The Criterion Collection

[BHolst]

Originally Posted by Rodyon Raskolnikov

Some people here should collect posters instead.

Yeah, but it is a b*tch shrinkwrapping them one by one, not to mention the cost of shipping them unrolled and unfolded.

[Show spoiler]

[enzolt]

Originally Posted by BHolst

Yeah, but it is a b*tch shrinkwrapping them one by one, not to mention the cost of shipping them unrolled and unfolded.

[Show spoiler]

Trust me, it is. I used to work in the theater. I would always just take the movie posters since management would just throw them out. People in ebay can be really picky when it comes to the condition and the way the posters are shipped.

[deltasun]

Originally Posted by enzolt

Im not rich either. I just watch it on Netflix/Amazon VOD/Hulu+. I just cant put myself to opening it

Give me your address. I'll open them for you.

I do keep mine sealed till I'm ready to watch them; especially ones I've seen before, either through rentals or SD DVDs. If I do have 2 copies (e.g., Night of the Hunter, Yojimbo, Pierrot Le Fou), one will be sealed.

[Benchman]

Would Island of Lost Souls be a safe blind buy?

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by enzolt

So I just started collecting Criterions recently. Do you guys have any must-own recommendations? I don't think I can afford every single Criterion movie out there. The ones I currently have are the ones that I enjoyed watching. Still keeping a lookout for some other movies like anything from Wong Kar-wai, Jacques Tati, Wes Anderson (Life Aquatic mostly) and some other films.

Seven Samurai
Beauty and the Beast
The Seventh Seal
High and Low
M
Diabolique
Yojimbo/Sanjuro
Charade
The Third Man (if you can find it...it's out of print from Criterion)
Smiles of a Summer Night
The Double Life of Veronique
Chungking Express
Howards End
Wings of Desire
Stagecoach
The Thin Red Line
The Magician
Paths of Glory
The Night of the Hunter
Modern Times
Sweet Smell of Success
The Great Dictator
Insignificance
The Makioka Sisters

Also, who here buys the movies and keeps the plastic intact? I've been buying Criterions but I never open them. I usually just try to look for a legitimate copy online from either Hulu, Netflix, Amazon etc.

OK, I've heard a lot of weird collecting stories, but this takes the cake. What's the point in buying them if you're not going to watch them?

I can understand if you decided that you wanted to collect all of the Criterions to have a complete set, but there were specific titles you didn't want to watch. But not watching any of them?

[Mugatu]

Originally Posted by Benchman

Would Island of Lost Souls be a safe blind buy?

I'd recommend watching it first. Check your PMs.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Kenny_Powers

do you save the blue stickers from ur criterions or throw them away. i havent saved any yet wondering what you do

I save the stickers that say "Director Approved", but not the others.

[BluPix]

Originally Posted by enzolt

So I just started collecting Criterions recently. Do you guys have any must-own recommendations? I don't think I can afford every single Criterion movie out there. The ones I currently have are the ones that I enjoyed watching. Still keeping a lookout for some other movies like anything from Wong Kar-wai, Jacques Tati, Wes Anderson (Life Aquatic mostly) and some other films.

Also, who here buys the movies and keeps the plastic intact? I've been buying Criterions but I never open them. I usually just try to look for a legitimate copy online from either Hulu, Netflix, Amazon etc.

enzolt, off the top of my head, here are a few Criterion blus I would recommend on the quality of the feature and the supplementary material (much of what you like will depend on your own tastes).

The Red Shoes
The 400 Blows
8 1/2
Senso
White Material
Gomorrah
Seven Samurai
Pierrot le Fou (out of print)
The Third Man (out of print)
Walkabout
Wings of Desire
Fish Tank
Carlos (coming in September)
The Killing (also includes Killer's Kiss)
Paths of Glory
Sweet Smell of Success
Black Orpheus
Videodrome
Broadcast News
Che, Parts 1 & 2
Hunger
The Night of the Hunter
3 Women (coming in September)
Kuroneko (coming in October)
12 Angry Men (coming in November)
Fanny & Alexander (coming in November)
The Darjeeling Limited
The Three Colors Trilogy (coming in November)
Monsoon Wedding
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
Stagecoach
The Last Emperor
Days of Heaven
Repulsion
The Thin Red Line
Playtime
Chungking Express
Charade
America Lost and Found: the BBS Story (box of 7 films)

Just take your time buying them, nice and slow. Look (and wait) for sales, big and small, on Criterion titles. And if you see a Criterion that very much peaks your interest go for it. I blind buy many Criterions based on nothing but my gut feeling and have never been disappointed.

