The Criterion Collection

[cakefactory]

Originally Posted by jcs913

Now back to the fact that the jerks at Criterion never had a flash sale...

The current price drop on Watership Down at Amazon has taken some of the edge off that for me, that was one of the main things I was looking forward to the flash sale for.

[MechaGodzilla]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is a blind buy for me, as I've been buying and watching some of Bowie's standout movie appearances. He's a much better actor than a lot of musicians-turned-actors.
(...and yes, I totally revisited Labyrinth a couple of weeks ago and turned the volume up during "Magic Dance.")

After reading your post, though, I'll havè to fast-track it to the top of my unwatched stack.

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is a very good film, Bowie is great in it. And speaking of musicians-turned-actors; in addition to being the film's composer (I should mention his score is excellent) Ryuichi Sakamoto also stars in it and - like Bowie - delivers a good performance, much better than you'd expect from someone who's mainly a musician.

As for Labyrinth, absolutely no shame in that! It's a wonderful film, it has that particular feel and charm you only find in certain '80s fantasy movies. Bowie is great as Jareth and oh, how I adore his songs.

[Polaroid]

Originally Posted by jcs913

I think you are simply missing the point. The idea of a topic related thread is to gain information about THAT topic. You have to actually read the words to see if it is the information you may be looking for, no? That sort of throws out the idea of ignoring, as you are still wasting your time reading it, no? As for thinking this becomes a 'stagnant thread'?? This thread is far from that, as I think it has the most posts on the entire site. Camaraderie is a nice thing, but I think I have stated before, is fine for a few posts and not pages. I hope you get what I am saying, as ironically, we have wasted a page on this discussion. But IMO, it needed to be brought up in this thread.

Now back to the fact that the jerks at Criterion never had a flash sale...

If you see a film title bolded that you are waiting to see, isn't it common sense to avoid if you don't want to risk being spoiled??

[oildude]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is a blind buy for me, as I've been buying and watching some of Bowie's standout movie appearances. He's a much better actor than a lot of musicians-turned-actors.
(...and yes, I totally revisited Labyrinth a couple of weeks ago and turned the volume up during "Magic Dance.")

After reading your post, though, I'll havè to fast-track it to the top of my unwatched stack.

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence is one of the most intelligent and moving POW/war films I have seen.

The brutality of the Japanese toward the Allied POWs, the brutality of Japanese officers to the enlisted ranks of their own army, the fact that the camps were not staffed by the cream of the Japanese army, the Japanese contempt for prisoners who they felt lost all honor by surrender, all of that is captured in the film.

Yet overall it is actually a story of hope, loss, and redemption, brought about through the character of Bowie. Oshima transcends your standard war movie, creating an allegorical tale that I think is sublime and powerful.

Also, it has one of the most achingly beautiful film scores ever (by Ryuichi Sakamoto, who stars in the film as the Japanese captain so bedeviled by the Bowie character).

[jcs913]

Originally Posted by Polaroid

If you see a film title bolded that you are waiting to see, isn't it common sense to avoid if you don't want to risk being spoiled??

You are missing the point. Forget about it. Enjoy your discussion.

[joie]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I just bought Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence from Barnes and Noble for $10, because of a 20% off coupon and a $20 gift card.

I was compelled to buy this title at long last, because it is discussed in Nicholas Pegg's book, The Complete David Bowie, that I've been reading as I've been going through all of Bowie's albums in my collection and rediscovering them again for the first time in a few years.

This looks like a solid excellent war film, and I'm glad that I have it now.

I saw it years ago and thought I liked it, so within the last few years bought the disc. It turned out that I liked the music, so sold the movie. It is a slow seller, even when discounted.

The " music" was the score. There is an interesting extra with its composer.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by joie

I saw it years ago and thought I liked it, so within the last few years bought the disc. It turned out that I liked the music, so sold the movie. It is a slow seller, even when discounted.

great music, for me, can elevate a good film to a great one. my recent watch of Jules and Jim blindsided me with, not only the popular song that Jeanne Moreau sings, but with the absolutely wonderful score.

some of my all-time favs are elevated with incredible scores/soundtracks as well. e.g. Vertigo and Barry Lyndon.

[Polaroid]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

great music, for me, can elevate a good film to a great one. my recent watch of Jules and Jim blindsided me with, not only the popular song that Jeanne Moreau sings, but with the absolutely wonderful score.

some of my all-time favs are elevated with incredible scores/soundtracks as well. e.g. Vertigo and Barry Lyndon.

