Criterion Collection on DVD. Recommendations please.

Black Narcissus
Branded to Kill
Brazil
Cries and Whispers
High and Low
Monty Python's Life of Brian
Rebecca
The Red Shoes
Rushmore
Seven Samurai
Shock Corridor
Wages of Fear

Also highly recommended--I haven't seen all of these specifically on Criterion, but they're great (or at least very interesting) movies:

Band of Outsiders
Contempt
Diabolique
Double Suicide
Elements of Fear
The Grand Illusion
The Hidden Fortress
I Know Where I'm Going
K(w)aidan
The Lady Vanishes
Last Temptation of Christ
M
Rashomon
The Shop on Main Street
Seventh Seal
Straw Dogs (when it comes out in March)
Time Bandits
The Vanishing (original movie)
Wild Strawberries
Yojimbo

High and Low, one of my favorite s, looks *fantastic*.

I keep thinking about picking up the CC version of 'The Rock' because I wonder WTF every time I see it and my curiosity just keeps growing and growing.

Also: Tokyo Drifter. Fucking GREBT or whatever the kids are saying these days. I wish CC would go back and do all of Wong Kar Wai's flicks. And some anime, too.

I'd also recommend the new Trouble in Paradise Criterion DVD as it is not only a wonderful film, but an additional Lubitsch film (a silent one) is tacked on. Likewise Under the Roofs of Paris: a great film, and the DVD also includes René Clair's Paris qui dort. Really it depends what your tastes are. My favorite Criterion is the Dreyer box set, but I understand many people would find his later films too slow, or what have you.

If you see the three Jacques Tati Criterions, snatch them up. They are not only wonderfully films and nice DVDs (all with additional short Tati films), but they are now '"rare," having recently gone out of print.

Also, be on the lookout for a 2-DVD set of films by Stan Brakhage, coming out in February I believe.

Also love Sullivan's Travels, Hidden Fortress, Le Trou, Le Million and Vagabond. I AM PSYCHED to see that they're releasing Band Of Outsiders

1) Kurosawa's "Ikiru"
2) Bunuels's "Exterminating Angel"
3) Powell & Pressburger's "Tales of Hoffman"

and (not that it will ever happen, but...) Peckinpah's "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia".

hmm. why not? I wouldn't be surprised at all if this were Criterion'd.

Pretty much my thought. To my sheer delight, I've been able to find a number of Critierion releases used...at a local outlet of the Wherehouse, no less! (Picked up Black Orpheus there recently.) This is especially important in that the one problem with the company are their ridiculously high prices new -- have they ever offered an explanation as to why? I've seen just as fine discs (mastering, bonus stuff, etc.) from small companies at much cheaper prices.

Because the expense of licensing the films, obtaining the best available prints, doing digital restoration, etc. is very high. Not to mention hiring someone to do new subtitles as they often do, plus all the bonus materials that come with many of their releases. I think their DVDs look and sound on average much nicer than those from such companies as Fantoma, etc. I think Fantoma tends to license more obscure films, and the costs are lower as a result. Anyway, Criterions aren't really much more expensive than, say, Kino's DVDs, which tend to be mastered poorly by comparison.

Believe it or not, Ikiru and Tales of Hoffmann are each set to be released sometime in the next 18 months.

(*crossing fingers* Now, you know I'm hoping my luck holds and I get the job I'm up for, just so I can say I've a budget to break!)

Oh, beyond sweet.

Recheck that catalog again, Nichole -- Sid and Nancy has been OOP for a while. There are a number of DVDs no longer available (the John Woo selections, the original Spinal Tap release)...

my faves are
contempt
band of outsiders
hiroshima, mon amour
discreet charm of the Bourgeoisie
george washington
ratcatcher

i am sure there are more i cant think of

According to the CC discussion board, they might re-release The Seven Samurai as a 2-disc (from better sources), which is both great news and sucky news 'cause I HAVE THE OLD ONE-DISC, DAMMIT.

I really love the Brakhage collection, more than I thought I would (though I might never watch The Act of Seeing... ever again, except to gross people out, which actually I did a few days ago). If you take stills from Dog Star Man, then you have a year's worth of 4AD album covers (and that year would be 1984). According to Brakhage, Eye Myth was made over the course of one year. One year! For a 9 second film! The transfer looks great, but maybe some of the source materials could've been in better shape. I mean, Mothlight had all sorts of crud on the film that they didn't sweep off, like grass, insect parts, etc.! (heh. *grin*)

Aside from a few commentaries and making-ofs - especially if it's an in-depth thing, like the Three Colors trilogy - I don't care about extras. I'd much rather have a $24.95 one-disc version of Brazil w/ the Criterion transfer and a commentary or two than the $50+ three-disc box set.

the criterion release i saw most recently (and loved more than anything i've seen lately): band of outsiders

I've had ridiculous luck with a number of Criterion releases turning up used in my neck of the woods -- most recently, Andrei Rublev and The Third Man.

