The Criterion Collection

[Aclea]

When you get a chance to watch it, let us know if they've managed to get rid of that huge green tramline on the last third of their DVD of Tunes of Glory.

And Merry Christmas to one and all!

[ravenus]

What a coincidence that last night I watched Bob Le Flambeur (on Kino's blu). BLF has shades of Rififi in its plot of an old former crook coming up with a scheme for an ambitious last job. Of course Bob (does he have a last name? Edit: Montagne) is a little better off than Jean Servais' washed-up character in Rififi, only down to his last few hundred thousand, and still able to be the man about Pigalle Street. Bob's an inveterate punter who spends all night visiting club backrooms for cards or dice - heck, he even has a slot machine in his flat. His grand scheme is to clean out the safe of a casino for several hundred million (one suspects even if he had, his share would be soon squandered in a similar joint). But as always happens in crime/noir, the heist doesn't go quite the way he imagines.

Melville freely indulges in his love affair with the Hollywood criminal archetype, mixing in his patented sensibilities. While Bob may gamble and steal, he is an honorable old-world crook that detests pimps and chastely rescues young coquettes. He is surrounded by friends that admire his attitude and his generosity (his favorite bartender says that her bar was built with loans from Bob). Not quite in the brilliantly constructed league of Rififi or Kubrick's The Killing, or as sleek as Melville's later crime flick Red Circle, BLF feels a little sloppy towards the end, depending on some eye-rolling plot contrivances not sufficiently masked by the direction. But it does have a good amount of class, in no small measure thanks to cinematographer Henri Decae's evocative depiction of Melville's stylized crimeland.

[ilenewoodsfan99]

Originally Posted by GeoffOliver

If Criterion still has some Fox films up their sleeve, I hope they also announce An Affair to Remember, if only because they would also likely include the original Love Affair from 1939 (which doesn't even have an official DVD).

I got my hands on it while I was tracking down all the 1939 Best Picture nominees. The Alpha Video DVD (which I still own) is in poor quality, and the sound isn't always the best, but I'm still glad I bought it, as Love Affair is such a lovely movie. Still, of the remaining 1939 BP nominees, it is in need of an upgrade most.

[Member-167298]

Why are some Criterion releases (8 1/2, Repulsion, etc.) suddenly going for big money on Amazon?

Is it just low stock or are they out of print?

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by PrestonXI

Why are some Criterion releases (8 1/2, Repulsion, etc.) suddenly going for big money on Amazon?

Is it just low stock or are they out of print?

If its not listed as OOP on Criterion's website then its just temporarily out of stock.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by PrestonXI

Why are some Criterion releases (8 1/2, Repulsion, etc.) suddenly going for big money on Amazon?

Is it just low stock or are they out of print?

This tends to happen when retailers run dry on stock and Criterion needs to press more copies. Most of the time, the titles are easily available at Criterion's own website store.

I wish I could say that Amazon Marketplace dealers are honestly thinking that the titles are OOP, but I suspect it's more that they are taking advantage of gullible consumers who will snap at them for inflated prices panicking that they are OOP.

I posted the following to the "BDs That Are Out of Print" thread a week ago:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=5237

[nitin]

Originally Posted by Aclea

When you get a chance to watch it, let us know if they've managed to get rid of that huge green tramline on the last third of their DVD of Tunes of Glory.

And Merry Christmas to one and all!

Tramline is gone:

http://www.criterionforum.org/DVD-re...ollection/2250

[SeanJoyce]

Originally Posted by Aclea

Belmondo was just wishful thinking: Melville regularly fell out with his stars - Volante walked off Cercle and had to be coaxed back by Delon - and Belmondo never forgave Melville for bullying Charles Vanel on Magnet of Doom. It was the train scene in Deuxieme for Ventura: Melville instructed the driver to speed up and taunted Ventura about being out of shape because he wanted to see him really suffering while chasing it. Most people were amazed he did L'Armee after that, but I suspect that was more a testament to the part and the novel's stature than Melville's famously lacking tact and diplomacy.

I do recall reading about the train scene in Souffle.

I read that Belmondo walked off the set of a Melville picture; was that Magnet of Doom? (And btw, how is that one? It would seem the rights are with Criterion, I'd love a release.)

Le Cercle Rouge is beautifully cast; as Melville himself said (and I agree), Bourvil brings a warmth to the role of the dogged inspector that I see Ventura lacking. And Montand is brilliant, lending poignancy to the role of an addict/alcoholic without overdoing it. Melville claimed that he was working on a thriller with him before his untimely passing, I'd be very curious to know what he had brewing. By all appearances, Melville and Delon had an excellent collaborative relationship.

