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Raspberry Bang posted:Welp I caved and decided to hit up that sale. You did, all of those movies are great.
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Aug 3, 2017 22:28
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Raspberry Bang posted:Welp I caved and decided to hit up that sale. I've only seen Stalker, Blow Out, and Ghost World but all three are some of my favorites ever. Good picks.
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Aug 4, 2017 01:00
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Goddamn, McCabe and Mrs. Miller is GOOD.
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Aug 4, 2017 03:49
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Sale extended through the 14th.
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Aug 4, 2017 13:22
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Those bastards.
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Aug 4, 2017 16:09
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I hope Criterion does some more Val Lewton stuff because that guy's movies are weird and cool.
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Aug 4, 2017 16:55
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Kull the Conqueror posted:I hope Criterion does some more Val Lewton stuff because that guy's movies are weird and cool.
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Aug 4, 2017 16:59
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Egbert Souse posted:Sale extended through the 14th. Cool. Maybe I'll grab a few more when my next paycheck comes in. 
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Aug 4, 2017 21:39
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Is Harlan County USA on Filmstruck?
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Aug 5, 2017 03:49
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Finances have been a bit tight for me lately, but yesterday I caved and treated myself to two new additions: Do The Right Thing on DVD, a sorta blind buy, and Stalker on Blu-ray, a completely blind buy.
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Aug 5, 2017 16:10
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Stalker completely blew me away, I think I'm gonna rewatch it today. A totally unique experience, there's definitely nothing else out there like it.
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Aug 5, 2017 16:26
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BN sale was extended to the 14th.
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Aug 5, 2017 21:07
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I don't know if this has been posted yet, but anyone in with a library card (in NY and Brooklyn anyway) can stream "thousands" of movies including Criterion films http://gothamist.com/2017/08/03/nypl_bpl_library_card_criterion_collection.php It looks like you can sign up for a public library card online if you don't live in the area
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Aug 5, 2017 21:07
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Dr.Caligari posted:I don't know if this has been posted yet, but anyone in with a library card (in NY and Brooklyn anyway) can stream "thousands" of movies including Criterion films California too.
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Aug 6, 2017 00:16
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Cincinnati as well.
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Aug 6, 2017 01:41
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I really can't wait to get Shock Corridor and Branded to Kill. I've wanted to get the latter so long, but I actually spent a pretty long time browsing the catalogue just to find the perfect companion, and I think I found it. On top of the Kuroneko and Island of Lost Souls buys from last month, I think I'm pretty much set for an 'alternative Halloween.' I plan on doubling each of those with a more conventional/non-Criterion Halloween movie. I'm thinking Island of Lost Souls and King Kong, Shock Corridor and Godzilla's Revenge, Branded to Kill and The Mask '61, and finishing off Kuroneko and Witchfinder General.
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Aug 6, 2017 02:32
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Unmature posted:Is Harlan County USA on Filmstruck? Nope.
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Aug 6, 2017 03:11
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With nine days left to go, how about we see some top tens? In no order... 