The Criterion Collection

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

Is anybody else already working on their Barnes & Noble and Flash sale lists? I've got a certificate to B&N, so I'll buy a few from them if their sale happens:

Leave Her to Heaven
The Lady Eve
The War of the Worlds

My Flash sale list is looking absolutely gargantuan.

I'll be sitting this one out as I have way too many films to watch, but I did pre-order The Lady Eve and War of the Worlds from BullMoose plus pre-ordered the Bruce Lee set direct from Criterion as I had a $10 off coupon and it put me over the threshold to get the $50 GC in October. Then, also July has the Wonder Woman series coming out. Not to mention I have the Gamera set and Umberto Lenzi/Caroll Baker giallo set coming in June and July. I will be looking to splurge in October and November and planning ahead for it . Pre-ordered Leave Her to Heaven when it came out, now just need to get around to watching it as I have all kinds of blind buys I still need to watch. Least right now, there is plenty of time to get caught up on all the films.

[StarDestroyer52]

Is Criterion being a tease again or will we get an upgrade?




Source

[yoloswegmaster420]

Originally Posted by StarDestroyer52

Is Criterion being a tease again or will we get an upgrade?




Source

Neither. They're just hosting a stream on the Criterion Channel in honor of Michel Piccoli.

[theater dreamer]

Originally Posted by StarDestroyer52

I'll be sitting this one out as I have way too many films to watch, but I did pre-order The Lady Eve and War of the Worlds from BullMoose plus pre-ordered the Bruce Lee set direct from Criterion as I had a $10 off coupon and it put me over the threshold to get the $50 GC in October. Then, also July has the Wonder Woman series coming out. Not to mention I have the Gamera set and Umberto Lenzi/Caroll Baker giallo set coming in June and July. I will be looking to splurge in October and November and planning ahead for it . Pre-ordered Leave Her to Heaven when it came out, now just need to get around to watching it as I have all kinds of blind buys I still need to watch. Least right now, there is plenty of time to get caught up on all the films.

You may not be buying during the sales, but you’ve got a nice assortment coming in before they start. The Bruce Lee set is an interesting choice. I’ve only seen a few of his films in one sitting, but I’ve seen so many clips over the years, a lot of it will seem very familiar to me.

My plan right now is to get the Agnes Varda set along with the Jacques Demy set at the same time. I’ve had the latter high on my list for a while, so buying both at the same time just seems right.

Originally Posted by StarDestroyer52

Is Criterion being a tease again or will we get an upgrade?

[Show spoiler]


Source

Outside of my copy not coming with a slip, I’m quite happy with the StudioCanal release. I thought the technical merits pretty strong, and there’s a real nice collection of extras.

BCF7D5FB-7A11-4E74-9805-D4C53EBD1514.jpg

I was delighted to see it even came with an Ultraviolet copy.

Originally Posted by yoloswegmaster420

Neither. They're just hosting a stream on the Criterion Channel in honor of Michel Piccoli.

I saw he’d passed a few days ago and meant to comment. Michel had a long, brilliant career. The list of directors he worked with is jaw dropping, a testament to his talent: Jean Renoir, Luis Bunuel, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Melville, Rene Clement, Costa-Gavras, Alain Resnais, Agnes Varda, Jacques Demy, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Claude Chabrol, Louis Malle, and Alfred Hitchcock, among them. What a body of work to leave behind. What a life, well-lived.

[Blu-man08]

I'm interested in All About Eve - especially given the flash sale, but the horror stories about Criterion's packaging for this one are keeping me from jumping in. Does anyone know if they have addressed the packaging issue?

[dwk]

Yes they fixed the packaging and you can request the fixed packaging if you get the old, but they currently are not sending replacements because they are working from home.

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by Blu-man08

I'm interested in All About Eve - especially given the flash sale, but the horror stories about Criterion's packaging for this one are keeping me from jumping in. Does anyone know if they have addressed the packaging issue?

Yes, they were changing the packaging to a more traditional digipack with plastic disc trays but depending on where you order from you might wind up with the old one. I'm sure if you order from Criterion they will have the new packaging by now but if you wind up with the old, you can contact them for a replacement.

[belcherman]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

Is anybody else already working on their Barnes & Noble and Flash sale lists? I've got a certificate to B&N, so I'll buy a few from them if their sale happens:

Leave Her to Heaven
The Lady Eve
The War of the Worlds

My Flash sale list is looking absolutely gargantuan.

