The Criterion Collection

[BAKA]

My Criterion Flash Sale haul arrived in the UK yesterday. Great to know I can finally take part in these without much hassle. It'll be interesting to see how Criterion's entry into the UK market will effect how I purchase my discs. I still think I'll pre-order the usual titles I would day one. I won't be hanging around for the likes of Stillman's Barcelona.

[AronofskyFan]

Little late on my five favorite criterions, but here goes in no particular order:
-The Thin Red Line
-The Night of the Hunter
-The Third Man
-Eraserhead
-Pierrot Le Fou
When I buy titles like Mulholland Drive and Dr. Strangelove those will probably be up there, and it was hard to leave titles like Blow Out, The Seventh Seal, and Y Tu Mama Tambien out, but if I can only have five.

[Vinyl]

Originally Posted by RickDee

Because even Criterion has to put some "popular" titles out every once in awhile to generate cash. Its not like the masses are knocking the door down for a film like Playtime or Last Year at Marienbad.

Originally Posted by doctor_who

Cleaned out my closet of DVDs last night. Came across my copy of Armageddon on Criterion DVD. How did that ever happen again?

Lol. (PS: I do like the movie, but still...)

100% agree. They are still doing "big name" movies now, but are a bit more discerning. Some big movies I would say are:
The Rock Box featuring A Hard Days Night and Quadraphinia
The Graduate
The Big Chill
The Chaplin catalog
The Manchurian Candidate

I am all for them getting bigger movies if it means they can expand into England and put out small titles that not many people will get but are still important.

[RickDee]

I have several favorite but Sweet Smell of Success is bar far the best looking in the entire collection (that I have seen). Seven Samurai is my favorite film though, in fact it would be #1 on my list of all films.

[filmmusic]

Has anyone seen Big Deal on Madonna Street? Is it good? i see it is highly acclaimed.
I understand there was an Italian Bluray from which I saw screenshots and it has a great image quality.
I wonder if Criterion would upgrade it to Bluray.
After Il Sorpasso I took an interest in Italian cinema of that era and Vittorio Gassman.

[theater dreamer]

Originally Posted by AronofskyFan

Little late on my five favorite criterions, but here goes in no particular order:
-The Thin Red Line
-The Night of the Hunter
-The Third Man
-Eraserhead
-Pierrot Le Fou
When I buy titles like Mulholland Drive and Dr. Strangelove those will probably be up there, and it was hard to leave titles like Blow Out, The Seventh Seal, and Y Tu Mama Tambien out, but if I can only have five.

Wait, Dr. Strangelove is coming to Criterion Blu-ray? Did I miss something?

[theater dreamer]

Thanks for all the replies, gang. I'm about to crash out, but I'll go through them in detail later tonight.

[movieben1138]

I'm a big fan of BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET and would love for Criterion to do an upgrade. It's a great spoof of the heist film genre, though not necessarily a laugh riot.

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

I'd very much like to explore Criterion's documentaries a bit more, so I'm looking for some more suggestions, please.

[Show spoiler]As some of you may know from my earlier posts, I have a tremendous interest in physics. So, the first documentary I bought a few months ago was A Brief History of Time. I'm a big Stephen Hawking fan, so it was an easy selection to make. In my next life, I'm going to be a theoretical physicist.

My plan is to buy one or two documentaries with each of my next few orders, and I'm contemplating which to buy, and in what order. I've seen one of the other Errol Morris docs in the collection, The Thin Blue Line, and enjoyed it immensely. I will buy that eventually, probably after I've bought four or five others I've not seen. I read about his Gates of Heaven this morning in Roger Ebert's Awake in the Dark, and it, too, interests me. I love Morris' style.

I think For All Mankind has to be the first one I buy, unless somebody can convince me another deserves to bump it down a spot. Space exploration has always captured my imagination (obviously, that goes back to my interest in physics and astronomy). I love The Right Stuff, Apollo 13, pretty much anything to do with the space race, the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects, unmanned probes in the Pioneer and Voyager projects. But, I have a deep appreciation for the history of popular music in America, so maybe Monterey Pop should be next. I love the Stones, and I'm interested in learning a lot more about Bob Dylan, too. I love human interest stories, and sports, so maybe Hoop Dreams should be first.

