The Criterion Collection

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I'd be interested to find out your thoughts on The Soft Skin.

I quickly decided that it was my favorite Francois Truffaut movie yet when I saw it two weeks ago, but it has not received a lot of love in this thread.

Sadly, it's one of those movies about which I cannot write in detail without spoiling its riches for everyone else.

I'm very much looking fwd to it. I bought the CC release that I haven't opened yet. I'm a practical penny pinching kinda guy, so I'll probably try to sell it off, although I really would like to see the Truffaut/Hitchcock extra on the CC edition. I can get it from the library, though, I'm sure.

Originally Posted by adamhopelies

I picked up a couple of the discs as and when they were released. I actually just watched A Gorgeous Girl Like Her, which is a really odd, very special film. The Soft Skin is probably the best film in the set, so much so that I double-dipped on the Criterion last month, purely for the extras.

high praise for TSS! it seems to me (could be wrong) that this is a film that is growing in stature. I don't recall seeing it on a lot of 'top Truffaut' lists, but the people who have recently discovered it via the CC release are digging it.

Originally Posted by pedromvu

I checked the other time they were on sale individually and found that the only one Criterion doesn't have the rights (at least is not on hulu) is A Gorgeous Girl Like Me.

Pro-B gave all of these discs (excluding The Last Metro - I'll keep my CC version) an enthusiastic thumbs up as far as the video quality is concerned. They could come down the pipeline eventually, but for $8 a title, I couldn't pass it up.

Originally Posted by pedromvu

That is a bad investment i got one of the old Seiki model and it just makes me spend more money when Amazon UK or Eureka has sales :

ha ha. yes. I'm pretty good at exercising restraint. we'll see how that goes!

Originally Posted by pedromvu

The Soft Skin is a great Truffaut movie, all his early films i have seen have a certain unique quality in that they make you feel the emotions from the characters very clearly without being overly or melodramatic in style, unfortunately i just haven't seen that yet or maybe not as effective on his latter works like The Last Metro and The Woman Next Door, i would love to see Shoot The Pianist next, so here's hope for a Criterion upgrade.

I really like The Last Metro. It might play like 'Oscar bait,' but for me, there is enough to make me want to return to it. I love movies about (or that take place during) the German occupation of France, so that helps, too.

[Clare2904]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

ha ha. yes. I'm pretty good at exercising restraint. we'll see how that goes!

Until now, you will crack

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by Clare2904

Until now, you will crack

you might be right. I'm logged in late in the day (late for me to be on) and I'm perusing the Artificial Eye and MoC titles and salivating a bit.

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

you might be right. I'm logged in late in the day (late for me to be on) and I'm perusing the Artificial Eye and MoC titles and salivating a bit.

There's also BFI and Arrow, only problem is if something get's released here by Criterion later it is hard to resist a double dip.

[cakefactory]

Originally Posted by pedromvu

There's also BFI and Arrow, only problem is if something get's released here by Criterion later it is hard to resist a double dip.

Some of Arrow's stuff has been equivalent to (or better, in some cases) the Criterion discs imo, I didn't bother getting the Criterion versions of Rififi or Time Bandits for example. The transfers were basically equal and the extras on Rififi were better and Time Bandits were kind of a wash for me (though Criterion certainly had the fancier packaging). I doubt Criterion will be able to do anything to make me re-buy Sisters, either, as Arrow's release is incredible, but I certainly hope they try! I'm curious to see what Arrow does with 3 Women, I'll probably end up just sticking with the Criterion.

[monorail91]

Watched George Washington for the first time. I hadn't heard of it before Criterion released it, and I just watched it kind of impulsively through Hulu+.

I was really surprised how much I liked it - several very moving scenes, and that electronic music at the beginning just pulsated with energy. Almost reminded me of Beasts of the Southern Wild meets Mean Creek (though this of course came before both of them).

[monorail91]

Originally Posted by Ray_Rogers

At least you're intelligent enough to watch it through a service which is practically renting a movie similar to Netflix Streaming instead of flat out blind buying it. Wish more people did the same.
It's what I'll be doing for any future Criterion releases I'm unsure about. Mostly through ClassicFlix.com though since I'm more aiming to buy far older movies on Blu-ray for my collection this year. Already did perfectly with buying City Lights for a great price on Monday.

Plus with the sales, I know it's gonna be a good price at some point in the near future. If I really love it now, when I watch it, I'll remember that in July.