1. The Complete Jacques Tati - One of the most original filmmakers with all his short and feature works collected, plus a ton of extras. Playtime is one of my favorite films of all times and Mr. Hulot's Holiday and Mon Oncle are brilliant comedies as well. Jour de Fete and Trafic get overlooked a bit, but they're close in quality. Of the shorts, School for Postmen is a wonderful debut film of Tati's after only appearing in other's films. The films a great enough, but the presentation is otherworldly. Playtime is a 4K restoration off a fresh 6.5K scan of the camera negative and other 65mm elements, while the rest are 2K restorations. If I had to pick the greatest and most significant release in Criterion's history, it's this one. 2. Pierre Etaix - Pierre Etaix was a brilliant "jack of all trades" filmmaker. Before making his first film, he was already a well-regarded graphic designer. In fact, he designed the original posters for Mr. Hulot's Holiday and Mon Oncle. The two standout gems of the set are The Suitor and Le Grand Amour. The Suitor is like someone unearthed an unproduced Buster Keaton script and made it every bit as inventive as he would, except with a decidedly French twist. Le Grand Amour is like a "kinder and gentler" Bunuel film, even having a straight-up parody of Godard's Weekend as a setpiece. Yoyo is also a great film, which is as much a homage to Chaplin as it is to Fellini. The restorations are gorgeous and I think this is the only Criterion where the director designed the packaging art! 3. Lonesome - A lot of early talkies can be distractingly creaky. This is an exception. Imagine a film made with every bit of cinematic inventiveness as Sunrise, except with charm replacing expressionism. While the film is in relatively rough shape, it adds to the antique feel of it. Also, it has two other films by Paul Fejos as extras. One of the great hidden gems of the collection. 4. F for Fake - Orson Welles' last theatrical feature might be his greatest and a culmination of his incredible career. Blending documentary and narrative, fact and fiction, Welles engages fakery from all angles. This is probably my favorite film of all time. It's a film that sticks with you. While Welles is endlessly playful (even down to the last few minutes), he also manages to be profound. I think the scene with him talking about the nature of authorship over breathtaking shots of Chartes Cathedral is one of the most beautiful pieces of film. Criterion spared nothing on this edition, including a feature-length doc on his unfinished projects (remastered on the Blu-ray!), a Tom Snyder interview, a doc on Elmyr de Hory, the Howard Hughes press conference, and even a commentary with Oja Kodar. Welles is always essential viewing, but this is essential cinema, period. 5. The Killing/Paths of Glory - Kubrick is probably better known for his films starting with Dr. Strangelove, but his third and fourth are great works of cinema. The Killing is one of the best film noirs ever made and Paths of Glory might be the ultimate anti-war film. Also, The Killing includes his previous feature Killer's Kiss, which deserves more recognition - it's like a sleazier PRC noir. 6. The Night of the Hunter - One of those films that gets better and better every time I see it. Brilliantly made in every aspect (and Charles Laughton's only directorial work). Besides the film being an absolute essential film, this is literally a film school in a box release. There's a second disc with a 2 1/2 hour documentary on the making of the film using outtakes, rushes, and deleted scenes. Add in the fact that UCLA's restoration and Criterion's 2K cleanup makes this one of the best-looking B&W films on Blu-ray. 7. The Gold Rush - Chaplin probably doesn't need a lot of extra recognition, but the fact this includes the original 1925 cut of the film makes this an important release. For those lukewarm on the film by virtue of seeing only the 1942 version, the original silent cut is a revelation. I'd rank it up there with City Lights and The Kid as his silent masterpieces. Both cuts are included from stellar 2K restorations, plus plenty of extras. 8. Blood Simple - The Coens have made a career out of making one great film after another. Even their not-so-great films are fascinating (I still think The Ladykillers is a good, funny movie). This has to be one of the best debut films - up there with Citizen Kane and Eraserhead. It also has a stunning 4K restoration. The highlight of the extras is a "guided tour" of the film with the Coens and Barry Sonenfeld, which is even better than a commentary. 9. A Hard Day's Night - Still one of my favorite movies and Criterion basically followed a grocery list of ways to make this an ultimate release of the film. The new 4K restoration is incredible, plus it has Giles Martin supervised stereo and 5.1 remixes in addition to the original mono track. It also has the long out of print making-of from the 90s, as well as Richard Lester's debut film short The Running Jumping Standing Still Film. It also has a great featurette on Lester, Picturewise, and other content highlighting the underrated director. 10. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp - I think all of Powell & Pressburger's 40s films are incredible, but this stands out among giants like Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes. Stunningly shot in Technicolor, it's also a brilliant, intelligent look at honor and time. The 4K restoration is gorgeous, too. This also has a commentary with Martin Scorsese and Michael Powell originally recorded for the laserdisc. (I'm being nice by omitting The Third Man and Army of Shadows, as to not rub salt in the wound of unavailability)
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Aug 6, 2017 05:12
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The BBS box set is up there too. It's a hell of a value if you like 70's American independent cinema. Not only are the movies great but you can see Jack Nicholson really come into his own as a young actor.
