The Criterion Collection

[ThisKid]

Originally Posted by jbieste

The truly scary part is not knowing if Ray might be strolling down the aisle at MY Barnes and Noble.

I don't have to worry about that. I live in Australia, FAR away from any Barnes and Nobles. And to add to that, bookstore chains are extinct over here, so I don't have to worry one bit about Ray. Unless he turns up at a local JB HIFI.

[mikesncc1701]

Ray, the way you described that smile...

[Show spoiler]

But really, I hate the stigma surrounding Salo. I adore it. It's my second favorite film of all time sandwiched between Scenes From A Marriage and The Tree Of Life. I watch it at least twice a year. I had my first viewing at 16 and was disgusted but highly intrigued at the thematic material, plot outline (the circles), and the sets. Oh my are the sets in this absolutely fitting. It leaves an everlasting impression, no matter how you feel about it once it's over. I honestly don't think a day goes by that it doesn't pop in my head for just a couple of seconds. Very few films have that kind of power. I'm always on the lookout for new shock films but this came at me as I was truly, and I mean TRULY starting to appreciate cinema as an art form. Pasolini has remained one the all time greats in my book and Salo is his magnum opus. Bathed in controversy not only for its content but the murder of Pasolini (which to this day I still find the circumstances and stories fascinating), everything surrounding it sticks out as one of the craziest moments in film history and though I love it, all of it bound together has made it an everlasting work that can't be touched. It truly is an enigma.

[pedromvu]

If anything else Salo makes you feel something no other movie I've seen does, the atmosphere and its characters are incredibly creepy to the point it makes one feel uneasy, I actually was kind of afraid to watch it for the first time, now that doesn't mean I would like to see it again or own it, but It's still something I think every cinephile should see.

[jw007]

Ray, great story...

Owl, even better response...

My take on all of this is this: "To each their own".

Like Owl said, who gives a f#ck.

If a 70 year old man is into scatological humor and perverse, crude torture scenes, who cares.

At the same time, I'd like to know, Ray, which U.S. state you're in, so I can keep a leery eye out for this "erudite looking man"!

- JW

[Polaroid]

Not sure if I will get bashed for saying this.. but for me Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom feels like a Kubrick film and I would go as far as saying it was made just as god as any of Kubricks master pieces - it could even have been a Kubrick film!

Incredible pice of cinema that more SHOULD see - it isn't that shocking and there are more shocking film out now, people talk about the shock in Salo but they down see it so they build it up to be worse in their heads.

[I KEEL YOU]

Of the Criterions I own that I would take with me if I had to pick 10:

1. 3 Women
2. Something Wild
3. Hoop Dreams
4. Il Sorpasso
5. Persona
6. Videodrome
7. Badlands
8. Five Easy Pieces
9. The Emigrants/The New Land
10. Two-Lane Blacktop

There are some others, like Koyaanisqatsi and Paris, Texas that I have non-Criterion releases of that would be on the top 10 list if I owned the Criterion. And McCabe & Mrs. Miller will defintely be among the top of the list once it's released on December 31st, 2016 at 23:59:59.

[theater dreamer]

Hmm, my deserted on a desert island ten Criterions....

1. Paths of Glory
2. The Three Colors trilogy
3. A Hard Day's Night
4. On The Waterfront
5. Persona
6. Seven Samurai
7. City Lights
8. Mulholland Dr.
9. The Thin Red Line
10. 8 1/2

[mja345]

Originally Posted by Polaroid

Not sure if I will get bashed for saying this.. but for me Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom feels like a Kubrick film and I would go as far as saying it was made just as god as any of Kubricks master pieces - it could even have been a Kubrick film!

Incredible pice of cinema that more SHOULD see - it isn't that shocking and there are more shocking film out now, people talk about the shock in Salo but they down see it so they build it up to be worse in their heads.

I'd read quite a bit about "Salo" before I saw it, so I wasn't that shocked necessarily because I knew what to expect. It is a brilliantly crafted film and certainly a disturbing watch, but I do think its reputation precedes it a bit. I think it's one of those that people have heard about more than seen because they think it's going to be a snuff film or something.

The most frightening/haunting film by far in the collection IMO is "The Vanishing" and one of the more frightening films of all-time. Having someone close to you vanish into thin air and not know what has happened is one of the most nightmarish scenarios imaginable. Kubrick lavished praise on it and said it was the most frightening film he had ever seen. People always told Kubrick how frightening "The Shining" was, but he believed it couldn't hold a candle to "The Vanishing". And "The Shining" is frightening when you see it as a kid, but, when you watch it as an adult, you pick up how daft and over the top Jack is at times, so certain parts become humorous. Still a great film though.

