The Criterion Collection

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by spanky87

Isabelle Huppert in The Piano Teacher is why I laugh when people claim Meryl Streep is the greatest living actress.

This. So much this! What she emotes with a mere glance is more than most actresses do with a career. Her performance is right up there with Falconetti's in Passion of Joan of Arc as the greatest I have ever seen.

[mdonovan]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Paths of Glory and The Killing are more essential than any of the above.

Errrr.... 12 Angry men and Anatomy of a murder

[Rich Pure Doom]

Did a double feature of High and Low and Harakiri tonight. Went in expecting to like Harakiri more, but ended up enjoying High and Low much more. The middle section of Harakiri I found excruciatingly slow (this coming from a guy who likes Antonioni). The last 20 or 30 minutes of High and Low were riveting and shot with an enormity of style.

[AZB]

I also grabbed a copy of Opherus. Amazon's deal is about on par with Criterion's biannual 50% off sale.

[Oblivion138]

Originally Posted by Rich Pure Doom

Did a double feature of High and Low and Harakiri tonight. Went in expecting to like Harakiri more, but ended up enjoying High and Low much more. The middle section of Harakiri I found excruciatingly slow (this coming from a guy who likes Antonioni). The last 20 or 30 minutes of High and Low were riveting and shot with an enormity of style.

I love both films, though I'd probably give the edge to High and Low.

I'd have to disagree about Harakiri's pacing, though...I found it to be perfect. Takashi Miike's remake, on the other hand, lags quite a bit. Largely due to the fact that he consolidated all the flashbacks into essentially two protracted flashback sequences, rather than breaking them up throughout the film, as Kobayashi did. Kobayashi's film, to my sensibilities, has all the best qualities of a great courtroom drama...but with samurai. And its indictment of the feudal caste system (and by extension, social injustice in general) sets it apart as perhaps the perfect anti-samurai film. Very different from those films (including, to some extent, Miike's Harakiri) which treat the samurai and samurai culture with reverence. The scene where Hanshirō breaks down after realizing that Motome

[Show spoiler]sold his sword

is, I think, one of the most powerful scenes in all of Japanese cinema.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by Ausjdm

Off topic post:
Just saw 12 years a Slave. I think every person has a duty to see this movie. Steve McQueen is a genius. I liked Shame, but this is at another level. Such an emotional piece.

Now I must buy Hunger because McQueen is a new favorite Director of mine. Probably will buy the DVD version just for the director sticker lol.

Wow, uncanny... I think I wrote the exact same thing as you when I saw this film a few weeks back. Are you sure we're not related?

[K1NG J0RDAN]

Just a heads up, looks like ALL Criterion Collection films are $22.99 or below this week on bestbuy.com.

Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project is $64.99 as well.

[hoytereden]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

This afternoon, I watched the 1949 film, Champion, starring Kirk Douglas, and was blown away.

Needless to say, this got me thinking again that Criterion really needs to upgrade Ace in the Hole as soon as humanly possible.

Champion and Body and Soul are both great boxing films. I see you have both but if you could only own one, which would it be? My choice would be the Garfield film. It's one of his best performances (IMO) and he was always good at playing guys with a "chip on their shoulder" and having to prove something. I think his greatest performance is in The Breaking Point which, sadly, gets overlooked in lieu of it's more famous version To Have and Have Not. The Hawk's film is very good and has Bogie & Bacall but the Garfield film is the better adaptation of the story. Once again IMO.

[hustlermane]

Originally Posted by hoytereden

Champion and Body and Soul are both great boxing films. I see you have both but if you could only own one, which would it be? My choice would be the Garfield film. It's one of his best performances (IMO) and he was always good at playing guys with a "chip on their shoulder" and having to prove something. I think his greatest performance is in The Breaking Point which, sadly, gets overlooked in lieu of it's more famous version To Have and Have Not. The Hawk's film is very good and has Bogie & Bacall but the Garfield film is the better adaptation of the story. Once again IMO.

