What are you watching on the Criterion Channel?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Electric, Jan 2, 2020.

  1. NickySee

    NickySee Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York, NY
    Ah, yes, some of Bergman’s regular players (Ullman, van Sydow) are in this one. There’s a copy with annoying subs (it’s an English language film) burned in on YouTube and a nice edition w/o subs on Одноклассники . Thanks. Don’t believe it’s made it into the C Collection though it seems well regarded.
     
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  2. Joe Stewart

    Joe Stewart Forum Resident

    Location:
    Florida
    There are several Buster Keaton silent films and shorts on this month. I watched the short, One Week and it is fantastic. The stunt where Buster is standing on two different cars that are driving down the street is awesome. I plan on watching some more of these.
     
  3. BradF

    BradF Senior Member

    Location:
    SW Ontario
    Yeah, the cast and the mise-en-scène generally, I think that's what got me thinking it might have been a Bergman film. I missed the beginning and the credits, whatever channel it was on.
     
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  4. NickySee

    NickySee Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York, NY
    Well, did you enjoy it? Recommend it?
     
  5. BradF

    BradF Senior Member

    Location:
    SW Ontario
    I did find a decent enough copy on Youtube and watched it last night. Yeah I do recommend it. Very deserving of a Criterion release or at least a showing on their channel. I notice it does get a lot of love around the net. I get a Bergman meets Hitchcock meets Jame Whale kind of vibe. Thanks for chiming in.
     
  6. hybrid_77

    hybrid_77 Forum Resident

    Location:
    New England
    Watched EO and thought it was very good. Also saw Boy Meets Girl but didn't know what to make of it.
     
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  7. Plinko

    Plinko Senior Member

    Yep! Currently watching these also!
     
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  8. Ando II

    Ando II explorer

    Location:
    Trenton, NJ
    Happy First Day of Spring!

    Early Spring is one Ozu film that I haven't watched. I was thinking of movies on the channel with great film scores. Sort of curious to see what Ozu did with this one - as Spring is often associated with music in films with the season as part of the narrative. Of course, if most of it is shot indoors this theory (like most) may prove useless. :cool:
     
  9. Ando II

    Ando II explorer

    Location:
    Trenton, NJ
    This was one of the most depressing extra-marital affair stories I've watched if I were to read the film on that level alone. But Ozu is up to something that directors like Antonioni were trying to express with films during the late 50s/early 60s; namely, the deadness of lives dependent on the contemporary corporate structure. We're still reacting to it today as millions of young people are leaving their 9 to 5 lifestyles and setting out with independent pursuits. Though Ozu also illustrates the disillusionment with the independent path through the longtime, self-employed friend of the main character who finds that he "depends on the public" for sustenance. 60 plus years on and little has changed with regard to contemporary life in The States, anyway. I've never been to Japan so I can't speak on it but I suspect that little has changed there, either. The bleakness of the film is that there doesn't seem to be a character who represents a free alternative except the mother-in-law, who is simple in life expectations, isn't flummoxed by the position of "her sex" in a male dominated society and is the ballast for the younger generation, who seem to be aimless in terms of their fundamental place in life. Course, this is probably exactly the point that Ozu tried to make with Early Spring, though for the life of me I can't figure out what any of it has to do with Spring or its March arrival.
    :shrug::D
     
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2023
  10. palisantrancho

    palisantrancho Forum Resident

    Not sure why it took me so long to watch this. Tarkovsky certainly made some hypnotic films. I already want to re-watch this one. The Mirror and Andrei Rublev are now the last two on my Tarkovsky list. So far, I have loved all of his films.

    Nostalghia

    Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky • 1983 • Russia, Italy
    Starring Oleg Yankovsky, Erland Josephson, Domiziana Giordano

    Andrei Tarkovsky’s brooding late masterpiece, the first of his features to be made outside of Russia, is a darkly poetic vision of exile. The director poured his feelings of homesickness into this hushed and hypnotic portrait of Andrei (Oleg Yankovsky), a Russian intellectual doing research in Italy, who becomes obsessed with the Botticelli-like beauty of his translator (Domiziana Giordano) as well as with the apocalyptic ramblings of a self-destructive wanderer (Erland Josephson). Written with frequent Michelangelo Antonioni collaborator Tonino Guerra, NOSTALGHIA is a mystical and mysterious collision of East and West.
    [​IMG]
     
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  11. Judge Judy

    Judge Judy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY, USA
    Yes, Madam!
     
  12. Ando II

    Ando II explorer

    Location:
    Trenton, NJ
    Well, that’s quite the compliment (loving ALL of the Tarkovsky’s films that you’ve seen). I admire his approach greatly though the results are a mixed bag, imo. Without getting into the philosophical underpinnings of his methodology, partially spelled out in his book, Sculpting in Time (which I highly recommend) the most compelling aspects of his work for me involves traditional narrative. When he goes off into visual and philosophical excursion, which is different from those images which seem to come from the dramatic situation, I begin to lose interest. Nostalghia is a film which seems to about the excursion; Tarkovsky was away from his native land, unhappy, beset with family problems - all of which are explored in the film in a rather transparent way. In sum, the film asks “How does an artist keep the flame of creativity (love, passion, involvement) alive in a world which is - to him/her - essentially a wasteland?” The question seems to underlie all his work, actually; I just feel that Nostalghia lacks a compelling story that might have provided a more emotionally tactile structure for this kind of questioning which seemed to be at its most intense at this juncture of Tarkovsky’s life.
     