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Aug 6, 2017 16:57
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Egbert Souse posted:4. F for Fake - Orson Welles' last theatrical feature might be his greatest and a culmination of his incredible career. Blending documentary and narrative, fact and fiction, Welles engages fakery from all angles. This is probably my favorite film of all time. It's a film that sticks with you. While Welles is endlessly playful (even down to the last few minutes), he also manages to be profound. I think the scene with him talking about the nature of authorship over breathtaking shots of Chartes Cathedral is one of the most beautiful pieces of film. Criterion spared nothing on this edition, including a feature-length doc on his unfinished projects (remastered on the Blu-ray!), a Tom Snyder interview, a doc on Elmyr de Hory, the Howard Hughes press conference, and even a commentary with Oja Kodar. Welles is always essential viewing, but this is essential cinema, period. Hell yeah.
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Aug 6, 2017 17:53
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1)The Double Life of Veronique - There's an eerie liminality to this movie, every time I watch it I feel like I'm running my fingers across the fabric between conscious and unconscious thought. It's hard to say which of Kiselowski's movies is the best, but something about Double Life is so sensually organic, something about how all the coincidences are both apt and vague, how all the themes pair up and float apart, disparate but cohesive. I don't know how to write about this movie without sounding like a pretentious rear end in a top hat but watching it moves me into this weird zone. 2) Short Cuts - Actually, all these movies do basically that in different ways. I guess the point of movies is to be like Being John Malkovich, but with rows and rows of doors. Altman's adaptation of Carver is more openly lurid than Carver's own writing, but for all his pedestrian overtures, Carver really did traffic in melodrama. Reading the stories and watching the movie is a little bit mindbending, because they feel so naturally sewn together in the film, but once you know where all the subjects are coming from you appreciate the epic undertaking that writing the script must've been. I never really get tired of watching this movie, it's just so funny and witty and casual. 3) Life Is Sweet - I guess Naked is a "better" movie, but I love the assortment and variety of Life is Sweet. Leigh's always been a caricaturist, but by the 90s he was beginning to soften up, and we start to get the caricatures that unexpectedly morph into vivid portraiture. The way the characters move about in their cages is so fascinating, and you really feel for them. Leigh's greatest talent is for exploiting voyeurism, and by cramming the audience into close quarters with his characters he creates this atmosphere of discomfort and awareness that carries on after the movie's over. It's therapy via cinema. 4) A Brighter Summer Day - Probably the most intoxicating way to spend four hours in front of a screen. Yang's camera is so enchantingly implacable in its aesthetics, the depth of sense drops away beneath you like a diving pool in the dark, and when it's over it's hard to shake the frame away from the spaces you're in. There are moments of overwhelming musicality, as well - like the Sixteen Reasons scene in Mulholland Drive, you feel reality shearing away from you when people sing in this movie. The way you lose yourself to the narrative, that's what the movies are about. It's like buying a ticket to an out-of-body experience. 5) Breaking the Waves - It's fun to be provoked. Empathetic anguish and schoolboyish fury can be cathartic if it's presented right, and I love Von Trier for his unapologetic sense of cruelty. Moments like the "Hot Love" montage are so blindingly mean, but isn't it kind of satisfying to swing at the world like that? Don't we all grind and jostle against the terrible fictions of social life? Like all great fairy tales, there's no shying away from savagery here, and the magic trick is that it's also beautifully sad, so we get to go home feeling spiritually fulfulled as well as carnally satisfied, like getting whipped, beaten, and jerked off before attending Compline. 6) Chungking Express - God, the colors! This is the high-speed version of Brighter Summer Day, the same feeling of ineffable aesthetic depth but now it's electric, charged-up rather than meditatively languid. It's so intoxicating, every time I watch it it feels like I'm flying - the music, the editing tricks, the funny, sad, funny story. Ebert says it's "the kind of movie you'll relate to if you love film itself", which is meant partly as a dig, but he's right that it's not memetic shallowness that drives Chungking Express, but really a reflexive language. Kar-Wai uses this language to compress the movie, so we're presented with an aesthetic hypertext. You read it, and you read it again, and you read it again. 7) Autumn Sonata - So this is a "B" Bergman, sure. That's fine. But it's just so satisfying. It's pulpy and enthusiastic, raw and a little goofy but the unpretentious meatiness of it is such a pleasure. It's Bergman at his loosest, as if he made it during the twilight zone between sleep and wakefulness. There are no dramatic hitches, nothing feels awkward or lumpy, it flows like melted butter through every cozy, warm Nykvist frame. The piano sequence is one of the great moments of cinema, a moment of storytelling that's so practiced and reflexive it's like a private, unguarded performance - not perfect, but intimate, limber, and welcoming. 