I love it when a film using the score to create another character in the film

[Page14]

Originally Posted by Marlow27

I've always been super intrigued by Robinson Crusoe on Mars, and it's inclusion in the collection. Not in a snobby sort of way, more in a general "it's not the sort of film that you'd usually find in the collection" sort of way, and I'm intrigued by it. The screenshots are beautiful and I've heard good things, but I was curious to hear other people's thoughts on it?

I'm very biased about this film as it is a big time childhood favorite of mine. It's one of the first movies I remember seeing in a theater ... and it's a movie that I saw over and over and over again. But you have to keep in mind that I was 9 or 10 years old at the time.

It had such a big effect on me so many years later that I went out of my way to find it on DVD. There was a time when I could only find it as a bootleg on eBay, so when I found out that it was released by Criterion, I bought it without too much hesitation over the price. (This was in the days before I knew anything about the Criterion company, or that their DVDs went on sale from time to time). I'm pretty sure it was the first Criterion DVD I ever bought.

I think it gained some acclaim for being somewhat scientifically accurate at the time, but not positive. I'd recommend doing a Google search on some reviews and take it from there.

But like I said, I'm more than a little tainted by my childhood memories of this movie, but I still love it today!

[jw007]

Originally Posted by iScottie

cakefactory, I did not particularly care for Whiplash either. I found it to be incredibly unrealistic and repetitive, to the point that it became dull and boring.

If I was not a jazz fan prior to seeing the movie, I would not become one afterwards.

Wow, complete opposite reaction here. I was on the edge of my seat towards the end especially.. it was anything but boring. I literally started to "finger" the screen . I was sitting in the movie theater and my hands started pointing at the screen and I was tapping like a drummer (which I do on the side sometimes actually) because that ending was so intense. Anyway, I think this film is brilliant and the director Damien Chazelle actually experienced this himself for 5 years in a high school jazz ensemble and based J.K. Simmons' character on his old conductor that is now dead! Check out this article! http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...218-story.html

[jw007]

Originally Posted by shadedpain4

Since I know it's impossible to limit discussions here to films in the collection, please at least spoiler your discussions of other films. I have not seen Whiplash and have been avoiding discussion about it. I avoid the Whiplash thread for example for this reason. People should have a reasonable expectation to not run across detailed discussions of other films (especially current films not in the collection) in this thread.

Look people, its really my fault. I started the whole Whiplash tangent here. I totally respect what you say about keeping things relevant to only Criterion releases in this thread. But why did I do this? Why did I post about this movie here? Because if I had posted it in the Whiplash thread, none of you would have seen it most likely. I wouldn't know the people posting there. And since we all kind of know each other or are familiar with one another in this thread, I feel like this is my "hangout" or "local bar" I go to every day or two and talk about the latest stuff on my mind (maybe not even film-related). Do I make any sense? Sorry but ...

To get onto the Criterion wagon again... I watched Time Bandits for the first time last night. It was so very entertaining! This was a night after I watched The Zero Theorem, Gilliam's newest film, which I found to be very amusing too.

[jhiggy23]

Originally Posted by jcs913

I think you are simply missing the point. The idea of a topic related thread is to gain information about THAT topic. You have to actually read the words to see if it is the information you may be looking for, no? That sort of throws out the idea of ignoring, as you are still wasting your time reading it, no? As for thinking this becomes a 'stagnant thread'?? This thread is far from that, as I think it has the most posts on the entire site. Camaraderie is a nice thing, but I think I have stated before, is fine for a few posts and not pages. I hope you get what I am saying, as ironically, we have wasted a page on this discussion. But IMO, it needed to be brought up in this thread.

Now back to the fact that the jerks at Criterion never had a flash sale...

Couldn't agree more. This thread used to be very interesting and enlightening. Now it seems like a thread for stream of consciousness posting by some members. There's a thing called private messaging.

[jmclick]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

ahh, darn it... I'm not averse to picking up CC DVDs that have a reputation for great PQ. I wish I'd have had a chance to ask here before it went bye bye on eBay. It was for 8.99 plus free ship.

my "problem" is that my collection is full of great films that I have yet to see... a lot of blind buys that I have yet to get around to. it sounds silly to say, but it almost makes me nervous. I have no problem with the amount of money I'm spending, but the feeling that I may never catch up makes me uneasy. I get a lot of stuff from the library, too.

right now, I am enjoying the heck out of The Decalogue. I've got two films to go.

That's about what I paid for my copy, and I judged it to be money well spent. I'll keep my eyes peeled for another bargain copy and send you a PM if I find one.

As far as having a backlog of unwatched films that you need to catch up on, I'm in the same boat, and I would guess we're not the only ones! I got a new black Lab puppy in January, and I've been so busy playing with her and training her that I didn't have my usual Winter Movie Marathon. Ah, well ... I'll eventually get around to watching them all; and if I don't, the chances are good that I won't be worrying about it one way or the other!