Feedback would be greatly appreciated!

As if you didn't already had enough to choose I just wanted to recommend Chronicle of a Summer, which is a documentary like no other I have seen, it was actually my first Criterion documentary even if I already had tons of films by then, here is an overview of what is it about: http://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-a...le-of-a-summer

[spargs]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Last night, I watched Zatoichi's Vengeance, the thirteenth film in the Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman box set.

Zatoichi's Vengeance kicks off with one of the coolest opening sequences that I've seen yet, and I love how the other swordsmen fall to the ground when Zatoichi sneezes. There are some genuinely heartfelt sequences in this movie concerning Zatoichi's interactions with a blind priest, and that is the most memorable aspect of this particular film. It's a good entry, all in all.

Incidentally...

To the ear-splitting loud-as-hell Amber Alert that interrupted my viewing of Zatoichi's Vengeance last night by way of my work cell phone that I left on during off hours...

I'm really not exactly sure what you expect me to do right now at the moment. If, however, the white Jeep Cherokee with the license plate beginning with the letters, "ATK", happens to drive through the front door of my townhouse, through my foyer, and directly into my living room, then I will kindly take the time to pause my Zatoichi Blu-ray, pick up my cell phone, and call in my vehicle sighting to the proper authorities. I'm really cool, awesome, and helpful that way. Anything for the children!

Enjoying your reviews of the Zatoichi films, Owl. The set is on my list of things to purchase eventually... I'm hoping for a blu-only repackaging at some point.

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

Wait, Dr. Strangelove is coming to Criterion Blu-ray? Did I miss something?

It was teased in several clues and confirmed at this year's Wexner Talk.

[ShellOilJunior]

Originally Posted by spargs

Enjoying your reviews of the Zatoichi films, Owl. The set is on my list of things to purchase eventually... I'm hoping for a blu-only repackaging at some point.

I'm not sure how much different blu-ray only packaging would be for the set. The DVDs came tucked behind the sleeves. When you flip through the set the DVDs are not visible.

[obscurelabel]

Originally Posted by filmmusic

Has anyone seen Big Deal on Madonna Street? Is it good? i see it is highly acclaimed.

Originally Posted by movieben1138

I'm a big fan of BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET and would love for Criterion to do an upgrade. It's a great spoof of the heist film genre, though not necessarily a laugh riot.

I, like movieben1138, am a fan of this movie, and I agree that it's not packed with laughs, although when there are jokes, they are good (but subtle) ones. One example (be warned, I think this is the best joke in the movie):

[Show spoiler]One of the gang, desperate for money, decides to rob a pawn shop. He goes up to the clerk, brandishes a pistol, and says "You know what this is, right?" (he means "I'm robbing you, get it?") The clerk quickly and calmly takes the pistol from the surprised thief's hand, looks it over, says "Sure. A 1952 Beretta in poor condition. Fifteen hundred lire" and hands it back. The would-be thief, completely humiliated, says "Uh, no thanks" and slinks out of the store. (Please note that the dialog is from memory and may not be exact).

The first movies that come to mind when I try to think of similar ones are:

I'm All Right, Jack
The Man in the White Suit
Soldier in the Rain
Paper Moon

None of these are exact matches, but they're all comedies that don't necessarily have a lot of laugh-out-loud moments but have a light and amusing tone all the way through.

I also have a feeling that I'm missing a lot through not understanding the original Italian dialog but I don't suppose I'll ever know for sure.

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

I'd very much like to explore Criterion's documentaries a bit more, so I'm looking for some more suggestions, please.

As some of you may know from my earlier posts, I have a tremendous interest in physics. So, the first documentary I bought a few months ago was A Brief History of Time. I'm a big Stephen Hawking fan, so it was an easy selection to make. In my next life, I'm going to be a theoretical physicist.

