The Criterion Collection

[mrjohnnyb]

Originally Posted by KubrickKurasawa

I'd really like a Bunel boxset...I might just pay the piper and get a Sony region free blu ray player and import though...

I assume you that you would consider purchasing Buñuel: The Essential Collection by Studio Canal if you went region-free.

I would also really like a Buñuel boxset. So much of his oeuvre is scarce on many forms of media.

[KubrickKurasawa]

Originally Posted by mrjohnnyb

I assume you that you would consider purchasing Buñuel: The Essential Collection by Studio Canal if you went region-free.

I would also really like a Buñuel boxset. So much of his oeuvre is scarce on many forms of media.

Yeah that one...

[Elvis_Tangerium]

Originally Posted by mrjohnnyb

I would also really like a Buñuel boxset. So much of his oeuvre is scarce on many forms of media.

Would love to see a boxset of Buñuel's Mexican films:

Los olvidados
Susana
Subida al cielo
Él
La ilusión viaja en tranvía
Ensayo de un crimen
El río y la muerte

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by KubrickKurasawa

Yeah that one...

[Show spoiler]

Just note that reviews indicate some of the transfers on the set are problematic, including the remaster of Belle de Jour. Link to this site's review

[nitin]

Rewatched a couple of Criterions that did not click for me first time around (both fared much better on a second viewing):

Dishonored - having devoured (and loved) everything Von Sternberg related in the last year that I could get my hands on, I went back and revisited what on first viewing felt like the weakest film in the Dietrich-Von Sternberg set.

On second viewing, it’s still a bit of an oddball film, quite clunky in parts, visually a lot more restrained than Von Sternberg’s usual and mesmeric go for broke style, and veering in tone from the dramatically serious to the ridiculously camp. That last tonal aspect is present to some degree in all the Dietrich-Vin Sternberg collaborations but usually a lot better balanced.

But I appreciated Marlene Dietrich’s magnetic performance and command of the screen a lot more on the second viewing. It’s quite a progressive and mysterious character, always marching to the beat of her own drum, only doing something if she wants to do it, and always in her own way. Dietrich channels this aspect of her character in every little thing she does, from the way she walks, the way she speaks, even in the way she sits!

The last scene, and Dietrich’s performance in it, are rightfully famous.

Criterion’s blu looks pretty great, albeit a bit soft, with beautiful grayscale preserving Von Sternberg’s meticulous lighting (some of Dietrich’s closeups here are extraordinary).


Paul Fejos’ Lonesome is a simple silent era film with a threadbare narrative and thinly drawn characters. It’s also a little too overbearingly cute and sentimental.

But Fejos was also a scientist and anthropologist before he became a film director and the way he feverishly and evocatively films his two lovers amongst the massive crowd in NYC on a July 3 holiday seems to owe as much to that background as it does to the cinematic techniques he borrows from Murnau, Vertov and Eisenstein. There is nothing simple about the style of the film which goes a long way towards keeping the viewer interested and engaged with the otherwise simple story. The character work is also genuine if a little straightforward.

There are 3 awkwardly filmed and performed dialogue sequences that were added at the behest if the studio that bring the movie to a halt every time they appear but thankfully they are all quite short.

Criterion’s blu is a restoration from multiple sources and looks pretty good, albeit with quite a bit of wear and tear and also some rougher looking sequences. But this would have cost them a fortune to put together and the end result is a very fine preservation of an almost lost film.

[mmarczi]

Originally Posted by KubrickKurasawa

Yeah that one...

[Show spoiler]

This is the route I took. I have a feeling it will be years before we see all of these titles reach a quality Blu-Ray in this region, and it wasn't too expensive given what it contains, so I would be fine with double dipping over a span of years. I did the same with the Godard set, though I own enough of Melville's work already to have passed on that one, especially once Army of Shadows was announced.

[StarDestroyer52]

DVDBeaver's review for Leave Her to Heaven is now live.

[FragnitoM]

So when do you think we’ll get announcements about these 4 box sets? The first one I imagine has to be announced soon. I don’t think they’d release all 4 in October/November

[mmarczi]

Logically one would think we would hear of at least one of them rather soon, seeing as how the next announcement will already take us through half of the year. Four box sets in the span of 7 months--assuming all of them even manage to be released in 2020--wasn't what I would have assumed as the plan when the clue was first published.

[JEDGAR1000]

Originally Posted by Pi905

I got Criterion's newsletter about Tarkovsky on the Criterion Channel and was wondering, does a film streaming on the channel ever correlate to a physical release? I'd assume the rights are totally different, but I was just curious because I saw The Mirror listed as one of the titles, and I'd still love a region A release. Also, sorry if this gets asked all of the time!

If you don't want to wait on Criterion & are region locked, this dvd release is region free & has English subtitles, as well as the original mono audio.



16.50 on Amazon US

https://www.amazon.com/Tarkovsky-Yan...dp/B01GUOUJTG/

[ilenewoodsfan99]

Originally Posted by StarDestroyer52

DVDBeaver's review for Leave Her to Heaven is now live.

Looking and comparing all the screenshots, the old DVD still looks decent, even now. Will gladly keep it just in case.

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by FragnitoM

So when do you think we’ll get announcements about these 4 box sets? The first one I imagine has to be announced soon. I don’t think they’d release all 4 in October/November

I would imagine one would be released during July or November. While I have no way of knowing, but I have a feeling the Fellini set will come in November like the Bergman set did.

[Egbert Souse]

My predictions...

Bruce Lee - June/July
Varda - July
Fellini - October
WKW - November

It is possible some may be doubled up since the Lee set would only have 4-5 films (maybe Enter the Dragon, I doubt Game of Death II would be included except as an extra) and the WKW box will have eight films max (his first eight features are distributed by Janus except for Ashes of Time and 2046).

The Varda and Fellini boxes will be Bergman-sized by comparison.

This is on top of the Blu upgrade of Rohmer's Six Moral Tales and the just-released Karel Zeman box; as well as a likely Blu-only reprint of The Essential Jacques Demy since the UK is getting it. We might even get the third World Cinema Project box.

[tonovember]

I'd be over the moon if a Varda BD set is happening.
already excited about the wong kar wai set, and wouldn't mind a Demy set as well, been meaning to get into his filmography.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by tonovember

I'd be over the moon if a Varda BD set is happening.
already excited about the wong kar wai set, and wouldn't mind a Demy set as well, been meaning to get into his filmography.

This one was released in 2014:

[mmarczi]

Originally Posted by tonovember

I'd be over the moon if a Varda BD set is happening.

It was more or less confirmed in their New Year's clue, along with the Fellini, Lee, and WKW sets.

[FragnitoM]

Originally Posted by Egbert Souse

My predictions...

Bruce Lee - June/July
Varda - July
Fellini - October
WKW - November

the WKW box will have eight films max (his first eight features are distributed by Janus except for Ashes of Time and 2046).

It’s not a given it will only be 8 films max. WKW has said and other reports have indicated that all his films will be released by Criterion. Even though Janus doesn’t have distribution rights and that’s why they aren’t touring with the others, they can still license them for box like they did with Bergman. We’ll only know for sure when it’s announced

[Scottie]

R.I.P. Max von Sydow

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by Scottie

R.I.P. Max von Sydow

An actor whose career has traversed the sublime and the ridiculous and handled both with equal elan. A towering presence in cinema.

[Snicket]

Originally Posted by Scottie

R.I.P. Max von Sydow

What a life, what a legend.