I noticed my B&N had Silence of the Lambs in the New Release section, and not with the other Criterions. I wish someone had been working in the Movie section. I couldn't find the BDs I wanted that their website said they had.
I’d like to see them have a section of Blu-ray and another section of DVDs. It’s a bummer when you see a title released but they only have the DVD version.
I just picked up some for the sale: Vampyr Virgin Suicides Silence of the Lambs Stalker Ugetsu Dead Man I may add a few more before the sale is out. I completely forgot about their release of Night of the Living dead until I saw it mentioned here, so I may get that. Thinking about picking up Lady Snowblood, Bottle Rocket, The Killing and Red Beard as well.
Just picked up Dead Man and Coffee and Cigarettes. Jarmusch faves. The extra features are poor to non- existant (Gary Farmer's (Nobody) recollections on Dead Man special features are interesting). That film, especially, remains intriguing to watch. Each time I view it it seems to be about something else. It seems now to be about a man (and men) in perpetual limbo, halfway between life and death; about men not fully committed to living and (therefore) afraid to die. It's a sort of poetic evocation of most people's lives, really; Jarmusch puts it right in your face.
The B&N I usually shop at got 6 copies of the Dietrich/von Sternberg BD box set yesterday (day of release). All 6 copies were gone by midday, according to a friend who'd been there later in the day. When I checked the website this morning, I was surprised to see that it was now showing up as available in-store. I happened to be in the area this afternoon, and figured I'd drop by. No BD copies anywhere, but when I saw a copy of the DVD set I checked the website again and realized that I'd inadvertently been viewing in-store availability for the DVD version, not the BD version.
I may have done the same thing. I will check again next week. No real urgency, as Amazon has a lot of Criterion BDs for $23 most of the time.
Blu-rays 3 Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg The 39 Steps The 400 Blows America Lost and Found: the BBS Story Anatomy Of a Murder Black Narcissus Brazil Che The Complete Jacques Tati The Complete Jean Vigo Les Cousins The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button Days Of Heaven Fish Tank Following The Game Howards End If... Island Of Lost Souls Ivan’s Childhood Kagemusha The Last Temptation Of Christ Letters Never Sent The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp M The Man Who Knew Too Much [1934] Marketa Lazarova My Life As a Dog Pina On the Waterfront Paths of Glory Picnic At Hanging Rock The Passion Of Joan of Arc Rashomon A Room with a View Rosemary’s Baby The Royal Tenenbaums Rushmore Seven Samurai The Seventh Seal Tess The Three Colors Trilogy Tiny Furniture To Be or Not To Be Traffic White Material Wings of a Desire DVDs All That Heaven Allows Armageddon Belle de Jour The Cranes Are Flying The Deceivers [Merchant Ivory Collection] Do The Right Thing Fanny & Alexander Hearts and Minds The Hit The Killers Larisa Shepitko [Eclipse Series] The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou Lord Of the Flies Man Bites Dog Maurice [Merchant Ivory Collection] The Most Dangerous Game The Naked Kiss Oliver Twist Ran Shock Corridor Short Cuts Spartacus Time Bandits
I don't have a lot. Chungking Express blu-ray The Third Man blu-ray Yojimbo/Sanjuro blu-ray The Seven Samurai blu-ray The Beastie Boys DVD The Unbearable Lightness of Being DVD
Picked up these Criterion BDs on sale day #1 - new releases plus others I'd tried to find during past B&N Criterion sales: Being There The Gold Rush Midnight Cowboy Modern Times Something Wild (1986)
Yesterday's Criterion blu-ray haul Dietrich & Von Sternberg in Hollywood Moonrise The Awful Truth The Virgin Spring Le Samourai King of Jazz Midnight Cowboy
Yeah! Glad I haven't bought 'Virgin Spring' on BluRay yet. That's $40 I've saved so far! At this rate, I'll be rolling in dough by the end of the year! Oh, wait, does it include the full TV version of 'Scenes From A Marriage' or am I gonna have to buy that one also? Oh, and 'Torment' isn't here, so I guess I need to hold on to the Eclipse DVD box. And the bonus disc from the MGM DVD set. But, seriously, this looks all kinds of awesome. Day one purchase for sure. And they didn't even make us wait until the 15th to find out about it!