My plan is to buy one or two documentaries with each of my next few orders, and I'm contemplating which to buy, and in what order. I've seen one of the other Errol Morris docs in the collection, The Thin Blue Line, and enjoyed it immensely. I will buy that eventually, probably after I've bought four or five others I've not seen. I read about his Gates of Heaven this morning in Roger Ebert's Awake in the Dark, and it, too, interests me. I love Morris' style.

I think For All Mankind has to be the first one I buy, unless somebody can convince me another deserves to bump it down a spot. Space exploration has always captured my imagination (obviously, that goes back to my interest in physics and astronomy). I love The Right Stuff, Apollo 13, pretty much anything to do with the space race, the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects, unmanned probes in the Pioneer and Voyager projects. But, I have a deep appreciation for the history of popular music in America, so maybe Monterey Pop should be next. I love the Stones, and I'm interested in learning a lot more about Bob Dylan, too. I love human interest stories, and sports, so maybe Hoop Dreams should be first.

Feedback would be greatly appreciated!

The only other Criterion doc I really know about is F For Fake. Not even sure if it counts as a documentary in the traditional sense -- it's very much a magic act in cinematic form. I was a little bewildered at first, since it was more about presentation and I struggled to care about Orson Welles rambling on about how fake stuff is. But when I gave it a second glance I realized it kinda works for me.

The Qatsi trilogy is a must too (or at least Koyaanisqatsi). There's no narration to it, just images and music. But it is a very sublime marriage that will allow you to draw connections and make you think deeply on the modern world, the human condition, nature, artificiality, and any number of other subjects. It is my current #1 favorite film and I encourage everybody to see it at least once. Other must-sees like this would be Baraka and Samsara -- they aren't Criterion, but they're made by the same cinematographer (Ron Fricke).

If you like music, definitely check out Gimme Shelter, if you haven't already. I got it for the Rolling Stones music, which is swell. Was surprised as to how gritty and realistically it captured the events of the Altamount concert -- it's like a piece of actual history captured on film. I also just recently nabbed the Beastie Boys Anthology on DVD, just haven't found the time to watch it yet. That disc looks ill. I know Criterion just put out a Bob Dylan thing, but I'm not a fan personally, so I don't know much about it.

Outside of the Criterion Collection, I I've gotten my space kicks on shows like Into the Wormhole, Cosmos, The Universe, and How The Universe Works. For feature-length stuff though, I've always been fond of an Imax documentary called Cosmic Voyage, which is on Blu-Ray. It's not so much about space exploration, but it does have some eye-popping stuff about universal perspectives from the microscopic level to galactic superstructures.

[Arch Stanton]

Originally Posted by BAKA

My Criterion Flash Sale haul arrived in the UK yesterday. Great to know I can finally take part in these without much hassle. It'll be interesting to see how Criterion's entry into the UK market will effect how I purchase my discs. I still think I'll pre-order the usual titles I would day one. I won't be hanging around for the likes of Stillman's Barcelona.

How did you do this? Some kind of re-shipping place?

What kind of costs did that incur?

[Nuck Horris]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Strange

The only other Criterion doc I really know about is F For Fake. Not even sure if it counts as a documentary in the traditional sense -- it's very much a magic act in cinematic form. I was a little bewildered at first, since it was more about presentation and I struggled to care about Orson Welles rambling on about how fake stuff is. But when I gave it a second glance I realized it kinda works for me.

You have to read this before and after watching it.

[Polaroid]

Originally Posted by Nuck Horris

You have to read this before and after watching it.

Sorry to go off topic but thought that Bjork in your avatar, got excited then realised it was not her.

[Nuck Horris]

Originally Posted by Polaroid

Sorry to go off topic but thought that Bjork in your avatar, got excited then realised it was not her.

It's Toshiro Mifune from:

[Polaroid]

Originally Posted by Nuck Horris

It's Toshiro Mifune from:

I think she pulls it off better

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by Polaroid

Sorry to go off topic but thought that Bjork in your avatar, got excited then realised it was not her.

Yeah that looks just like Bjork