The Criterion Collection

[Old Geezer]

Originally Posted by callahan09

Out of everything I said, Ikiru gets the only vote? Just curious why so? I will probably pick it up today though! Looking for other holes in my collection as well.

Ikiru was the very first Criterion I ever saw (a DVD blind buy on a spur of the moment whim) and it is the movie that made me want to see more of what Criterion had to offer. In essence, it changed my viewing habits - I wanted more of what I had seen. It's not my favorite Criterion but it's a great movie I would recommend to anyone.

[Old Geezer]

Originally Posted by Nielsb90

Thank you for the answers regarding Picnic at Hanging Rock. I am at a loss as to what my final title should be besides Apu, Carnival of Souls & The New World.

Persuade toward one of the following if y'all have an opinion: Breaker Morant, A Brighter Summer Day, Diabolique and Picnic at Hanging Rock. I've seen none of them but they stand out to me!

Diabolique is a great movie but for some reason Picnic at Hanging Rock
just mesmerizes me. I've watched it several times and it never fails to touch me. Haunting is a term I would use.

[fdm]

Originally Posted by hendersd

What is it with Criterion over the past couple of years? Many of the presentations are overly dark. It's not just me; the reviews on this site frequently refer to the transfers as being "quite dark". I first noticed this on Eraserhead. Yes, that's an inherently dark film, but the picture literally disappears in some scenes. To watch the Criterion release, I have to put my Panasonic Plasma into "torch mode". I like to keep the brightness down a bit, but I have to really crank it for Eraserhead. I re-read several reviews for titles I'm interested in getting during the sale. On virtually every review I pulled up, the term "dark" appeared in the description of the image quality.

When I first saw Eraserhead, in a movie theater, that sounds just like what I experienced. Figured they needed to install a new lamp or something, it was pretty dark, hard to make out some of what was going on sometimes. (I've only since seen the old non-Criterion dvd (from Lynch himself), which wasn't so bad as far as I recall (quite a while ago), so if/when I ever get to Criterion's version, should be interesting deja vu experience maybe...).

[olivianewtonyawn]

Any suggestions as far as great Eclipse sets? I have decided to pick up 2 or 3 during this sale. I only have 1 in my collection: When Horror Came to Shochiku.

I am considering picking up the Larisa Shepitko box already (heard it is great) but wanted to get 2 more eclipse sets at least.

[Fabs]

Originally Posted by malakaheso

Does anyone on here think A Brighter Summer Day is absurdly overrated? It doesn't come close to justifying its running time. It is a simple loss of innocence story that tries to go the allegory route and completely fails. I have no problem with films that use a country's socio-political turmoil to frame a story and add more resonance, but it didn't work for me in this context, it simply alienated me. Don't get all the talk about the film's visual poetry either. I'm very much on the look out for that in films and A.B.S.D underwhelmed me visually. Then again, so do the films of Tsai Ming Liang that aren't Goodbye Dragon Inn or Stray Dogs. Just taste I guess.

I much prefer Yi Yi to A.B.S.D anyway. It is warmer, more engrossing and it also looks better.

Agree with you 100%. I wasn't really engrossed in the story like I was for Yi Yi and The Terrorizers. It was a good film, but at the end, I didn't have much feeling for the film and its characters like I did for the other Yang films. And a huge agree to the visual problem with ABSD. Yi Yi and The Terrorizers are two of the most beautifully shot films that I have ever seen. Right now, I can think of several shots from those two films that blew me away... Yet I can't say the same for ABSD. I can't think of a single shot that really wowed me. The direction didn't feel like a Yang film, and it's odd because it was made 5 years after The Terrorizers and just 9 before Yi Yi.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by olivianewtonyawn

Any suggestions as far as great Eclipse sets? I have decided to pick up 2 or 3 during this sale. I only have 1 in my collection: When Horror Came to Shochiku.

I am considering picking up the Larisa Shepitko box already (heard it is great) but wanted to get 2 more eclipse sets at least.

Late Ozu is by far my favorite of the Eclipse sets I own. Nikkatsu Noir would be my second.

[starman15317]

Tomorrow I'm going to see John Carpenter's live retrospective concert. He's performing his classic film scores and material from his new album.

But before that, I'm going to finally go to B&N and pick up some titles. I'm limiting myself to 4-5. I know that I'm definitely picking up Dr. Strangelove, and probably The Game as well, and I'm sure I'll throw a Chaplin in there as well, but I'm not sure what else I'm going to get. There are obviously a lot of titles that I want.

[olivianewtonyawn]

Originally Posted by hariseldon

Nikkatsu Noir invariably is mentioned with good reason

Kenji Mizoguchi's Fallen Women

Oshimas Outlaw 60's

Presenting Sacha Guitry

George Bernard Shaw on Film

Guess Nikkatsu Noir for sure! I was looking at the Kenji Mizoguchi set today. I will look into the others. Thanks!

