The Criterion Channel - Page 45 - Blu-ray Forum

DaBargainHunta · 02-28-2023, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaBargainHunta

Tonight? Not sure. Nothing is urgently calling out to me. Maybe Day of the Outlaw, maybe something else.

I did indeed watch Day of the Outlaw. Very good, very bleak Western, with perfect use of black-and-white.

I also caught the screwball comedy Love Is News with Tyrone Power, Loretta Young, and Don Ameche. Why isn't this mentioned in the same breath as the great screwballs? It's fantastic!

I think that'll be it for me this month, unless I watch a short or two before the clock runs out.

fdm · 03-01-2023, 07:13 AM

Ended up watching Ravenous, very good, fit my mood pretty well.

And continuing on from last month, another Australian aborigines film, this one by Thornton called Samson & Delilah also very good (pretty grim though), glad I got around to it too. (No Gulpilil in this one.)

DaBargainHunta · 03-01-2023, 08:04 AM

If you have the TCM app (which requires a cable login), I highly recommend The Search with Montgomery Clift. It's there for a couple more days.

fdm · 03-27-2023, 09:10 AM

A week or so ago I decided to pick off a few of the Czech New Wave films before they went away some time in the future, focusing on ones I wouldn't have access to otherwise. At the time this meant Shorm's Courage For Every Day which was a pretty good, though a little vague in coming to its point (as indicated in the film's description). Interesting enough. Also watched one of Jireš's shorts called Uncle before I realized I had it on disc somewhere, short and sweet. Not sure I'll get back to that much as I got it pretty well covered already, or will soon, except maybe to watch something in HD resolution.

In a similar vein I was going to check the Starring Isabelle Huppert category, but well that didn't quite happen yet. Sooner rather than later I'll likely get around to Abuse Of Weakness and perhaps La truite and EO. Similar to above got the rest of them pretty well covered.

Also around then I checked out some of the films expiring this month and started with watching one of Guru Dutt's films called Pyassa but ran out of time to finish it (by a long shot). And decided a couple of days ago to focus on that category The World Of Guru Dutt the rest of this month, sneak in a few others if I have time. Probably won't get to them all, but I might… and also I don't have any of them covered so that works out well to see them on the channel if I can before they all go away in a few days.

Started last night with the first one called Baaz (The Falcon) from 1953, it's in rough shape here and there but was quite watchable and pretty entertaining. I do wonder if every Indian film is a musical (I think I've only seen a few)… the songs are usually all right though as they were here… and it's a good story, I never knew that India was occupied by those evil Portuguese once upon a time. Worth a watch.

DaBargainHunta · 03-27-2023, 06:52 PM

First on the agenda will probably be Douglas Sirk's There's Always Tomorrow starring Barbara Stanwyck (my favorite!), Fred MacMurray, and Joan Bennett - maybe tonight or tomorrow.

March Expiring Picks I've already seen:

Cosmos
Man Hunt
Q: The Winged Serpent
The Slumber Party Massacre
Sounder
A Woman Is a Woman

Man Hunt is probably the best, but Cosmos and the bonkers Q: The Winged Serpent are also well worth watching.

The Slumber Party Massacre is a decent slasher.

Only bother with A Woman is a Woman if you're a diehard Godard fan. (I'm not!)

I haven't seen Sounder since I was a kid. I barely remember it even though it was shown to me in school several times. But it's probably good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fdm

EO

I watched this before the Oscars. I will admit it probably took me a good 30 minutes to vibe with the movie and understand what it was going for. After that, I sat back and chilled with it. I found myself really caring about that damn donkey.

fdm · 03-28-2023, 02:09 AM

There's Always Tomorrow, Stanwick, good stuff. Fred too. And Joan.

Q pretty fun.

Godard yes. Though it's been a while since I watched any all the way through… only have a couple Criterions left to watch yet. Such as, I did start watching Every Man For Himself recently (per the Huppert category), but wasn't really in the frame of mind at the time, and will just watch the disc later one of these days… Le Petit Soldat is the other Criterion disc I haven't watched yet.

I likely briefly started up EO probably the same day as the Godard, but that's probably when I decided to check out my dvr instead. Ever seen Au hasard Balthazer?

--

So anyway, I decided to cut to the chase and watch the two Dutt films that are in BFI top 1000, the first one being Pyassa (The Thirsty One). A pretty good watch for me, a particularly strong film, worth a visit.

