The Criterion Collection

[Mansinthe]

Originally Posted by smoss469

boooo!

i like criterions digipacks

And if you're looking for great American noir look no further than across the channel. Eureka/Masters of Cinema offers very, very good region b editions of Double Indemnity and Touch of Evil.

yeah already thought about adding these movies along with "the lost weekend"

[TJS_Blu]

Originally Posted by TheHighRoller

I'm sure you mean "critics", or "skeptics".

Interesting.

[Show spoiler]I jest

[smoss469]

Originally Posted by Mansinthe

i like criterions digipacks



yeah already thought about adding these movies along with "the lost weekend"

I hate them

[Meek12345]

Thank you all for the warm welcome to this board! Do you all think there is a snowball's chance in hell that Criterion can/would acquire the license for movies like The 5 Deadly Venoms or Shaolin Master Killer? My DVD for The 5 Deadly Venoms is atrocious.

Have any of you seen Shaolin Master Killer or The 5 Deadly Venoms? I was pleasently surprised to find both films in my copy of 1, 001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.

My Michael Mann Top 5
1. The Last of the Mohicans (please don't throw tomatoes at me; Daniel Day-Lewis is always
awesome)
2. Heat
3. Collateral
4. The Insider
5. Miami Vice

If you have the opportunity, you should watch Quiz Show. It is my favorite Robert Redford film with him in the role of actor or director.

[SammyJankis]

Originally Posted by Meek12345

My Michael Mann Top 5
1. The Last of the Mohicans (please don't throw tomatoes at me; Daniel Day-Lewis is always
awesome)
2. Heat
3. Collateral
4. The Insider
5. Miami Vice

If you have the opportunity, you should watch Quiz Show. It is my favorite Robert Redford film with him in the role of actor or director.

[Infernal King]

Originally Posted by brandon_260

Wong Kar-wai gets a good amount of love around here and Koreeda was being discussed not long ago.

Two of my top five favorite directors of all time!

And I just finished watching 9 of Ozu's films. They can be a little repetitive at times but overall, he's a great director as well. Late Spring and Tokyo Story are my favorites.

Glad to see there are some lovers of Asian cinema in this thread!

[Hawkguy]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I have not yet seen Holy Motors, but I do want to check it out when I have an opportunity. I am wary of making a blind purchase, so I'll probably rent the film first.

Kiss Me Deadly and Sweet Smell of Success both have my highest recommendations if you're looking for good film noir.

It's a good decision not to blind-buy. I was very disappointed with it, myself.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

The poll for the Top 20 films of the 1960s is about to close, so I figure there is no better time to see Marketa Lazarova. The only Czech films I have seen from the period are the key works by Jiří Menzel, Věra Chytilová & Miloš Forman; but I hear this is radically different (for one: it is set in the Middle Ages). I'll comment back with some brief thoughts.

so crazy ... i just watched this for the first time 2 nights ago... last night i spent 2 hours watching all the supplements....

i cannot wait to eject this disc out of my blu-ray player...

marketa lazarova is one of the most difficult and challenging films i've ever watched...

its funny that even the director himself, františek vláčil, said he had serious difficulties making this film... once the creativity goes away, it just becomes work... that's what he said.

watching this film made me think that too... its an exercise in discipline... its ponderous... grueling... long-winded cinema

i think the historian peter hames said in the supplements that sometimes great art cannot be understood.

but still, the hardships that these actors and crew went through to make this film is amazing... these people were freezing out there for 2 years making this film... i just cannot see myself watching marketa lazarova much in the future.

abdrewes, i can't wait to hear what you thought?

[smoss469]

Originally Posted by Meek12345

Thank you all for the warm welcome to this board! Do you all think there is a snowball's chance in hell that Criterion can/would acquire the license for movies like The 5 Deadly Venoms or Shaolin Master Killer? My DVD for The 5 Deadly Venoms is atrocious.

The DVD is bad, but I've heard the BD is a massive improvement. It's the upgrade movie I've had on Amazon wish list for the longest, yet I never get around to buying it. Even though it's usually marked down to about $12 or so on any given day.

I'd say it'll never hit CC though.

[The Narrator]

Two more phantom pages!

Lawrence Kasdan
Sydney Pollack

[thismightbezach]

Originally Posted by The Narrator

Two more phantom pages!

Lawrence Kasdan
Sydney Pollack

I think that all but confirms Tootsie and The Big Chill

[joie]

Originally Posted by jw007

[..] i think the historian peter hames said in the supplements [Marketa Lazrova] that sometimes great art cannot be understood [..]

Some may think that something incomprehensible is great; that something is profound because it's enigmatic.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by SammyJankis

I've seen some Ozu and Mizoguchi love around these parts. Truth be told, I hold Ozu in a higher category than I do Kurosawa.

I respect Ozu more than Kurosawa. But only slightly.

I like Kurosawa more than Ozu. But only slightly.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by joie

Some may think that something incomprehensible is great; that something is profound because it's enigmatic.

hmmm..true...but i'm one of the few people who disagrees with that statement.

i don't necessarily think something enigmatic and incomprehensible is a profound masterpiece.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by jw007

so crazy ... i just watched this for the first time 2 nights ago... last night i spent 2 hours watching all the supplements....

i cannot wait to eject this disc out of my blu-ray player...

marketa lazarova is one of the most difficult and challenging films i've ever watched...

its funny that even the director himself, františek vláčil, said he had serious difficulties making this film... once the creativity goes away, it just becomes work... that's what he said.

watching this film made me think that too... its an exercise in discipline... its ponderous... grueling... long-winded cinema

i think the historian peter hames said in the supplements that sometimes great art cannot be understood.

but still, the hardships that these actors and crew went through to make this film is amazing... these people were freezing out there for 2 years making this film... i just cannot see myself watching marketa lazarova much in the future.

abdrewes, i can't wait to hear what you thought?

