What are you watching on the Criterion Channel?

I just subscribed and have watched these wonderful films so far:

- I Knew Her Well, directed by Antonio Pietrangeli • 1965 • Italy
- Burroughs: The Movie, directed by Howard Brookner • 1983 • United States

and have watched 2 of 7 short Films by Suzan Pitt

What are you watching?

 

Charter subscriber here. I've watched a lot on the channel over the past few months. The Friends of Eddie Coyle is on my watchlist for tonight.

 

I think I'm going to catch up on my Agnès Varda tonight with:

Black Panthers
Directed by Agnès Varda • 1968 • United States

 

Good one. Shows more of the social underpinnings of the organization, which many people were oblivious to because of the media's portrayal. How they were dismantled through inner division and systematic murder has been, unfortunately, given more coverage.

 

Watching this tonight. Carl Dreyer's Gertrude (1964) was probably the first Criterion title I ever watched (and fell in love with). I mean, going to back the video store days. It might have been (as I recall) a blind buy because at the time West Coast Video was selling all of their videos off at half price. VHS videos. And since it was directed by Dreyer I knew it would be intriguing in some way. Well, it turned out to be one of my favorite films mostly because of the lead performance by Nina Pens Rode. Most would probably find her an insufferably pretentious delusional but her restlessness, idealism and passion, buried under the provincial life of a bureaucrat's wife is fascinating to watch unfold. People might also be bored with its "stagey" stillness but I love this kind of close, studied behavior. It's reminiscent of Chekhov and Ibsen but without the final act emotional explosions. Glad it's streaming.

 

And now on to:

Lions Love (. . . and Lies)

Directed by Agnès Varda • 1969 • United States
Starring Viva, Shirley Clarke, James Rado, Gerome Ragni

Agnès Varda brings New York counterculture to Los Angeles. In a rented house in the sun-soaked Hollywood Hills, a woman and two men, Viva, of Warhol Factory fame, and James Rado and Gerome Ragni, who created and starred in the rock musical “Hair,” delight in one another's bodies while musing on love, stardom, and politics. They are soon joined by underground director Shirley Clarke, playing herself as well as functioning as a surrogate for Varda. LIONS LOVE (...AND LIES) is a metacinematic inquiry into the alternating currents of whimsy and tragedy that typified late-sixties America.

 

A few weeks ago I watched the entirety of the early Bogart compilation, which coincidentally turned out to be a Bogart-Davis festival, as 5 of the 7 films featured both of them. The only missing one, done in '31 at Universal, is on YouTube in its entirety so I watched it there.

I watched a bunch of Ida Lupino directed films.

There is way more content than I can keep up with, and technical problems that initially plagued the service seemed to have all disappeared (at least in my experience).

 

Ida Lupino is on my list.

 

I sent this question to their customer service, but no reply as yet: Why is it when I come back to a movie I'm in the middle of, it starts from the beginning, rather than from where I left off?

 

I don't have it, but if
i did, i'd be watching
Bergman.

 

I don't have this problem. I get a "continue watching" list of movies I haven't completed and I can pick them up where I left off. That's using Roku.

 

Go to Profile, make sure "Show Continue Watching" is switched on.

 

I don't see that anywhere on the Canadian site.

 

I've actually been keeping up with my Criterion Channel viewings on Letterboxd: Criterion Channel Viewings

 

Reply from Criterion:
"Our engineers are currently making an upgrade to a system that's responsible for remembering when you don't finish a video. While this will make our platform more reliable moving forward, it also means the 'Continue watching' category and your ability to resume play from where you left off are currently not working. This should be a quick upgrade, and our system still record where you stopped if you began watching a video during this process. I'll let you know as soon as everything is back up and running."

 

Last few weeks to watch this one (exp. 1/31) - The Last Detail (1973, Hal Ashby).
More or less a buddy road movie, Navy lifers, Jack Nicholson and Otis Young, must escort a baby faced Randy Quaid to military prison for an eight year sentence. It has a gritty home movie feel, though Ashby obviously shot it for this effect. The performances of the reluctant Nicholson and Young who warm up to the naive Quaid really make it. Catch it if you can!

 

I'm going to be watching Logan's Run, good '70s sci fi cheese...

 

This movie is based on a novel written by a Navy veteran named Darryl Ponicsan; another of his books was made into a movie called Cinderella Liberty. Although not a Criterion selection I highly recommend it. Stars James Caan.

 

Split a year with a friend and watched In The Mood for Love last night, amazing film, the kind that just sneaks up your favorite list instantly.

Overall I like the channel but they need to work on improving encoding / PQ and stop burning in subtitles especially when using extrabold outlines typefaces that block content on screen. For a company that does a pretty solid job with their BR releases the streaming quality is lacking.

 

"I've seen some things." - Nicholson trying to impress a girl. Hilarious. Great film.

 

I've long admired the sequel (of sorts) to ITMFL, 2046. But I should probably watch In The Mood now that the opportunity is right in front of me. It'll be a lot how I encountered the Godfather films (and I do think TGII is better).

I've found that the streaming quality varies with the Wi-Fi/data connection. Crystal clear with a strong signal, sputtering with a weaker one. Haven't run into a situation with burned in subtitles, though. Usually they've been optional, not obligatory.

 

On my watch list now.

 

I noticed that most Kurosawa films and In the Mood have them, but some don't?

I have my signal wired into an Apple TV 4K, I found the quality to be pretty decent for 1080p streaming after inspecting some other titles. I think I've just been spoiled recently by Disney+ which despite not having any content I care much about has really great 1080p streaming. Don't really think it's any better or worse than Hulu or Netflix. I get that they're a smaller outfit, but I just wish it could be class leading in image quality, perhaps with an eventual 4K upgrade bitrates can see a bump.

 

Indeed. The word Disney alone makes me want to go in the other direction (practically an adjective (perjorative, frankly) now). But you can't avoid it if you enjoy American entertainment (wish they had left sports alone). Snow White is the only Disney title I own or would ever stream. The Queen and the Dwarfs rule.

 

A bit peeved that neither Downhill Racer nor any American Hitchcock are currently streaming on CC. So I'm settling for an exceptionally good YT of Criterion streamer of Hitch's - Rebecca (1940).