posted
Anyone have an opinion on Criterion Collection movies? Are they worth what they charge, or just a lot of overpriced pretense?
In case anyone doesn't know what they are, here's the list. Does anyone own any of these? How are they? Any on the list that you'd particularly like to own? I'd ask what you'd least like to have, but it would be too hard to choose between The Rock and Armageddon.
Personally, I have The Beastie Boys Video Anthology, The Life of Brian and This Is Spinal Tap. I'm ambivalent about the decision they make to leave most of the soundtracks in their original mono, and The Life of Brian's video transfer isn't over-processed, but there are a lot of film artifacts left in too, which is a little distracting. Many of their films seem much lighter on the features than most movies that cost half as much, although some of those features are wicked cool (like the Beastie Boys audio mixes and alternate angles). I don't know much about how they choose which films to include. Most of them are alien to me, and I'd be tempted to feel that they really know way more than I ever could about cinema history if it weren't for the inclusion of the aforementioned Bruckheimer epics. With that in mind, I can't buy a Criterion movie sight unseen without the nagging fear that I might be spending $40 on the 1960s French version of Con Air.
The ones that I would like are the Kurosawa films. And I'm always tempted to pick up their version of Charade. It's one of my favorite movies of all time, but I already have a $5 version, and I can't justify spending another $40 on a director's commentary. I always drool when I see it, though.
Anyone have any more experience with them than I do? Any that I really should get?
posted
"More experience"? No, but I also have the Beastie Boys Video Anthology, and it is awesome. Apart from the fact that the Beastie Boys make excellent videos, some of the special features in there are very cool.
quote:The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, is dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements.
And the Beastie Boys falls under this category??? LOL
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Heh, I didn't know they did stuff like Beastie Boy videos. I watched a bunch of those films in school, mostly Bergman, Tarkovsky (they only have two of his, not including the sublime "Stalker"), Truffaut, Fassbinder, Godard (UGH!).... I couldn't recommend any without knowing more about your taste in movies... they tend to specialize in particularly "artsy" and obtuse film selections. A good place to start, if you haven't seen it already, would be "Brazil"... if you enjoy that, you might like the rest of the collection. Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
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I did like Brazil. It may sound lowbrow of me, though, but I preferred Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys, and I don't know if I liked Brazil quite enough to invest in a 3-disc collection. But it was a good flick.
I like some quirky artsy movies, and I think it's cool that there are people out there that would turn me on to things that I'd never heard of. But there are other obscure artsy movies that I absolutely can't stand, no matter what professional critics think. For example, I really liked Jarmusch's Ghost Dog, which isn't on that list, and I wasn't too impressed with Jarmusch's Down By Law, which is a Criterion film. I really like Tom Waits and Roberto Benigni and it was certainly directed in the same style, but Down By Law just didn't grip me like Ghost Dog did. So it's hard to have a lot of blind faith in their taste.
I'd much sooner trust my Hatrack comrades over the faceless scholarly elete. This is where I was turned on, for example, to Grave of the Fireflies, which is now one of my favorite movies. That's why I'm inquiring here.
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I guess the question I have, really, is as follows:
Are there any films in the Criterion Collection that real people in real life actually like, or are they just mainly pieces of historical interest to scholars? Or are there some of both, and which are which?
That, and what people think about the presentation (restoration, features, etc.) are what I'm mostly curious about.
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You know, after going over their list again, I'd agree with your skepticism about their taste in films. They have a lot of great directors, but very few of those directors' greatest works. For instance, they have lots of Bergman films, including some classics like Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries, but they don't have Persona, arguably the best film of his career. They have Tarkovsky's Solaris, which I keep meaning to watch, but not Stalker, Nostalghia, or The Sacrifice. They're missing Truffaut's "Shoot the Piano Player", which I remember being a hilariously absurd but also very poignant genre satire.
So, yeah... I'm not sure that they're the best place to turn to to start a journey into artsy films... but you never know. I haven't seen most of them.
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Speed, I'd say a whole lot of them are primarily there for scholars. I've enjoyed the ones I've seen, except for anything by Godard, but I don't know if I'd be comfortable recommending that someone spend money on them. Seventh Seal was good, I don't remember if I saw Wild Strawberries, or just read about it, but I know it was a good film, too... Andrei Rublev was very well-made and educational, but not particularly entertaining.
I guess that's what I'm shooting for... very few of the films I've seen on that list would be entertaining to anyone but the most invested academic. While Persona and Shoot the Piano Player would be entertaining for most people, I think, even if they missed the cool deeper meanings in them.
Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
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I haven't seen many of these. Armageddon is obviously good. A friend of mine swears by Chasing Amy and she loves it, and has been trying to get me to watch it for like three years. Life of Brian is good, but then, it's Monty Python, so that's a given. The same friend also liked Rushmore. The Royal Tanenbaums is GREAT! If you have seen The Life Aquatic and liked it, you will love TRT, I recommend it to everyone.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I love the Criterion Collection stuff for movies, especially on laserdisc (it's so shiney!). Mind you, I can be considered one of those academic types because I love the history and extra documentary info they put into them. These people spend an amazing amount of time putting the movie together, they like to dig out the original footage and filmstrips and remaster to the highest quality possible, like for Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the improvement shows, in fact...they took the Criterion Collection's Laserdisc and used those for the Collector's Edition DVDs. Satyagraha
Posts: 359 | Registered: Jun 2001
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For whatever reason, Criterion Collection DVDs don't work properly on my machine. The sound doesn't play.
Posts: 1515 | Registered: Feb 2002
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I've seen their releases of The Royal Tenenbaums (which I own -- I got my copy for $6 used at the video store I work at. It was only rented once before and is literally as good as new), The Seventh Seal, Seven Samurai, Band of Outsiders (which is simply genius -- I'd be interested to hear more about your dislike of Godard, Zeugma), The 400 Blows, Andrei Rublev, Solaris, L' Avventura, Down by Law, Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light, The Silence, Gimme Shelter, Grand Illusion, Jules and Jim, The Last Temptation of Christ, Wild Strawberries, The Third Man & Straw Dogs.
Wow, that was a lot more than I thought I'd seen.
Generally speaking, I'd buy any of their releases sight-unseen. Of course, there are those few odd inclusions. In fact, I even find it curious that they include Wes Anderson and Kevin Smith's films.
I don't know, some of the special features are incredible on their discs, and some, such as the commentary on Solaris put me to sleep. Since I'm an avid collector as well as a film lover, I'd probably always buy/recommend a Criterion disc over one from the studio. But I guess it really depends on the film and how much you like it.
Posts: 1295 | Registered: Jan 2003
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Godric, I sat through a screening of "Weekend" in class once, and I was really sickened by it. I think the scene involving a woman being sexually molested with an egg was the final straw. Godard may have made some other films that were fantastic, but after that experience, I'd rather just avoid them. (Edit: I feel the way about Stan Brakhage... the bane of my undergraduate career. )
Ah, I didn't see Royal Tennenbaums on that list... That is definitely an excellent AND entertaining film.
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