It fully wore me out, JW. Sure, I left the film with a ton of soaring, swooshing camera movements etched in my mind, but it was near impossible for me to care about the goings on. It's an extremely cold film...and I usually love cold films! I would have never guessed that Braveheart of all films would be on my mind as I watched it. I pined for something a bit easier and more conventional to swallow.

[brandon_260]

Originally Posted by Gate

Two of my top five favorite directors of all time!

Very nice! I have not seen enough Koreeda, only Still Walking and I Wish. I can't wait for Like Father, Like Son. It was going to be my priority if I was still in Toronto for TIFF.

Wong Kar-wai is likely in my top 5 of all time. Chungking Express, 2046, In The Mood for Love and Happy Together are all so powerful. I actually just finished Days of Being Wild, which I liked more than As Tears Go By, but not as much as the rest of his works I've seen. I'm devoting the next few nights to the rest of his filmography, with the exception of 2046, which is his only film I don't own. I'm very eager to see The Grandmaster and Fallen Angels for the first time and revisiting the rest.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by jw007

marketa lazarova is one of the most difficult and challenging films i've ever watched...

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

It fully wore me out, JW. Sure, I left the film with a ton of soaring, swooshing camera movements etched in my mind, but it was near impossible for me to care about the goings on. It's an extremely cold film...and I usually love cold films! I would have never guessed that Braveheart of all films would be on my mind as I watched it. I pined for something a bit easier and more conventional to swallow.

After I watched Marketa Lazarova a few months back, my brain felt as though it had been through some sort of grueling CrossFit Boot Camp workout. During the first 40 minutes or so, I had no clue what was going on, but I gradually began to piece things together after that.

The film ultimately won me over, because I simply love looking at cool images. The arrow to the eye, the horse trapped in the quagmire, the wolves running through the woods, etc. I would say that it's the sort of movie that merits pressing the mute button and listening to The Cure or Bauhaus while I'm watching the images, but I happen to love the choir score just as much as I love the images.

I'll agree that I did not relate to the characters in the slightest, though. I was simply watching them in the same way that one of the wolves might watch prey through the trees. Whatever happened to them happened to them, and it was of no consequence. The film did an admirable job of showing what medieval life might be like for a young woman on her own with no ties (The film does not make this look like a lot of fun.), but my concerns about Marketa's plight took second row to my detached appreciation of the overall imagery.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

After I watched Marketa Lazarova a few months back, my brain felt as though it had been through some sort of grueling CrossFit Boot Camp workout. During the first 40 minutes or so, I had no clue what was going on, but I gradually began to piece things together after that.

The film ultimately won me over, because I simply love looking at cool images. The arrow to the eye, the horse trapped in the quagmire, the wolves running through the woods, etc. I would say that it's the sort of movie that merits pressing the mute button and listening to The Cure or Bauhaus while I'm watching the images, but I happen to love the choir score just as much as I love the images.

I'll agree that I did not relate to the characters in the slightest, though. I was simply watching them in the same way that one of the wolves might watch prey through the trees. Whatever happened to them happened to them, and it was of no consequence. The film did an admirable job of showing what medieval life might be like for a young woman on her own with no ties (The film does not make this look like a lot of fun.), but my concerns about Marketa's plight took second row to my detached appreciation of the overall imagery.

I would have rolled with it more if my retinas were being replenished every couple minutes or so, but not all the images were all that spectacular. I fully responded to those grandiose expressionistic touches, but whenever those title cards hit or whenever people were plotting amongst themselves, the film felt very limp...as if it was crawling towards the finish line. At a tidy 2 hours, I'm sure I would have loved it much more.

To elaborate more on the "coldness" of the film, it felt repetitive because there were no deviations from the sour tone that was established at the beginning. The music is in harmony with this too. While it was pleasing to the ear, there were few variations...making the film feel every bit as long as it's runtime.

Who knows, maybe it's a film best meant for a calm weekend midday. I've been running around all day taking care of school projects and homework, so maybe I walked in a tad exhausted anyways.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

It fully wore me out, JW. Sure, I left the film with a ton of soaring, swooshing camera movements etched in my mind, but it was near impossible for me to care about the goings on. It's an extremely cold film...and I usually love cold films! I would have never guessed that Braveheart of all films would be on my mind as I watched it. I pined for something a bit easier and more conventional to swallow.

i just posted this in a PM to owl a few seconds ago:

"i really wanted to "like" this film but as i kept watching it, i just kept feeling more ill at the barbarism in the film..true, this is what reality was like back in the middle ages i guess...if anything, this film really sheds some light on a very mysterious period in human history as there isn't much known about that time...but its such a dirty, cold, barbaric story...its a warrior's film/story...i guess i just don't dig that...just cause its such an enigmatic and incomprehensible story doesn't make it profound or a masterpiece in my opinion though...but yes, its such an oddity of a film...i can see how it belongs in the criterion collection for sure."

i am glad i'm not the only one who was worn out by this crazy film from 1967.

unlike owl though, sheer visuals aren't enough for me to like a movie...it just isn't enough... i need more than cool images... i need characters! i need a bit of story! i need something funny or darkly comedic! it is a totally awesome "arthouse" film and this film totally deserves that term!

[Mansinthe]

Originally Posted by brandon_260

. I'm very eager to see The Grandmaster and Fallen Angels for the first time and revisiting the rest.

i hope you will watch the HK cut and not the weinstein US cut (that is missing 22minutes of the movie)