The Criterion Collection

[Trace17]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I'm good for Rumble Fish and possibly Woman of the Year, but I'm going to pass on all of the other titles for April. At least for now. Those two titles can even wait for the next sale, in fact.

Although I'm tempted to grab individual copies of the Demy releases, just to avoid that godawful fragile box set on my shelf.

I don't have the Demy set, what's so fragile about it?

[20th Century Boy]

Just seen 'The Tree of Wooden Clogs' transfer screencaps. CC needs to ease up on that Teal overcast they've been using lately. It drives me to foreign alternatives.

[jw007]

Rumble Fish is pure magic.

I wrote about this film in college for my "Youth Film" class. I think it was my final exam assignment too. I am totally psyched to see this film come to Criterion blu-ray. The supplements that are included in this release are top notch and quite extensive too.

As for the other films, all of which I have yet to see, I'll def. rent them first!

[nitin]

Originally Posted by 20th Century Boy

Just seen 'The Tree of Wooden Clogs' transfer. CC needs to ease up on that Teal overcast they've been using lately. It drives me to foreign alternatives.

It's a Ritrovata signature!

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by jayembee

That depends. I think it has one of Hepburn's best performances, and the chemistry between the two is, as usual, excellent. My objection to it is only because of the way the plot resolves. Other than that, I can't really say anything wrong about it.

I've seen all nine of their pairings, and Woman of the Year I find the least enjoyable to watch. The only other one in similar straits is Capra's State of the Union, because I find it preposterous that Spencer Tracy would cheat on Katherine Hepburn with Angela Lansbury. But that's me.

Adam's Rib is definitely my favorite, with one of my favorite movie quotes: David Wayne's "Lawyers should never marry other lawyers. This is known as in-breeding, which leads to idiot children and more lawyers." My second favorite of their pairings would be a toss up between Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and Desk Set.

Thanks for your opinion! I'll definitely proceed with cation then. Maybe I'll cook up a double bill with a sure fire winner (Desk Set is so much fun) when I decide to watch it.

Haha. I can't stop laughing at the Angela Lansbury joke. That plus the ease with which I can shovel down Capra corn has me sold for a viewing of that film down the line.

[malakaheso]

Originally Posted by Hoke Moseley

Rumble Fish has grown on me with each watch... it has gone from "pretty good" to one of my favorites over the years. And I agree that Drugstore Cowboy would be a fantastic addition.

Drugstore Cowboy would be great. Who owns the rights now? Lions Gate?

[theater dreamer]

Ok, I guffawed here. But no Shanghai Surprise? Opportunity missed.

Ray, send a nasty note to collective known as Mulvaney, tout de suite!

Originally Posted by italy12

869 - The Material Girl Boxset
includes:
870 - Desperately Seeking Susan
871 - Who's That Girl
872 - Evita
873 - Swept Away

[ravenus]

I'm divided on Tampopo. I liked most of the plot threads, especially the one with the Ramen seller being taught to make good Ramen, and the visual sense is mouth-watering. However, the gangster segment seemed wholly bunged in, standing at odds with (IIRC) a mostly endearing family friendly flick. I thought it was a distractingly contrarian element that spoiled my enjoyment of the overall film.

Reading a review also reminded me of the segment where

[Show spoiler]a housewife commits suicide and her husband is urging the kids to eat mum's last meal

, but that still fell more in the vein of acceptable black humor, and not the in-your-face erotic/violent element of the gangster section.

[tenia]

I just realised that, sadly, Buena Vista Social Club and Woman of the Year are announced as only sourced from "high def transfer", which usally means for Criterion "not a new restoration".

[monorail91]

The Woman of the Year artwork also reminds me of the opening credits to the original The Parent Trap --

[llj]

Originally Posted by ravenus

I'm divided on Tampopo. I liked most of the plot threads, especially the one with the Ramen seller being taught to make good Ramen, and the visual sense is mouth-watering. However, the gangster segment seemed wholly bunged in, standing at odds with (IIRC) a mostly endearing family friendly flick. I thought it was a distractingly contrarian element that spoiled my enjoyment of the overall film.

Reading a review also reminded me of the segment where

[Show spoiler]a housewife commits suicide and her husband is urging the kids to eat mum's last meal

, but that still fell more in the vein of acceptable black humor, and not the in-your-face erotic/violent element of the gangster section.

Tampopo is "okay" but I wouldn't have it in my "best food-related film of all time" like some critics out there have argued. Sometimes the film is also too self-consciously quirky for its own good.

[llj]

Originally Posted by javi92

Gotta say this is a pretty d**n disappointing month for me. The continued neglect of upgrading DVD titles and the absence of Eclipse titles is very troublesome.

Agree about the Eclipse line basically being dead is a sad thing. I seem to recall Criterion had the rights to a bunch of hard-to-find films from some really big or much-wanted directors that they were going to release on Eclipse but unfortunately it came at the tail-end of the DVD-only era.

