The Criterion Collection

[Movie shy]

Does anyone have the “David Lean directs Noel Coward” collection? One of my favorite films is “Brief Encounter” and that film is in this set of 4 films. The blu ray.com review
gave the collection high marks. I only have till this week to decide because of the Criterion sale ending the end of the week and I am sure Amazon’s price of 49.99 will go up once the sale ends at Barnes & Noble.

[Reddington]

Originally Posted by Movie shy

Does anyone have the “David Lean directs Noel Coward” collection? One of my favorite films is “Brief Encounter” and that film is in this set of 4 films. The blu ray.com review
gave the collection high marks. I only have till this week to decide because of the Criterion sale ending the end of the week and I am sure Amazon’s price of 49.99 will go up once the sale ends at Barnes & Noble.

Well, here's a brief something I posted in September that contains no objective information at all, but may help sway you...

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...stcount=190857

[Movie shy]

Originally Posted by Reddington

Well, here's a brief something I posted in September that contains no objective information at all, but may help sway you...

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...stcount=190857

Thanks

[thebalconyfool]

Originally Posted by Movie shy

Does anyone have the “David Lean directs Noel Coward” collection? One of my favorite films is “Brief Encounter” and that film is in this set of 4 films. The blu ray.com review
gave the collection high marks. I only have till this week to decide because of the Criterion sale ending the end of the week and I am sure Amazon’s price of 49.99 will go up once the sale ends at Barnes & Noble.

You can also buy Brief Encounter's Criterion release on its own, just in case you didn't know. Although no doubt the collection is a good deal, especially deal during the sale.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by Movie shy

Does anyone have the “David Lean directs Noel Coward” collection? One of my favorite films is “Brief Encounter” and that film is in this set of 4 films.

I found three of the four films in the set excellent, only Blithe Spirit seemed somewhat labored and less likable. In Which We Serve is a well-made wartime propaganda film with a lot of resources from the armed forces. Happy Breed is a terrific generational look at a typical British family in the years before, during and after the war.

[theater dreamer]

Originally Posted by Movie shy

Does anyone have the “David Lean directs Noel Coward” collection? One of my favorite films is “Brief Encounter” and that film is in this set of 4 films. The blu ray.com review
gave the collection high marks. I only have till this week to decide because of the Criterion sale ending the end of the week and I am sure Amazon’s price of 49.99 will go up once the sale ends at Barnes & Noble.

I have it. It’s an essential set for any David Lean fan. Now, I’m clamoring for another boxed set, including (at a minimum) Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and Summertime.

Buy with confidence.

[jw007]

About 3 nights ago I finally finished my Jim Jarmusch marathon. It took about 2 weeks in total to get through every major feature film he's made. I ended up buying Broken Flowers on blu-ray in the process, as well as Year of the Horse on dvd. I watched all his main feature films from Stranger Than Paradise until The Dead Don't Die and then the last 2 films were his music documentaries, including Year of the Horse (which sadly was pretty bad actually) and his excellent documentary on Iggy Pop and the Stooges (Gimme Danger).

I noticed Jarmusch used similar motifs throughout his films, including his possible obsession with twins. A lot of his films had lookalikes or twins or people that were similar and I couldn't get over how fascinating that was. Valid examples can be found in: Dead Man (the twin marshals), Coffee & Cigarettes (the twins drinking coffee + talking about Elvis's "evil" twin), Paterson (the identical twins), and Only Lovers Left Alive (the twin flames). Another thing I noticed was the reference to the city of Cleveland. Jarmusch likes to reference or have his characters mention that city during his various films. Maybe its because he's originally from Akron, Ohio (which isn't too far from Cleveland). There are a bunch of other themes/elements/motifs I've noticed as well that he includes in his pictures. One funny thing I remembered was when I originally watched Ghost Dog, I didn't realize Gary Farmer was playing his character of Nobody from Dead Man in that one rooftop scene. I totally picked up that reference when I watched Ghost Dog again last week after having seen Dead Man again. That was totally hilarious. I have to say that Jarmusch loves structure throughout his movies too. A lot of his movies deal with routine and more routine, especially in his later movies, whether its Adam Driver driving a bus after waking up every day to fix his mailbox (that his dog messes up) to Isaach de Bankolé's ritual of 2 separate espressos in 2 separate cups to Forest Whitaker's daily meditation of reciting passages from his life's book (the Hagakure), or to the simple repetition of hearing Sturgill Simpson's "The Dead Don't Die" song throughout the movie.

Between his 2 music documentaries on Neil Young and Iggy Pop, I noticed a common editing style Jim Jarmusch uses: He likes to morph or blend in the older and younger versions of the main rock stars while the same song plays, making it almost a seamless transition of the old and young (no pun intended on the young Mr. Young of course). Both examples can be found towards the end of both Year of the Horse and Gimme Danger.

Jarmusch's earlier movies were a bit funnier in terms of the deadpan humor I felt. I think starting with Broken Flowers, Jarmusch's films took on a much more mature, serious and introspective feel to them. Up until then I got a bit of a hipster vibe, especially his 80s movies, though Jarmusch references hipsters sometimes throughout his movies too.