I always have my carts loaded up and ready to go in anticipation of the next B&N or flash sale. Of course, I rarely order from B&N outside of their 50% off Criterion sales, and I never order from Criterion outside of their flash sales.

[UnionJackMix]

Is the John Cassavetes set worth buying? I remember reading over the years that some did not have the best quality, but it might have been previous editions. Last flash sale almost convinced me to purchase it.

[theater dreamer]

Originally Posted by UnionJackMix

Is the John Cassavetes set worth buying?

Oh God, yes. In my humble opinion, it’s one of the essential release in the collection. Pick up Love Streams, too.

[theater dreamer]

Originally Posted by UnionJackMix

Is the John Cassavetes set worth buying? I remember reading over the years that some did not have the best quality, but it might have been previous editions. Last flash sale almost convinced me to purchase it.

To expand a bit more on my initial response...

If you can wait, pick it up during the October Flash sale. First of all, there’s a good chance you won’t have to pay sales tax:

Per Criterion’s site:

The Criterion Collection is required to collect sales tax on orders shipping to Alabama, California, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Washington and Washington D.C.. If sales tax applies to your order, we’ll indicate it during the checkout process.

If your order is over $50, it ships free. Since half off MSRP is about $62.50, from memory, that immediately qualifies for free shipping.

And, the entire cost of purchase, less sales tax, counts towards your loyalty rewards total. After 500 points, you instantly get a $50 gift certificate sent to your e-mail of record.

As to the quality of the set, I was blown away by it. Keep in mind that Shadows was shot in the late 50s on a shoestring budget. Cassavetes was fiercely independent, and uncompromising. So, he cut costs anywhere he could do so without sacrificing his integrity or film quality. Friends like Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara, and his wife, Gena Rowlands, were part of a world class creative pool that didn’t break the bank.

If you wait until October, spend some time reading up about how he worked, artistically, as well as from a production standpoint. That will create a proper expectation for his earlier work. I’m not the toughest critic when it comes to technical assessment-there are people here far more qualified to discuss the equipment used, and the type of print created. I found those earlier works perfectly acceptable. Other releases of the same packaged films utilized the same masters-I know one set in Germany is occasionally cheaper to import. But overall, I’m very happy with the Criterion set. It’s a film school in a box. There is much I have to learn from the man yet, but his creative genius, and his maverick approach to working as an artist without shackles, is evident everywhere you look.

If you ask me, John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands made for one of the greatest creative teams in film history. The $60, or so, you’d spend would be a wise investment.

If you’re still unsure, the Criterion Channel offers a two week free trial, and the set is streamable. Sign up, and check them out before making a buying decision. Ultimately, John’s films will resonate with you, or they won’t. That’s shaped by your tastes, your life experiences-a number of different things. The ultimate answer to your question “is it worth it?”-only you can really know that. But I am so glad I took that chance.

Enjoy!

[traths]

July can't come soon enough, I already know which titles I will be getting.

[UnionJackMix]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

To expand a bit more on my initial response...

If you can wait, pick it up during the October Flash sale. First of all, there’s a good chance you won’t have to pay sales tax:

Per Criterion’s site:



If your order is over $50, it ships free. Since half off MSRP is about $62.50, from memory, that immediately qualifies for free shipping.

And, the entire cost of purchase, less sales tax, counts towards your loyalty rewards total. After 500 points, you instantly get a $50 gift certificate sent to your e-mail of record.

As to the quality of the set, I was blown away by it. Keep in mind that Shadows was shot in the late 50s on a shoestring budget. Cassavetes was fiercely independent, and uncompromising. So, he cut costs anywhere he could do so without sacrificing his integrity or film quality. Friends like Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara, and his wife, Gena Rowlands, were part of a world class creative pool that didn’t break the bank.

If you wait until October, spend some time reading up about how he worked, artistically, as well as from a production standpoint. That will create a proper expectation for his earlier work. I’m not the toughest critic when it comes to technical assessment-there are people here far more qualified to discuss the equipment used, and the type of print created. I found those earlier works perfectly acceptable. Other releases of the same packaged films utilized the same masters-I know one set in Germany is occasionally cheaper to import. But overall, I’m very happy with the Criterion set. It’s a film school in a box. There is much I have to learn from the man yet, but his creative genius, and his maverick approach to working as an artist without shackles, is evident everywhere you look.

If you ask me, John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands made for one of the greatest creative teams in film history. The $60, or so, you’d spend would be a wise investment.

