Does anyone here ever buy or watch disks from the Criterion Collection? Criterion makes DVDs and Blu-Rays of "important classic and contemporary films" (including a great many foreign films). I have quite a few of the films (on both DVD and Blu-Ray) including some I love that I would likely never have seen if not for this collection: Seven Samurai, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Diabolique, Some Like It Hot, Rashomon, The Third Man, The Virgin Spring, The Cranes are Flying, Paths of Glory, 12 Angry Men, Nashville, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Blood Simple, A Face in the Crowd. Criterion also makes deluxe editions of popular films like The Rock, Silence of the Lambs, and The Princess Bride. Anyway, if you do--or you're interested in any of their films--they're running a 50% off sale for all disks in stock for the next 24 hours or so. These 50% sales come up a couple of times a year and I always stock up. Today's list: The War of the Worlds (the 1953 version!) Marriage Story (recent one with Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson) The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson film with Ralph Fiennes) Local Hero (Burt Lancaster) Daytrippers (Hope Davis, Stanley Tucci) The Elephant Man (Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt) Cold War (recent Polish drama) Europa, Europa (based on a true story of a Jewish boy masquerading as a Nazi during WW2) La Verite (Brigitte Bardot) Claudine (Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones)
yeah, they have good transfers of very good films. Dunno if they have Gregory's Girl or Comfort and Joy but if you like Local Hero you should pick up those two. Here's a scene from Comfort and Joy that stole my heart:
I watched Local Hero and enjoyed it. Interesting to see Denis Lawson. (Wedge!) in a mainstream role. Peter Capaldi is impossibly young! I liked that the movie was slightly magical. And this line by Burt Lancaster--delivered as if he were ordering lunch--had me laughing my ass off: Happer (on the phone to his secretary): "There's a madman on the roof. You'd better call the police to get some marksmen over here. Shoot him down. Shoot to kill." RIP, Morris. 7.5/10. Quick takes on other Criterion titles I've watched recently: War of the Worlds (1953) Martians come to Earth and begin wreaking havoc with flying war machines, as scientists work to find a means to stop them. A beautiful new transfer highlights the (for the time) dazzling visual effects and the commentary track with Joe Dante, a film historian, and an author is interesting and informative, but the weak deus ex bacteria ending is especially eye-rolling with the overt religious message. 6.0/10. An Unmarried Woman (1978) Jill Clayburgh stars in her signature role as Erica, a thirtysomething woman, left by her husband for a younger woman, who falls apart but gradually rebuilds an independent, satisfying life on her own in NYC, including a romance with a free-spirited artist (Alan Bates). Maybe a little bit feminist propaganda, but I was rooting for Erica. Acting solid all around. 8.0/10. The Daytrippers (1998) Hope Davis is a young wife who, having found a love letter to her literary agent husband (Stanley Tucci), and accompanied by her Long Island family, heads to New York City to find out what's going on. This odyssey brings them tantalizing clues and into contact with interesting characters (my favorites: Campbell Scott, as an incisive author; and Marcia Gay Harden as a drunken partygoer obsessed with getting a man to notice her) before the quest comes to a surprising resolution. Charming and quirky. 7.0/10. Claudine (1974) Diahann Carroll stars as the titular character, a woman on welfare struggling to make ends meet for her six children in Harlem, who meets James Earl Jones (very charming here), a garbage man who falls for her, but wavers on marriage as he is daunted by the obligation of children and offput by burdensome welfare rules. Despite the film working its way to an upbeat ending, it offers no solution for the characters beyond continuing to struggle. 7.0/10. The last three all take place in NYC, but each is a very different NYC...
So Paladin are you watching them on the actual Criterion membership channel or on hard media? My son pays for the monthly membership so I watch it now and again. So many things other than movies like documentaries and behind the scenes features and whatnot.
I saw that for the first time about a year ago on TCM. James Earl Jones says it's his favorite role. Other than a bad continuity error in the final scene, I really enjoyed it.
Would that error be a night shot during the daytime chase? I thought it was a pretty good film. And it did a good job highlighting how people on the bottom rung can get stuck and how the system actually discourages them from seeking a better life.
One of the cops holding back the crowd at the end also appears on the paddy wagon as it pulls away. Unless he had a twin brother who was also a policeman.
I didn't catch that one! The one I saw was when the cops are chasing Charles at the end during the daytime, there's a scene that is either nighttime or inside a very dark building. When Charles gets to the wedding, it's still daytime. @5:34 in this clip... That looks like a clip from a different scene added to fill out the sequence. And, yes, I see the one you're talking about.
