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The Criterion Collection in 2017: All Fancy Movie GAF Releases Welcome!

I got Lodger, Good Morning, Canoa, and the first Martin Scorsese World Cinema Project. I think that's all I'll get this sale. I bought a Switch this week so I already spent way more than I wanted to this week.

I think I'll get a B&N membership card at some point. I rarely shop there but if the savings are good enough for these Criterion sales then it might be worth the cost.
 

omgkitty

Member
Here's what I got:

L'Argent
45 Years
Canoa
Being There
Charulata
The Big City
Les Visiteurs du Soir
Childred of Paradise
Rumble Fish
Ghost World
3 Films by Roberto Rossellini starring Ingrid Bergman
Roberto Rossellini's War Trilogy
Bigger Than Life
The Lodger
Wings of Desire
The Battle of Algiers
The Qatsi Trilogy

I've also picked up The Marseille Trilogy, Ugetsu, Good Morning, Blow-Up, They Live By Night, Jeanne Dielman and Tampopo from Amazon over the past month or so as they've been decently cheap. I'll get Stalker and maybe Lost in America when they come out. Also thinking about Straw Dogs, but not sure I care enough to pick it up.

A heads up to anyone who doesn't want to deal with B&N, it seems most of the Criterion box sets are half off on Amazon right now.
 

IronRinn

Member
Since omgkitty was willing to make me feel a little less guilty, here's the damage:

Straw Dogs
Ghost World
In the Realm of the Senses
Heart of a Dog
The New World
Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom
Repo Man
Inside Llewyn Davis
High and Low
Seventh Seal
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Jetee/Sans Soleil
If...
Gomorrah
Burroughs
Revanche
Stalker
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
Solaris
Persona
Apu Trilogy
Roberto Rossellini War Tilogy
Shoah

I'll wind up having the entire collection just in time to switch over to 4K.
 
Yea I'm only buying 2 or 3, and will probs get a couple as birthday gifts from ppl. I went pretty hard last sale though with the Zatoichi and GDT boxes.
 

Fhtagn

Member
picked up the Complete Jacques Tati blu-ray set and Eraserhead today; Paris, Texas on order for my local store, and Stalker next week.

I gotta watch all of these before the next sale. I'm only halfway through what I got last time, but granted that includes the Lone Wolf and Cub set.

What are y'all less obvious Criterion favorites?

I'll go with Close Up, a Iranian movie about a real life story of a man impersonating a director on a whim, that spins out of control... with that man staring in this film about his own trial! I gotta watch it again soon.

https://www.criterion.com/films/1092-close-up
 
picked up the Complete Jacques Tati blu-ray set and Eraserhead today; Paris, Texas on order for my local store, and Stalker next week.

I gotta watch all of these before the next sale. I'm only halfway through what I got last time, but granted that includes the Lone Wolf and Cub set.

What are y'all less obvious Criterion favorites?

I'll go with Close Up, a Iranian movie about a real life story of a man impersonating a director on a whim, that spins out of control... with that man staring in this film about his own trial! I gotta watch it again soon.

https://www.criterion.com/films/1092-close-up
Close Up is a masterpiece. Heck pretty much everything by Kiarostami is.
 

berzeli

Banned
Goddammit Kino. You had one job. One job.

GglWEQw.jpg


Okay, so it is based on a poster from its release (the French one as far as I can tell), but the US one is pretty damn iconic. You should have at least included the tagline.

At least it has a reversible cover (and a decent amount of extras).
  • Audio Commentary by Director Sydney Pollack
  • Audio commentary by Actress Jane Fonda, Producer Irwin Winkler, Producer Martin Baum, Actress Bonnie Bedelia, Actor Michael Sarrazin, Actor Red Buttons, and Hair Stylist Sydney Guilaroff
  • Making of Featurette
  • Reversible Blu-ray Art
  • Original Theatrical Trailer
  • Optional English SDH subtitles

I'm holding out for a MoC release though (and a 4K scan+remaster would be great too, no mention of a new master in the press release), I hope they'll be able to license it (edit: the rights might be with Network). If nothing else my cursory look at who has the UK rights led me to my new favourite review of the film:
fJwN6Nj.png
 

berzeli

Banned
Arrow time!

UK Only:
DEs-5TLXgAMatfq.png

DEs_VJKWAAEhiq9.png

DEs_w35W0AQ1HkD.png


UK & US:
DEs9kknXoAAWSfW.png
DEs99IWXYAAULlR.png

DEs-YmsXUAAHQF-.png


That's... that's a solid month. Or to put it another way: Arrow's website crashed.

Also; Fuck I want both versions of The Thing. I'm part of the problem.
 