Agreed on Garfield, a terrific actor. He's also great in the otherwise only decent noir, Force of Evil (which is on blu in America), and obviously Postman Always Rings Twice. Really need to see Body and Soul

[mrjohnnyb]

Speaking of directors who lack representation, I would like to see more of the films of Nicholas Ray. This man was a great cinematic artist. Often on this site, members have spoken positively about In a Lonely Place which I saw for the first time this year a couple of months ago. Two nights ago, I watched Johnny Guitar for the first time, and it was awesome. I can clearly see how he strongly influenced the French New Wave. I already own and love Bigger Than Life, and I have seen Rebel without a Cause many enjoyable, times. However, there are several of his films that I have yet to see. I hope that in the near future Criterion Collection can release the blu-ray editions of:

They Live by Night
The Lusty Men
and
Party Girl

[Kevin Holly]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Spot on! When Haneke fails (Funny Games), I kind of loathe his sensibilities, but when it works, the effect can be utterly transporting. The Piano Teacher captured every corner of my attention!

You didn't like Funny Games? I thought it was a rather good entry in a remarkable career

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by hoytereden

Champion and Body and Soul are both great boxing films. I see you have both but if you could only own one, which would it be? My choice would be the Garfield film. It's one of his best performances (IMO) and he was always good at playing guys with a "chip on their shoulder" and having to prove something. I think his greatest performance is in The Breaking Point which, sadly, gets overlooked in lieu of it's more famous version To Have and Have Not. The Hawk's film is very good and has Bogie & Bacall but the Garfield film is the better adaptation of the story. Once again IMO.

Body and Soul is in my stack of Olive Films noir movies waiting to be watched this month, so I cannot yet compare it to Champion. I am looking forward to checking it out this month.

Yesterday, I went through Champion, Hoodlum Empire, and Hell's Half Acre. They're all solid good Blu-rays!

[drawohua]

In all of the kar wai wong's film, in my opinion ashes of time is the best. (The original one but not the redux version in 2008). Some of you may know that it is inspired by the characters from a famous chinese "wu xia genre" fiction. Those characters are all very well known in china and hk, and after wong created new stories for these characters, its like sparkling everything and brings a new aspect to view these figures.

[Nighteyes]

Originally Posted by K1NG J0RDAN

Just a heads up, looks like ALL Criterion Collection films are $22.99 or below this week on bestbuy.com.

Are Amazon going to match that?

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by Kevin Holly

You didn't like Funny Games? I thought it was a rather good entry in a remarkable career

Michael Haneke preaching to me why the current generation of gamers and the media-obsessed are completely screwed up... Yeah, I really disliked both versions of Funny Games. The "rewind" scene may be one of the most heavyhanded things I have ever seen.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Body and Soul is in my stack of Olive Films noir movies waiting to be watched this month, so I cannot yet compare it to Champion. I am looking forward to checking it out this month!

Body and Soul blew me away in every way imaginable. It's a great commentary on greed and the necessity to rise above it. The finish is absolutely intense too. I really didn't expect to love it, but I did!

[zoodermin]

Originally Posted by Nighteyes

Are Amazon going to match that?

Nashville is at 22.99 at Amazon right now.

[BarnDoor]

A reviewer on Amazon.com says that Criterion's Nashville is cut? Can anyone confirm this? Very odd that no reviews have made mention of it.

[KrugerIndustrial]

Originally Posted by zoodermin

Nashville is at 22.99 at Amazon right now.

As are Frances Ha, Wages of Fear, The Seventh Seal, In the Realm of the Senses, Badlands..

[Ctzalman]

Originally Posted by RojD

Agreed. Haneke is really underrepresented on blu. Like Lars von Trier. Both these guys can make some duds, but some of their films hit me powerfully. Criterion would be natural place for them, tho I a lot of Haneke is on Kino.

artificial eye [uk] put out a blu release of cache that is region free. seems like i got it for dirt cheap a while back on amazon.co.uk