[WonderWeasel]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

Hmm, my deserted on a desert island ten Criterions....

1. Paths of Glory
2. The Three Colors trilogy
3. A Hard Day's Night
4. On The Waterfront
5. Persona
6. Seven Samurai
7. City Lights
8. Mulholland Dr.
9. The Thin Red Line
10. 8 1/2

We have the same #1s

1. Paths of Glory
2. Port of Shadows
3. Pygmalion
4. The Phantom Carriage
5. Ace in the Hole
6. Jubal
7. The Red Shoes
8. The Apu Trilogy
9. Solaris
10. City Lights

[ZeTi]

Is "Two-Lane Blacktop" something in the vein of "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry", "Vanishing Point", "Gone in 60 Seconds" ? I am not completely sold on the trailer ... might pick it up at some point though.

My desert island picks ?
-Harakiri
-Rififi
-Black Moon
-Brazil
-Repo Man
-Three Outlaw Samurai
-Paris, Texas
-Nikkatsu Noir
-Revanche
-The Darjeeling Limited (or some other Anderson film)

[Polaroid]

Originally Posted by mja345

I'd read quite a bit about "Salo" before I saw it, so I wasn't that shocked necessarily because I knew what to expect. It is a brilliantly crafted film and certainly a disturbing watch, but I do think its reputation precedes it a bit. I think it's one of those that people have heard about more than seen because they think it's going to be a snuff film or something.

The most frightening/haunting film by far in the collection IMO is "The Vanishing" and one of the more frightening films of all-time. Having someone close to you vanish into thin air and not know what has happened is one of the most nightmarish scenarios imaginable. Kubrick lavished praise on it and said it was the most frightening film he had ever seen. People always told Kubrick how frightening "The Shining" was, but he believed it couldn't hold a candle to "The Vanishing". And "The Shining" is frightening when you see it as a kid, but, when you watch it as an adult, you pick up how daft and over the top Jack is at times, so certain parts become humorous. Still a great film though.

See I didn't find that film scary - I found Charlotte Gainsbourg terrifying! Great portrayal of anxiety and depression tbh!

[The Great Owl]

Last night, I watched my Criterion Blu-ray of Charlie Chaplin's The Kid.

The Kid was the perfect selection for last night, because I was in the mood for a movie, but I was also tired from a long day and I knew that the sleep monster would probably get me about halfway through a two-hour feature. Enter this 53-minute Chaplin film to the rescue.

This movie flies by at a lightning pace, and it has a perfect blend of comedy and poignance. Jackie Coogan almost steals the show as the title character, but Chaplin is incredible in one of his most emotionally charged roles. There's some real genius here with Chaplin's talent at using frames to give the impression of speedy movement, and the chase scenes in this film make for some of the most engaging moments.

I did not have time to watch the special features last night, save for the fun short film, Nice and Friendly, so I plan to go through them later this evening.

The 1925 version of The Gold Rush is still my favorite Chaplin title, but The Kid hits all of the right notes.

Incidentally, a quick look at the Internet Movie Database revealed that Jackie Coogan's final role was as the park ranger in a 1984 horror movie called The Prey. I loved seeing that movie on television many years ago when I was a teenager, and I have been clamoring for its Blu-ray release from the traditional horror Blu-ray studios here. Hopefully soon...

[adamhopelies]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Let that elderly man have a blast watching Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom if he wishes to do so. He's probably decided that he's going to do whatever he wants to do with his somewhat limited time on Earth, so more power to him.

Age and classic cinema are a weird thing. If you think about it someone of 60 years of age today would have been but a nipper of 20 years old when Salo was initially released 40 years ago, so if this guy saw it back then he'd have been around the same age as I was when I first viewed it.

It's kinda mind-blowing to me to think that anyone who saw Breathless on release at the age I am now (33) would be 90 years old in 2016!

[Jef Costello]

Might as well catch up. These are my top ten desert island Criterion titles. In no particular order.

