I went crazy with Criterion buying this month. Very happy about it too! "Kiss Me Deadly" was my final purchase today. I had "Television Toys" on laserdisc when it came out years ago & loved it. I Would love to see an expanded version release on Blu-Ray. "The Atomic Café" I have on DVD & would like to see a Criterion version with lots of supplements & historic background info.
Just picked up Cameraperson (2016). An excellent deal at half off. The 2 disc set regular price is just under $20. It features a film collated from 25 years of cinematographer Kirsten Johnson's outtakes of various film projects. They're anything but random, however; in their startling, almost brutal chronicling of real events around the world they're edited to form an unforgettable portrait of the woman behind the lens. They extra features include several intriguing conversations involving the challenges of location shooting in often hostile conditions. A must for fans and practitioners of documentary filmmaking.
Thief A Hard Day's Night Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas The Game I will usually pick up one of the more modern titles if it's not something I already own. I only bought the Thief Blu-ray because the one I had was the non-anamorphic DVD from 1995 and it was just awful. The Criterion version is unquestionably better.
I first saw it in its initial cinema run, in late 2001. Loved it then, and it remains my favourite Anderson film to this day. I find it rewards multiple viewings. Just something about it that really connects with me. It reminds me of Salinger’s Glass family stories.
I can’t find any mention of Volker Schlöndorff’s Baal (1970) in this thread, or anywhere else on the forum. It’s a rough watch — as any good production of Baal should be — with purposely ugly mise en scène and stagey dialogue, but Fassbinder was born to play the lead role. So prescient, given how Fassbinder’s career would pan out. Anyone else pick this one up?
Not sure if I can accurately say which of my collection are Criterion efforts, but they include: La Dolce Vita 8&1/2 Juliette of the Spirits Summer Interlude Summer with Monika Midsummer Night's Dream The Seventh Seal Wild Strawberries The Magician Through a Glass Darkly Winter Light The Silence Persona Shame The Hour of the Wolf The Passion Cries and Whispers Scenes from a Marriage The Serpent's Egg Face to Face Autumn Sonata Saraband L'Avventura La Notte L'Eclisse Blow-Up Modesty Blaise Days of Heaven Mississippi Mermaid Belle du Jour There are others.
Well, I spent the afternoon with the double disc DVD, A Night To Remember, watching all the features. Some I found charming (the interview with survivor, Eva Hart) and some a bit overblown (The Iceberg That Sank The Titanic). The commentary track is one of the better ones from Criterion, with two lifelong followers of the Titanic disaster weighing in on all aspects of the film. The "making of" feature is exceptional as it gives insight into the conception of the film, the book which inspired it and a fascinating account of the actual tragedy. While it remains the best of the Titanic films (in my eyes) some technical aspects leave something to be desired; the most obvious of which is the splitting apart of the ship once the bow had submerged (as pictured above). What we get in the film is a perfect 45 degree dive of the Titanic with its center practically in mid-air. It just looks wrong. I suppose what continually fascinates people about the disaster is that the horror of what actually occurred was so incredible that it can never really be captured or recreated in a film. It's certainly understandable why many of the survivors initially hesitated to see the 1958 premier of this version. But it's an unforgettable experience in its own right.
Not yet, but I intend to. I've been waiting for the semiannual Barnes & Noble sale (which I believe starts on July 3) to pick up recently-released Criterions, and Baal, Female Trouble, Midnight Cowboy, and the Sternberg/Dietrich set are at the top of my list. The forthcoming A Matter of Life and Death would top the list, but it's not due out until July 24, so I may have to wait until either B&N's end-of-year sale or the next Criterion flash sale for that one.