I've long lamented that we didn't get Belmondo and Delon in a Melville picture, but we did get 3 apiece, which counts for something.

[GeoffOliver]

Originally Posted by ilenewoodsfan99

I got my hands on it while I was tracking down all the 1939 Best Picture nominees. The Alpha Video DVD (which I still own) is in poor quality, and the sound isn't always the best, but I'm still glad I bought it, as Love Affair is such a lovely movie. Still, of the remaining 1939 BP nominees, it is in need of an upgrade most.

I believe the best elements belong to Warner, and the film is technically part of their catalog (but still technically public domain), but don’t quote me. TCM sometimes airs a decent print of the film, and I have it DVRed. I also have it in one of those giant Mill Creek DVD dump boxes, and it’s unwatchable with terrible muffled audio.

The Film Detective has a “remastered” DVD of it out. I wonder if that’s any good.

[LordSummerIsle]

Too bad All The President’s Men belongs to WB. It’s my most wanted for CC.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I shared my review of Terrence Malick's A Hidden Life in the Movies sub-forum. it's my favorite film of 2019.

If you have a chance to see this one on a big theater screen, then you absolutely must.

This film is Criterion-worthy, but I also believe that it would be a shame not to have it see the light of day on a 4K UHD disc.

I was fortunate to see this film in a theater about 25 minutes from my city (it only played in one movie theater here, when it was supposed to be in at least 3 different ones - I guess the theaters turned it down last minute). I was also amazed by this film, and I believe A Hidden Life conjures up A LOT of themes and motifs from Days of Heaven. Malick has frustrated me with his last few films, and even The Tree of Life was a film I wanted to be more narrative-driven, but I know that's his style, of visual poetry and meditation-cinema. His last film I truly loved was The New World, but after seeing A Hidden Life, I was emotionally DEVASTATED at times watching this film. It reminded me of my grandmother talking about her life as a teenager growing up during the war in the Austrian/Bavarian Alps working in a little village on a farm and picking potatoes and milking cows. She lived a hidden life, surrounded by pristine nature, effervescent air, and pure spring water. If my grandmother was still alive today (she died 5 years ago), she probably would have related to this film A LOT. Watching this film, it amazed me how during one of the most atrocious wars in history, that one couldn't even tell there was even a war happening, being in the middle of the countryside protected by majestic mountains all around. The main character of Franz Jägerstätter was beatified and made a martyr by the Roman Catholic Church, and for good reason. His defiance in the face of the evil Nazis and amongst his fellow villagers was a true act of courage.

If I could criticize this movie at all, it would have to be its running time. I think the film would have benefitted from being cut 20-30 minutes shorter than its 3 hour running time. But Terrence Malick isn't known for films on the shorter side. Every movie of his is poetic, and epic in size, whether its about love, or war, or morality itself. This is a film to behold, to admire, to LOVE.

I loved your review by the way, Great Owl.

[Egbert Souse]

Originally Posted by scwilli1

Too bad All The President’s Men belongs to WB. It’s my most wanted for CC.

Criterion released eight films from Warner's library in 2019 and already have at least three lined up for 2020 so far (Show Boat, Bamboozled, and The Cameraman). Though, it's probably not a priority considering it already has a good edition with two feature-length documentaries and a commentary as extras.

[nitin]

Journey To Italy is a stunner but Rossellini’s Stromboli is an even more staggering film IMHO.

Ingrid Bergman plays a woman who agrees to marry a poor Sicilian man to get out of an Italian ‘displaced people’ camp in post WWII Italy, only to find herself in a different kind of prison when they go back to his home island of Stromboli, loomed over by an active volcano and where life is very primitive and tough.

There are real life parallels between the narrative and Bergman and Rossellini’s personal life during the making of the film, but those can be put to one side while watching one of cinema’s most interesting female characters captured against a landscape that literally and figuratively seems to mirror her own inner turmoil. Rossellini may be known for his neo-realist approach, and a stunning mid movie scene showing the local townsfolk tuna fishing is ample proof of that reputation, but the way he constantly frames Bergman against the island is a masterclass in cinematographic technique.

Against all of that plays out a terrifically layered narrative of the ability and disposition of people to not communicate with and to not try to understand each other, irrespective of whether they are speaking the same language. And throughout it all Bergman shines luminously as the frustrated woman who cannot get through to anyone, at least not on her own terms.

