The Criterion Collection

[JoeBuck]

Originally Posted by joie

Lionsgate is bringing out a Vestron Video horror line -- $40, limited editions, with spine numbering. Could they be planning a similar Studio Canal line? The 1st Vestron title is "Blood Diner."

Chopping Mall is #1, Blood Diner is #2

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by JoeBuck

Chopping Mall is #1, Blood Diner is #2

first a mall, then a diner? sounds like a cheap date.

[JoeBuck]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

first a mall, then a diner? sounds like a cheap date.

12 HOURS OF BOOING SOUND EFFECTS - YouTube

[Nielsb90]

Originally Posted by jw007

Ha. You're hilarious man!

You can always buy a cheap train ticket for $140 and take the Amtrak cross-country. That may take 4 days though, but imagine the excitement of finally getting off the train in Penn Station, Manhattan and not only seeing this concert but also meeting up with us at a cool theater-bar on Saturday night for the meetup!

You can take the train cross-country for $140?? I might have a new plan for a holiday if true! I wanna go on the Trans-Siberian but its $1,000 and up which is a lot for me as a student.


I've gone on train rides through parts of India myself and Darjeeling is also my favorite Andersen film. Also one of my favorite films in general. I can rewatch it almost any day.

[wonkavision]

My B&N Criterion haul:

Three Colors: Blue/White/Red
Fantastic Planet
New World
My Life As A Dog
Ice Storm
Clouds of Sils Maria
Carnival of Souls
The Royal Tenenbaums
Darjeeling Limited

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Lost in the mail, now out of stock, so B&N refunded 100%
Monsoon Wedding - Cover arrived damaged, now out of stock, took 10% off more since I really want it and can deal with the damaged paper cover

[Ray Jackson]

Does anyone here have any sense of whether this new FilmStruck thing will affect the Criterion selection on Netflix?

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by rodneyfaile

Was it anything like The Darjeling Limited? (one of my favorite movies)

Haven't seen that one.

I always thought that driving cross country was the coolest thing one could ever do in life, especially during my college years when I was obsessed with Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation.

But going by train might actually be better in some ways.

No gas stations to worry about...nor food, nor dingy motels or car breakdowns or any of the other time-sucking banalities of life on the road. Nothing to do but stare out the window and absorb the transcendental magic of bucolic America. There's nothing quite so awe-inspiring as going to sleep in the shadow of the snow-covered Rocky Mountains and waking up in the barren plains of Nebraska.

Especially cool if you can afford a private cabin.

Then you can just sit back and drink wine and listen to music and work on the great American novel.

...which you will never finish once the journey is over.

[HDMan72]

Well I finally made it to B&N tonight and picked up,

Hunger
Repo Man
Rififi
Dressed To Kill

The next flash sale I need to get The Seventh Seal

[SolelyStrange]

I knew the sale at B&N was almost over so i had to pick up these.

The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
Rushmore
Fantastic Mr. Fox

Wes Anderson is probably my favorite director, wanted to pick up Bottle Rocket and The Darjeeling limited but I needed to save money. Until the next sale!

[Member-167298]

Are Criterion's flash sales 40% off or 50% off?

Also, would they most likely include newer releases like Cat People, Blood Simple, etc?

[pro-bassoonist]

A Touch of Zen Blu-ray REVIEW




This is a hugely influential film and definitely worth owning, but I find the new 4K restoration that was completed in Italy disappointing. On the other hand, the release has an outstanding selection of bonus features.

**
If you enjoy this film, consider adding to your collections Wong Kar-wai's Ashes of Time Redux. It is another very ambitious project. I actually think that it is a superior film -- at least as far as the wuxia genre is concerned. I don't know why Sony Pictures Classics did not bring it to Blu-ray in the U.S., but the Artificial Eye release is wonderful. It is one of my favorite Blu-ray releases

Chris Doyle at his very best!

Ashes Of Time Redux 2008 - Hong Qi & the bandits - YouTube

***

And Jan Kounen's psychedelic western experiment

Blueberry (2004) - Check Trailer - YouTube

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

This is a hugely influential film and definitely worth owning, but I find the new 4K restoration that was completed in Italy disappointing. On the other hand, the release has an outstanding selection of bonus features.

It's also miles ahead of the Tai Seng DVD release I've had for ages.

If you enjoy this film, consider adding to your collections Wong Kar-wai's Ashes of Time Redux. It is another very ambitious project. I actually think that it is a superior film -- at least as far as the wuxia genre is concerned. I don't know why Sony Pictures Classics did not bring it to Blu-ray in the U.S., but the Artificial Eye release is wonderful. It is one of my favorite Blu-ray releases

Chris Doyle at his very best!

And the AE release is region-free. The extras, however, are apparently PAL, and might cause problems (they won't play on my non-region-free Sony BDP).

[jmclick]

Originally Posted by PrestonXI

Are Criterion's flash sales 40% off or 50% off?

Also, would they most likely include newer releases like Cat People, Blood Simple, etc?

Criterion's flash sales offer 50% off the regular MSRP. Plus, every time you cumulatively spend $500, you instantly receive a gift certificate for $50.00.

And yes, Criterion's flash sales include every in-print title.

