The Criterion Channel

[Lorenzol]

It took me a few times to get into Save the Green Planet but I’m really glad that I was able to watch it. The ending got to me especially the montage over the credits.

Posse was the other film I watched before it left and I enjoyed it very much. I remember watching it long time ago but didn’t really remember much about it.

[DaBargainHunta]

Originally Posted by fdm

I watched Nowhere To Hide also. Started it the other day but wasn't quite in the mood, or awake enough, one of those. But finished it up this time, thought it was interesting enough in a way, but lacking somehow.

This is a good way to describe it.

Originally Posted by Lorenzol

It took me a few times to get into Save the Green Planet but I’m really glad that I was able to watch it. The ending got to me especially the montage over the credits.

Posse was the other film I watched before it left and I enjoyed it very much. I remember watching it long time ago but didn’t really remember much about it.

Save the Green Planet! is phenomenal IMO.

I wanted to watch Posse but never got around to it. Hopefully it returns to the Channel or another streaming service soon.

[DaBargainHunta]

Originally Posted by regeyer

Does anyone know how to reach Customer Service at The Criterion Channel? I'm having a problem with one movie - Shaft. The English subtitles are not displaying at all. As a deaf person I rely on the subtitles. I'm sure it's an easy fix, as everything else on the channel - at least the movies - has subtitles/captioning. Thanks.

Shaft is back on the Channel, looks absolutely gorgeous, and appears to have subtitles/captions now.

(The first sequel is there too, but I haven't checked it out yet.)

[Lorenzol]

Complete list of films leaving April 30, 2021

• 35 Shots of Rum (2008)
• Accident (1967)
• Always Shine (2016)
• The Arbor (2010)
• The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
• Bamboozled (2000)
• The Barber Shop (1933)
• Blonde Venus (1932)
• Buffalo Soldiers (1997)
• Butley (1974)
• Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970)
• Dark Days (2000)
• David and Lisa (1962)
• The Devil is a Woman (1935)
• The Devil's Playground (1976)
• Dishonored (1931)
• Don's Party (1976)
• The Eloquent Peasant (1970)
• Exile (2016)
• A Fatal Glass of Beer (1933)
• The Getting of Wisdom (1977)
• The Golf Specialist (1930)
• Gregory's Girl (1980)
• The Homecoming (1973)
• The Kindergarten Teacher (2014)
• The King and the Mockingbird (1980)
• The Legend of N****r Charley (1972)
• A Life of Her Own (1950)
• Long Weekend (1978)
• Lovers and Lollipops (1956)
• The Mark (1961)
• The Mattei Affair (1972)
• The Missing Picture (2013)
• Morocco (1930)
• Nennette and Boni (1996)
• The Night of Counting the Years (1969)
• The Ninth Configuration (1980)
• No Fear, No Die (1990)
• Old Boyfriends (1979)
• The Old Dark House (1932)
• One False Move (1992)
• An Oversimplification of Her Beauty (2012)
• The Pharmacist (1933)
• Policeman (2011)
• Pool Sharks (1915)
• The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
• Puberty Blues (1981)
• Rosewood (1997)
• The Scarlet Empress (1934)
• Shanghai Express (1932)
• A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness (2013)
• St. Louis Blues (1958)
• Stranger by the Lake (2013)
• Sunset Song (2015)
• Swallows and Amazons (1974)
• Take a Giant Step (1959)
• The Tall Target (1951)
• They Live by Night (1948)
• Tomorrow is Another Day (1951)
• Towards Mathilde (2005)
• Uptight (1968)
• Victoria (2015)
• Werewolf (2016)
• When You Sleep (2012)
• Where Danger Lives (1950)

[Tin Drum]

Originally Posted by Lorenzol

Complete list of films leaving April 30, 2021

This is an excellent film that should not be missed.

[Lorenzol]

Complete list of films premiering on the Criterion Channel in May 2021:

• Along for the Ride, Nick Ebeling, 2016
• Bad Day at Black Rock, John Sturges, 1955 *
• The Backseat, Joe Stankus and Ashley Connor, 2017
• The Blot, Lois Weber, 1921
• The Blue Dahlia, George Marshall, 1946
• The Booksellers, D. W. Young, 2019
• Butter on the Latch, Josephine Decker, 2013
• The Cat o’ Nine Tails, Dario Argento, 1971
• The Chess Players, Satyajit Ray, 1977
• The Cigarette, Claire Parker and Alexandre Alexeieff, 1933
• Cowboy, Delmer Daves, 1958
• Crossfire, Edward Dmytryk, 1947
• Dance, Girl, Dance, Dorothy Arzner, 1940
• Darling, How Could You!, Mitchell Leisen, 1951
• Day of Freedom, Leni Riefenstahl, 1935
• Death Takes a Holiday, Mitchell Leisen, 1934
• Dina, Dan Sickles, Antonio Santini, 2017
• Discontent, Lois Weber and Allen G. Siegler, 1916
• The Dumb Girl of Portici, Lois Weber, 1916
• Easy Living, Mitchell Leisen, 1937
• The Erl King, Marie-Louise Iribe, 1931
• Escapes, Michael Almereyda, 2017
• The Fall, Jonathan Glazer, 2019
• Falling Leaves, Alice Guy Blaché, 1912
• The Fate of Lee Khan, King Hu, 1973
• Fire Will Come, Oliver Laxe, 2019 *
• First Day Out, Josephine Decker, 2016
• Flames, Zefrey Throwell, Josephine Decker and Zefrey Throwell, 2017
• Girlfriends, Claudia Weill, 1978
• The Girl in the Armchair, Alice Guy-Blaché, 1912
• Gloria, John Cassavetes, 1980
• The Green-Eyed Blonde, Bernard Girard, 1957
• He Ran All the Way, John Berry, 1951
• The Heart of the World, Guy Maddin, 2000
• Hooligan Sparrow, Nanfu Wang, 2016
• The Hot Rock, Peter Yates, 1972
• The House Is Black, Forough Farrokhzad, 1962
• King Rat, Bryan Forbes, 1965
• Kitty, Mitchell Leisen, 1945
• Kitty Foyle, Sam Wood, 1940 *
• The Last Detail, Hal Ashby, 1973
• The Last Emperor, Bernardo Bertolucci, 1987
• The Last Movie, Dennis Hopper, 1971
• The Last Sunset, Robert Aldrich, 1961
• Lilith, Robert Rossen, 1964
• Lonely Are the Brave, David Miller, 1962
• Mabel’s Strange Predicament, Mabel Normand, 1914
• Making an American Citizen, Alice Guy-Blaché, 1912
• Mala mala, Dan Sickles, Antonio Santini, 2014
• The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, Nunnally Johnson, 1956
• MASH, Robert Altman, 1970
• The Mask Task, Josephine Decker, 2018
• Me the Terrible, Josephine Decker, 2012
• The Men, Fred Zinnemann, 1950
• Midnight, Mitchell Leisen, 1939
• Minnie and Moskowitz, John Cassavetes, 1971
• Miss Dundee and Her Performing Dogs, Alice Guy-Blaché, 1902
• Murder at the Vanities, Mitchell Leisen, 1934
• A Night on Bald Mountain, Claire Parker and Alexandre Alexeieff, 1933
• No Man of Her Own, Mitchell Leisen, 1950
• Odds Against Tomorrow, Robert Wise, 1959
• On Dangerous Ground, Nicholas Ray, 1951
• On the Barricade, Alice Guy-Blaché, 1907
• Our Vines Have Tender Grapes, Roy Rowland, 1945
• Parabola, Mary Ellen Bute and Ted Nemeth, 1937
• Patton, Franklin J. Schaffner, 1969
• The Peasant Women of Ryazan, Olga Preobrazhenskaya and Ivan Pravov, 1927
• A Pistol for Ringo, Duccio Tessari, 1965
• Property Is No Longer a Theft, Elio Petri, 1973
• The Razor’s Edge, Edmund Goulding, 1946
• Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Allan Dwan, 1938
• Remember the Night, Mitchell Leisen, 1940
• The Return of Ringo, Duccio Tessari, 1965
• Roman Holiday, William Wyler, 1953 *
• The Set-Up, Robert Wise, 1949
• Shoes, Lois Weber, 1916
• Skinningrove, Michael Almereyda, 2013
• The Smiling Madame Beudet, Germaine Dulac, 1923
• Spartacus, Stanley Kubrick, 1960
• Spook Sport, Mary Ellen Bute, Norman McLaren, Ted Nemeth, 1940
• Squeezebox, Josephine Decker, 2010
• The Star Prince, Madeline Brandeis, 1918
• A Story Well Spun, Alice Guy-Blaché, 1906
• Suspense, Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley, 1913
• Tempest, Paul Mazursky, 1982
• The Thing, John Carpenter, 1982
• Thirty Seconds over Tokyo, Mervyn LeRoy, 1944
• Thou Wast Mild and Lovely, Josephine Decker, 2014
• To Each His Own, Mitchell Leisen, 1946
• To the Unknown, Michael Almereyda, 2017
• Tricheurs, Barbet Schroeder, 1984
• Welcome Home, Soldier Boys, Richard Compton, 1971
• What Happened Was…, Tom Noonan, 1994
• What Have You Done to Solange?, Massimo Dallamano, 1972
• Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell, Matt Wolf, 2008
• The Wild Bunch, Sam Peckinpah, 1969
• William Eggleston in the Real World, Michael Almereyda, 2005
• The Woman Condemned, Dorothy Davenport, 1934
• Wolf, Mike Nichols, 1994