As for prices/extras: keep in mind that Criterion has to license the rights to these films and then does their best to work with the top of the line prints, people, and equipment to make the best transfers possible. This costs a lot of money for discs that generally don't exactly fly off of a standard retailer's shelves. That is why the discs are expensive, not the extras. The extras are added both because the hard-core cineastes appreciate them and because they help justify the price a bit more. But most of those extras cost very little extra to produce or obtain. It's the transfers themselves that are the largest expense. Take Playtime, for example. It's going to be re-released in a few months, but the delay is because they have finally gained access to a 65mm telecine machine - something that is extremely rare and not at all cheap. The transfer will be that much better for it, but if you think that the CC is raking in the dough, I can assure you that they are not.

That all being said, don't trust the prices on the official site. I highly recommend buying through Deep Discount DVD, who generally have the best prices on most titles and offer free US shipping.

Oh, and just as a matter of point, Straw Dogs also just went out of print last week.

My girlfriend gave me Criterion's Band of Outsiders for our 4-year anniversary. Great gift.

haha!

(Though I did have about $100 worth of saved up codes, so yes, it was my minor)

I get stressed out whenever I see the term "4K." Are Blurays going to look like garbage one day and I'm going to have to rebuy David Lynch's stuff all over again? Should I have waited a few years for my TV to die so I can replace it with a 4k TV and then get the Bergman 4k box that will probably be out by then? Sigh.

No need to stress about it 4K is a niche within a niche and only some titles can really benefit from it and even those often get botched releases as 4K seems to be a much more mercurial format from a production and mastering standpoint. Good Blu rays are more than sufficient for almost any title. Also, most (all?) 4K players upscale blu rays natively so they look a little nicer anyway and it's not uncommon for releases to come out where most people prefer the look of an upscaled Blu ray over the 4K disc of the same movie. Once you get a 4K TV that is bigger than 55 inches or so, you can start dipping your toes into the 4K pool if you want, which is what I've been doing, but most of the time, the cost differential isn't really worth it unless it's a title you really love and a transfer that is well-received.

Probably just going to get the Lone Star 4K this time around.

Yeah my rule on 4Ks is: if I have the Bluray, I’m good, if I don’t, sure I’ll indulge a little. (The real expense was the modified all region 4K player I indulged in at the start of the pandemic.)

Okay, so it's more like what SACDs are to CDs. I can live with that.

bluray is good. 4K can be really good. but not essential? honestly, anything after bluray is probably out of my old vision anyway. i mean i'm pretty fine with just streaming movies on the criterion channel unless i look at my tv really close and notice how weird everything looks. but if i don't do that it looks good. i just like the idea of having a copy of stuff. tempted to just get some new stuff that i have enjoyed on the channel like Afire and The Eight Mountains. those would look so cool.

man i was playing an audio bluray of brahms symphonies - i try to collect every brahms 4th that i see - and holy fuck i was ready to sell all my records and CDs and go all in on DVD-audio. so great. and i am as you no doubt know a snooty scummy record scum collector doofus.

Yeah my rule on 4Ks is: if I have the Bluray, I’m good, if I don’t, sure I’ll indulge a little.

I bend this rule if the movie in question is among my top 100 or so, but yeah, I typically only upgrade to 4K if I don't already have on a decent BR

FAO clemenza: https://unobstructedview.com/criterion-flash-sale.html

only 90 mins left, but it's the Canadian option and they usually mirror the CC sales (with a 40% discount)

For Ned's eyes only. Here's my collection at this point: https://www.criterion.com/collection/22349

holy mama...

I got Lone Star, My Man Godfrey, The Innocents, and Beau Travail.

Blu-Rays and 4k are sadly very much like audio, where the "mastering" often has more impact than the resolution. 4K is even worse with the HDR shit. Blu-ray.com is a good resource, if you accept that it is the Hoffman forum equivalent for movies. But I use a media server and 4Ks just take up too much damn space (on average a 4K rip takes up about 50-60% more space than a Blu-Ray rip).

For Ned's eyes only.

Only 414, wotta neophyte. (Wait hold on.)

Wasn't going to order something then realized the codes don't run out and thought I had a few. Upon ordering realized I only had 1 that hadn't been used. So with the 50% off and 1 10$ coupon I just got Fanny and Alexander Blu-Ray. I already have the DVD but feel like I wanted to go a step further. I've seen the movie a dozen times but despite owning the DVD still haven't watched the television version.

I used to watch the same movies over and over again but these days I never have time and I rarely do that, so owning movies seems less important than it used to for me.

I definitely get this last point; at the same time, I question the stability of streaming. I'd rather have a nice little bank of things to hand.

xps For vintage films shot in 35mm (as well as any smaller formats like 16mm), UHD is pretty close to the limit of what's feasible. For a lot of reasons both technical and economic, I can't imagine it getting superseded by a different physical product. More likely, any more advances in home viewing are going to be in streaming or in new technology that are more applicable to new films rather than older films (not unless there's a revisionist fad similar to 3D). But even then, having a physical library doesn't become obsolete because there's still the big question of availability, and the studios have made it painfully clear that they have no interest in making a comprehensive library available to consumers. If it wasn't for boutiques like Criterion or Milestone, it's hard seeing anyone making the effort to restore and distribute such films as Nothing But a Man or the three Ousmane Sembène that are scheduled for release.