Though speaking of watching things Streaming, I love this article about watching something "instantly" versus waiting for Netflix discs to arrive: http://archive.dailycal.org/article.php?id=111675.

I try to better discipline myself, but I fall into the trap too of watching things arbitrarily and quickly losing interest and turning them off when it's streaming. But when it's something I've been anticipating and Netflix shipped it to me days earlier, I'm almost certainly going to stick with it. (Notable exceptions: Foxcatcher and The LEGO Movie )

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by pedromvu

There's also BFI and Arrow, only problem is if something get's released here by Criterion later it is hard to resist a double dip.

yeah, it seems like there are several that are issuing quality releases in the UK. really cool! I "plan" to be very choosy about what I import. if I'm fairly confident that a title will get a release here, I think I'll hold off.

region free is actually an opportunity to save money, too. it depends, though, on what you want out of your releases. I forgot to grab Violent Saturday in the recent Twilight Time sale and was kind of regretting it. had no idea I'd take the region free plunge and now I can get the MoC edition that has subs and special features for about half the cost.

I also like the idea of being able to pick up a title like The Double Life of Veronique for less than $14 USD... might go for Mouchette, too (probably, actually. )

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Ray_Rogers

At least you're intelligent enough to watch it through a service which is practically renting a movie similar to Netflix Streaming instead of flat out blind buying it. Wish more people did the same.

Why does it matter to you whether other people do the same?

I use Netflix streaming, and have come across a lot of great movies that way. But I've also blind-bought a lot of great movies. In fact, of all the movies I've blind bought, I can probably count the number of ones I did not like on one hand, and have fingers left over.

A number of directors whose films I've come to love -- like Jean Renoir, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressberger, and Max Yasujiro Ozu -- I'd discovered by blind-buying Criterion laserdiscs.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Why does it matter to you whether other people do the same?

I use Netflix streaming, and have come across a lot of great movies that way. But I've also blind-bought a lot of great movies. In fact, of all the movies I've blind bought, I can probably count the number of ones I did not like on one hand, and have fingers left over.

A number of directors whose films I've come to love -- like Jean Renoir, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressberger, and Max Yasujiro Ozu -- I'd discovered by blind-buying Criterion laserdiscs.

I missed that post.

2/3 of my Blu-ray collection have been blind buys. Most times, your most enjoyable watch is the first, so why would I want to stream? I also had no problem selling off a couple blind buys that I did not love. (like jayembee - only a couple) My net loss was the cost of a rental.

95% of my DVD collection that I amassed was not blind buys. I'm having much more fun with my blu collection than I ever did with my DVDs.

[malakaheso]

A question to those of you who own or have seen the Heaven's Gate blu-ray: do you think the film has been too cleaned up? The reviews at the time indicate that the film was 'dusty' and 'murky' looking, but the film on blu-ray almost resembles a film by Lean.

I'm wondering whether the restoration was more of a case of revisionism.

[noapologies]

Why is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button more widely available than other Criterion titles?

[cakefactory]

Originally Posted by noapologies

Why is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button more widely available than other Criterion titles?

Mass-produced with a lower retail since it was a newish movie and there was no major studio release. The same thing happened with Chasing Amy on DVD.

[Feiereisel]

Originally Posted by malakaheso

A question to those of you who own or have seen the Heaven's Gate blu-ray: do you think the film has been too cleaned up? The reviews at the time indicate that the film was 'dusty' and 'murky' looking, but the film on blu-ray almost resembles a film by Lean.

I'm wondering whether the restoration was more of a case of revisionism.

Heaven's Gate is an interesting case with regard to revisionism. Its status as an anti-Western and its presentation--a director's cut--speak to a sense of revisionism inherent to the film itself.

As to the video quality--here's the text from the booklet (which I just scooped out of this site's thoughtful review to save time):

Because the original negative of the film was cut down to 149 minutes during its theatrical release in 1981, it could not serve as the basis for this restoration of director Michael Cimino's preferred 216-minute version. Fortunately, the long version had been preserved in the 35mm YCM color separation masters (protection elements capable of precisely reproducing the color in the negative film). Supervised by Cimino, this new digital transfer was created at Colorworks in Culver City, California, by scanning each separation element at 2K resolution on a Scanity, then digitally recombining them to reproduce the color of the original negative. In addition, slight trims and alterations were made to certain scenes and the intermission was removed, allowing the filmmaker to finally have his vision presented as he originally intended. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using MTI's DRS and Pixel Farm's PFClean, while Image Systems' Phoenix was used for small dirt, grain, and noise reduction.

