Criterion Collection on DVD. Recommendations please.

I bought Playtime at Barnes & Noble but with no conviction. I've been pretty blasé about Criterion probably because I'm not a quality queen and extras/commentaries in general usually amount to sucker bait in my experience. The best Criterions I've seen are F For Fake (and Mr. Arkadin cuz I love it so) and the Brakhage box.

I passed up the Criterions for Trafic, Last Year at Marienbad, Vampyr, Fanny and Alexander, and the Ozu silents box. Any passionate defenders of these?

i'm not a big extras guy but criterion ones are almost always way way better than what you find in standard releases: interesting new stuff or cool vintage docs/tv interviews, not the usual crappy BTS stuff. if you like the movies you listed above you'll probably be happy with those releases.

Latest announcements:

SD:
Wings of Desire
Monsoon Wedding
Z

Eclipse:
Series 18: Dusan Makavejev, Free Radical

no new Essential Art House

blu-ray:
Howards End (WHY DID THIS WIN THE POLL, GRR)
Wings of Desire
Monsoon Wedding

Kind of a mixed bag- no blu-ray for Z is disappointing, and the fact that they're hiking blu-ray prices by $10 (to a flabbergasting $49.95 MSRP) worries me.

makavejev BOX SET is pretty rad tho!

There was a poll?

Oh, definitely. And Z is a godsend- the old, crap DVD has been OOP and expensive for ages. Still kind of a low-key month- I'm hoping they spring another couple of releases on us Monday as they sometimes do.

Yeah, on Amazon, to determine the first of a set of classics to come out on Blu-Ray. Howards End, Down By Law, Kwaidan, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Au Revoir les Enfants.

On the one hand, presumably this means all of those films have blu-rays in the works- Kwaidan in particular should be stunning in HD- but on the other hand the most boring possible film won.

Kwaidan is actually the only one of those five I could picture being hepped up about buying on Blu-Ray.

August 3rd? Just enough time to wait for payday...

Which I did. Tonight I got For All Mankind, Made in USA and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse and am seriously considering a second run tomorrow or Monday.

For All Mankind is A+. Am currently awaiting delivery of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - loved this at the cinema and looks like the blu-ray is top notch.

for all mankind IS A+. not a fan of BB but the bluray does look spectacs.

So I said 'to heck with it' and did go for another round at a B&N near here -- 8 1/2, Last Year at Marienbad, Dazed and Confused, Threepenny Opera and Drunken Angel. That'll keep me going for a while. (But oh those Eclipse boxes that were on sale as well...)

awwww, Dazed and Confused looks so good. I always thought my regular dvd copy was ok, but the extras on the Criterion pwn it. Ned, you're making me want to upgrade!

The only B&N in my area sold their Brazil box and it's not part of the online sale. It's ok, though, I probably should get through my backlog first.

Threepenny Opera is so good! That movie doesn't get enough props!

I'm all about seeing Lotte Lenya in her youth.

Just bought High & Low and Fanny & Alexander...used my $25 gift card I had lying around and my big time 7% corporate discount. Unfortunately the ship date is in 3-5 weeks but I can wait it out.

I did a blind buy of Mala Noche and Sweet Movie -- just got finished watching the latter and not so sure it was a good choice. Oh well.

I went to a rather remote B&N to check out their selection of Criterions. Pretty yummy and I left with...nothing! Yay temperance!

check out that jean painleve set, y'all. it's great.

ya was thinkin'

me, i prefer to watch them with the yo la tengo soundtracks turned off, but whatever's your pleasure.

also, if you're a sucker for nice packaging, this has it.

btw does anyone want to buy me a Blu-Ray player and an HD TV so that I can watch the PLAYTIME Blu-Ray?

ok where do i send them

For those who still have some moniez, a big sale @ Amazon (blurays and deep catalog titles 50-60% off, plus similar deals on stuff from Anchor Bay, Warners & Lions Gate)

Sweet Movie is awesome but it's one of those films where it helps to like, know the political history of 20th century yugoslavia to get half of what he's going on about. The film prof at Oberlin wrote a book on eastern european cinema and taught 3 half semester classes, films of Bergman, films of Fellini and films of Makevejev!

the sweet movie dvd cover is beautiful, i had it as my desktop for months

stoked about upcoming eclipse makavejev box!

The Searchers blu-ray for $9.50 is ridiculous. but I have it already.

Motherfucker, half off the Repulsion blu-ray right after I buy it from them! Not like my FURIOUS ANGER will stop me picking up a few, though...

xp donna: agreed on sweet movie.

excuse my retardation but i always thought it was "the bicycle thief" and not "bicycle theives"?

*thieves

Bicycle Thieves is the hi-octane action-packed sequel.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1194/816639186_d146a40c9c.jpg?v=0

Bicycle Thieves is the one where the struggling father and his son accompany a bunch of Italian marines to go check out a mining colony where all the bicycles have mysteriously vanished and ok i think you can see where i'm going with this

thieves is the translation in the england land

its Ladri di Bicyclette (sp?), which is plural. given, you know, the ending.

xp - it's what my NYU film prof called it.

xp Bicycle Thieves was the prequel to BMX Bandits, starring a young Nicole Kidman.

just announced november releases, two movies that came out last year (gomorrah, a christmas tale) and downhill racer...

http://criterion_production.s3.amazonaws.com/release_images/2401/GATV_web.jpg

...and this guy!

looks public domainy

Sweet news on the Desplechin, especially considering it's really really underrated by Morbius types.

sb'd morbius in celebration

I love A Christmas Tale! sweet.

Amazon has a sale on Criterion DVDs going on now, 50%+ off

not nearly what Barnes & Noble was offering earlier but some good ones

Uh-oh:

Dear Criterion collectors,

Our three least favorite initials: OOP. Since we launched the Criterion Collection more than twenty-five years ago, we’ve endeavored to keep everything we’ve published in print. But despite our efforts to renew rights, we are losing a large group of titles from StudioCanal at the end of March, and we wanted to give you advance notice that our editions will be going out of print. Until we’re out of stock, we will be offering these titles at an additional $5 off on our website. The titles are going to Lionsgate, and we don’t know when they may be rereleased. As ever, we will continue to try to relicense the films so that they can rejoin the collection sometime in the future.

Here are the titles that will soon be out of print:

Alphaville
Carlos Saura’s Flamenco Trilogy (Eclipse Series 6)
Le corbeau
Coup de torchon
Diary of a Country Priest
The Fallen Idol
Forbidden Games (Criterion and Essential Art House editions)
Gervaise (Essential Art House edition)
Grand Illusion (Criterion and Essential Art House editions)
Le jour se lève (Essential Art House edition)
Last Holiday (Essential Art House edition)
Mayerling (Essential Art House edition)
The Orphic Trilogy
Peeping Tom
Pierrot le fou (DVD and Blu-ray editions)
Port of Shadows
Quai des Orfèvres
The Small Back Room
The Tales of Hoffmann (Criterion and Essential Art House editions)
Trafic
Le trou
Variety Lights (Essential Art House edition)
The White Sheik

Take note: this may be your last chance to pick up spine number 1 from the collection.

Happy viewing!
The Criterion Collection

Pierrot le fou goes OOP again! Sold the old terrible DVD for $75 pre-Criterion, I imagine this Blu-ray will go for more.

SOOOO excited about Lola Montes
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews46/lola_montes.htm