[Arch Stanton]

Originally Posted by Old Geezer

Diabolique is a great movie but for some reason Picnic at Hanging Rock
just mesmerizes me. I've watched it several times and it never fails to touch me. Haunting is a term I would use.

I think the first 45 minutes or so are brilliant, utterly spellbinding and haunting as you say. I wouldn't say the rest of the film quite lives up to the promise, sadly.

[Nielsb90]

Well... With the 20% coupon I just placed the largest Criterion order of my life:

Apu Trilogy
Carnival of Souls
The New World
A Brighter Summer Day
Picnic at Hanging Rock

NO REGRETS

[senseabove]

Originally Posted by hariseldon

Diabolique is one of my favorites of all time though admit to being partial to Hitchcock, Noir type films. The only thing I've found over the years is that it's been copied and remade in form so many times it's hard to forget the answer.

Fun fact: Hitchcock actually wanted the rights to the story for Diabolique, which came from a book published in English as The Fiends, but for one or another reason, Clouzot got the rights. Hitchcock consequently snapped up the rights to another novel by the same authors, published in English as The Living and The Dead, which became...

[Show spoiler]

[malakaheso]

Originally Posted by Fabs

Agree with you 100%. I wasn't really engrossed in the story like I was for Yi Yi and The Terrorizers. It was a good film, but at the end, I didn't have much feeling for the film and its characters like I did for the other Yang films. And a huge agree to the visual problem with ABSD. Yi Yi and The Terrorizers are two of the most beautifully shot films that I have ever seen. Right now, I can think of several shots from those two films that blew me away... Yet I can't say the same for ABSD. I can't think of a single shot that really wowed me. The direction didn't feel like a Yang film, and it's odd because it was made 5 years after The Terrorizers and just 9 before Yi Yi.

Yang's best films seem influenced by Antonioni visually. Yi Yi and The Terrorizers were very well shot films. Yi Yi in particular is full in indelible moments. e.g the woman playing cello alone in her apartment, the boy quickly dunking his head in the water etc. Small moments that don't push the narrative forward but give the film a sense of 'roundness', for lack of a better word. I felt that was lacking in A Brighter Summer Day. There were a lot of incidental 'moments', but none of them were that memorable to me, although I did like the concert scenes.

[WonderWeasel]

I picked up Picnic at Hanging Rock as a blind buy today. Would you guys recommend reading the novel first, or watching the film?

[ShellOilJunior]

Originally Posted by WonderWeasel

I picked up Picnic at Hanging Rock as a blind buy today. Would you guys recommend reading the novel first, or watching the film?

Film then book. For most other films I'd suggest the opposite but there's something in the story that's better to see first, imo.

[shadedpain4]

Originally Posted by olivianewtonyawn

Any suggestions as far as great Eclipse sets? I have decided to pick up 2 or 3 during this sale. I only have 1 in my collection: When Horror Came to Shochiku.

I am considering picking up the Larisa Shepitko box already (heard it is great) but wanted to get 2 more eclipse sets at least.

Late Ozu and Postwar Kurosawa contain a lot of films worthy of mainline CC releases, so you can't go wrong with either of them.

Pretty much any Japanese Eclipse set is worth your time.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by ckt

Antonioni's perspective of America in Zabriskie Point was really interesting. And I would love to see more texture in the desert scenes. The soundtrack is great. I'm a big fan of Floyd, and I really like the tracks they did, especially the "Love Scene" tracks.

I also like The Passenger a lot too. There's a lot of 'desert'ish/'rock' scenes in it I think would also benefit from added texture from higher resolution.
— I know there's a Spanish Blu, but it's poor quality. Does anyone have any idea of the rights situation with either of these films?

I would buy both immediately.

I couldnt agree more. When I saw Zabriskie Point for the first time, it was on a laptop in DVD quality naturally. All I could think about is that extra boost in detail HD would give it.

I'm not sure who owns The Passengers rights, but Sony put out the dvd and Twilight time seems to release more of their titles than CC does.

[Leonidas King]

Originally Posted by Nielsb90

Well... With the 20% coupon I just placed the largest Criterion order of my life:

Apu Trilogy
Carnival of Souls
The New World
A Brighter Summer Day
Picnic at Hanging Rock

NO REGRETS

[Will.]

Originally Posted by Leonidas_King

[Show spoiler]

[Show spoiler]

[tisdivine]

Since Friday's the 15th. Im guessing announcements will be Monday lol These will be Octobers releases right? Hope there are some sweet horror titles.

[Quinni]

Too broke for this year's sale, unfortunately,