1. The Night of the Hunter
2. Mulholland Drive
3. Le Samourai
4. The Red Shoes
5. L' Avventura
6. Paris, Texas
7. Make Way For Tommorow
8. Il Sorpasso
9. The Spirit of the Beehive
10. Fanny and Alexander

If I'd be allowed to carry some extra stuff:
The Third Man, High and Low, Music Room, Tokyo Story and Army of Shadows

[Purplenoon]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

I was out at Barnes and Noble today taking a quick stroll down Criterion Avenue and I happened to notice an older gentleman standing in line waiting to make a purchase. He was holding blu-ray copies of My Dinner With Andre...and Salo.

He was an erudite looking man who was probably in his late 60s, maybe even 70s. He was wearing corduroy pants, a brown v-neck sweater, a black leather jacket and one of those herringbone tweed caps.

...a bourgeois professor of English Literature type.

Why would a man like that want to watch a film like Salo? Not just watch it, but own it.

I had to see, I had to know.

I casually mentioned that I thought it was an interesting choice, given the subject matter. He asked me if I had seen it and I said no, I only knew it by reputation...that I had heard the stories and the rumors...of scatological incidents and rapes and various means of sexual torture and other scenes of this nature.

He nodded his head, furrowed his brow ever so slightly and cracked what I can only describe as an insidiously disturbing, childlike grin. I won't go so far as to say the Jack Nicholson gif from Anger Management...it was much more subtle than that.

"A marvelous piece of work," he said.

It sent shivers down the back of my spine.

All I wanted to do was get the hell out of there as fast as humanly possible, but I couldn't move and I couldn't look away.

I just stared at him for what couldn't have been more than 3, maybe four seconds at the most. But it felt like forever.

And then I turned around and left.

But the look on that man's face will probably haunt me until the day I die.

I will never forget it.

...ever.

Hey, I'm 69. I don't think of myself as elderly, and I liked Salo. Pasolini is simply a great, thought provoking director of the first rank. I sauntered down the aisles of a B&N yesterday, and, as usual, could not find anything I was looking for. I never do. I enjoy browsing through the Criterions though, but, of course, never buy them except during the 50% sales. Can't account for that smile, but I might have used it on occasion myself, heh, heh..... And for what it's worth, I agree with Polaroid: more SHOULD see it.

[CelestialAgent]

I've not seen enough Criterions to be able to rank it! But I'll put For All Mankind and Grey Gardens at the top out of the few I've watched (technically For All Mankind is the MOC release, but it duplicates all of the content from the Criterion besides an audio feature anyway.)

[Vinyl]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

Hmm, my deserted on a desert island ten Criterions....

1. Paths of Glory
2. The Three Colors trilogy
3. A Hard Day's Night
4. On The Waterfront
5. Persona
6. Seven Samurai
7. City Lights
8. Mulholland Dr.
9. The Thin Red Line
10. 8 1/2

Originally Posted by WonderWeasel

We have the same #1s

1. Paths of Glory
2. Port of Shadows
3. Pygmalion
4. The Phantom Carriage
5. Ace in the Hole
6. Jubal
7. The Red Shoes
8. The Apu Trilogy
9. Solaris
10. City Lights

Great lists, makes it that much harder to choose mine.

1 The Great Dictator
2 8 1/2
3 Seven Samurai
4 Late Spring
5 Sword of Doom
6 Ugetsu
7 Samurai Rebellion
8 Pierre Etaix box
9 The Royal Tenenbaums or Life Aquatic
10 For All Mankind

[Darth Marcus]

I still have several Criterions that I need to catch up on, but here's my Desert Island Top 10:

1. Paris, Texas
2. Thief
3. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
4. Paths of Glory
5. Sweet Smell of Success
6. Days of Heaven
7. The Vanishing
8. The Thin Red Line
9. The Last Temptation of Christ
10. The Royal Tenenbaums

[CPinheiro]

Originally Posted by ZeTi

Is "Two-Lane Blacktop" something in the vein of "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry", "Vanishing Point", "Gone in 60 Seconds" ? I am not completely sold on the trailer ... might pick it up at some point though.

Two-Lane Blacktop is one of my favorite Criterion releases and I love Vanishing Point (never seen the other two).
I think you should definitely include it in your list (together with Easy Rider ).

However you must be aware that this is not an action movie, its much more 'existencial' and slow paced than Vanishing Point, imo.

[Rich Pure Doom]

My desert island Criterions:

1. Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
2. Seventh Seal
3. 3 Women
4. Nashville
5. Complete Jean Vigo
6. M
7. Modern Times
8. Last Year At Marienbad
9. Night of the Hunter
10. Chungking Express