If you’re still unsure, the Criterion Channel offers a two week free trial, and the set is streamable. Sign up, and check them out before making a buying decision. Ultimately, John’s films will resonate with you, or they won’t. That’s shaped by your tastes, your life experiences-a number of different things. The ultimate answer to your question “is it worth it?”-only you can really know that. But I am so glad I took that chance.

Enjoy!

Thank you so much for the thorough response!
I've been a bit informed about him for about 20 years but I admit from his early indie movies I only saw Faces and I think I even had to settle for a dubbed version at the time. I love Gena Rowlands to bit (what a stunning woman and talented to boot) so I've been collecting all her movies where I can however held off on her husband's early work as they are usually not the cheapest (and releases always came with varied feedback on the physical release) and I'm not sure I would enjoy them too much (yet) hence my putting them on my perennial wish list but I really think I'll try to get it in the next sale.

That aside I saw Gloria (have the TT version) and A Child Is Waiting (again dubbed, and then the I think Kino version of the bluray that's region locked).

[Reddington]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

Is anybody else already working on their Barnes & Noble and Flash sale lists?

[Show spoiler]I've got a certificate to B&N, so I'll buy a few from them if their sale happens:

Leave Her to Heaven
The Lady Eve
The War of the Worlds

My Flash sale list is looking absolutely gargantuan.

Lots of titles in my wish list. I've got a $50 certificate tucked away for the next Flash Sale in October, but my real hope is that B&N has a 50% event as usual in July and the physical locations here in MA are open again.

Although I scaled back my Criterion "bulk" buying from B&N over the past two years in favour of the semi-annual Flash Sales, this virus business has certainly been a reminder of how fortunate I am to have three local B&N stores, and how important it is to support them. I'd really like to be able to walk around "my" stores in July and pick up some titles.

[Reddington]

Originally Posted by StarDestroyer52

Is Criterion being a tease again or will we get an upgrade?




Source

Always liked the Criterion DVD artwork. I bought a pristine used copy from a local store for about $10 after it went OOP. I haven't upgraded to the BD yet.

[NeoNical]

I don't know what version I saw on Criterion Channel, but Contempt looked horrible to my eyes. I hope it was the DVD because if this was the Blu-ray, it's giving me flashbacks of Lionsgate Ran Blu-ray. But yeah, there's no confirmation that this film will be back right away since all the films owned by Lionsgate from StudioCanal haven't gone OOP yet seems like. (Ran, The Third Man, Contempt, The Ladykillers, Delicatessen.) I'm surprised that there's only 5 films that I found in the StudioCanal collection. The rest are all in Region B territory.

So yeah, Contempt won't be getting a re-release for a long time. Even if StudioCanal does a 4K restoration, it won't happen as long as Lionsgate chokes all their films. And when they announce that they'll be using a 4K restoration, it's probably going to be an older master like The Man Who Fell to Earth.

[The Sovereign]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

Is anybody else already working on their Barnes & Noble and Flash sale lists?

I'm definitely contemplating my B&N list. This is how it's looking so far:

The Lady Eve
The Great Escape
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Taste of Cherry
Karel Zeman set
Bruce Lee set
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
The War of the Worlds
Until the End of the World
Leave Her to Heaven
Fail Safe

Throw in a few inevitable back catalog titles, and I'm in for a rough hit to the piggy bank.

[CelestialAgent]

The Varda set will be region free

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...74728&page=786

[Bn43]

Rewatching Berlin Alexanderplatz. Who the hell puts mono in 1.0 on a Blu-ray? I've only run across like three Blu-rays that do this, and it sucks, because the sound only comes out of the center speaker. My Onkyo receiver has no option to split 1.0 to 2.0, and I don't want it coming out of all speakers (Full Mono) either. I'm wondering if they did it this way because each disc is five hours long and they wanted to save space, so they didn't double the audio bitrate for a second speaker.

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

Is anybody else already working on their Barnes & Noble and Flash sale lists? I've got a certificate to B&N, so I'll buy a few from them if their sale happens:

Leave Her to Heaven
The Lady Eve
The War of the Worlds

My Flash sale list is looking absolutely gargantuan.

I made a list a couple of years ago of Criterion titles by release years that I wanted from 2008-present. I usually use the first B&N and Flash sales for prior years and the later sales for the current year’s releases. However, this year has been so loaded that I don’t know how much I’ll be able to whittle it down.