The Killers, but these are generally well received by film noir fans. Both are on my shelf from the July sale and I will be watching them soon.
Here is the user review I wrote for Ride the Pink Horse earlier this year. For me, Ride the Pink Horse has been one of the best discoveries I have made:
[Show spoiler]
OK, I love film noir, but I have to confess that prior to Criterion's announcement of Ride the Pink Horse I had never heard of it. Shame on me. As of last night, that mistake has been remedied. There is a line of dialogue early on where the moll of a New Mexican gangster, referring to the anti-hero lead character played by Robert Montgomery, says "I'm afraid that Mr. Gagin cannot be seduced". I can attest that the same assessment does not apply to this film. Ride the Pink Horse seduces, wraps itself around you, pulls you in, and does not let you go. Welcome to film noir done Southwestern style, and I am here to tell you, amigos, this dark little tale of money, murder, and mayhem, as well as a haunted man accidentally rediscovering his humanity, is muy muy bueno.
We know we are in for a different noir experience right from the opening credits, when we see a bus approaching the camera along a panoramic New Mexican highway to the uplifting strains of Latin-infused orchestral music. Robert Montgomery does double duty here as star and director, and he handles both roles superbly. Prior to this film, I only knew Montgomery as the father of Elizabeth Montgomery, future star of classic 1960’s sitcom Bewitched. Here, Montgomery plays a disillusioned tough-as-nails WWII vet named Gagin on a mission to find a New Mexico gang lord named Frank Hugo. What that mission is doesn’t become clear until later in the film. The bus deposits Gagin in a city named San Pablo (a fictional name representing Santa Fe). The air surrounding him is electric, filled with music and laughter as hordes of tourists flock the streets to celebrate the annual Fiesta, all of which appears lost on Gagin.
Gagin comes out of nowhere and remains a mystery, what we see is what we get…..a lot of anger and rude behavior with little indication of his background, where he came from or where he is going. All we know is that he had a war buddy best friend who is now dead, and that somehow Hugo is involved. As the film proceeds, he comes into contact with the local New Mexican culture and his softer side begins to appear. He is befriended by Pancho, the poor operator of an antique carousel, played outstandingly by Thomas Gomez whose performance in this role earned him the first ever Oscar nomination for a Hispanic American. Another local who crosses paths with Gagin and proves integral to the story is a girl named Pila (an 18-year old Wanda Hendrix, future wife of Audie Murphy), a Native American from a pueblo many miles away who has recently moved to San Pablo and is experiencing the big city for the first time. As it turns out, this dichotomy of Gagin’s character - one foot in the world of the Anglos where gangsters, dreams of money as the ticket to the good life, and the increasing threat of violence are ever present, and the easy-going culture of New Mexican Hispanics and Native Americans where, as movingly explained by Pancho, friendship is more important than money and that as long as a man has his pride and strong back there is no shame in being poor – becomes one of the central themes of the film.
Ride the Pink Horse delivers the goods. It is as multi-layered and as dark and deadly as any classic noir. Yet there is something hopeful in its fabric like the effigy of the god of bad luck burned at the climax of the Fiesta. The bus in the opening scene could be taking Gagin on a road to rebirth and redemption that isn’t clearly marked, either a ticket to hell or a way out that may be just beyond reach. What makes the film so watchable is how it doesn’t play to expectations. Just when we think we understand what is about to happen, it goes in unexpected directions. There is a lot of symbolism in the story, represented most obviously by the fairy tale world of Pancho’s old carousel going round and round with its assortment of multi-colored horses (or so we are told; it is a black and white film after all), one of which is pink. There is a key scene when, after a night of drinking in a local saloon, Gagin convinces Pancho to open his carousel after-hours so that Pila can experience a childhood thrill for the first time in her life. The meaning of this small kindness represents something deeper that only becomes clear later. Gagin is experiencing new things too. We learn that he suffers from post-traumatic stress from years spent fighting in the steaming jungles of the South Pacific, that he still carries the war in him and is doing battle with himself as much as with the outside world, and that cervezas and tequilas with friendly locals can lead an angry man down paths he never thought for himself to travel.
As usual, Criterion has done a masterful job with the transfer of a black and white film that, for many years, was apparently not easy to find. The cinematography by Russell Metty is outstandingly stylish and evocative, with Gagin often shot over-the-shoulder and some scenes done in one long continuous take that accentuates the menace of the moment. In one chilling scene, a brutal beating is witnessed from the point of view of children riding the carousel; the viewer is therefore a trapped witness, circling repeatedly past the violence and unable to get off. If the name Russell Metty doesn’t ring any bells, then a partial sampling of his many other films will give you some idea of what to expect here, films like Touch of Evil, Magnificent Obsession, Written in the Wind, Arch of Triumph, Spartacus, and The Misfits.
And what great noir would be complete without some chewy dialogue so important to driving the narrative. Ride the Pink Horse has lots of that. Gagin delivers a particularly juicy monologue on the evils of women wearing diamonds, who are man-traps and have “a dead fish where her heart ought to be”. I could watch this film over and over just to relish the well written screenplay and roll around in all that dialogue like a man on a bed full of money. Wearing a fedora, of course. As it should be.
I may be in the minority on this, but I don't really consider Night of The Hunter to be film noir.
...at least not in the traditional sense as I personally view the genre.
What is the earliest a film has been released on Criterion following the original studio release? I thought there has always been a 3 year plan on other titles (i.e Moonrise, Llewyn Davis).
No surprise it is coming, but I wouldn't expect until 2017.
Wasn't The Great Beauty released quite quickly? Same with Blue is the Warmest Colour
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