The Criterion Collection

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Heaven's Gate is quite magnificent in its fully-restored version as appears on the Criterion Blu-ray.

The Internet Movie Database reviews can be confusing, since ... it's IMDB.

Fixed that for you.

Originally Posted by octagon

Best? The Music Room or Wild Strawberries.

Most fun? Ride the Pink Horse or The Sword of Doom. I Married a Witch was a surprisingly strong honorable mention too.

I'm so glad that there are other fans of that bubbly film. It really is just a fun movie. And Veronica Lake is just perfect (not that Frederic March isn't excellent himself).

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by CubistCastle

I'd have to say Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Young Girls of Rochefort are neck and neck for me. If you would've told me at the beginning of the year the two best movies I'll see, Criterion or otherwise, are two French musicals from the sixties I would have called you crazy.

But here we are.

Watching Young Girls of Rochefort I just had a smile on my face the entire time and I cannot remember the last time that's happened if ever. And just hearing the theme song on the blu ray menu screen for Umbrellas makes me all misty eyed.

Just THINKING ABOUT the theme from Umbrellas makes me all misty eyed.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

Fixed that for you.

Acronyms are the enemy of simplicity.

[Ray Jackson]

Watched The Music Room again last night.

It was good the first time...it was MAGICAL the second time.

Ray has become a revelation to me.

...I officially worship the ground that this great man once walked upon.

Top five director of all time imo.

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by SammyJankis

What's the best Criterion title that you watched for the first time this year? It doesn't have to be blu; as long as it's in the collection.

Figured it's a question worth asking now the year is nearing its end.

For me, it's Jeanne Dielman. I saw it in Belgium the week Akerman died in a theater where one of her close friends gave a very personal - and hyperbolic - introduction. It was an experience I find difficult articulating, one that almost redefined what I felt cinema can be. It's one of the few films that left me completely oblivious to the reality outside of that screen. I hope to see a Blu release soon.

Next up would probably be Life and Death in Colonel Blimp. Leave it to Pressburger and Powell to give me the definitive film for my eventual old age (gulp.)

Tie between Picnic at Hanging Rock and the Apu Trilogy.

...honorable mention goes to Hiroshima Mon Amour.

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by ravenus

You do know that there was no original music score, right? Carl Dreyer intended that the film should be watched in utter silence. The score used on the Criterion release is a special edit of the album Voices of Light (1995), composed by Richard Einhorn as an inspiration / tribute to the Dreyer film.

I can't even imagine Joan of Arc without Voices of Light.

...maybe the greatest score in the history of film.

[Namuhana]

Originally Posted by SammyJankis

What's the best Criterion title that you watched for the first time this year? It doesn't have to be blu; as long as it's in the collection.

I simply cannot choose just one. Here's a list of some of my favorites:

The Young Girls of Rochefort
A Special Day
Limelight
The Fugitive Kind
Hiroshima mon amour
Spartacus
Nights of Cabiria
In the Mood for Love
Day for Night
A Room with a View
The Bridge

And it probably doesn't count, but I watched Merchant/Ivory's Maurice twice this year and loved every second of it. It's sad that Criterion lost the rights, but here's hoping that Cohen can put out a good release.

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by SammyJankis

What's the best Criterion title that you watched for the first time this year?.

Has to be Pather Panchali, or Hoop Dreams or Night and the City.

Originally Posted by jmclick

Greed and The Passion of Joan of Arc are both among my favorite silent films.

Another is Dziga Vertov's The Man With a Movie Camera, which was released on blu-ray earlier this year by Flicker Alley (and which I won on eBay last night). It's absolutely dazzling, a unique exercise in "pure cinema." If you've never seen it, you owe yourself a look, especially the version accompanied with a score by the Alloy Orchestra.

Other silent films I have revisited often and recommend wholeheartedly: King Vidor's touching The Crowd starring the tragic James Murray; Victor Seastrom's epic The Wind, which features a great performance by Lillian Gish; F. W. Murnau's poetic Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans; Charles Chaplin's comic tearjerker, City Lights (thank you, Criterion!); and well, the list goes on and on ...

I do wish that more silent films were being released on blu-ray. I know there's a limited audience for them, but it's an enthusiastic one, and I can't help but feel that a limited edition series, if marketed correctly, might be a winner.

Another one that is well worth watching and for some reason I never thought would be as good is the first Oscar winner Wings, which won the same year as Sunrise, but I think Sunrise won for a category that disappeared the second year.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by pedromvu

Another one that is well worth watching and for some reason I never thought would be as good is the first Oscar winner Wings, which won the same year as Sunrise, but I think Sunrise won for a category that disappeared the second year.

Yeah, exactly. From Wikipedia:

At the 1st Academy Awards ceremony (for 1927 and 1928), there were two categories that were seen as equally the top award of the night: Outstanding Picture and Unique and Artistic Production, the previous being won by the war epic Wings, and the latter by the art film Sunrise, both the awards were intended to honor different and equally important aspects of superior filmmaking. The following year, the Academy dropped the Unique and Artistic Production award, and decided retroactively that the award won by Wings was the highest honor that could be awarded.[3] Though the award kept the title Outstanding Picture for the next ceremony, the name underwent several changes over the years as seen below, the last being in 1962 when it became Best Picture.[2]

1927/28 to 1928/29: Academy Award for Outstanding Picture
1929/30 to 1940: Academy Award for Outstanding Production
1941 to 1943: Academy Award for Outstanding Motion Picture
1944 to 1961: Academy Award for Best Motion Picture
1962 to present: Academy Award for Best Picture

[MifuneFan]

The best Criterion film I've seen for the first time this year would have to be Kuroneko. I viewed it through Hulu, so it wasn't BD quality, but what a creepy and haunting film for its time. Definitely intend to buy the disc during the next sale. Next up is probably Babette's Feast, which I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would, based on the premise. I loved the simple, yet nicely told story, and the setting and period really captivated me.