I hope that helps.

[theater dreamer]

I am furiously working through my want list, trying to settle on a third choice. I've already got The Clouds of Sils Maria and Blue is the Warmest Color in the bag, now looking for the last choice.

I must say, I love the way this sale has brought some true diversity to my Criterion collection. Lots of new directors to experience, and a lot of my favorites being revisited.

My Flash sale list is slowly growing.

[Al_The_Strange]

Got my copy of A Touch of Zen last week. I popped it in on Sunday and settled in for a nice long wuxia epic (it was a blind-buy for me).

I was a little taken aback by how dated it appears. The first few minutes is nothing but camera pans and zooms, often a little rough-looking, which does little to mask the film's age. The style persists, but I swear the film gets more beautiful as it goes on. It's as if the film starts off looking bland and earthly (from the gray and brown village) then becomes more colorful and heavenly (to the green and colorful forests and mountains). Thus, the movie overall becomes a transcendent experience, and I suspect that was the point. The finale presents a kind of holy vision that seems to render the rest of the film's worldly content puny. And I suspect this is all by design.

As long as the film is, I wasn't sure if it would hold my interest. Fortunately, it does. It's a wonderful fantasy story--I understand it takes after some classic wuxia literature, but to me it seems like it has archetypes and tropes that could befit any fantasy in any part of the world (such as LOTR). It takes a long time for the action scenes to happen, but all that space is filled with subtle tension, mystery, character-building, and it all pays off pretty handsomely when the fighting finally happens.

And yes, the fights are cool. Can't say I like them any better than modern wuxia films (like The Banquet, Hero, House of Flying Daggers, or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon--scenes in those movies will be hard to top for me), but the settings, style, and choreography in A Touch of Zen are clearly influences.

Overall, I'm glad to own the movie and chances are my appreciation of it could grow in time. Shame the Criterion Blu-Ray has such drab colors, but at least it's sharp and clear. I will gladly blind-buy Dragon Inn next.

[theater dreamer]

Picked up three more films before the sale end. Here, then, is my final final haul.

[Show spoiler]
Clouds of Sils Maria
Blue is the Warmest Color
In a Lonely Place
The Apu Trilogy
The Last Metro
The New World
Repulsion
Cries and Whispers
My Dinner with Andre
Blow Out
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
Autumn Sonata
Certified Copy
In the Mood for Love
Le silence de la mer
La Jetée / Sans Soleil
Summer with Monika
The Bridge
Insomnia
Bicycle Thieves
Day for Night
The Red Shoes
Wings of Desire
3 Women
Only Angels Have Wings
Black Narcissus
Phoenix
John Cassavetes: Five Films
3 Films by Roberto Rossellini Starring Ingrid Bergman

My early Flash sale list is starting to take shape:

Classic Hitchcock
Rashomon
Late Spring
Wages of Fear
Safety Last
Dekalog
Rififi
Everlasting Moments
Breaking the Waves

It's a testament to the Criterion Collection that I've been buying their releases at a pretty fair clip, and there's so much more that I want yet.

Now, off to watch Insomnia.

[belcherman]

Originally Posted by jmclick

Criterion's flash sales offer 50% off the regular MSRP. Plus, every time you cumulatively spend $500, you instantly receive a gift certificate for $50.00.

And yes, Criterion's flash sales include every in-print title.

I hope that helps.

I'll only add that Criterion flash sales include every in-print and in-stock title. Recently released titles sometimes sell out quickly, so if there's something you want, get your order in early.

[WITHERmeTSPOONO]

My B/N pick ups were:

The Last Temptation of Christ
Days Of Heaven
The New World
Badlands
The Thin Red Line
Seconds
The Manchurian Candidate
I Knew Her Well
The Fisher King
Time Bandits
Brazil
Thief
Solaris
Rififi
The Blob
Paths of Glory
The Killing
Dr Strangelove
The Graduate
Fantastic Planet
A Touch of Zen
House
Tie me Up! Tie Me Down!
Heaven's Gate
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Darjeeling Limited
Bottle Rocket
Charade
Hara Kiri
Kwaidan
Sansho The Bailiff
Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman (Bluray and DVD)

[Gerby]

Originally Posted by Nielsb90

You can take the ticket cross-country for $140?? I might have a new plan for a holiday if true! I wanna go on the Trans-Siberian but its $1,000 and up which is a lot for me as a student.


I've gone on train rides through parts of India myself and Darjeeling is also my favorite Andersen film. Also one of my favorite films in general. I can rewatch it almost any day.

You can, I've done it myself, I've travelled all over the US by Amtrak. If you're only gonna do one route, it has to be The California Zephyr from Chicago through The Rockies in Colorado, the desert in Utah, the Sierra Plains in Nevada & on to San Francisco - best 2 day journey I've ever experienced.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by Nielsb90

You can take the ticket cross-country for $140?? I might have a new plan for a holiday if true! I wanna go on the Trans-Siberian but its $1,000 and up which is a lot for me as a student.


I've gone on train rides through parts of India myself and Darjeeling is also my favorite Andersen film. Also one of my favorite films in general. I can rewatch it almost any day.

Actually its more like $210, at least according to this man who did it!