Seeing as they're listed as UK only I'm guessing yes. I don't think Arrow has released anything labelled as UK Only as anything other than region-B locked.

I have The Beyond and Bay of Blood from them, both of which are U.K. only releases but they're all regions.
 

Ridley327

Member
I'm surprised that The Thing didn't even bother to attempt to come anywhere close to the amount of extras that the Scream Factory version had, though getting two new documentaries is nothing to scoff at. It really does seem like that the new 4K scan is the star attraction here.

JD's Revenge is a fine pick-up for them, too, since it's the kind of film that's right in their wheelhouse, even if the film does have a somewhat fatal flaw of making the main character too likable even when he's possessed by an evil spirit.
 

Fhtagn

Member
hell, I'd be down for an Eclipse DVD set of Romero's other early work when he was trying to avoid being typecast as a horror director, I can't imagine the original materials for those are in great shape at this point. Season of the Witch and Knightriders, etc.

Edit: ha, that's what I get for posting without checking the twitter, the above images didn't load so I didn't see what Arrow was up to.
 

SeanC

Member
Gorgeous packaging on The Thing, but it's all about the transfer at this point and it would need to be significantly better. I already have one with great packaging and another with a great Transfer and another bare-bones and oh fuck I have way too many Thing Blu Rays.
 

berzeli

Banned
lol, apparently The Thing is already sold out at all retailers who've put it up for pre-order. And their website still won't load for me.
That's what I get for mulling it over how much I wanted it and which version to get.

Edit: ha, that's what I get for posting without checking the twitter, the above images didn't load so I didn't see what Arrow was up to.
Does anyone else have this problem with picture embeds from twitter? I'm too lazy to rehost really, but if the pics don't work for people I might as well.
 
That Thing SE has great packaging, but I'm almost glad it's Region B locked because it stops me from being the owner of 4 different releases of the same movie.

I will be sad if the new scan is amazing though.
 

Fjordson

Member
With most of my favourites already in my collection at this point, I just sort of feel bitter these days that Criterion doesn't have Chungking Express and Le Samourai out on blu-ray.

May still pick up Stalker I guess.
 
Just got my first Criterions in the B&N sale

Blood Simple, The Sword of Doom, Complete Lady Snowblood

Regarding those last two, I've seen 13 Assassins and Seven Samurai, and loved the Lone Wolf and Cub manga and Kill Bill 1, so I have some idea of what to expect but I've never seen any classic/older genre films in that vein. (Seven Samurai seems too...refined to be in that category, maybe?). Looking forward to them.
 

Fhtagn

Member
With most of my favourites already in my collection at this point, I just sort of feel bitter these days that Criterion doesn't have Chungking Express and Le Samourai out on blu-ray.

May still pick up Stalker I guess.

https://www.criterion.com/films/226-chungking-express

Looks like it was on blu-ray? I don't remember if I bought it a fourth time for blu-ray; I have the ancient Hong Kong DVD, the Rolling Thunder DVD and the Criterion edition, which I think I bought on DVD cuz it was a while ago.
 
Just got my first Criterions in the B&N sale

Blood Simple, The Sword of Doom, Complete Lady Snowblood

Regarding those last two, I've seen 13 Assassins and Seven Samurai, and loved the Lone Wolf and Cub manga and Kill Bill 1, so I have some idea of what to expect but I've never seen any classic/older genre films in that vein. (Seven Samurai seems too...refined to be in that category, maybe?). Looking forward to them.

Good choices. Yeah Sword of Doom and especially Lady Snowblood are a lot more pulpy than Seven Samurai, and focus more on violence and style. Sword of Doom is kinda unsatsifying in some regards because it was supposed to be the first of a trilogy so some of its plot threads don't really go anywhere, but ultimately I think it makes the kind of surprising ending even better. In terms of pure Samurai action Sword of Doom is probably my favorite movie.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
Each film of Lone Wolf and Cub really is progressively more ridiculous than the last. Ogami must have killed like 30 people in the third film. I'm guessing by the sixth, he's taking out entire regiments barehanded with a tiger and a boar fighting at his side.
 
Each film of Lone Wolf and Cub really is progressively more ridiculous than the last. Ogami must have killed like 30 people in the third film. I'm guessing by the sixth, he's taking out entire regiments barehanded with a tiger and a boar fighting at his side.

Didn't he get the highest recorded on screen kill count in a movie ever in the final one or something ridiculous like that?
 

berzeli

Banned
I kind of want to make a joke-thread about Captain Marvel going straight to DVD and starring a dude. But I don't know enough about comics to make it troll-y enough.

I am however stunned by the fact that it is a 40s serial scanned in 4K from Paramount. Fucking Paramount. Please let this be a sign that they are starting to treat their catalogue with the love it deserves.