[SkyAntoine]

Originally Posted by SammyJankis

What's the best Criterion title that you watched for the first time this year? It doesn't have to be blu; as long as it's in the collection.

Figured it's a question worth asking now the year is nearing its end.

Best was Tokyo Story. A top 4 all-time film for me.

But, Apu Trilogy is a close second. Collectively, one of the best cinematic experiences I've ever had. Black Friday was a treat running through those films this year.

Since I'm experiencing most of the Criterions for the first time I'm having lots of great firsts:
Persona
Paris, Texas
Don't Look Back
Mulholland Drive
Wild Strawberries
Bicycle Thieves

All of those found their way into my Top 20 of all-time list.

[jmclick]

Originally Posted by SammyJankis

What's the best Criterion title that you watched for the first time this year? It doesn't have to be blu; as long as it's in the collection.

Oh, good grief! How do I choose between such magnificent films as Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, The Devil's Backbone, Diabolique, Ride With the Devil, The Thin Blue Line, Three Colors: White, The Vanishing and The Wages of Fear? All of them made their mark on me in different ways.

I guess I'll cheat by naming the film that I has been on my wish list for years now, and that I had resigned myself to never seeing: the alternate British cut of Night and the City. Although I have seen the American version many times over the years, watching the longer edition, which featured alternate takes, modified dialogue and a radically different musical score, was as satisfying and as new an experience as I had always dreamed it might be. I'll be ever grateful to Criterion for making it happen.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by jw007

Superb! Thanks. (I ran out of thank you's).

You're welcome.

I just took a look at the TT thread and even posted in there. I saw what you meant by the "running low" part, but apparently that list needs to be updated as I noticed movies such as Used Cars, The Blue Lagoon and Sleepless in Seattle are no longer listed or available on TT's website. I might do a search on Ebay, and see if I can find a deal on anything.

Older releases are problematic as regards TT's own website, as most available copies are with SAE, rather than TT. That they might not be available directly from TT doesn't mean they're not available from SAE.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by SkyAntoine

Greed is one of my favorite silents! I saw this discussed on The Story of Film: An Odyssey and DVR'd it from TMC. I don't think I could sit through the original 8 hour version, but the 2 hour was wonderful.

For the time, I'm sure the film was epic. Plot, theme, location, characters, etc. Other than Chaplin this was my only other silent for a long time.

Is this available on blu-ray here in the States?

Unfortunately, no. Warner owns it, and I suspect that they feel the need to do considerable restoration on it in order to make it Blu-ready.

[llj]

Originally Posted by SammyJankis

What's the best Criterion title that you watched for the first time this year? It doesn't have to be blu

I'd say The Complete Jean Vigo, and especially L'Atalante.

Safety Last! might be the other one, but it could have been near the end of 2014 I saw it, rather than in 2015. I really can't remember.

[silverlakephil]

So many great films I've seen for the first time, I'll only list a few:

Apu Trilogy
A Day in The Country
Cries and Whispers
An Autumn Afternoon
Sword of Doom
Watership Down

A few disappointments though:

Friends of Eddie Coyle
The River
Every Man For Himself
Valarie and her Week of Wonders

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by silverlakephil

So many great films I've seen for the first time, I'll only list a few:

Apu Trilogy
A Day in The Country
Cries and Whispers
An Autumn Afternoon
Sword of Doom
Watership Down

A few disappointments though:

Friends of Eddie Coyle
The River
Every Man For Himself
Valarie and her Week of Wonders

I thought about blind buying The River recently.

After getting so much pleasure from watching Ray's films, I wanted to explore another movie set in India.

Then I watched the trailer and it seemed like, in typical Western fashion, a good deal of the story centered around White European characters. That doesn't interest me.

...plus I'm not a big fan of technicolor.

...as weird as that may sound.

[llj]

There are no bad Satyajit Ray films until maybe the last few before his death. Even then they aren't really "bad" in the true sense of the word. Although there are some mid-career entries that may not be to everyone's tastes--particularly his comedies (which I like, but not sure how people weaned on his Criterion entries would react to them).

[Arawn]

Originally Posted by silverlakephil

Watership Down

They showed this one to us in school.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

I thought about blind buying The River recently.

After getting so much pleasure from watching Ray's films, I wanted to explore another movie set in India.

Then I watched the trailer and it seemed like, in typical Western fashion, a good deal of the story centered around White European characters. That doesn't interest me.

...plus I'm not a big fan of technicolor.

...as weird as that may sound.

If you approach it with the idea that it'll be like one of Ray's films, you'll definitely be disappointed. But it's a brilliant, mesmerizing piece of work by Renoir. It's one of my earliest Criterion blind-buys (on laserdisc), and helped make me a fan of Renoir's films and Criterion.