The one you pointed out didn't stand out to me. The shot at 5:48 from the same sequence clearly shows it's still daytime (though either overcast or later in the day than the initial chase shots, but that kind of inconsistency is very common in nearly all productions).
They're on the expensive side, but the quality of the films and the supplements make them worthwhile. They've found a pretty good way to move the product. Every so often (six months? a year?) they have a 50% off sale of in-stock titles. I almost always buy 10 or so at that time. Then, without fail, Barnes & Noble has a similar 50% off sale a few weeks later; that just happened, too, and I ordered: The Irishman Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai Moonstruck Naked City Brute Force Leave Her to Heaven The Prince of Tides The Fugitive Kind Tunes of Glory Now, Voyager All About Eve Of these, I've seen Moonstruck and The Prince of Tides. All the rest are new to me. (The Irishman is the recent Scorcese/De Niro picture.) These 50% off sales are a pretty good idea. Instead of buying 1 or 2 here and there, I'm motivated to buy 10 at a time when they're "on sale." Now, I don't ever buy them until the 50% off sale, then I catch up on any recent ones that have come out.
I'm in the midst of reorganizing my house, but this is the total of my Criterion Blu-Rays (I have DVDs as well of many of these, but they've mostly been replaced with HD.)
Paladin I see you have Fail Safe - one of my teachers showed it when I was in HS - awesome! I'm not reading every one of the titles in your picture but if you don't have it, I would recommend "The Ascent". Despite the name it's not about mountain climbing, the trailer gives a good representation of the film. It's an absolutely riveting, gritty, intense adventure drama. https://www.criterion.com/films/561-the-ascent
Thanks for the recommendation. I'll add it to my list. And Fail Safe is a damned good movie, kinda the serious flip-side version of Dr. Strangelove.
Many of the movies in the Criterion Collection are films I was already very familiar with (Silence of the Lambs, The Princess Bride, The Great Escape, etc.). But ones that are especially good that I wouldn't have known about otherwise: Picnic at Hanging Rock - in turn of the 20th century Australia, a girls' school goes on an outing to a mystical rock formation. Tensions build when three of the girls disappear on the rock without a trace. I liked this film so much, I visited the rock formation (Hanging Rock, not far from Melbourne) when I was in Oz last year. Diabolique - in this French psychological thriller, a wife and mistress conspire to murder the abusive husband, succeed, and hide the body. But when the body disappears, the women begin to fear that their plan has gone wrong. This one has a truly wicked ending. Some Like It Hot - two musicians (Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis) in 1920s Chicago witness a St. Valentine's Day Massacre-like crime, and run off to Florida posing as women in an all-female band. Complications ensue when Curtis' character falls for beautiful Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe) and Lemmon's is pursued by an amorous millionaire. Rashomon - in this classis Japanese film from Akira Kurosawa, a samurai and his wife are set upon by a bandit (Toshiro Mifune) in the forest. But about what happens next the witnesses offer contradictory--yet, apparently truthful from their perspective--accounts. The film calls into question the reliability of memory. The Third Man - one of my favorite films of all time. A down and out mystery writer (Joseph Cotton) arrives in divided postwar Vienna to find that his old friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles) has been killed in a suspicious traffic accident, and sets out to investigate what happened, uncovering some unsavory activities. Has one of the greatest character reveals of all time. The Cranes are Flying - in this Russian film, war breaks out and a young man goes off to fight, leaving his girl behind without being able to say goodbye and sending her a note that, alas, she finds much too late. Tormented not knowing the man's fate, she succumbs to marrying the man's opportunistic cousin, and struggles to live with scorn and guilt. Paths of Glory - this early Kubrick film has Kirk Douglas as a World War I French military officer trying to save three of his men facing execution for cowardice for retreating during a hopeless attack planned by an indifferent general. McCabe & Mrs. Miller - this Robert Altman "anti-Western" focuses on a brothel owner (Warren Beatty) and the woman (Julie Christie) he hires to run the business. When Beatty's character refuses to sell the successful business, three bounty hunters are sent to take him down. Subverts the conventional western at nearly every turn. A Face in the Crowd - a (still) timely tale of a backwoods singer (Andy Griffith, darker than you've seen before) who rises to national prominence--and political influence--when he's given a TV show, a fact that weights heavily on the woman (Patricia O'Neal) who discovered him.
something to think about....the B-52 is still...in....service today! There are about 700 of them left, and unless warfare changes drastically, there's a chance that they could make it to 100 years in service to our military! And if not our military, some up & coming nation could buy and fly them. BTW I forgot that Dom Deluise is in Fail Safe. Of course no humorous bloopers & outtakes like at the end of Cannonball Run or Smokey & The Bandit for Fail Safe which is...ironically...epic FAIL! As for "A Face In The Crowd" wow talk about the complete opposite of Sheriff Andy Taylor! Well luckily it's fiction and nothing like AFITC could ever happen in real politics!