[joie]

It's my sense that some post here to hold court, so to speak. It may be that because this thread is the most read on the site some prefer to post here. There was a group of posters some time ago that left and formed a club called, "Criterion Alumni," because they believed that this thread had been hijacked. I don't know by whom, possibly some usurpers, some pretenders to royalty. They recently attempted a comeback, but apparently failed with one of them commenting something like, "so much for taking back the Criterion thread."

Spoilers should be used more often. It gives readers a choice. I should have spoilered something this morning about Rififi, but it can be difficult on a phone.


Sent from my Nexus 5 using hunt-and-peck with a stylus.

[ChromeJob]

What some people overlook from Labyrinth is the screenwriter, Terry Jones of Do Not Adjust Your Set and (of course) Monty Python's Flying Circus (series, and writer/director of the films). The man's a historian, and his series on the Crusades and the Middle Ages are remarkable.

The man's a genius. When I saw it on release, and saw his name, I ignored any qualms and just sat back and enjoyed the wit. Which is plentiful. Though Jennifer Lawrence was a treat for the eyes too (also plentiful), if you can overlook how young she was. I still felt a little awkward gaping at her in The Rocketeer and Dark City, and she was older....

[jmclick]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I just bought Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence from Barnes and Noble for $10, because of a 20% off coupon and a $20 gift card.

I was compelled to buy this title at long last, because it is discussed in Nicholas Pegg's book, The Complete David Bowie, that I've been reading as I've been going through all of Bowie's albums in my collection and rediscovering them again for the first time in a few years.

This looks like a solid excellent war film, and I'm glad that I have it now.

I bought it as a blind buy during the last Barnes & Noble sale, and watched it just before the holidays. It was so interesting to me, and the characters so rich, that I actually watched it twice within the space of a week.

David Bowie and Tom Conti are both excellent in their roles, but it was the dual contribution of Ryûichi Sakamoto that really made the film for me. His performance was fascinating, even when the camera was focused on other characters and he was in the background, simply reacting, and his musical score ... well, it took me days to get it out of my head!

If you enjoy it half as much as I did, you'll be very happy with your purchase!

[Freeza]

Originally Posted by Polaroid

Had to do it.

No, you didn't. But after obviously ignoring (not missing) the point, I expected nothing more.

[Polaroid]

Originally Posted by Freeza

No, you didn't. But after obviously ignoring (not missing) the point, I expected nothing more.

Grown up - this is meant to be a friendly place to discuss stuff we are all interested in.

Stop acting like a snobbish film reviewer - learn to have fun and not act so serious.

[Snicket]

You talk about Marvel one time...and everything goes to hell. Let this all be an important lesson for you all.

[Gusto-Guus]

Originally Posted by cakefactory

As a big jazz fan with professional jazzers in the family, I thought Whiplash was idiotic. The ways in which it butchers the entire idea of jazz music makes it as realistic as the writer's previous movie, "Grand Piano" (in which Elijah Wood is a concert pianist who must play an impossible piece perfectly, or John Cusack will shoot him with a sniper rifle from the rafters). The fact almost everyone seems to have taken it seriously just blows my mind. However, I know I'm in a tiny minority. The New Yorker and Peter Erskine (one of the best jazz drummers in the world) did very good explanations of what's wrong with it. (End spoiler, kind of)

[Show spoiler]Basically, though, the climax is like if when Marty McFly started doing the Van Halen thing at the 50s dance, he'd instead done it for 5 minutes, and everyone in the room had started cheering. The plot probably would have worked better with Prog Metal instead of Jazz. In an actual jazz show, tasteless technical junk like that would result in the audience walking out (or throwing things at the stage).

I guess all the legitimate jazz musicians I know disliked it just for the outrageous way it portrayed jazz as being some kind of insane purely technical exercise where a bunch of superfast rolls for a while would dazzle audiences and where the directors are obsessed with computer-like precision and playing every single note as printed (when the majority of jazz scores for rhythm players in particular are very rarely even written out as more than a rough sketch with a lot of "fill time for X measures") etc. I hang out with too many jazz musicians and don't really know how undergrad music people who aren't heavy into jazz or are at the stage where they feel tyrannized by their instructors would think of it, they'd probably appreciate it. I mean, it's good that they're playing legitimate jazz charts and that the movie is somewhat musically literate (like, people look like they're actually playing the music, and the music being played corresponds to the notes on the scores that you can see on screen, and most of the terminology is accurate, etc). I guess those things are all things that should be taken for granted, but they really aren't at all. It's so rare that a movie bothers to get any of that stuff right.

About that spoiler,

[Show spoiler]you mean Fletcher screwing the kid over or the kid going solo like he did?