Because the blu-ray was my first real exposure to the film, I have no reference for the way it potentially did or should look. The language here--unlike in some other contentious Criterion releases--is fairly explicit, though. Purely in terms of look of the film, the line about reproducing the color of the original negative indicates that care was taken to ensure that the blu-ray looks as the film did originally.

Based on that text, I'm inclined to think Criterion's edition is representative of the film's original look and aesthetic intent. Ultimately, though, it's a very subjective thing--I'm curious to hear what other people think.

Also of interest, though, are the next few lines, which state that Cimino did make new changes to the film, which speaks to my previous point: revision is an intrinsic element of the film, regardless of picture quality. Curious.

Addition: Anyway, because the film is suspended in revisionism to begin with, it might just be better to view the edition as an entirely new and distinct thing rather than a preservation of a piece of film history.

[ShellOilJunior]

Originally Posted by cakefactory

Mass-produced with a lower retail since it was a newish movie and there was no major studio release. The same thing happened with Chasing Amy on DVD.

I believe there's a Paramount blu-ray available, too. The Criterion one is usually super cheap.

[adamhopelies]

Originally Posted by Ray_Rogers

At least you're intelligent enough to watch it through a service which is practically renting a movie similar to Netflix Streaming instead of flat out blind buying it. Wish more people did the same.

What a strange statement to make. Why does someone else blind-buying a movie bother you so much? I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of blind buys I've regretted, which is a figure dwarfed hundreds of times over by the opposite response, the most recent of which, Ride The Pink Horse, happened just a few days ago.

Sorry, but the "intelligent" remark really got to me. What's *your* PhD in?

[adamhopelies]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

region free is actually an opportunity to save money, too. it depends, though, on what you want out of your releases. I forgot to grab Violent Saturday in the recent Twilight Time sale and was kind of regretting it. had no idea I'd take the region free plunge and now I can get the MoC edition that has subs and special features for about half the cost.

I wrote the booklet for the UK Violent Saturday disc! Great film, great disc, average booklet!

[Yami]

Originally Posted by adamhopelies

What a strange statement to make. Why does someone else blind-buying a movie bother you so much? I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of blind buys I've regretted, which is a figure dwarfed hundreds of times over by the opposite response, the most recent of which, Ride The Pink Horse, happened just a few days ago.

I fully agree. I don't think I've ever regretted a blind buy, and nearly the entirety of my collection is made up of them. Criterions are a bit more expensive, but when it costs around £7/$10 to see a film in cinemas, $15 for a blind buy that I can watch repeatedly seems like a bargain.

Luckily, it's a very rare occasion where I don't like a film that I assume I'm going to like based on distributor/director/plot/reviews.

[adamhopelies]

Originally Posted by Yami

I fully agree. I don't think I've ever regretted a blind buy, and nearly the entirety of my collection is made up of them. Criterions are a bit more expensive, but when it costs around £7/$10 to see a film in cinemas, $15 for a blind buy that I can watch repeatedly seems like a bargain.

Indeed, and let's not forget that Criterion discs tend to hold their value, meaning that in the worst case scenario you could quite easily sell a title on eBay. Blind-buying is one of the joys of the hobby for me.

[Bates_Motel]

A week early, but I wish some things would get announced that have HD releases (or upcoming releases) in other countries:

The Antoine Doniel set
Rosselini's War Trilogy
Carl T.H. Dreyer box set
Thief of Bagdad (1940)
Pickup on South Street
Shoot the Piano Player
Scenes From a Marriage (both versions)
Sawdust & Tinsel (and other earlier Bergman films)
Kind Hearts & Coronets
Tales of Hoffman
The Killers (both versions)
Closely Watched Trains
Fireman's Ball
Wooden Crosses & Les Miserables (Raymond Bernard Eclipse set)

Not sure if Criterion lost the rights to any of these without looking it up, if any. Port of Shadows is one. I know most of these will probably make their way into the collection at some point, but since HD versions already exist, I would assume at least some of these are announced before other titles that don't have masters (like Scenes From A Marriage, which is out in Germany, I would say is most likely their next Bergman).

I'm picking up the region B versions for now. I know they can't release everything at once, but it's always frustrating — both here and overseas) when one country gets a release and it takes 2 years for it to make it elsewhere.