Criterion Collection

[EricJ]

I had the good fortune to see Time Bandits in the theater before Terry Gilliam became TERRY GILLIAM (which he did shortly around the time he became the artistic "martyr" for Brazil), so I had the freedom to just see it as a movie, and the audience expecting another post-Python Life of Brian:
Gilliam, with his usual self-aggrandizement about how "satirical" he thought he was, reportedly thought he was doing some biting cynical Swiftian deconstruction of childhood fantasy, but I can recall kids who thought there was never a better Harry Potter-ish fantasy than the opening scenes, or the whole segment with Sean Connery. (Even the scenes at the beginning with our hero's parents have a distinctly Dursley-ish feel to them.)
If you can see the movie with THAT open mind, it's a fun movie, but if you even try to retroactively fan-compare it to Brazil, 12 Monkeys or Fear & Loathing, I will buy a plane ticket to wherever you live and hit you.

(And no one's tempted by The Thin Blue Line, the movie that first made Errol Morris ERROL MORRIS in the way Gates of Heaven didn't? I'd have thought it was worth buying for the Phillip Glass score alone.)

[Dan]

I grew up on Time Bandits and I had been watching it long before I discovered Monty Python and then after expanded out into Gilliam's crazy catalog of films. As a kid, the film enhanced me and my brother's wild imaginations for adventure. I can still watch the film today with great wonder even though I can now also appreciate Gilliam's unique visual style and all the various who's who that pop up everywhere.

I'm very interested in seeing Thin Blue Line after reading up about it. It's on there with my upgrade of Hoop Dreams to blu ray as among the docs I can't wait to pick up in July (for the next B&N sale).

[Dan]

The April titles have been announced. Mostly blu ray upgrades with one title in particular that's going to be an automatic for me.

Upgrading to Blu Ray:
118. Sullivan's Travels, 1941 Preston Sturges - April 14 (Absolute must. Also happens to be one of John Lasseter's all-time favorites)
276. The River, 1951 Jean Renoir - April 21
475. The Friends of Eddie Coyle, 1973 Peter Yates - April 28

New Additions:

754. Odd Man Out
Carol Reed - 1947
Taking place largely over the course of one tense night, Carol Reed’s psychological noir, set in an unnamed Belfast, stars James Mason as a revolutionary ex-con leading a robbery that goes horribly wrong. Injured and hunted by the police, he seeks refuge throughout the city, while the woman he loves (Kathleen Ryan) searches for him among the shadows. Reed and cinematographer Robert Krasker (who would collaborate again on The Fallen Idol and The Third Man) create images of stunning depth for this intense, spiritual depiction of a man’s ultimate confrontation with himself.

755. Le silence de la mer
Jean-Pierre Melville - 1949
Jean-Pierre Melville began his superb filmmaking career with this powerful adaptation of an influential underground novel written during the Nazi occupation of France. An idealistic, naive German officer is assigned to the home of a middle-aged man and his grown niece; their response to his presence—their only form of resistance—is complete silence. Constructed with elegant minimalism and shot, by the legendary Henri Decaë, with hushed eloquence, Le silence de la mer is a fascinating tale of moral ambiguity that points the way toward Melville’s later films about resistance and the occupation (Léon Morin, Priest; Army of Shadows) yet remains a singularly eerie masterwork in its own right.

[EricJ]

118. Sullivan's Travels, 1941 Preston Sturges - April 14 (Absolute must. Also happens to be one of John Lasseter's all-time favorites)

Eh, just because it's the only Preston Sturges with Mickey Mouse in it.
I'm up for any Sturges on Criterion, but wake me when they get to Miracle of Morgan's Creek or Unfaithfully Yours.

[Dan]

They already put out Unfaithfully Yours on DVD years ago and it's still in print. I imagine, though, they'll upgrade it to blu ray in due time.

With that, Sullivan's Travels, The Lady Eve, Tuesday's release of The Palm Beach Story, we might see them put out Morgan's Creek soon enough.

[Ben]

Actually...it was Pluto.

I've loved Sullivan's Travels since I did one of my dissertations on it in college, and have the Criterion DVD as well as the Universal Sturges collection. Sullivan's is clearly his best film (even if it could do "with a little sex in it"!), and I've been waiting for the BD upgrade even while being tempted by the Masters Of Cinema issue here in the UK (which the Criterion, as is often the case, may mirror quite closely). It'll be good to see if it's better than their DVD or if the MOC issue turns out to be the better bet (I'm actually looking at the UK Time Bandits now since the Criterion seems to offer little over their original DVD and the UK has a bunch of different extras).

Odd Man Out, a Reed that I know about but don't think I have ever seen, also sounds interesting and will be added to the ol' wish list!

[Randall]

I've been tempted to pick up the UK Sullivan's Travels too, but thought I'd wait for a likely Criterion annoncement, so this one gets added to the wish list. While none of the others are "musts" for me, they all sound interesting--- esp. The River.

I do miss rental stores, though. And only so many titles are available to me by streaming. There are lots of titles I'd like to try out, but don't necessarily wish to purchase. My shelves are already sagging.

[Ben]

I don't have sagging shelves syndrome yet!

[Dan]

My syndrome is having to buy new shelves at some point.

[Ben]

I don't have that problem anymore either!

[Dan]

I don't have the problem presently, but by the end of the year I'll probably need a new one.

To sort of bring things slightly back to topic, Criterion kindly posted on their YouTube channel clips of Matthew McConaughey's audition for Dazed and Confused they have on their blu ray and DVD release.



Great to think, in watching this clip, that twenty years later he'd win an Oscar and director Richard Linklater is a step closer to getting at least one of his own in a few weeks.

[Randall]

May titles!

The Rose (Bette Midler) - I can't see myself springing for this; but nice for Midler fans, I guess (I like her and recognize her talent, but I don't go for her dramas--- not my cup o' tea.)

Limelight - More Chaplin! Sign me up! (Yes, Ben, and Keaton too!)

Make Way for Tomorrow - Why on Earth did they only put it on DVD a few years ago? This BD is way overdue! Not sure I'll upgrade at this point

State of Siege and The confession - Seperate release for two Costa-Gravas films. They're probably wonderful films, but low on my priority list for now.

The Merchant of Four Seasons - ditto

[Dan]

Totally picking up Limelight. I imagine when they finally release The Kid on blu it will be an event.

Was curious that they didn't put Make Way for Tomorrow on blu when they first released it because Criterion had been getting the hang of blu by then. *shrugs*

[Ben]

Been waiting for a Limelight announcement, so that is totally on the list for the next Criterion sale. And there I was thinking that I was caught up for a while...

[Dan]

A snippet of the Guillermo del Toro interview on the Watership Down release.