Bought two blu-ray packages for the sale, only because it's the only way I'm going to be able to see one, and best way to watch the other... Terrence Malik's The New World, and Laurie Anderson's Heart of a Dog
I guess i wasted my money on Virgin Spring, and somewhat on all the other Bergman Criterions, but I don't care, I want it!!
Wow. I have only three Bergmans on ‘C’ as I was longing for someone to finally drop the hammer and make a monster box for a man who so richly deserves it....and there it is. My three individual Bergmans will be heading for EBay rather soon...
False alarm - both versions are included. Sigh of relief. BOX SET CONTENT OPENING NIGHT: Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) Crisis (1946) A Ship to India (1947) Wild Strawberries (1957) To Joy (1950) Summer Interlude (1951) Summer with Monika (1953) Dreams (1955) A Lesson in Love (1954) CENTERPIECE ONE: Scenes from a Marriage- Television version (1973) | U.S. theatrical version (1974) Saraband (2003) From the Life of the Marionettes (1980) Hour of the Wolf (1968) Shame (1968) The Passion of Anna (1969) Fårö Document (1970) Fårö Document 1979 (1979) Through a Glass Darkly (1961) Winter Light (1963) The Silence (1963) The Virgin Spring (1960) CENTERPIECE TWO: The Seventh Seal (1957) The Devil's Eye (1960) All These Women (1964) Sawdust and Tinsel (1953) The Rite (1969) The Magician (1958) The Magic Flute (1975) After the Rehearsal (1984) The Touch (1971) The Serpent's Egg (1977) CENTERPIECE THREE: Persona (1966) Thirst (1949) Port of Call (1948) Cries and Whispers (1972) Waiting Women (1952) Brink of Life (1958) Autumn Sonata (1978) CLOSING NIGHT: Fanny and Alexander- Television version (1983) | Theatrical version (1982)
If this is how “physical media is dying”, then please bring on more end-of-times boxes like this one (I am mostly kidding, but not entirely...)
I'm guessing the next one (after we all have time to give our credit cards some breathing room) will either be a huge Fassbinder set or a BluRay edition of the Kurosawa box. With any luck, they might do one of these a year. Just hopefully not always at the same time as the King Crimson boxes come out. With no money left in December, it's getting tiresome having to pick fights with everyone I know just so I don't have to spend money on gifts.
Whilst I would love to see a comprehensive Fassbinder box set, I fear his commercial appeal is much more selective than that of Ingmar Bergman; I just can’t see it happening on this scale. Bergman has always been one of Criterion’s, and world cinema’s, sacred cows, and they have a convenient anniversary (Bergman’s 100th birthday) to hitch their wagon to here. Fassbinder is very much the enfant terrible of world cinema, and he still polarises opinion to this day. I believe the Fassbinder Foundation owns the rights to most (not sure about all) of his oeuvre, so that shouldn’t be a problem, but I understand they are far from completing restorations on everything. If, and it’s a big if, Criterion were serious about a Fassbinder box set, it won’t happen on the timescale you mention. A Kurosawa upgrade is more likely, IMO. Shame that particular 100th anniversary has passed, so a change of title would now be necessary. The lack of a BD release was bemoaned by many at the time, but the commercial viability of such a set is still a possibility in 2018/2019. The Bergman set looks lovely, btw. I’m tempted to pick it up at some point.
I was happy to get these today. All three a great addition to my library. The Lodger, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Midnight Cowboy. Question for you all. Since there are other companies putting out stellar versions of movies like Criterion, should we start threads for them or just expand this title to "Your Criterion Collection & Other Stellar Releases"? The ones I'm referring to are Powerhouse/Indicator, Twilight Time, etc..
I’ve resisted doing so because I believe there isn’t sufficient interest here. Most of the best boutique labels are British, and most of our members are American. Many here display ignorance, even fear, about importing BDs and DVDs. Not everyone, of course, but many. To a lesser degree, we have the same attitude in the U.K. I know people with huge BD collections — bigger than mine — who refuse to go region-free. Anyway, my favourite label by far is Eureka’s Masters of Cinema range. I’ve mentioned them before on these forums and received little or no response. Indicator put out great quality editions of films I am mostly ambivalent about. Hence, I own fewer than ten of their releases. Twilight Time have an odd business model. They also make it incredibly expensive to import, so I have to really like a film, and believe it’s not coming from one of the U.K. boutiques (which often it is) before I’ll bite. Their Peckinpah BDs are really nice, and I bought the last couple of Woody Allen releases.