Later today, I'll watch the other one Kaagaz Ke Phool (Paper Flowers). Hope to get an earlier start (though may end up running errands, so ?).

fdm · 03-30-2023, 05:45 AM

The clock is still ticking, went through Dutt's Aar Paar (Heads Or Tails) between last night and tonight. Actually was pretty good too. (Was kinda also pretty tired today so contemplating giving today's last half another watch tomorrow earlier in the day to give it a better viewing.)

Also tomorrow I'll give Kaagaz Ke Phool (Paper Flowers) another shot, the sound seemed kind of odd on it when I started it up yesterday (overloaded/distorted) so ended up watching other things instead (thus Aar Paar.)

So… I can recommend all the Dutt I've seen so far.

Done with the channel today anyway.

DaBargainHunta · 03-30-2023, 01:44 PM

Watched a couple of Joan Bennetts:

There's Always Tomorrow (1956): Good Douglas Sirk movie reuniting Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray from Double Indemnity + Joan Bennett.

Woman on the Beach (1947): Joan Bennett is caught between her blind painter husband (Charles Pickford) and a lieutenant with PTSD who doesn't believe he's actually blind (the always great Robert Ryan). Only 70 minutes, so an easy one to squeeze in.

I'll probably continue with Joan Bennett - probably Big Brown Eyes and/or Wild Girl - if I have time (I have to watch The General with Buster Keaton tonight - not expiring! - for a film club I'm in).

thornhill · 03-30-2023, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaBargainHunta

Watched a couple of Joan Bennetts:

There's Always Tomorrow (1956): Good Douglas Sirk movie reuniting Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray from Double Indemnity + Joan Bennett.

Woman on the Beach (1947): Joan Bennett is caught between her blind painter husband (Charles Pickford) and a lieutenant with PTSD who doesn't believe he's actually blind (the always great Robert Ryan). Only 70 minutes, so an easy one to squeeze in.

I'll probably continue with Joan Bennett - probably Big Brown Eyes and/or Wild Girl - if I have time (I have to watch The General with Buster Keaton tonight - not expiring! - for a film club I'm in).

I watched all of those. I only just discovered and fell in love with Joan Bennet through these films, especially The Woman in the Window. I'm a big Cary Grant fan so I was really pleasantly surprised with Big Brown Eyes, really good one. Wild Girl was probably my least favorite of all of these.

DaBargainHunta · 03-30-2023, 09:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thornhill

I watched all of those. I only just discovered and fell in love with Joan Bennet through these films, especially The Woman in the Window. I'm a big Cary Grant fan so I was really pleasantly surprised with Big Brown Eyes, really good one. Wild Girl was probably my least favorite of all of these.

Thanks. I might only have time for one more, and I was leaning toward Big Brown Eyes. This clinches it.

(I have The Woman in the Window on Blu-ray, so I can take my sweet time getting around to that.)

fdm · 03-31-2023, 05:12 AM

Taking a short break, watching Dutt's Paper Flowers. The sound is a bit problematic here and there (distorted) but not a big deal. The film is interesting so far (an hour in), I imagine it will continue on that way… good stuff.

Finishing that up will probably be it tonight, have to get up early to sign for a package. So… more time tomorrow to squeeze in something or other extra. Glad I'm getting around to these films before it's too late, been meaning to for a while.

(I started to watch Wild Girl a month or two ago, didn't hold my interest. Big Brown Eyes… well I mentioned it before, recall liking it.)

fdm · 04-01-2023, 08:55 AM

Finished off the month with a couple films produced and starring (but not directed by) Guru Dutt. Also quite good, they were Alvi's Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (Master, Mistress and Servant) and Sadiq's Chardhvin Ka Chand (Full Moon).

Watching those half dozen rather long Dutt-involved films kind of felt like watching all those Jacques Demy films years and years ago, similar time frame for when they were made, similar (but different!) well written stories, most (all?) wrapped in a musical context to various degrees.

Didn't quite get to Dutt's Mr. & Mrs '55, or the documentary about him, but all in all nearly made it and probably got to the best of it.

On to April… will try to spread things out a little more.

thornhill · 04-03-2023, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaBargainHunta

Thanks. I might only have time for one more, and I was leaning toward Big Brown Eyes. This clinches it.

(I have The Woman in the Window on Blu-ray, so I can take my sweet time getting around to that.)

Hope you enjoyed it! I now need to pick up Woman in the Window, loved that one!

DaBargainHunta · 04-03-2023, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thornhill

Hope you enjoyed it! I now need to pick up Woman in the Window, loved that one!