Happy viewing.

[enzolt]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Seven Samurai
Beauty and the Beast
The Seventh Seal
High and Low
M
Diabolique
Yojimbo/Sanjuro
Charade
The Third Man (if you can find it...it's out of print from Criterion)
Smiles of a Summer Night
The Double Life of Veronique
Chungking Express
Howards End
Wings of Desire
Stagecoach
The Thin Red Line
The Magician
Paths of Glory
The Night of the Hunter
Modern Times
Sweet Smell of Success
The Great Dictator
Insignificance
The Makioka Sisters



OK, I've heard a lot of weird collecting stories, but this takes the cake. What's the point in buying them if you're not going to watch them?

I can understand if you decided that you wanted to collect all of the Criterions to have a complete set, but there were specific titles you didn't want to watch. But not watching any of them?

Originally Posted by BluPix

enzolt, off the top of my head, here are a few Criterion blus I would recommend on the quality of the feature and the supplementary material (much of what you like will depend on your own tastes).

The Red Shoes
The 400 Blows
8 1/2
Senso
White Material
Gomorrah
Seven Samurai
Pierrot le Fou (out of print)
The Third Man (out of print)
Walkabout
Wings of Desire
Fish Tank
Carlos (coming in September)
The Killing (also includes Killer's Kiss)
Paths of Glory
Sweet Smell of Success
Black Orpheus
Videodrome
Broadcast News
Che, Parts 1 & 2
Hunger
The Night of the Hunter
3 Women (coming in September)
Kuroneko (coming in October)
12 Angry Men (coming in November)
Fanny & Alexander (coming in November)
The Darjeeling Limited
The Three Colors Trilogy (coming in November)
Monsoon Wedding
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
Stagecoach
The Last Emperor
Days of Heaven
Repulsion
The Thin Red Line
Playtime
Chungking Express
America Lost and Found: the BBS Story (box of 7 films)

Thanks a lot guys. I'll definitely look these movies up. Currently watching Amazon/Ebay right now.

[BohemianGraham]

Originally Posted by octagon

I normally think high profile releases can be left to studios but given Universal's inconsistent approach to catalog titles I wouldn't mind at all if Criterion managed to wrangle Double Indemnity out of them.

MGM can probably be trusted to treat The Apartment pretty well (I'm actually pretty happy with the DVD) so if they're going to farm anything out I'd prefer it be something they wouldn't release on their own (The Fortune Cookie would be a good fit, for instance).

I love The Fortune Cookie! I blind bought the DVD a few years ago at Zellers, of all places, for 5 bucks! It's such a shame more people don't talk about it, because it was the beginning of a beautiful film duo, Lemmon and Matthau.

enzolt, you need someone to open the BDs for you. You're missing out the fun of reading the booklets, watching the supplimentals, and seeing a high quality transfer of those fantastic films. Also, how do you know if you have a disc or booklet missing? Several people have said they were missing the odd booklet, and a couple said Beatuy and the Beast had no disc. Rip those babies open stat!

[enzolt]

Originally Posted by BohemianGraham

I love The Fortune Cookie! I blind bought the DVD a few years ago at Zellers, of all places, for 5 bucks! It's such a shame more people don't talk about it, because it was the beginning of a beautiful film duo, Lemmon and Matthau.

enzolt, you need someone to open the BDs for you. You're missing out the fun of reading the booklets, watching the supplimentals, and seeing a high quality transfer of those fantastic films. Also, how do you know if you have a disc or booklet missing? Several people have said they were missing the odd booklet, and a couple said Beatuy and the Beast had no disc. Rip those babies open stat!

Alright alright I will soon enough. Ill try to "preserve" the plastic as much as I can in the process.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by enzolt

Alright alright I will soon enough. Ill try to "preserve" the plastic as much as I can in the process.

Don't listen to them! Blu-ray players shoot lasers right at the discs.

Now, I'm no physicist but I've seen enough Bond movies to know that can't be good.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by BohemianGraham

I love The Fortune Cookie! I blind bought the DVD a few years ago at Zellers, of all places, for 5 bucks! It's such a shame more people don't talk about it, because it was the beginning of a beautiful film duo, Lemmon and Matthau.

It's not quite on the level of Double Indemnity or The Apartment but yeah, it's very good and it's a great example of Billy Wilder's knack for making people wonder if they're watching a funny drama or a dark comedy.

And since we're talking about Walter Matthau I can't help but plug Charley Varrick again. I don't know exactly why I love that movie as much as I do but I would go nuts if that ever got a spine number.