And on an unrelated note, it is really nice to see Sony stepping it up with catalogue titles UHD blu-ray. Léon, The Fifth Element, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Ghostbusters I&II, and Labyrinth are out and look by all accounts look great. And they have Bram Stoker's Dracula, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and The Bridge on the River Kwai coming up (also maybe the Raimi Spider Mans).
 
Sword of Doom is kinda unsatsifying in some regards because it was supposed to be the first of a trilogy so some of its plot threads don't really go anywhere, but ultimately I think it makes the kind of surprising ending even better.
Blasphemy! It's even more incredible as a stand-alone, nay sayers be damned. Sword of Doom remains in a category of its own.
 

berzeli

Banned
Studiocanal is putting out Melville, The Essential Collection in September.
Contains:
Le Doulos (new 4K remaster)
Bob Le Flambeur (new 4K remaster)
Léon Morin, Prêtre | Leon Morin, Priest (new 4K remaster)
L'Armée Des Ombres | Army of Shadows
Le Cercle Rouge
And probably Un Flic, but unconfirmed.

And since they seem to be part of the Studiocanal library, that means Lionsgate for the US... So start writing them now, sacrifice a small child or something and maybe, just maybe, they'll release it in the states.
 

berzeli

Banned
Wait shit. I undersold that boxset.

Léon Morin, Prêtre | Leon Morin, Priest (new 4K remaster of the complete director's cut)

It is 12 minutes longer than the Criterion cut.
 

omgkitty

Member
Studiocanal is putting out Melville, The Essential Collection in September.
Contains:
Le Doulos (new 4K remaster)
Bob Le Flambeur (new 4K remaster)
Léon Morin, Prêtre | Leon Morin, Priest (new 4K remaster)
L'Armée Des Ombres | Army of Shadows
Le Cercle Rouge
And probably Un Flic, but unconfirmed.

And since they seem to be part of the Studiocanal library, that means Lionsgate for the US... So start writing them now, sacrifice a small child or something and maybe, just maybe, they'll release it in the states.

ron-swanson-is-excited.gif
 

Fjordson

Member
Studiocanal is putting out Melville, The Essential Collection in September.
Contains:
Le Doulos (new 4K remaster)
Bob Le Flambeur (new 4K remaster)
Léon Morin, Prêtre | Leon Morin, Priest (new 4K remaster)
L'Armée Des Ombres | Army of Shadows
Le Cercle Rouge
And probably Un Flic, but unconfirmed.

And since they seem to be part of the Studiocanal library, that means Lionsgate for the US... So start writing them now, sacrifice a small child or something and maybe, just maybe, they'll release it in the states.
No Le Samourai?

Definitely would love to get Le Cercle Rouge and Army of Shadows on blu, though.
 

berzeli

Banned
Definitely would love to get Le Cercle Rouge and Army of Shadows on blu, though.
These will probably be the exact same discs that are already available in region-B land. They're, like, the least interesting things about this boxset.
No Le Samourai?
I warned y'all.
Don't make me post that screencap of the French blu-ray of Le Samouraï again...
Bi0b.png

The HD master is fucked.
(also I'm not sure on who owns Le Samouraï in the UK, the six listed films are the ones Studiocanal have previously released on either DVD or blu-ray.)
 
Blasphemy! It's even more incredible as a stand-alone, nay sayers be damned. Sword of Doom remains in a category of its own.

Yeah, like I said it makes the ending a lot cooler. But the side plots that don't involve Mifune on the screen kinda suck tbh. Still, great movie. The three major action sequences are unparalleled in the genre.
 

Fjordson

Member
These will probably be the exact same discs that are already available in region-B land. They're, like, the least interesting things about this boxset.
I'm in region-A land (and they're my favourite of that bunch) so most interesting things about it for me.
 

berzeli

Banned
I'm in region-A land (and they're my favourite of that bunch) so most interesting things about it for me.
Oh.
I see I wasn't clear enough. Sorry. (Also my apologies to Fancy Clown)

At this point it is a region B only release.
And I wouldn't count on Lionsgate releasing it, they're terribad.




And the French are getting a 12 (!) film collection (10 blus, 2 DVDs):
71-3RuRjLWL._SL1500_.jpg
 

berzeli

Banned
I really hope this set has English subtitles.

Most likely only partial. The 6 previously mentioned Studiocanal discs will have, the others might not. Then again all that is known is that it is an anthology of Jean-Pierre Melville films, this is the full Amazon description of the set:
L'anthologie Jean-Pierre Melville en 12 films.
I don't even have to translate that for you.

Is that a Photoshop watercolor filter on that screencap....
See this. This right here? That's why I warned you lot.
 
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