I loved Big Brown Eyes. Such a fun movie. I've only seen a few Cary Grant films, but he shows more personality here than I've seen elsewhere. Even Joan Bennett is completely different and tons of fun here compared to There's Always Tomorrow and Woman on the Beach (where she's still good, mind you, but those are completely different types of roles).

thornhill · 04-04-2023, 05:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaBargainHunta

I loved Big Brown Eyes. Such a fun movie. I've only seen a few Cary Grant films, but he shows more personality here than I've seen elsewhere. Even Joan Bennett is completely different and tons of fun here compared to There's Always Tomorrow and Woman on the Beach (where she's still good, mind you, but those are completely different types of roles).

What I learned about Joan Bennett from watching her films on Criterion Channel, is that she had three big phases to her career. There’s the young blonde era, her early films including Big Brown Eyes, her dark haired femme fatale era, including Woman in the Window or Woman on the Beach, and her older mother figure era including There’s Always Tomorrow. She even had a big part in Dark Shadows series which I had no idea about. She has been a big discovery for me. Cary Grant has lots of great movies, many of which are in the Criterion Collection. The Awful Truth is a great one, along with The Philadelphia Story and his Hitchcock films like Notorious and North by Northwest to name just a few. Mr. Blanding’s Builds his Dream Home is a good one too.

DaBargainHunta · 04-04-2023, 10:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thornhill

What I learned about Joan Bennett from watching her films on Criterion Channel, is that she had three big phases to her career. There’s the young blonde era, her early films including Big Brown Eyes, her dark haired femme fatale era, including Woman in the Window or Woman on the Beach, and her older mother figure era including There’s Always Tomorrow. She even had a big part in Dark Shadows series which I had no idea about. She has been a big discovery for me. Cary Grant has lots of great movies, many of which are in the Criterion Collection. The Awful Truth is a great one, along with The Philadelphia Story and his Hitchcock films like Notorious and North by Northwest to name just a few. Mr. Blanding’s Builds his Dream Home is a good one too.

Thank you for your very informative post on Joan Bennett. I'm only now discovering her myself.

As for Cary Grant, I've seen these (in order of release date):

Merrily We Go to Hell (1932) - small supporting role, I believe
Hot Saturday (1932)
Big Brown Eyes (1936)
The Awful Truth (1937)
The Bishop's Wife (1947)
North by Northwest (1959)
That Touch of Mink (1962)

More than I thought!

I like all of them - especially North by Northwest - but as sacrilegious as it is to admit, Big Brown Eyes is the first one that really made me take notice of Cary Grant. I guess he's "just there" for me in other movies.

Maybe I'm being too harsh or maybe I need to see more? I don't know what it is.

erlinmeyer · 04-08-2023, 06:25 PM

Be sure to check email if you are a Charter Subscriber for a $20 code.

fdm · 04-09-2023, 08:08 AM

Noticed earlier this month that most (all?) of the free jazz documentaries (in the Free Jazz category) were expiring this month. Found myself at the channel "tonight" and that's where I landed, so gave a couple more a spin.

The Cry Of Jazz apparently features Sun Ra's music throughout (not really sure, 1959 was pretty early on, couldn't really tell who anybody was), and I dunno it hasn't really aged very well and is now more on the corny side, though made some good points and the music was all right.

Rising Tones Cross from 1985 was far more interesting however and featured a good number of free jazz performances, and discussions about this kind of music and the lifestyle that it may necessitate, especially in the US. I found the Charles Gayle segments particularly interesting, though many of my free jazz favorites were in there. Reminded me a lot of the Fire Music documentary, similar ground covered, but Fire Music coming from decades later.

I have most of these on dvd, a couple on blu-ray, but figured the odds of watching these any time soon would be by watching them now on the channel. See how many more I can squeeze in… plus maybe there'll be more such things in the future, even if I may be the only one watching them.

Hope somebody releases Fire Music on blu-ray sooner rather than never.

I do recommend Rising Tones Cross, Fire Music and [i]Imagine The Sound[i/], so far. And Les Stances à Sophie is a pretty good French film also, HD-ish quality.

regeyer · 04-10-2023, 04:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erlinmeyer

Be sure to check email if you are a Charter Subscriber for a $20 code.

Got mine.

Fang Zei · 04-12-2023, 01:18 AM

Can anyone confirm whether or not the transfer of Dune currently up on Criterion Channel is the old one or if it’s from the recent 4k remaster?