I watch A Face in the Crowd just about every time TCM runs it. At least once a year, sometimes twice or more. Just as prophetic as Network, but nearly two decades earlier.
It is weird to see DeLuise in a straight role; he's so strongly identified with comedy. I think he overacts a bit in the scene where he has to reveal technical secrets to the Soviets. BTW, his widow passed away just last week. She had this unforgettable scene in Blazing Saddles:
Watched The Breaking Point last night. Hadn't seen it before, knew nothing about it. It's actually an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's novel To Have and Have Not. This version was released in 1950, just 6 years after a previous--and better known--film starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, famous for the "just put your lips together and blow" line. The story centers on Harry Morgan (played by John Garfield), owner of an excursion boat in Newport Beach, California. He's having a rough go of it--he's behind on his boat payments--and his wife (Phyllis Thaxter, Ma Kent from the 1978 Superman) and children are barely getting by. When he gets stiffed by a customer for an expensive trip to Mexico, Harry succumbs to the temptation to do a little human trafficking (a group of Chinese looking to enter America off the books), but the whole operation goes disastrously wrong, Harry's boat gets impounded by the Coast Guard, and the authorities are looking for evidence to arrest him. Temptations abound. The galpal (Patricia O'Neal, vamping it up as a blonde) of the guy who stiffed Harry is hanging about, making it clear she'd like to make some waves with Harry. She and Harry's wife have a great bit of banter full of subtext that makes it clear where both women stand. When Harry gets his boat back, it's soon to be repossessed, but the shady character who got him into the Chinese deal shows up with a way for Harry to earn some serious money. Some thuggish figures have a robbery planned, and want Harry to provide them with a seaborne escape. Harry accepts but feels the danger closing around him... I like film noir, and this one with its moral lapses and femme fatales filled the bill nicely. I thought Garfield was a solid lead here: sadly, he died at 39, only two years after this picture came out. The picture has some really violent action scenes, especially in the resolution. The film is progressive for its time, showing Harry's friendship with his first mate, Wes, a black man, and showing the warm relationship between Harry's family and Wes's young son. Unfortunately, (spoiler!) Wes is killed near the finale and while Harry returns to his family, the film ends with Wes's son all alone at the pier, waiting for a father who will never return. It's a poignant ending, but it can cynically be read today as "well, sucks to be the black kid, but at least the whites are okay." This Criterion edition has only a few supplements, but includes the trailer and an interview with Garfield's daughter about her father's career. The film itself looks good and holds up well on a big screen. Film: 7.0/10 Disk: 6.5/10.
It's one of my favorite John Garfield films and one of his best roles. I just watched it again when TCM ran it a few weeks ago. The climax is also very reminiscent of the one in Key Largo.
Foreign film night at Casa Paladin yesterday... Day for Night (1973) A film director (renowned French New Wave filmmaker Francois Truffaut, who is also the director of this film) manages the personal dramas amongst the mostly French cast and crew while making a movie in Nice. Illustrates that filmmaking, like many endeavors, is a constant battle against chaos (an alcoholic star who can't remember her lines, an actor having romantic troubles, an actress recovering from a nervous breakdown, the unexpected death of a key person, the constraints placed by producers and insurance companies, etc.). Like many French New Wave films, there isn't a straightforward plot, so much as a series of events that define the experience the characters have. Still, very watchable. 7.0/10. Tokyo Drifter (1966) A young former gangster is forced to become a "drifter" (moving from town to town frequently) when the boss, a former Yakuza, to whom he is loyal falls into conflict with a crimelord. Action-y, jazzy, and full of interesting visuals, but many of the edits are unconventional, sometimes making spatial relationships during the action hard to follow. It was also highly confusing to me initially that the protagonist is named Tetsu and a prominent antagonist is named Tetsu. Watchable, but not destined to be a favorite. 6.5/10.