*Available in the U.S. only

https://criterioncast.com/column/cal...nnel-announced

[fdm]

Well so far this month I've watch a few going away soons.

Started a week or two ago with Reisner's St. Louis Blues. I like these music history types of things, this one being based on W.C. Handy's life. Nat King Cole, Eartha Kit. (Last month, was it?, watched Leadbelly.)

And more recently have watched a few other titles I'd wanted to see for quite some time: Schepisi's The Devil's Playground, Denis's No Fear, No Die and Guiraudie's Stranger By The Lake. No Fear, No Die seems to be the hardest of the bunch to come by with English subs, though come to think it did seem to skip some of what was said here and there.

Started watching The Mattei Affair but was too tired to focus on it. Probably will try again. Lots of films to try and check out this month before they are gone.

[DaBargainHunta]

Expiring from The Criterion Channel: Bamboozled (2000)



Spike Lee's Bamboozled is a scathing satire of how black people are used in the entertainment industry, both in front of the camera and behind-the-scenes. Marlon Wayans plays struggling TV writer Pierre Delacroix. Wayans may be the star, but even his In Living Color doesn't escape unscathed. Delacroix is tired of his racist white boss (played by Michael Rapaport) and sets about to create the most offensive minstrel show possible and get it on the air. What he doesn't expect is for it to become a hit.

Bamboozled is a very good movie, but it does have a few issues. The third act goes off the rails (kind of like Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, which I watched the night before), and the pace grinds to a halt whenever we see any of scenes from minstrel TV show - one or two would have sufficed to get the point across, but four was overkill.

Still, Spike Lee taps into a deep and uncomfortable history in this movie in an unforgettable way. I highly recommend the Marlon Riggs documentaries Ethnic Notions and Color Adjustment for the real history of what Spike is satirizing here. (They're both on the Criterion Channel and in the upcoming Criterion box set The Signifyin' Works of Marlon Riggs.)

DaBargainHunta's Decree: Bamboozled was prescient when it came out in 2000 and it's still sadly relevant even today. (Subtitles/Captions: Yes!)

[FragnitoM]

If minnie and moskowitz and gloria play with a criterion logo i would flip out. Probably not though. M&M has been a blu-ray I've been waiting forever for. I'm surprised Criterion hasn't tried to release it on disc.

[DaBargainHunta]

Expiring from the Criterion Channel: The Tall Target (1951)



CIVIL NOIR - The Tall Target is about a planned assassination attempt on Abraham Lincoln's life, but not the one you're thinking of. Instead, this murder plot takes place days before Lincoln is set to be inaugurated as President.

The film starts out with its credits tilting upward - a striking effect similar to what we'd see several decades later in Star Wars. Then we're informed that The Tall Target is based on true story, but the movie is pretty upfront that the events depicted within are a dramatization. In other words, there's only a kernel of truth here. That doesn't matter though.

A rebellious cop named John Kennedy (yes, lol - played by Dick Powell of Dames) believes that one of the passengers on a upcoming train ride from New York and Baltimore plans to assassinate the President-Elect. The train is filled with various colorful/suspicious/eccentric characters (including a young Ruby Dee playing a slave, which is probably why this was on the Channel in the first place), and it's up to Kennedy to figure out which one of them wants to put a hit out on Honest Abe. Various complications ensue, as they always do.

At only an hour and 17 minutes, The Tall Target never has time to wear out its welcome. A train ride from New York to Baltimore may be "the longest bar in the world," but the movie operates at a pretty brisk pace.

DaBargainHunta's Decree: Fun little flick. (Subtitles/Captions: Yes!)

[fdm]

Don's Party was pretty funny.

[dancerslegs]

Originally Posted by fdm

Started watching The Mattei Affair but was too tired to focus on it. Probably will try again. Lots of films to try and check out this month before they are gone.

Don't miss out, The Mattei Affair is great stuff, one of Rosi's very best.