8) Faces - Cassavetes comes at his subjects like buckshot turning a rabbit to pulp. His movies, all of them, even the worst, still have a violent, searing aspect, so raw and shocking that they still feel like gamechangers. Was the energy in this movie a mistake? Why aren't movies like this now? Where did the atomic exuberance go? It blows me away every time I watch it, the gutwrenching stretches of tightwire dialogue, the characters dancing on the edge of a narrative cliff for what seems like an eternity. Faces is a nightmare, so why do I watch it over and over? It's a whole movie set in the moment after you pull the ripcord, and the parachute hasn't deployed. 9) Paris, Texas - This is some kind of American dream. Wenders makes everything we take for granted in movies alien - suburbia, landscapes, advertisement - and it becomes almost operatic, bigger than life, strange and unreal, descending on you like a blanket. Those great southwestern gradients, the fluorescent greens. It's like a favorite book, it all feels so inevitable but you keep getting more and more from it. Every time I watch it, I wonder if I'll be able to sit through the two monologues again, and I'm always utterly re-captivated. It shouldn't work - it should be too cute, too neat, too messy. But instead it's just oddly human. 10) Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers - The whole Les Blank set could, and should, go here, but I love garlic, and I love this movie. Garlic is the world in a flavor, and Blank's film is that flavor in a movie. His style is witty and irreverent but never condescending or false. He displays a total devotion to his own curiosity, and his subjects respond by being eloquently alive. We get a taste of the entire Bay Area scene as it was then, we get to meet a cast of memorable characters, and we get to learn about garlic. It's such an earthy, organic documentary that covers so many concepts in such a brief time. I watch it again and again, and I find the same pleasure. edit: jesus i've been posting in this thread for a decade Magic Hate Ball fucked around with this message at 20:00 on Aug 6, 2017 |
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Aug 6, 2017 18:47
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Hello, I'm new to this thread. I have a small Bluray collection but a decent DVD one. I understand Criterion dvd releases are considered particularly good Film to DVD transfers. Is this thread exclusively about Criterion? Blurays tend to all look pretty good on an HDTV, but I wanted to pick up DVDs that are particularly good transfers. Besides Criterion which DVD Lines are considered the best?
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Aug 7, 2017 01:31
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LoveisOver posted:Hello, I'm new to this thread. I have a small Bluray collection but a decent DVD one. I understand Criterion dvd releases are considered particularly good Film to DVD transfers. Is this thread exclusively about Criterion? Blurays tend to all look pretty good on an HDTV, but I wanted to pick up DVDs that are particularly good transfers. Besides Criterion which DVD Lines are considered the best? Facets puts out some really good stuff. They got me into Czech new wave way before Criterion http://www.facetsdvd.com/Who-Wants-to-Kill-Jessie-p/dv76923.htm But also I find a lot of the more 'borderline' arthouse/exploitation prestige companies like Shout Factory and Arrow are putting out some really good, obscure, maybe more para-cinematic international and independent and avant-garde films that Criterion dabbles in increasingly, too. Also, in that same vein, Cult Epics: http://www.cultepics.com/
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Aug 7, 2017 02:01
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LoveisOver posted:Hello, I'm new to this thread. I have a small Bluray collection but a decent DVD one. I understand Criterion dvd releases are considered particularly good Film to DVD transfers. Is this thread exclusively about Criterion? Blurays tend to all look pretty good on an HDTV, but I wanted to pick up DVDs that are particularly good transfers. Besides Criterion which DVD Lines are considered the best? Most Criterion Blu-rays are a safe blind-buy. I'd say the same for anything from Flicker Alley, Masters of Cinema (UK), Arrow Video, BFI (UK), Sony, and Warner Archive. Shout! Factory, Kino Lorber, and Olive Films are often reliant on good source material - if it's a new 2K or 4K, it's usually excellent quality plus supplements. Here's the only Criterions that have outright bad transfers (and in print) are The Leopard, Children of Paradise, and The Earrings of Madame De. None of which are their fault, but what the licensors gave them. There's better masters of The Leopard (new 4K restoration) and Madame de from other countries. Flicker Alley is a lot of fun, though. Just in the last year or two, they've released some incredible collections... Early Women Filmmakers set, American Avant-Garde Films, Mack Sennett comedies, and 3-D Rarities (which has a bunch of obscure 3-D shorts from the 40s and 50s plus test footage as far back as the 20s). Egbert Souse fucked around with this message at 02:14 on Aug 7, 2017 |
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Aug 7, 2017 02:11
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Just don't buy Tiny Furniture.
