The Criterion Collection • Page 20

Med Hondo's Soleil O went up recently (and was released last month as part of the World Cinema Project boxset). I haven't seen it yet but I've seen two of Hondo's other works and they are both incredible. I'm actually prepping an essay on his film West Indies for one of my classes right now.

I hope they start to release African cinema more regularly, or at least make more of it available through the channel. So many of these classics are inaccessible or only available in poor quality, yet there are so many restorations that are unavailable beyond the repertory circuit (which, as a result of This Unprecedented Moment, basically doesn't exist right now).

 

I need to get to more of the Riggs stuff. I watched Long Train Running when his stuff first went up, but I've been meaning to work through the rest. I did see Tongues Untied earlier this year though. An incredible work (of public television at that!). The history of its reception after broadcast is both fascinating and horrifying.

 

I'm curious what everyone has in their collections?

 

I think this is everything. It’s hard to say no to their sales.

Seven Samurai
Ikiru
Rashomon
Notorious
8 1/2
Shoah
Slacker
Before Trilogy
Boyhood
Thief
Battle of Algiers
Dr. Strangelove
Let The Sunshine In
Faces
A Woman Under The Influence
Blue Is The Warmest Color
On The Waterfront
Parasite
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Silence of the Lambs
Thin Red Line
Night of the Living Dead
Godzilla
Some Like It Hot
Grand Budapest Hotel
Wildlife

 

In the recent flash and B&N sales I picked up complete Agnes Varda, and some personal Cary Grant favorites in Holiday, the Philadelphia Story, and the Awful Truth. Other notable grabs were a couple Lubitsch (Cluny Brown, which is a masterpiece, and Design for Living, which I haven’t seen), In the Mood for Love, which is another personal favorite, Letter Never Sent, Black Girl, Leave Her to Heaven, and My Man Godfrey, the last four of which I haven’t seen.

 

i'll have to look. i think i have like a dozen, with minding the gap on order

 

My collection is big (it used to be bigger) but I've also been buying them for almost a decade now. I've definitely been buying less and less over the years. Partially because there is hardly a cheap way to get them in Canada anymore, plus the channel (and moving down the street from an incredible video store) has lessened some of the incentive. I mostly just buy new titles as they come out and usually just the more "offbeat" picks or stuff I have put off watching for years in hopes of an HD transfer (the last few were World Cinema Project 3, The Comfort of Strangers, and Christ Stopped at Eboli).

My Criterion Collection

 

The Jacques Demy box set
- Lola
- Bay of Angels
- Young Girls of Rochefort
- Umbrellas of Cherbourg
- Donkey Skin
- Une Chamber en Ville

The Before Trilogy
- Before Sunrise
- Before Sunset
- Before Midnight

12 Angry Men
The 400 Blows
4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days
Bamboozled
Black Girl
Bowling for Columbine
Boyhood
Crumb
Do the Right Thing
Eyes Without a Face
A Face in the Crowd
Fat Girl
Ghost World
Hausu
Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai de Commerce 1080 Bruxelles
Marriage Story
Parasite
Paris is Burning
The Piano Teacher
The Player
Police Story
Police Story 2
Polyester
Punch-Drunk Love
Shoah
The Squid & the Whale
Tampopo

Before the sale ends I want to grab Election and maybe Secret Sunshine. Also plan on watching a few things before the end of the month.

 

I got Inside Llewyn Davis, Grand Budapest Hotel, Pans Labyrinth, Thin Red Line, Parasite, Certain Women, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

 

My Fellini box set is out for delivery!

 

Terrible picture and old but nonetheless... have only bought a few releases over the last couple years as I just don't want or watch as many as I used to. I've also sold off some of these that I watched and wasn't super crazy about.

 

wow

 

Dat flex
(Awesome collection!)

 

I got:

The Elephant Man
Parasite
Brazil

Need to pick up The Night Of The Hunter

 

This guy is a tank!

 

I bought Election, Frances Ha, and Yi Yi. Gonna watch a few more this weekend before the sale ends.

 

Lemme know how that Election release is

 

All y’all with your big Criterion Collection collections, meanwhile I’m over here broke af.

Anyways, one release I was lucky enough to stumble upon at a Half Price Books was Tree of Life. Finally watching the extended version this morning. It’s been forever since I watched the theatrical version, so I dunno how well I’ll be able to compare the two, but any version rules. Glad this version still had those back-to-back shots of the vagina fish & penis fish; would’ve quit if it didn’t.

 

just got Parasite

 

Found that HBOMax has a chunk of Criterion movies on there, going to make my way through. Watched In the Mood for Love last night, absolutely breathtaking

 

For real one of the greatest of all time

 

WORLD OF WONG KAR-WAI box set just announced today. 7 films. Currently on sale for $140, list is $200. I’ll probably wait until the July Barnes and Noble same though and grab it for $100.

-As Tears Go By
-Days of Being Wild
-Chungking Express
-Fallen Angels
-Happy Together
-In the Mood for Love
-2046

 

Also my haul from the November sale....


-The Essential Fellini
-Five Films: John Cassavetes
-Before Trilogy
-Three Colors Trilogy

-12 Angry Men
-Ace in the Hole
-Army of Shadows
-Beau Travail
-Bicycle Thieves
-Breathless
-Diabolique
-Dr. Strangelove
-La Haine
-Harakiri
-High and Low
-A Man Escaped
-A Matter of Life and Death
-Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
-Mulholland Dr.
-Nashville
-Parasite
-Paris, Texas
-Paths of Glory
-Rashomon
-The Red Shoes
-Rififi
-Le samouraï
-The Thin Red Line
-The Vanishing
-Videodrome
-Y tu mama tambien

 

That WONG KAR-WAI is great because it brings 5 new films to the collection but also because Chungking has been OOP for many years so people will get to discover that movie. It's one of my favorites in the collection.

Just like the Fellini box set having Nights of Cabiria that has been OOP for many years. Cabiria is sooooo good.

 

I know a lot of people are mad about the WKW restorations but I am so curious to see them. Always excites me when artists revisit their works years later. + I still have the OG blu-ray releases of all of those except 2046 and As Tears Go By