Sid & Nancy (1986) After The Sex Pistols' Sid Vicious (Gary Oldman, spot on) is introduced to heroin by manipulative, schizophrenic new girlfriend Nancy (Chloe Webb), the two spiral downward to inevitable tragedy. Well-acted and evokes authenticity, but the story is a real downer. An interview with the real Sid and Nancy from a documentary is included in the supplements and makes apparent that the movie's portrayal is accurate. 7.0/10. Band of Outsiders (1964) A classic of the French New Wave from director Jean-Luc Godard, this is a noirish tale about a young woman who gets involved with two hoodlums and together conspire to steal a large sum of money from a man staying at her aunt's villa. Typical of the New Wave, there's a lot of experimental feel (handheld tracking shots, offbeat almost non-sequitur asides, quirky voiceover narration, even an abrupt fourth wall break). The performances and characters kept me interested. 7.5/10.
I definitely have a bunch, and I had some Criterion lazerdiscs too. I also notice the Criterion logo on many classic films on HBOMax, now that I have it.
Valley of the Dolls (1967) From the popular and controversial novel by Jacqueline Susann comes this tale of three women (played by Barbara Parkins, Sharon Tate, and Patty Duke) in the entertainment industry who each experience profound consequences from the use of barbiturates (the pills are called "dolls," hence the title). Fine acting (particularly Duke) if a little soap opera-y. The film features some really fantastic art design, especially the sequence where Parkins' character becomes a model. Dionne Warwick's theme--a big hit--is featured here. Tate shines, and it's sad to think that two years later she was gone, victim of a heinous crime. 7.5/10.
The Blob (1958) This classic sci-fi B movie has a meteorite spawning the titular gelatinous glob (The Glob was the original title, BTW) which sets about absorbing the residents of a small town into its gooey mass. Only the world's oldest teenager--Steve McQueen in a very early role--can save the day. I watched the film while listening to the director's commentary; it was mainly background details about the production, but his accounts paint McQueen, unsurprisingly, as a chaotic and assertive person. It's a very talky movie; the moments of genuine suspense/horror are disappointingly few. Using silicone for the Blob makes for a strangely disturbing monster, but the other visual effects are mostly weak. At least the transfer looked good. 6.0/10 Side note: one of the characters in the film has a girlfriend who, IIRC, has no speaking lines but is distractingly attractive. I discover that she was a model and minor actress called Molly Ann Bourn: A real stunner.
Beauty and the Beast (1946) Cocteau's magical telling of the classic fairy tale finds a gentle-hearted monster holding a kind young woman captive in a mysterious castle, his only hope of salvation being her love. Fantastic (for the time) makeup and visuals maintain the wonder. Suitable for all ages, but adults may catch some deeper meanings: just why is the Beast--smoldering as if on fire--drawn to Belle's bedroom door in the middle of the night? There's an allegory here, driven home by the fact one actor plays two very different roles...My only complaints are that the resolution turns on events beyond Belle's control, and there's an "oh, well, guess it sucks to be him" attitude toward one character who wasn't bad enough to deserve his fate. 8.0/10 Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) Emmi, a sixty-something Munich cleaning woman, stops in a pub on a rainy night and meets Ali, a 40ish Moroccan guest worker and the two lonely people start an unlikely romance of which other Germans--particularly her adult children--openly disapprove. The pressures of being an unwelcome minority in German society accumulate on Ali, especially when Emmi starts to succumb to similar attitudes. Surprisingly charming and touching, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1974 film is rightly regarded as a prime example of German New Cinema. I was surprised how much I liked this; tragic, since it's been on my shelf for five years or more. 8.0/10 La Verite (1960) Let's just get it out of the way: Brigitte Bardot's reputation as a sex symbol is very well-deserved and on full display here; there isn't a red-blooded hetero man alive who wouldn't be enticed by her lying in bed, covered only by a sheet, rhythmically wiggling to a Latin song. But she also shows some real acting chops as a spoiled, selfish, bratty, manipulative, slutty woman on trial for the murder of her one-time boyfriend. That she killed him is not at issue; the question before the court (and the audience) is: Why? If love drove her to a crime of passion, why was she continually unfaithful to him? Much more adult than American films of the time, complete with references to "screwing" on several occasions. Director Henri-Georges Clouzot made two of my favorite French films--Les Diaboliques and Wages of Fear--and, though this one doesn't match the sheer awesomeness of those, it's still an involving watch. 7.0/10