I have to say, I finally came to a conclusion: That Jim Jarmusch might just be a vampire, but a wise vampire to say the least (like Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston from Only Lovers Left Alive). I also got the sense that Jarmusch really cares about free energy (from Tesla's inventions), concerns of where the human race is heading (whether its fracking or human ignorance), and likes eating simple foods (pumpkin ravioli is his favorite food as I listened on one of the Q&A interviews from the Dead Man blu-ray).

Here's the final rundown of how I watched all of these Jim Jarmusch films:

Permanent Vacation - Watched on Criterion blu-ray that I own
Stranger Than Paradise - Watched on Criterion blu-ray that I own
Down by Law - Watched on Criterion blu-ray that I own
Mystery Train - Watched on Criterion blu-ray that I own
Night on Earth - Watched on Criterion blu-ray that I own
Dead Man - Watched on Criterion blu-ray that I own
Year of the Horse - Watched on dvd that I own
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai - Watched via a downloaded blu-ray HD digital rip I found online
Coffee and Cigarettes - Watched on blu-ray that I own
Broken Flowers - Watched on blu-ray that I own
The Limits of Control - Watched on HBO on-demand HD via Comcast cable
Only Lovers Left Alive - Watched on blu-ray that I own
Paterson - Watched on blu-ray that I own
Gimme Danger - Watched on Amazon Prime Video
The Dead Don't Die - Watched on blu-ray that I rented from the local library

Now if I was writing a thesis for a Masters in Film Studies, I probably would do it on Jim Jarmusch and some of the commonalities I found throughout his filmography as I mentioned above.

[Arawn]

Originally Posted by jw007

One funny thing I remembered was when I originally watched Ghost Dog, I didn't realize Gary Farmer was playing his character of Nobody from Dead Man in that one rooftop scene. I totally picked up that reference when I watched Ghost Dog again last week after having seen Dead Man again. That was totally hilarious.

I'm confused. How was it the same character?

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by Arawn

I'm confused. How was it the same character?

Great, great grandchild?

[Ray Jackson]

Fantastic Planet is one of the most bizarre films I have ever seen.

I don’t even know how I feel about it.

It’s like a really weird, somewhat serious Hannah Barbera cartoon meant to be watched on mushrooms.

...something I would never do.

[bsend]

Originally Posted by regeyer

But that includes about 6,000 pages of posts from Chuck Norris. They were all off topic, but no one had the guts to tell him.

It was a Q&A though for the planned but cancelled Criterion edition of:

[Vinyl]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

As much as I like The Sword of Doom, I find the ending to be very unsatisfying.

Ok, that's just crazy talk.

[Shanghai Express]

Picked up today's two Bette Davis releases. Everything you've heard about the All About Eve packaging is true. It's absolutely appalling.

[ilenewoodsfan99]

Originally Posted by mrmikefern

Picked up today's two Bette Davis releases. Everything you've heard about the All About Eve packaging is true. It's absolutely appalling.

What's wrong?

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by ilenewoodsfan99

What's wrong?

The digipack is cheaply made and the disc hubs are just as bad.

[Banned User]

Originally Posted by Movie shy

Does anyone have the “David Lean directs Noel Coward” collection? One of my favorite films is “Brief Encounter” and that film is in this set of 4 films. The blu ray.com review
gave the collection high marks. I only have till this week to decide because of the Criterion sale ending the end of the week and I am sure Amazon’s price of 49.99 will go up once the sale ends at Barnes & Noble.

This was my take on the David Lean boxset exactly. Blithe Spirit is definitely the weaker film in the set. I found it rather boring, but I might need to revisit. Being basically a stageplay on film a lot hinges on the actual dialog. The film did win a Oscar in 47 for special effects. Even though by my 21st century jaded eyes I can't recall any special effects that stood out. Brief Encounter and Happy Breed I found to be the best in the set.

[a priori]

Originally Posted by mrmikefern

Picked up today's two Bette Davis releases. Everything you've heard about the All About Eve packaging is true. It's absolutely appalling.

Yeah, the packaging is a total abomination. I picked up the two Bette Davis titles also this morning, and it's pretty bad. My booklet was damaged because of the rubber nubs and, and I will be contacting Criterion for a replacement. Very hard to remove the two discs from the nubs, so I am just going to use a spare double Scanavo disc case. However, the booklet will not fit into a standard Scanavo case since it was sized for the digipak.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Arawn

I'm confused. How was it the same character?

I imagine he meant "the same character" in the sense that he has all of the same quirks, etc., not that he's literally the same character.

[The Great Owl]

I decided to make one more dent in the Barnes & Noble sale by ordering:

Cold War
Betty Blue

[SteelyTom]

Criterion November haul from B&N, unintentionally women-oriented:

3 Women
Mulholland Drive
Summer with Monica
The Virgin Spring
The Heiress
Now, Voyager