    Last edited: Mar 24, 2023
  13. palisantrancho

    palisantrancho Forum Resident

    His films like Nostalghia stick with me. They are visually beautiful and pull you into their world. Even when you may not know what is going on, they are alluring in their ambiguity. There is something hypnotic about his filming style. He also shares some similarities with Bergman, who is one of my favorites.

    There are not many films, so I would imagine if you like his style, it’s easy to love all of them. Stalker and Ivan’s Childhood are my two favorites and among the best films of all time. Nostalghia is probably third, followed by The Sacrifice and then Solaris. I may watch Mirror today.

    I’ll have to check out his book.
     
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  14. Ando II

    Ando II explorer

    Location:
    Trenton, NJ
    :D Well, to be frank you have yet to watch two of his greatest films (imo, of course). Rublev has long been my favorite film of all time. And Mirror, though not a favorite, is undeniably powerful. Enjoy.
     
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  15. palisantrancho

    palisantrancho Forum Resident

    I can now add Mirror to the rest of the Tarkovsky films that I love. Another work of art that I also want to immediately watch again. I loved the actress who played both the wife and the mother. At first it seemed confusing, but it all comes together in the end. I really look forward to watching Andrei Rublev in the next few days. I also want to re-watch Mirror and Nostalghia!

    I had a friend tell me for years that Tarkovsky was the greatest. He would go on and on about him almost to the point of annoyance. I was interested in his films, but until the Criterion Channel many of them were difficult to track down. Tarkovsky may not have made many films, but he is one of the most unique, brilliant, and interesting film makers of all time. They don't make them like this anymore!
     
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  16. BradF

    BradF Senior Member

    Location:
    SW Ontario
    A few things I watched on the channel this weekend.

    Good time-tripping message film called 499 sees a Conquistador from the Cortez expedition washed ashore in modern day Mexico.

    Goddard's Alphaville got checked off the bucket list. Tough sledding, this one.

    Trouble in Paradise. Always a treat to watch my favourite Lubitsch movie and it looks a lot better here than on my old Criterion DVD.

    Fritz Lang's The Woman in the Window with Eddie G. and Joan Bennett. Didn't love this one as much as Lang's follow up movie Scarlet Street with much the same troop of actors.
     
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  17. Electric

    Electric The Medium is the Massage Thread Starter

    I haven't seen 499. Will watch this week. Thanks.
     
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  18. Ando II

    Ando II explorer

    Location:
    Trenton, NJ
    Same here. In fact, I watched Scarlet Street at least two dozen times before I attempted a viewing of Woman in the Window. It's my favorite American Lang film, certainly the only one that is on par with the best of his German films (IMO). :)
     
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  19. Ando II

    Ando II explorer

    Location:
    Trenton, NJ
    [​IMG]
    The
    Front Page (1931, Lewis Milestone)
    A crusading newspaper editor tricks his retiring star reporter into covering one last case.

    Looks great. Started watching this His Girl Fridayprecursor on TCM’s On Demand channel (WatchTCM) that’s streaming the same Criterion print. But CC’s version is clearly superior. Long overshadowed by the Howard Hawks remake with Cary Grant and Ros Russell it earned 3 Oscars nods including Best Picture, Director and Lead Actor (Aldophe Menjou). Waited years to watch it. A couple of nice extras supplement the feature on CC.
     
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  20. Bruce Racket

    Bruce Racket Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington DC
    It's "Samurai Saturday" so I think I'll break out the katana and watch Seven Samurai this afternoon.
     
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  21. BradF

    BradF Senior Member

    Location:
    SW Ontario
    Hi Ando, concerning the '31 version, I think you meant to type "noms", not "nods". Bad enough my favourite for that year Frankenstein didn't win for best picture. Surprisingly, His Girl Friday I don't think got any major nominations at all.
     
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  22. Ando II

    Ando II explorer

    Location:
    Trenton, NJ
    [​IMG]

    Haha. That was intentional. Google “Oscar nod”, my friend. Among the results you’ll discover who got 53 of them. More than ripe for a fabulous Criterion Channel retrospective featuring his work. Wonder how much he’s currently represented on the channel…
     
    Last edited: Apr 1, 2023
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  23. BradF

    BradF Senior Member

    Location:
    SW Ontario
    Ah, sorry, my misunderstanding of your understanding. I knew that it was nominated for a few Oscars, but didn't win any.
     
  24. BradF

    BradF Senior Member

    Location:
    SW Ontario
    I watched some good movies on the channel this weekend.

    The Last Seduction. Excellent neo-noir features Linda Fiorentino as the cold-blooded femme-fatale, non plus ultra.

    C.B. DeMille's Cleopatra. The extravagant set design is very impressive. Clever editing for the battle scenes.

    Shanghai Express. Another good one from the Paramount Pre-Code list. Dietrich and Anna May Wong at their exotic best.

    EO. Beautifully shot film about the travails of a stoic circus raised donkey released into the chaos of the outside world - a different kind of circus. Well deserved Oscar nomination for Best International Picture.

    The Tracker. Scenic Australian message movie sees an inscrutable Aboriginal tracking down another tribesman accused of murdering a white woman.
     
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  25. Judge Judy

    Judge Judy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY, USA
    Heaven's Gate and all the extras. I have a strange infatuation with that very long, slow movie.
     
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