The Criterion Collection

[Ray Jackson]

Paterson is an underrated Jimmy J masterpiece.

...a Criterion release has to happen.

[repulsed]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

Paterson is an underrated Jimmy J masterpiece.

...a Criterion release has to happen.

Not that I want to double dip but it is underrated. I'm sure I'd buckle under the pressure and have to own it

[Sifox211]

Originally Posted by Scottie

[Show spoiler]

I don’t really like that cover - to me it gives away too much (which I think you could probably say about all of the home video releases of this) - but this very much is the release that I am most excited about from the big C. I really hope we get it in the UK!

[joy-division]

I've had the same tv for at least 15 years & am in no hurry to change it
Will be ages before I get a new player
So **** 4k

[nitin]

Third time around and I finally clicked with DePalma’s Sisters. It’s a lot rougher around the edges than his later more technically accomplished Hitchcock riffs but this time around those rough edges didn’t bother me as much and I was more appreciative of the 4 main pluses: Margot Kidder’s dual performances, Bernard Hermann’s score, the sheer technical prowess of the two main setpieces (the murder and cleanup, and the hospital flashback), and the odd and quirky black humour throughout.

My go to now is the Criterion disc which has a superior 4k master to the previous release from Arrow. But this is still an early low budget film from De Palma and the quality varies almost from shot to shot. The audio fares far better.

ps Grain is super high in this film so any sharpening artificially applied by your tv or player will really make the picture look terrible.

[joy-division]

Getting some nice additions soon/recently

Decided to pick up an item from amazon so took the opportunity to get Days of Heaven - only need The New World to complete my Malick collection on Criterion now but happy with my regular extended cut for now. Still can't believe that Q'orianka was only 15 when she played the role. Certainly didn't look it & must've been a bit awkward for Farrell?
Got my zatoichi box set practically instantly from zoom at the black friday price seeing as I kept it in my basket
Went looking for belle de jour & found a good price from allyourmusic on ebay plus they had an offer of 15% if you buy 2 so added the Game which I have wa ted forever
Then the next dsy after watching The Life of Oharu, I went looking for more of his harder to find films & AYM also had his Fallen Women boxset, which when bought with their cheapest item at 2.99, saved me a a nice chunk of change!

[nitin]

The Last Command is another silent masterpiece from Josef Von Sternberg.

The mid-section is a flashback to a story about a Russian Imperial army general and his encounters with a couple of revolutionaries looking to overthrow the czarist rule. That section is bookended with the making of a Hollywood Russian revolution film in which the ex Russian army general has a role as a Hollywood extra.

Out of that narrative structure, Von Sternberg creates a typically astonishing piece of visual storytelling and couples it with a very impactful central performance by Emil Jannings. Von Sternberg’s camera constantly recreates visual touches that juxtapose scenes from the mid-section flashback with the Hollywood set scenes in the bookends. But due to the narrative, these visual call backs have an added emotional heft on top of the ironic juxtaposition.

Evelyn Brent also does a great job in the midsection of the film, holding her own against Jannings’ bluster much like she did against George Bancroft’s character in Von Sternberg’s Underworld.

Criterion’s blu is from an older master from a duplicate negative and a little soft every now and then but is otherwise a pretty impressive rendering of this 90yr old film. I much prefer the Robert Israel score from the two options available.

Highly recommended (the boxset also comes with another masterpiece The Docks Of New York and the classy Underworld!

[Egbert Souse]

Originally Posted by nitin

The Last Command is another silent masterpiece from Josef Von Sternberg.

The mid-section is a flashback to a story about a Russian Imperial army general and his encounters with a couple of revolutionaries looking to overthrow the czarist rule. That section is bookended with the making of a Hollywood Russian revolution film in which the ex Russian army general has a role as a Hollywood extra.

Out of that narrative structure, Von Sternberg creates a typically astonishing piece of visual storytelling and couples it with a very impactful central performance by Emil Jannings. Von Sternberg’s camera constantly recreates visual touches that juxtapose scenes from the mid-section flashback with the Hollywood set scenes in the bookends. But due to the narrative, these visual call backs have an added emotional heft on top of the ironic juxtaposition.

Evelyn Brent also does a great job in the midsection of the film, holding her own against Jannings’ bluster much like she did against George Bancroft’s character in Von Sternberg’s Underworld.

Criterion’s blu is from an older master? It is from a duplicate negative and a little soft every now and then but is otherwise a pretty impressive rendering of this 90yr old film. I much prefer the Robert Israel score from the two options available.