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Aug 7, 2017 02:18
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What's wrong with the Leopard. I'm interested in seeing it. Is it a case of a watchable master with issues, or something like the original release of Patton where they found the alternate version where they shot everything with wax actors.
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Aug 7, 2017 17:20
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I watched The Leopard as a rental through Amazon streaming. I thought it looked very good but I'm usually not the best judge of film transfers. Does anyone know if the one available for rent is the more recent transfer?
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Aug 7, 2017 17:27
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Hey y'all, I'm doing a thing this week related to Criterions, come check it out. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3829472
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Aug 7, 2017 19:53
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Cemetry Gator posted:What's wrong with the Leopard. I'm interested in seeing it. Is it a case of a watchable master with issues, or something like the original release of Patton where they found the alternate version where they shot everything with wax actors. It's an early 2000s HD transfer from the Technirama camera negative, but it's painfully obvious it was intended to be downscaled for HD. No fine detail, overly digital, and pasty color. I'd say it's similar to how much of a quality improvement the 4K restored Playtime is compared to the original Blu.
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Aug 8, 2017 01:26
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I still have that original Playtime BR release, sealed. Should've unloaded that when I had the chance.
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Aug 8, 2017 02:09
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Origami Dali posted:I still have that original Playtime BR release, sealed. Should've unloaded that when I had the chance. You could probably still sell it at a profit since it's OOP.
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Aug 8, 2017 02:19
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Anyone want to talk with me about Judex? I blind bought it because it looked cool, then spent half the movie trying to figure out when it was supposed to take place. (It's a 1963 movie remake of a 1916? serial). The bird head costumes are amazing, but other than that it seems pretty I dunno, standard? Admittedly I haven't watched any of the special features.
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Aug 8, 2017 02:47
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I freakin' love Judex. It might be a bit standard, but I found it to be a fun caper. Atmospheric too. It's probably the best Arsene Lupin-esque movie I'll ever see.
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Aug 8, 2017 02:56
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Cemetry Gator posted:What's wrong with the Leopard. It's boring
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Aug 8, 2017 23:51
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Had no idea during my entire viewing of Tampopo (which is fantastic BTW) that Gun was Ken Watanabe!
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Aug 9, 2017 04:36
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Unmature posted:Had no idea during my entire viewing of Tampopo (which is fantastic BTW) that Gun was Ken Watanabe! Ha yeah he is so young in that movie. Such a weird/fun character too.
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Aug 9, 2017 05:32
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checkplease posted:Ha yeah he is so young in that movie. Such a weird/fun character too. That whole movie is so incredibly weird/fun. I love how it's basically a kids movie until all the food loving.
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Aug 9, 2017 19:19
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Watched Cat People last night and I almost regret not buying the multi-pack with all the sequels that was mentioned a few pages back. Great movie, definitely going to track down the other films.
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Aug 9, 2017 19:31
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Big Mean Jerk posted:Watched Cat People last night and I almost regret not buying the multi-pack with all the sequels that was mentioned a few pages back. Great movie, definitely going to track down the other films. Curse of the Cat People is low key Val Lewton's best film. People like to say it's compromised because it wasn't supposed to be a sequel, but this neglects that it still works super well as a sequel and on its own terms.
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Aug 9, 2017 19:45
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K. Waste posted:Curse of the Cat People is low key Val Lewton's best film. People like to say it's compromised because it wasn't supposed to be a sequel, but this neglects that it still works super well as a sequel and on its own terms. The first time I saw it came during an unplanned monthlong stretch where I watched four or five Robert Wise movies and they all ruled
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Aug 9, 2017 19:50
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