03-27-2023, 09:10 AM	#884
fdm Blu-ray Ninja Top contributor Member since:Nov 2007 Location:Way Out West 4K collection:- Blu-ray collection:- DVD collection:- Digital collection:- iTunes collection:- Blu-ray reviews:2 Trading Score:3	A week or so ago I decided to pick off a few of the Czech New Wave films before they went away some time in the future, focusing on ones I wouldn't have access to otherwise. At the time this meant Shorm's Courage For Every Day which was a pretty good, though a little vague in coming to its point (as indicated in the film's description). Interesting enough. Also watched one of Jireš's shorts called Uncle before I realized I had it on disc somewhere, short and sweet. Not sure I'll get back to that much as I got it pretty well covered already, or will soon, except maybe to watch something in HD resolution. In a similar vein I was going to check the Starring Isabelle Huppert category, but well that didn't quite happen yet. Sooner rather than later I'll likely get around to Abuse Of Weakness and perhaps La truite and EO. Similar to above got the rest of them pretty well covered. Also around then I checked out some of the films expiring this month and started with watching one of Guru Dutt's films called Pyassa but ran out of time to finish it (by a long shot). And decided a couple of days ago to focus on that category The World Of Guru Dutt the rest of this month, sneak in a few others if I have time. Probably won't get to them all, but I might… and also I don't have any of them covered so that works out well to see them on the channel if I can before they all go away in a few days. Started last night with the first one called Baaz (The Falcon) from 1953, it's in rough shape here and there but was quite watchable and pretty entertaining. I do wonder if every Indian film is a musical (I think I've only seen a few)… the songs are usually all right though as they were here… and it's a good story, I never knew that India was occupied by those evil Portuguese once upon a time. Worth a watch. Last edited by fdm; 03-27-2023 at 09:15 AM.

03-28-2023, 02:09 AM	#886
fdm Blu-ray Ninja Top contributor Member since:Nov 2007 Location:Way Out West 4K collection:- Blu-ray collection:- DVD collection:- Digital collection:- iTunes collection:- Blu-ray reviews:2 Trading Score:3	There's Always Tomorrow, Stanwick, good stuff. Fred too. And Joan. Q pretty fun. Godard yes. Though it's been a while since I watched any all the way through… only have a couple Criterions left to watch yet. Such as, I did start watching Every Man For Himself recently (per the Huppert category), but wasn't really in the frame of mind at the time, and will just watch the disc later one of these days… Le Petit Soldat is the other Criterion disc I haven't watched yet. I likely briefly started up EO probably the same day as the Godard, but that's probably when I decided to check out my dvr instead. Ever seen Au hasard Balthazer? -- So anyway, I decided to cut to the chase and watch the two Dutt films that are in BFI top 1000, the first one being Pyassa (The Thirsty One). A pretty good watch for me, a particularly strong film, worth a visit. Later today, I'll watch the other one Kaagaz Ke Phool (Paper Flowers). Hope to get an earlier start (though may end up running errands, so ?). Last edited by fdm; 03-28-2023 at 08:56 AM.

03-30-2023, 01:44 PM	#888
DaBargainHunta Blu-ray Duke Top contributor Member since:May 2011 Location:Parts Unknown - because I blabbed about Mars! Blu-ray collection:- DVD collection:- Trading Score:25	Watched a couple of Joan Bennetts: There's Always Tomorrow (1956): Good Douglas Sirk movie reuniting Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray from Double Indemnity + Joan Bennett. Woman on the Beach (1947): Joan Bennett is caught between her blind painter husband (Charles Pickford) and a lieutenant with PTSD who doesn't believe he's actually blind (the always great Robert Ryan). Only 70 minutes, so an easy one to squeeze in. I'll probably continue with Joan Bennett - probably Big Brown Eyes and/or Wild Girl - if I have time (I have to watch The General with Buster Keaton tonight - not expiring! - for a film club I'm in). Last edited by DaBargainHunta; 03-30-2023 at 01:49 PM.

04-09-2023, 08:08 AM	#898
fdm Blu-ray Ninja Top contributor Member since:Nov 2007 Location:Way Out West 4K collection:- Blu-ray collection:- DVD collection:- Digital collection:- iTunes collection:- Blu-ray reviews:2 Trading Score:3	Noticed earlier this month that most (all?) of the free jazz documentaries (in the Free Jazz category) were expiring this month. Found myself at the channel "tonight" and that's where I landed, so gave a couple more a spin. The Cry Of Jazz apparently features Sun Ra's music throughout (not really sure, 1959 was pretty early on, couldn't really tell who anybody was), and I dunno it hasn't really aged very well and is now more on the corny side, though made some good points and the music was all right. Rising Tones Cross from 1985 was far more interesting however and featured a good number of free jazz performances, and discussions about this kind of music and the lifestyle that it may necessitate, especially in the US. I found the Charles Gayle segments particularly interesting, though many of my free jazz favorites were in there. Reminded me a lot of the Fire Music documentary, similar ground covered, but Fire Music coming from decades later. I have most of these on dvd, a couple on blu-ray, but figured the odds of watching these any time soon would be by watching them now on the channel. See how many more I can squeeze in… plus maybe there'll be more such things in the future, even if I may be the only one watching them. Hope somebody releases Fire Music on blu-ray sooner rather than never. I do recommend Rising Tones Cross, Fire Music and [i]Imagine The Sound[i/], so far. And Les Stances à Sophie is a pretty good French film also, HD-ish quality. Last edited by fdm; 04-10-2023 at 09:10 PM.