Highly recommended (the boxset also comes with another masterpiece The Docks Of New York and the classy Underworld!

The original DVD set came out in 2010, but Criterion couldn't release a Blu edition due to their license being only for DVD. They still did everything with the same standards of Blu-ray, which is why Masters of Cinema was able to license their transfer of The Last Command for their Blu-ray a few years later. All of their 2009-2010 DVD-only releases that have been upgraded to Blu use identical masters except for the Rossellini War Trilogy. For reference, the transfers for the Von Sternberg silents are newer than the ones for The Red Shoes and Dr. Strangelove.

[johnvand]

Anyone watch their criterion’s on a 65”4k oled? Looking to upgrade to a larger display and wondering how they hold up.

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by johnvand

Anyone watch their criterion’s on a 65”4k oled? Looking to upgrade to a larger display and wondering how they hold up.

Most of my Criterion discs I’ve tested on my 4K TV have upscaled quite nicely. Sometimes, however, discs can show their age with the transfers (films like “Bottle Rocket”, “Days of Heaven” and “Nashville” could use fresh scans) or the wonky encoding can be evident (some bad blocking in shadows for “Rumble Fish”).

[SeanJoyce]

Anybody care to chat Melville? Every once in a while I get into a 50s/60s French crime cinema fugue with a particular focus on his contributions, and I thank the movie gods for him. He died prematurely and didn't exactly have a robust output compared to other filmmakers (14), but it's difficult to argue that he didn't make all of them count.

Army of Shadows and Le Cercle Rouge are two of the jewels of my collection; they're two OOP titles I'm most grateful to own. While some consider the former his masterpiece because of his personal involvement in the Resistance, to me Le Cercle Rouge is his "white wale"...the apotheosis of his special brand of American-styled gangster existentialism. He claimed that he was originally supposed to direct Rififi, and you can almost sense him trying to "outdo" that classic with the stunning jewelry store heist.

And while we're on it, going through them, I'm amazed at the density of the booklets that come with either release...perhaps it's a sad reflection of Criterion's lowering standards, but these things elevate great packages to something special.

While I'm ecstatic that Kino was able to get several of his other movies to the states in HD, I'm a bit peeved that they just weren't given back to Criterion. The OCD-collector in me is finding it difficult to part with the (excellent) Criterion discs, with exclusive extras, and the lack of uniformity is irksome. But ah well, first world problems.

I really hope that Criterion revisits Le Deuxieme Souffle and gives us Magnet of Doom (one of only two Melville movies I haven't seen.)

[nitin]

Originally Posted by Dailyan

Most of my Criterion discs I’ve tested on my 4K TV have upscaled quite nicely. Sometimes, however, discs can show their age with the transfers (films like “Bottle Rocket”, “Days of Heaven” and “Nashville” could use fresh scans) or the wonky encoding can be evident (some bad blocking in shadows for “Rumble Fish”).

Nashville looks pretty great IMHO and unlike those other ones you mention which are older HD masters used for the DVD, this was a 2k restoration wasn’t it?

[nitin]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

Anybody care to chat Melville? Every once in a while I get into a 50s/60s French crime cinema fugue with a particular focus on his contributions, and I thank the movie gods for him. He died prematurely and didn't exactly have a robust output compared to other filmmakers (14), but it's difficult to argue that he didn't make all of them count.

Army of Shadows and Le Cercle Rouge are two of the jewels of my collection; they're two OOP titles I'm most grateful to own. While some consider the former his masterpiece because of his personal involvement in the Resistance, to me Le Cercle Rouge is his "white wale"...the apotheosis of his special brand of American-styled gangster existentialism. He claimed that he was originally supposed to direct Rififi, and you can almost sense him trying to "outdo" that classic with the stunning jewelry store heist.

And while we're on it, going through them, I'm amazed at the density of the booklets that come with either release...perhaps it's a sad reflection of Criterion's lowering standards, but these things elevate great packages to something special.

While I'm ecstatic that Kino was able to get several of his other movies to the states in HD, I'm a bit peeved that they just weren't given back to Criterion. The OCD-collector in me is finding it difficult to part with the (excellent) Criterion discs, with exclusive extras, and the lack of uniformity is irksome. But ah well, first world problems.

I really hope that Criterion revisits Le Deuxieme Souffle and gives us Magnet of Doom (one of only two Melville movies I haven't seen.)

Incredible filmmaker, I haven’t seen them all yet but every single one has been worth watching so far.