As far as upgrading DVD titles...correct me if I'm wrong but aren't these new announcements technically upgrades of a bunch of titles formerly only on DVD?

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by llj

Agree about the Eclipse line basically being dead is a sad thing. I seem to recall Criterion had the rights to a bunch of hard-to-find films from some really big or much-wanted directors that they were going to release on Eclipse but unfortunately it came at the tail-end of the DVD-only era.

As far as upgrading DVD titles...correct me if I'm wrong but aren't these new announcements technically upgrades of a bunch of titles formerly only on DVD?

I'm sure you're aware, and are just trying to be clever, but the term upgrade in this thread refers to Criterion DVD releases getting Blu-ray releases from Criterion.

[MifuneFan]

Someone has LD fever..

[llj]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

I'm sure you're aware, and are just trying to be clever, but the term upgrade in this thread refers to Criterion DVD releases getting Blu-ray releases from Criterion.

I'm never clever! But I was just bugging y'all about the fact that just because these weren't Criterion DVDs in the past, doesn't mean they still aren't much-needed upgrades of DVDs. And all of these titles are worthy enough to have been Criterion DVDs in the past anyway.

[Roninblues]

Originally Posted by ShellOilJunior

More Ozu films, please.

and

Yasuzo Masumura, Masaki Kobayashi, Kore-eda Hirokazu ...

[llj]

Originally Posted by Roninblues

and

Yasuzo Masumura, Masaki Kobayashi, Kore-eda Hirokazu ...

More Kiju Yoshida! And he and Mariko Okada are still alive too. I feel like every year goes by without Yoshida releases means a lost opportunity for some great extras for BD releases while they're still kicking. Then again it's utterly possible they are the ones holding up releases of their own films as well.

[MifuneFan]

The way I see it, a Criterion upgrade at most fills in 1 out of 5 (or 6) slots. The other 4 (or 5) going to completely new stuff for Criterion. So that's a mere 12 upgrades a year in an ideal scenario. Considering how many hundreds of films Criterion still has rights to on DVD (i.e. no one else can likely release them), that means many of us have to wait years and years for some of our favorite films to come out.

We're already to April without one upgrade, so that now leaves 8 remaining months, and you know we'll be lucky if more than half of those months get an upgrade. 2016 had just 7 DVD to BD upgrades.

It's not like anyone that's unhappy with the lack of upgrades is demanding Criterion focus just on them. Upgrades make up a very small portion of releases to begin with, but it's now even smaller than that, and it may even become completely non-existent later on. Many of us became huge fans of Criterion during the DVD era, and as such, many of our favorite films are in their collection (mine are). So I don't really think it's asking too much for them to reserve 1 slot out of 5 (or 6) for an upgrade, even if it were every other month

[Scottie]

Aki is right. The WB deal really killed the upgrades.

[llj]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

The way I see it, a Criterion upgrade at most fills in 1 out of 5 (or 6) slots. The other 4 (or 5) going to completely new stuff for Criterion. So that's a mere 12 upgrades a year in an ideal scenario. Considering how many hundreds of films Criterion still has rights to on DVD (i.e. no one else can likely release them), that means many of us have to wait years and years for some of our favorite films to come out.

We're already to April without one upgrade, so that now leaves 8 remaining months, and you know we'll be lucky if more than half of those months get an upgrade. 2016 had just 7 DVD to BD upgrades.

It's not like anyone that's unhappy with the lack of upgrades is demanding Criterion focus just on them. Upgrades make up a very small portion of releases to begin with, but now it's now even smaller than that, and it may even become completely non-existent later on. Many of us became huge fans of Criterion during the DVD era, and as such, many of our favorite films are in their collection (mine are). So I don't really think it's asking too much for them to reserve 1 slot out of 5 (or 6) for an upgrade, even if it were every other month

1 upgrade a month or 2 is definitely a fair policy. I think some need more urgent upgrades more than others though. There were films that were letterboxed in the original CC releases (most of their pre-2001 DVDs), or originally had super crummy PQ (Tokyo Drifter, Branded to Kill) that NEED upgrades, but I don't think there's as dire a need to upgrade a lot of the mid to late 2000s stuff.

So I'm completely in favour of upgrading nearly ALL of their pre-2001 DVDs. I'm less excited by, say, a 2008 or 2009 Criterion DVD getting an upgrade because chances are it was already more than watchable. It's those really early stuff where some were nearly unwatchable that need priority.

But personally, I'm not much for nostalgia. I became a fan of Criterion in the DVD era as well but I'd still rather see Criterion do stuff I've never seen before than an upgrade. This doesn't apply really to these latest announcements (all these films are fairly well known), but more my preferences in general. To me it just seems backwards to the Criterion mantra to place priority over a movie that at least has an accessible or even decent release before over something that has been hard to see in the past. On some level, I do find it disappointing when people here get more excited over something familiar than something unknown. We really should be flipping out more over releases like Jack Garfein's Something Wild or Ousmane Sembène's Black Girl, films that have been generally buried or underexposed for years and years or extremely hard to find before now.