[fdm]

Originally Posted by dancerslegs

Don't miss out, The Mattei Affair is great stuff, one of Rosi's very best.

Wasn't really up for anything there last night (was craving some mindless action/adventure), but I'll give it another shot tonight. Thanks for the nudge.

[fdm]

So finished up the month of going away films by finishing up The Mattei Affair, and watching Dassin's Uptight and Takal's Always Shine. Good stuff.

[Purploros]

Can anyone tell what transfer of The Thing is streaming on the channel?

[RCRochester]

As it's expiring at the end of the month, I checked out John Ford's Sergeant Rutledge. It's a western framed as a court martial of a black "buffalo soldier" accused of rape and double-murder. It's told mostly in flashback and presents an interesting portrait of honor and duty in the face of prejudice.

The court martial sequences are a bit hokey and contrived by modern standards particularly as courtroom dramas are so commonplace nowadays, but there really just there to act as a framework for the movie which is told mostly in flashback. Woody Strode plays the title character and I don't think I've ever seen him in such a significant part in a movie, and he does a great job particularly during the scene at the end when he delivers his own testimony.

It's not one of John Ford's higher profile westerns but it's worth checking out because of the themes it explores at a time when not too many films of that era were doing that.

[fdm]

Concur with Sgt Rutledge, should check it out if you haven't seen it.

I watched Good Bye Lenin! last night (finally!). Glad I got around to watching it.

And since the month is drawing to a close, I'll reiterate my reiteration and my original recommendation for the Margarethe von Trotta films, going away soon.

[DaBargainHunta]

Expiring from The Criterion Channel - Crumbs (2015)



Crumbs is like nothing else you've ever seen. It's an Ethiopian film starring an actor (Daniel Tadesse) whose physical disability is never acknowledged by anyone he comes across - especially his beautiful girlfriend, who absolutely adores him. Almost every other movie would make his "differences" the focus, so it's a genuine breath of fresh air that this one doesn't.

But that's only the tip of the iceberg of what makes Crumbs unique...

Imagine a post-apocalyptic society with a giant hand-shaped spaceship hovering in the sky, a Ninja Turtles action figure and other 1980s products treated as revered totems, a tongue-wagging Michael Jordan as the god they worship, and a quest to find Santa Claus.

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what this movie is trying to say about pop culture, celebrity, consumerism, and who we "worship" and why. But one thing I know for sure is that this is going to stick with me for a long time to come.

DaBargainHunta's Decree: Crumbs sounds bonkers - and it is - but at a little over an hour, it's not much of a time commitment and well worth taking a chance on.

[fdm]

So I was searching for something expiring soon to watch "yesterday" and decided on yet another French film, in this case Desplechin's My Golden Days. I read the description closely, and it turned out it was a sequel to his film My Sex Life... Or How I Got Into An Argument, which fortunately is also on the channel (and not expiring this month anyway). I started that "yesterday" but ended up not finishing it until "today" (and will be going back and watching it again pretty soon too). Thumbs up for sure. And so "tomorrow" (which now is really today), I am looking forward to watching My Golden Days, which will be gone in a few days. Check 'em out while you can.

[DaBargainHunta]

Expiring from The Criterion Channel - Cassandro, the Exotico! (2018)



Cassandro, the Exotico! is a documentary about a Mexican luchador (wrestler) who changed the portrayal of the exotico (an openly gay and effeminate character) from a sideshow camp act into an ass-kicking main event star and World Champion.

This is presented almost like a home movie. Its structure is very loose and freewheeling. In that way, it reminds me somewhat of a Ross Brothers documentary. Because everything unfolds in such a low key way, the darker aspects of Cassandro's story just kind of sneak up on the viewer.

It should go without saying that the wrestling scenes are fantastic and the costumes are a sight to behold. If you have any interest in fashion, there's plenty to feast your eyes on here.

Cassandro, the Exotico! is truly an international production: It's a mostly English language film by a French director about one of the staples of Mexican culture. That dynamic made me immediately think of the documentary Black Panthers by French director Agnes Varda. Both films were directed by objective outsiders.

DaBargainHunta's Decree: Cassandro's story is fascinating, but I was left wanting even more. Maybe that's a good thing. Thankfully, this isn't the last we're going to see of Cassandro. Gael García Bernal will apparently be portraying the exotico in an upcoming film. Even though he is one of my favorite actors, I almost wish Pedro Pascal had gotten cast instead, because he would be truly perfect for the part. (Subtitles/Captions: Yes, but they disappear from the screen too quickly - an odd glitch that isn't present on other services showing this movie.)