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03-01-2023, 07:13 AM	#882
fdm Blu-ray Ninja Top contributor Member since:Nov 2007 Location:Way Out West 4K collection:- Blu-ray collection:- DVD collection:- Digital collection:- iTunes collection:- Blu-ray reviews:2 Trading Score:3	Ended up watching Ravenous, very good, fit my mood pretty well. And continuing on from last month, another Australian aborigines film, this one by Thornton called Samson & Delilah also very good (pretty grim though), glad I got around to it too. (No Gulpilil in this one.)

03-01-2023, 08:04 AM	#883
DaBargainHunta Blu-ray Duke Top contributor Member since:May 2011 Location:Parts Unknown - because I blabbed about Mars! Blu-ray collection:- DVD collection:- Trading Score:25	If you have the TCM app (which requires a cable login), I highly recommend The Search with Montgomery Clift. It's there for a couple more days.

03-30-2023, 05:45 AM	#887
fdm Blu-ray Ninja Top contributor Member since:Nov 2007 Location:Way Out West 4K collection:- Blu-ray collection:- DVD collection:- Digital collection:- iTunes collection:- Blu-ray reviews:2 Trading Score:3	The clock is still ticking, went through Dutt's Aar Paar (Heads Or Tails) between last night and tonight. Actually was pretty good too. (Was kinda also pretty tired today so contemplating giving today's last half another watch tomorrow earlier in the day to give it a better viewing.) Also tomorrow I'll give Kaagaz Ke Phool (Paper Flowers) another shot, the sound seemed kind of odd on it when I started it up yesterday (overloaded/distorted) so ended up watching other things instead (thus Aar Paar.) So… I can recommend all the Dutt I've seen so far. Done with the channel today anyway.

03-31-2023, 05:12 AM	#891
fdm Blu-ray Ninja Top contributor Member since:Nov 2007 Location:Way Out West 4K collection:- Blu-ray collection:- DVD collection:- Digital collection:- iTunes collection:- Blu-ray reviews:2 Trading Score:3	Taking a short break, watching Dutt's Paper Flowers. The sound is a bit problematic here and there (distorted) but not a big deal. The film is interesting so far (an hour in), I imagine it will continue on that way… good stuff. Finishing that up will probably be it tonight, have to get up early to sign for a package. So… more time tomorrow to squeeze in something or other extra. Glad I'm getting around to these films before it's too late, been meaning to for a while. (I started to watch Wild Girl a month or two ago, didn't hold my interest. Big Brown Eyes… well I mentioned it before, recall liking it.)

04-01-2023, 08:55 AM	#892
fdm Blu-ray Ninja Top contributor Member since:Nov 2007 Location:Way Out West 4K collection:- Blu-ray collection:- DVD collection:- Digital collection:- iTunes collection:- Blu-ray reviews:2 Trading Score:3	Finished off the month with a couple films produced and starring (but not directed by) Guru Dutt. Also quite good, they were Alvi's Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (Master, Mistress and Servant) and Sadiq's Chardhvin Ka Chand (Full Moon). Watching those half dozen rather long Dutt-involved films kind of felt like watching all those Jacques Demy films years and years ago, similar time frame for when they were made, similar (but different!) well written stories, most (all?) wrapped in a musical context to various degrees. Didn't quite get to Dutt's Mr. & Mrs '55, or the documentary about him, but all in all nearly made it and probably got to the best of it. On to April… will try to spread things out a little more.

04-08-2023, 06:25 PM	#897
erlinmeyer Blu-ray Ninja Top contributor Member since:Jun 2009 Location:Minnesota 4K collection:543 Blu-ray collection:4918 DVD collection:434 MA collection:927 Digital collection:1288 iTunes collection:1450 iTunes music:686 Prime collection:1107 Blu-ray reviews: 9 Trading Score:11	Be sure to check email if you are a Charter Subscriber for a $20 code.

04-12-2023, 01:18 AM	#900
Fang Zei Expert Member Member since:Jun 2010	Can anyone confirm whether or not the transfer of Dune currently up on Criterion Channel is the old one or if it’s from the recent 4k remaster?

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