And with you on the rankings, so far I would go Le Cercle Rouge, Army Of Shadows, Le Samurai, Le Deuxieme Soufflé, Le Doulos, Un Flic and Bob Le Flambeur.

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

Anybody care to chat Melville? Every once in a while I get into a 50s/60s French crime cinema fugue with a particular focus on his contributions, and I thank the movie gods for him. He died prematurely and didn't exactly have a robust output compared to other filmmakers (14), but it's difficult to argue that he didn't make all of them count.

Army of Shadows and Le Cercle Rouge are two of the jewels of my collection; they're two OOP titles I'm most grateful to own. While some consider the former his masterpiece because of his personal involvement in the Resistance, to me Le Cercle Rouge is his "white wale"...the apotheosis of his special brand of American-styled gangster existentialism. He claimed that he was originally supposed to direct Rififi, and you can almost sense him trying to "outdo" that classic with the stunning jewelry store heist.

And while we're on it, going through them, I'm amazed at the density of the booklets that come with either release...perhaps it's a sad reflection of Criterion's lowering standards, but these things elevate great packages to something special.

While I'm ecstatic that Kino was able to get several of his other movies to the states in HD, I'm a bit peeved that they just weren't given back to Criterion. The OCD-collector in me is finding it difficult to part with the (excellent) Criterion discs, with exclusive extras, and the lack of uniformity is irksome. But ah well, first world problems.

I really hope that Criterion revisits Le Deuxieme Souffle and gives us Magnet of Doom (one of only two Melville movies I haven't seen.)

Melville is maybe my favorite French director. One of the first BluRays I got when I went region-free earlier this year was to get the Studiocanal Essential Melville boxset because of Le Cercle Rouge being OOP in the US, sure Criterion may re-release it but I didn't feel like waiting until whenever that was. My favs are probably Le Cercle Rouge, Le Samouraï, Le Deuxieme Souffle, Bob le Flambeur, Le Doulos, and Un Flic. I still have films like Army of Shadows, Leon Morin, Priest, and Two Men in Manhattan to watch. Also, much like you I wish Criterion upgrade Le Deuxieme Souffle which is a superb film.

[Scottie]

Army of Shadows and Le Samouraï are excellent films.

I hope the former is re-released domestically by some studio.

[Sifox211]

Originally Posted by johnvand

Anyone watch their criterion’s on a 65”4k oled? Looking to upgrade to a larger display and wondering how they hold up.

I watched Kurosawa’s Dreams on mine and it looked fantastic.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

Anybody care to chat Melville? Every once in a while I get into a 50s/60s French crime cinema fugue with a particular focus on his contributions, and I thank the movie gods for him. He died prematurely and didn't exactly have a robust output compared to other filmmakers (14), but it's difficult to argue that he didn't make all of them count.

Army of Shadows and Le Cercle Rouge are two of the jewels of my collection; they're two OOP titles I'm most grateful to own. While some consider the former his masterpiece because of his personal involvement in the Resistance, to me Le Cercle Rouge is his "white wale"...the apotheosis of his special brand of American-styled gangster existentialism. He claimed that he was originally supposed to direct Rififi, and you can almost sense him trying to "outdo" that classic with the stunning jewelry store heist.

And while we're on it, going through them, I'm amazed at the density of the booklets that come with either release...perhaps it's a sad reflection of Criterion's lowering standards, but these things elevate great packages to something special.

While I'm ecstatic that Kino was able to get several of his other movies to the states in HD, I'm a bit peeved that they just weren't given back to Criterion. The OCD-collector in me is finding it difficult to part with the (excellent) Criterion discs, with exclusive extras, and the lack of uniformity is irksome. But ah well, first world problems.

I really hope that Criterion revisits Le Deuxieme Souffle and gives us Magnet of Doom (one of only two Melville movies I haven't seen.)

Le Samouraï, Army of Shadows, and Le Cercle Rouge are my three favorite Criterion Collection titles.

In fact, Le Samouraï is one of my all-time top 10 films, and Army of Shadows is my favorite war movie.

I'm as pleased as pudding that Kino has put out some of his other releases lately, because I had long been wanting to upgrade my old DVDs.

[BenOswald]

Not a huge Melville fan, but Army of Shadows has a certain tension about it that is uniquely awesome and it's 100% an incredible movie.

The silent & unspoken communication between in the barbershop scene is absolutely incredible.

[Gacivory]

Really like Melville! Army of Shadows and Le Cercle Rouge are my favorites!

[Cremildo]

Absolutely. Army of Shadows was a Criterion blind-buy back in the day (DVD) and it remains one of the best.