Yipes! I never would have guessed I have so many Criterions. I can't lay off those bi-annual 20% sales. oh and isn't one of those coming up? (I'm hopeless...) Samurai Trilogy Sword of Doom Three Outlaw Samurai The Killer Hard Boiled Branded to Kill Tokyo Drifter Peeping Tom Louie Bluie Night Porter Third Man F For Fake Red River My Darling Clementine Young Mr. Lincoln Fiend without a Face The Lady Eve Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Naked Lunch Youth of the Beast The Complete Mr. Arkadin White Dog The Furies Repo Man Stagecoach Crumb Night of the Hunter Godzilla Jubal I Married a Witch it's a Mad Mad World A Hard Day's Night Eraserhead Palm Beach Story Mulholland Drive Burroughs: The Movie Lady Snowblood Inside Llewyn Davis In a Lonely Place Dr. Stangelove Lone Wolf and Cub Steel Helmet Rumblefish Othello Ghost World David Lynch: The Art Life Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me Eclipse Series 17: Nikkatsu Noir
I’m up to 81 discrete Criterion releases, and I consider that a small collection. It would probably be bigger if I didn’t have a complete MoC collection (currently 191 spine numbers), however.
Glad to see Bottle Rocket #1. The Country Club scene when Mr. Henry takes down Future Man distills all the behavioral archetypes of existence - conflict, humor, pathos - into the greatest scene ever filmed. "Excuse me?" "I don't think so."
Chimes at Midnight Badlands Barry Lyndon I usually go through the Special Features first then watch the main feature days afterward. Did Chimes last night, Barry Lyndon tonight. For years I watched a beat up VHS version of the Kubrick film. It's really what I remember; so watching this edition yielded some fantastic discoveries, to say the least.
The Criterion edition of Barry Lyndon is lovely. Not a huge step up from the old BD, but it does look more filmic, and the shift in aspect ratio makes the framing just right. Nice, thoughtful extras, too. Chimes at Midnight is a revelation compared to the first version I saw on DVD. For years, it was difficult to see any copy of the film at all. A dream release, for me, when it finally came. If you haven’t already, see the Criterion edition of Orson Welles’s Othello. It is one of Criterion’s best editions in recent years. Again, a revelation when compared with the 1992 Beatrice Welles restoration we had to live with for 25 years. The comprehensive extras are the icing on the cake. It’s a hugely important release that did well in the annual polls, but hasn’t garnered much discussion on Internet forums.
Ha - couldn't help but muse at the Beatrice Welles quote in regard to the the Chimes restoration, "Now this he would have liked." Never liked Othello, the play, and I've never seen a film treatment that made the melodrama more interesting (egotists and villains bore me unless they're wrestling with something intriguing like Angelo in Measure For Measure, for instance). Welles' cut-and-paste narrative is certainly most transparent in this treatment. To my mind, the much maligned, earlier Macbeth is less frenetic and a generally stronger film due to the longer held tracking and zoom shots and far slower pace, not to mention a much better acting performance from Welles. Though, as you point out, the extras on Othello, particularly Filming Othello, are a standout.
Horses for courses, I think. Personally, I’ve always enjoyed Welles’s take on Othello, despite his usual acting tics. He could be a real ham at times, especially with Shakespeare. I like his direction here, though, and, in particular, his take on Iago. N.B. Last winter, we visited Venice, where we saw, amongst all the other architectural treasures, the church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli, where Othello marries Desdemona in Welles’s film. The same church was also used by Nicolas Roeg in Don’t Look Now. I’m also a fan of the 2001 television production of Othello by Geoffrey Sax. And yes, I like Welles’s Macbeth, too — especially the longer ‘Scottish’ cut.
Yeah already spent the rent. Oh well. we'll have burgers instead of steak for the 4th! Brand Upon the Brain Spirit of the Beehive Au Hasard Balthazar My Winnipeg 8 1/2 The Shooting/Ride the Whirlwind In the Mood for Love Two-Lane Blacktop What did YOU buy?
I knew July was going to be expensive; this, Arrow's edition of Last House on the Left, Ready Player One, a few CD's of interest (Welcome to the Blackout by David Bowie and that misplaced Coltrane album) plus my dad's birthday.
Just picked up The Color of Pomegranates (Sayat Nova), one of the most formal yet (because I'm not nearly as informed on Eastern European/ Middle Eastern religious iconography as I should be) inexplicably beautiful films I've ever seen. It's Sergei Parajanov's famous bio/moving tableau of the life of poet, Sayat Nova. The line between profundity and clowning is practically erased in this film - one of its chief virtues.
Remarkable film. I bought the Region B Second Sight BD a few months ago. It contains both cuts, whereas the Criterion only has one. I’d recommend it, if you’re smitten with the film.
