Criterion Collection

Yep. Here, you can talk about pretty much anything about this versatile home video company. You can discuss the monthly announcements, talk about particularly good/bad cover and disc art, complain about shoddy transfers, ask me Criterion-related questions, review any and all Criterion titles, and make predictions for future titles. Really, the only things I'd like you to keep to a minimum is a). any "WHY DID CRITERION RELEASE ARMAGEDDON?!?"-esque questions (the answer is almost always money) and b). suggest titles to be added to the collection (I may start a separate thread for Criterion suggestions). Otherwise, run wild.

Here's the Criterion website.

Here's CriterionForum, which is like this, but bigger and about more things.

Here's my Criterion page, where I list all the Criterion titles I own, and make lists based around Criterion titles.

Let's go.

Trilogy of Life? Yay or nay? I'm thinking about asking for it for Christmas. Never seen a film in the package though...

All the films are from the director of Salo, so if that's a turn-off, stay away. But they're all very good films, albiet quite bawdy, so I'd say yay as far as a blind buy goes. Plus, the bonus features look too tempting to resist.

Still haven't watched Salo, but I know the director. It's not like they share the same reputation for being graphically disturbing or anything, though. I think I'll ask for it. I really like the stories of the Canterbury Tales, and might just buy it for that alone.

I'm gonna attempt to do a list of which Criterions I own here. It's small, and my DVD collection in general is fairly puny and disorganized, so this list is subject to edit if I forgot one.

Also, I own non-Criterion editions of flix like Breathless and The Lady Vanishes, so they don't go on here (neither do any Criterion movies I saw on Netflix, even if I totally watched the DVD Extras and made out like a bandit).

1. The Life Aquatic
2. Dazed and Confused
3. Contempt
4. Masculin Feminin
5. Sans Soleil/La Jetee
6. Night and Fog
7. Kicking and Screaming

Kicking and Screaming! That movie doesn't get mentioned enough. It's so endlessly quotable.

"Wow, now you can read Seventeen and get all the references."

You get props for owning the out-of-print Contempt. Hell, I love everything you own. Quality over quantity, man.

The newest Criterion newsletter hints at the release of Haskell Wexler's Medium Cool.

The Narrator Returns wrote:

The newest Criterion newsletter hints at the release of Haskell Wexler's Medium Cool.

Narrator, please continue to post these clues and "best guesses" when they arrive in the newsletter. I subscribe to the newsletter but never go on the Criterion Facebook page (and never have visited Criterion Forums), so it's nice to hear the answers (or at least the hinted at answers).

affrosponge88 wrote:Kicking and Screaming! That movie doesn't get mentioned enough. It's so endlessly quotable.

"Wow, now you can read Seventeen and get all the references."

LOL. He'd already rather be bow hunting.

Yeah, it's an awesome movie. Dry witted, but also lived in and moving. Noah Baumbauch is great.

PS: A Dalek.

The Narrator Returns wrote:You get props for owning the out-of-print Contempt. Hell, I love everything you own. Quality over quantity, man.

Thanks, man! I didn't realize stuff from their DVD series was already out-of-print (or at least not from the last few years). Does that means their rights to do another printing have lapsed?

I paid something like $30 for Contempt, but it's a great movie and package. It's probably my 2nd favorite on that list, after Sans Soleil, which I watch every few months to put me in a better mood.

There's movies that are, like, instant gratification, and movies I have to struggle with but end up loving just as much or more. But Sans Soleil fits both categories and it's something else, too. I can't digest everything that's being said and shown at once (and the subtitles naturally don't match the English narration), but there's a trance-like quality to it (at least that's my experience).