[Show spoiler]Hell, I'd go nuts if MGM ever did a barebones release.

[BohemianGraham]

Originally Posted by octagon

It's not quite on the level of Double Indemnity or The Apartment but yeah, it's very good and it's a great example of Billy Wilder's knack for making people wonder if they're watching a funny drama or a dark comedy.

And since we're talking about Walter Matthau I can't help but plug Charley Varrick again. I don't know exactly why I love that movie as much as I do but I would go nuts if that ever got a spine number.

[Show spoiler]Hell, I'd go nuts if MGM ever did a barebones release.

I just love Jack Lemmon, and pretty much everything he did with Wilder was golden.

Charley Varrick would be awesome. Another Matthau film I really enjoy is Cactus Flower. I also love Fail Safe, only a smidgeon less than Dr. Strangelove. I would kill for Criterion to release it on BD.

There's a ton of MGM/United titles I would really enjoy seeing Criterion releases for, that aren't quite conventional:

The World of Henry Orient
How to Murder Your Wife
Lord Love a Duck
The Apartment
The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming!
Penelope (No one, and I mean no one, has released this on Home Video yet!)
The Night of the Iguana
Elmer Gantry
After the Fox (DVD is OOP, and waay to expensive)
Yellow Submarine (one can dream)
The Party

I would also love to see a BD release of The Magic Christian, because that's such a fun movie, and I doubt WB will be willing to relenquish I Love You, Alice B. Toklas to Criterion, but it's a dream.


I managed to watch The Red Shoes last night, and enjoyed it very much. It blows Black Swan out of the water. Black Swan is like the trailer trash cousin of The Red Shoes, that tries to be sophisticated and cultured, but fails miserably. The Red Shoes is such a beautiful film to watch.

[P@t_Mtl]

Not to re-start a debate "who should be included and who should not" but Wilder, would he not be a director that would normally be release from the regular studio? For example, I really love the movies of Frank Capra but I would expect them to be releases by the regular studios and not in need to be done by Criterion. Would not the movies of WIlder fall into the same category as well? I see these directors as more accessible, like Hitchcock as well that can be handle properly by the regular releases and not be in the Criterion collection, maybe I am wrong?

[octagon]

Originally Posted by P@t_Mtl

Not to re-start a debate "who should be included and who should not" but Wilder, would he not be a director that would normally be release from the regular studio? For example, I really love the movies of Frank Capra but I would expect them to be releases by the regular studios and not in need to be done by Criterion. Would not the movies of WIlder fall into the same category as well? I see these directors as more accessible, like Hitchcock as well that can be handle properly by the regular releases and not be in the Criterion collection, maybe I am wrong?

Definitely. As a rule I would say leave high profile titles to the respective studios and if Criterion wants to wrangle some Hitchock or Kubrick or Lumet or Wilder or whomever they should pursue less popular titles that might otherwise never see a quality release.

I would love to see CC release Double Indemnity not because it's a great movie (which it is) or because it's at the very top of my overall wishlist (though it is) but simply because I'm concerned that Universal will screw it up.

[GC Riot]

I kind of like uniformity, so I was wondering about Bottle Rocket. That one initally came with a sort of digipack and slipcover, right? Does it come in one of those clear Criterion cases now instead, because I'd much prefer that look.

[SlickDamian]

Just watched Fat Girl last night for the first time. Thought it was a very well-made and interesting film. The ending was a bit puzzling. My wife really enjoyed it as well. An under rated disc from Criterion IMO.

[exolstice]

Originally Posted by Kenny_Powers

must be nice if i could afford it i would to but i like watching my movies. i was wondering if people actually save the sticker?

Stickers?!?

I go one step further. I buy the movies then leave and them on the store shelves. I think they just look better sealed on store shelves. They lose most of their value anyway as soon as they cross a store's doors.

[rkish]

Originally Posted by finalmattasy

If it's from Kurosawa and in Criterion Bluray, I'd grab it. But I'm done buying DVD's.

Totally floored to see Rushmore is on the way; as well as Fanny and Alexander. Here I thought it might be a while till they announced something I wanted again.
Just when I feel like I've caught up and can leave Amazon alone for a bit, Criterion adds more to the pile. It's a wait till November though.

I think you misread an earlier post...The "PostWar Kurosawa" set is an Eclipse/DVD set and therefore...no blu-ray discs. This also means that it is unlikely that any of the films from that set and/or any other Eclipse set will ever make the transition to BD...at least, not by Criterion.