This was posted elsewhere, but this is one reason why UHD is likely the last "disc" format for home viewing - he was talking about why scratches become more and more problematic when you go from CD to DVD to Blu-ray and now UHD (the reason why the last two formats have such thick scratch-resistant coats):

"This is exactly why pressed QL 128GB media would never have gotten off the ground, even if they could get the yields up the discs would be so error-prone in real world usage that it's just not worth it. So if we are to get another disc format after this then it won't be an extension of the BD spec like UHD was, it'll have to be a brand new piece of tech. And I can't see anyone bothering to design a new robust high capacity format for what will be a niche of a niche of a niche, but that's just me."

I always quixotically assume that there will arrive some day where I'm able to just sit down any given day and watch 2, maybe 3 movies ... and then do it again the next day. That's not my life, hasn't been my life since I was in my early 20s, and probably won't be my life again for quite some time. But I continue to hope.

I know what you mean - a reason why the Criterion discs hold up better for rewatching is the bonus material, and often times, those are things I can play as I'm doing other things like housework. I don't like watching a movie while, say, mopping the floors or cooking a meal, but if I'm running the audio commentary or a making of doc, that's totally fine, I don't need to watch the screen every second or hear the audio in silence.

I always quixotically assume that there will arrive some day where I'm able to just sit down any given day and watch 2, maybe 3 movies ... and then do it again the next day. That's not my life, hasn't been my life since I was in my early 20s, and probably won't be my life again for quite some time. But I continue to hope.

― Rich E. (Eric H.), Wednesday, February 28, 2024 11:46 AM (thirty minutes ago)

lol the imaginary me who somehow enjoys all my physical media has such a cool life

I can think of worse movies to be traumatized by your babysitter with than Carnival of Souls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANxxsFUojco

xp
128GB USB flash drives are now about $10-15 each (just googled it), so that could replace disks.

I can lose a whole evening just trying to decide what to watch.

The number of Golden Girls episodes I use to stall while mulling whether I should tackle Tarr's Damnation, Damon Packard's Fatal Pulse or three unseen Fassbinders is considerable

re: flash drives, I actually listen to hi-res music that way. Put the FLAC's on a flash drive, organized in a folder, plug it into my Oppo, select that folder, and it just plays. I still prefer a disc though which is more user friendly.

Terrible timing for this big NYT feature to run after the flash sale but hey (gift link). Michael Bay will not surprise you. Neither will Wes Anderson.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/29/magazine/criterion-collection.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ZE0.Rm7i.80CdVj5IE1Sl

meanwhile, who scored the complete Kate & Allie DVD box? you're looking at him!

Anderson, who asked that verbal tics like “uh” and “um” not be excised from his quotes ...

Really puts his whole deal into sharp focus there

Not Wes, his brother!

“I learned it from you, bro!”

modified all region 4K player

and not to brag but a certain someone DID also recently score a SEALED DVD box of the complete run of The Facts of Life. that someone? it was me! that someone was me!

xpost -- good thing too! (I hadn't had a 4K player before this, so it was a good investment all around.)

The all-region part, of course, is still pretty handy for the old Blu-rays if you've started collecting those from multiple regions

Especially if you live in a region B backwater like me. One of our chain stores was doing a clearance on budget bluray players which were all-region DVD and menu-switchable for BD regions, I bought 3 so if one fails I have a backup. About 30% of my collection is region A and my Sony 4K player is hard locked to region B BD, region 4 DVD (which I believe is illegal in Aus, but whatever).

Yeah my player automatically plays any region DVD and Blu-rays, just have to select a button on the remote. A saviour.

(Should be a comma after 'DVD' there. You get the drift.)

on brand Wes Anderson from that NYTimes article

Anderson, who asked that verbal tics like “uh” and “um” not be excised from his quotes, told me that he had always admired how Criterion covers tended to be “more adventurous than, uh, what a movie studio would be inclined to go with.”

I'd argue Region B is actually a better region than A to be in these days! But yeah I own a multi region player.

There are even region B Criterion discs, I own a couple

In 'not at all of interest to ivy and others' news, some of the forthcoming releases in June:

https://www.criterion.com/films/33670-bound

https://www.criterion.com/films/27974-querelle

https://www.criterion.com/films/33289-victims-of-sin

yessss Bound

Another good batch for July:

https://www.criterion.com/shop/browse?popular=coming-soon

Preordered Perfect Days, Le Samourai, Farewell My Concubine and Black God, White Devil.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSD7Kpr7XxqaxyAFSU1wvyiMczNIA7oZGQJUKnZdksDPg&s

"Whatta 'bout me, Ned?"

I have no thoughts on the matter.

That's a helluva set for a movie I have almost no interest in owning

XP Haha, I already forgot they were also doing Risky Business too...thought it was funny you were slighting just one title.