In a similar way to Journey To Italy, I am not quite sure I buy the ending as much as I bought into the rest of the movie but it doesn’t lessen my enthusiasm in recommending this great film!

Criterion’s blu is from compromised source (a combination of a 2k restoration of a duplicate negative and also a 35mm print) and has a fair bit of blooming in the whites and some noticeable damage throughout. But it’s pretty sharp and detailed and more importantly presents the full international version with English audio, which the Region B BFI release does not. The English audio is pretty important to Bergman’s performance so this definitely is the version to get of a movie with a notorious censorship history.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by SeanJoyce

I read that Belmondo walked off the set of a Melville picture; was that Magnet of Doom? (And btw, how is that one? It would seem the rights are with Criterion, I'd love a release.)

That was the one where Belmondo slapped him after he went too far with his bullying of Vanel. It's one I've not seen and has always been hard to track down - I'm not even sure if it was in the 2003 NFT retrospective where I saw several of Melville's films for the first time, and it's not even in StudioCanal's French 12-disc BD set that included titles from other companies. I'm not convinced Criterion have the rights either, and the fact that it was a Fox title in some English-language teritories bodes ill. Belmondo's 2001 TV remake with Samy Naceri is available in France, albeit without English subs, but Magnet is just a hard to find DVD-R bootleg (usually under the title An Honorable Young Man). A Melville-Belmondo-Simenon movie seems such a natural for boutique labels like Eureka and Arrow in the UK that the fact it's never turned up from any of the usual suspects long before Criterion started their disaster-prone UK label makes me think it's one that'll never get a release.

Le Cercle Rouge is beautifully cast; as Melville himself said (and I agree), Bourvil brings a warmth to the role of the dogged inspector that I see Ventura lacking. And Montand is brilliant, lending poignancy to the role of an addict/alcoholic without overdoing it. Melville claimed that he was working on a thriller with him before his untimely passing, I'd be very curious to know what he had brewing. By all appearances, Melville and Delon had an excellent collaborative relationship.

I agree: I think the cast he got was much better than the one he wanted, which is often the case. No idea what he was planning when he died, though I do seem to recall hearing that his relationship with Delon was getting frayed during Un Flic.

[easydreamer]

Originally Posted by Aclea

That was the one where Belmondo slapped him after he went too far with his bullying of Vanel. It's one I've not seen and has always been hard to track down - I'm not even sure if it was in the 2003 NFT retrospective where I saw several of Melville's films for the first time, and it's not even in StudioCanal's French 12-disc BD set that included titles from other companies. I'm not convinced Criterion have the rights either, and the fact that it was a Fox title in some English-language teritories bodes ill. Belmondo's 2001 TV remake with Samy Naceri is available in France, albeit without English subs, but Magnet is just a hard to find DVD-R bootleg (usually under the title An Honorable Young Man). A Melville-Belmondo-Simenon movie seems such a natural for boutique labels like Eureka and Arrow in the UK that the fact it's never turned up from any of the usual suspects long before Criterion started their disaster-prone UK label makes me think it's one that'll never get a release.



I agree: I think the cast he got was much better than the one he wanted, which is often the case. No idea what he was planning when he died, though I do seem to recall hearing that his relationship with Delon was getting frayed during Un Flic.

Magnet of Doom is currently shown at Criterion Channel with Criterion logo, so they should have the rights to it. The PQ was quite poor, so I guess a major restoration is required before it can be released on any format.

The film is like a travelogue in the US, mixed with the moments from The Wages of Fear. Not particularly a good film, but it's an interesting one for sure. It's quite plot-less & the film mainly focuses on the relationship between the characters played by Belmondo & Vanel, in the US seen in the eyes of the foreign director.

[Aclea]

That's hopeful, though I'm surprised if it wasn't in rights Hell/limbo that there hasn't been a restoration by now (the StudioCanal 12-disc set in France would have seemed the perfect opportunity): it may be a minor film in everyone concerned's filmography, but it's still Belmondo, Melville and Georges Simenon, so it must have some market value in Europe at least.

[The Sovereign]

Well, Christmas is over and now I can focus on what really matters: The Criterion New Year's Drawing.

[bsend]

Originally Posted by The Sovereign

Well, Christmas is over and now I can focus on what really matters: The Criterion New Year's Drawing.

A hint for The Devils would be awesome

[koberulz]

Did everything from last year's end up making the cut?

[The Sovereign]

Originally Posted by koberulz

Did everything from last year's end up making the cut?

I think everything from last year did - in one form or another. The biggest one I can remember that hasn't is Sixteen Candles from a few years back.