The New Criterion Releases Thread

Jinnistan · Post by **Jinnistan** » Sun Dec 17, 2017 2:57 am

crumbsroom wrote:Since I'm sad no one else is probably going to do it, hooray for Women in Love.

I'll wrestle you for a copy.

ski petrol · Post by **ski petrol** » Sun Dec 17, 2017 4:11 am

Captain Oats wrote:

That's fucking amazing. I love Reygadas. Even Post Tenebras Lux.

Stu · Post by **Stu** » Mon Jan 01, 2018 7:13 pm

New teaser pic for January:

Slentert · Post by **Slentert** » Mon Jan 01, 2018 7:17 pm

Are they releasing The Color of Pomegranates?

Oxnard Montalvo · Post by **Oxnard Montalvo** » Mon Jan 01, 2018 10:39 pm

I wouldn't be shocked, I know it is already on Filmstruck and a part of Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project.

Popcorn Reviews · Post by **Popcorn Reviews** » Mon Jan 01, 2018 10:42 pm

I still have yet to figure out what that film means.

Oxnard Montalvo · Post by **Oxnard Montalvo** » Tue Jan 02, 2018 5:40 am

oh it's esoteric all right. I'm not gonna say I completely get it either..... the last time I watched it, I watched this first so this is the best I can do to help.

https://vimeo.com/75647706

Stu · Post by **Stu** » Tue Jan 02, 2018 5:22 pm

Popcorn Reviews wrote:I still have yet to figure out what that film means.

I've never even heard of it...

Popcorn Reviews · Post by **Popcorn Reviews** » Tue Jan 02, 2018 5:47 pm

Stu wrote:I've never even heard of it...

I'd say it's worth watching, because, even if you don't understand it, you can always admire it for its visuals.

Popcorn Reviews · Post by **Popcorn Reviews** » Wed Jan 03, 2018 2:41 am

Does anybody who owns The Thin Red Line on Criterion know if the subtitles show the names of the characters who narrate?

Rock · Post by **Rock** » Wed Jan 03, 2018 2:44 am

Popcorn Reviews wrote: I'd say it's worth watching, because, even if you don't understand it, you can always admire it for its visuals.

Yeah, it more or less went over my head but I enjoyed the visuals, music and dancing.

ski petrol · Post by **ski petrol** » Wed Jan 03, 2018 3:11 am

Popcorn Reviews wrote:I still have yet to figure out what that film means.

Yeah it's probably something very Georgian. Still it's a beautiful film and you should try and see his others. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors shouldn't be that hard to find.

Popcorn Reviews · Post by **Popcorn Reviews** » Wed Jan 03, 2018 3:17 am

ski petrol wrote:
Yeah it's probably something very Georgian. Still it's a beautiful film and you should try and see his others. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors shouldn't be that hard to find.

I've heard of that one before, but I have yet to watch it. Thanks for the recommendation.

Stu · Post by **Stu** » Wed Jan 03, 2018 5:42 am

Popcorn Reviews wrote: I'd say it's worth watching, because, even if you don't understand it, you can always admire it for its visuals.

What's it all about, anyway?

BL · Post by BL » Wed Jan 03, 2018 6:41 pm

Stu wrote:What's it all about, anyway?

It's a biography of the 18th century Armenian poet Sayat-Nova; but unlike a typical biopic, it depicts his life through a series of highly metaphorical tableaux vivants meant to recall Armenian miniatures. You have to read the movie as something like an allegorical Renaissance painting rather than a typical narrative film.

Oxnard Montalvo · Post by **Oxnard Montalvo** » Thu Jan 04, 2018 11:29 pm

list of movies coming to Filmstruck in January:

January 1
Anatomy of a Murder, Otto Preminger, 1959
No Country for Old Men, Joel and Ethan Coen, 2007

January 9
Together, Lukas Moodysson, 2000

January 10
The Complete Mr. Arkadin, Orson Welles, 1955

January 16
Yours Faithfully Edna Welthorpe (Mrs), Chris Shepherd, 2017

January 18
The Lure, Agnieszka Smoczyńska, 2015

January 23
And the Whole Sky Fit in the Dead Cow's Eye, Francisca Alegria, 2016

(that's a short list but there are always movies that show up unannounced)

Oxnard Montalvo · Post by **Oxnard Montalvo** » Wed Jan 17, 2018 12:03 am

new Criterion releases for April

April 10 - Eclipse Series 46: Ingrid Bergman's Swedish Years*
April 17 - The Awful Truth by Leo McCarey, The Color of Pomegranates by Sergei Parajanov
April 24 - Dead Man by Jim Jarmusch, The Virgin Suicides by Sofia Coppola

*includes The Count of the Old Town by Sigurd Wallen and Edvin Adolphson, Dollar by Gustaf Molander, Intermezzo by Gustaf Molander, Walpurgis Night by Gustaf Edgren, A Woman's Face by Gustaf Molander, and June Night by Per Lindberg

crumbsroom · Post by **crumbsroom** » Wed Jan 17, 2018 12:38 am

Ooo, I haven't seen any of these Swedish films. May need to check that one out.

Jinnistan · Post by **Jinnistan** » Wed Jan 17, 2018 1:44 am

crumbsroom wrote:Ooo, I haven't seen any of these Swedish films. May need to check that one out.

I think that Jan Troell is the only other Swede of Bergman's generation that I've seen.

Jinnistan · Post by **Jinnistan** » Wed Jan 17, 2018 1:46 am

I'm definitely getting the one with William Blake though.

crumbsroom · Post by **crumbsroom** » Wed Jan 17, 2018 2:08 am

Jinnistan wrote: I think that Jan Troell is the only other Swede of Bergman's generation that I've seen.

No Sjoman? Not that I Am Curious is any good.

ThatDarnMKS · Post by **ThatDarnMKS** » Wed Jan 17, 2018 2:11 am

Dead Man will be mine.

Jinnistan · Post by **Jinnistan** » Wed Jan 17, 2018 2:17 am

crumbsroom wrote:No Sjoman? Not that I Am Curious is any good.

Oh yeah. It always seemed kinda Norwegian somehow.

ski petrol · Post by **ski petrol** » Thu Jan 25, 2018 10:05 am

Oxnard Montalvo wrote:

January 18
The Lure, Agnieszka Smoczyńska, 2015

OOoh this is a good one. Came out in the US in 2017. Weird stuff. Worth seeing.

MadMan · Post by **MadMan** » Fri Jan 26, 2018 7:52 am

Dead Man is a must. I am glad I never bought The Virgin Suicides before it got a Criterion release.

Oxnard Montalvo · Post by **Oxnard Montalvo** » Wed Jan 31, 2018 3:35 am

list of movies coming to Filmstruck in February:

February 1
Tropical Malady, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2005
Syndromes and a Century, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2006
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2010
Cemetery of Splendor, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2015
The Great Escape, John Sturges, 1963

February 2
Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations, Leni Riefenstahl, 1938
Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty, Leni Riefenstahl, 1938
Tokyo Olympiad, Kon Ichikawa, 1965
13 Days in France, Claude Lelouch, 1968
Visions of Eight, Milos Forman, Kon Ichikawa, Claude Lelouch, Yuri Ozerov, Arthur Penn, Michael Pfleghar, John Schlesinger, Mai Zetterling, 1973
White Rock, Tony Maylam, 1977
16 Days of Glory, Bud Greenspan, 1986
Marathon, Carlos Saura, 1993
The Front Page, Lewis Milestone, 1931
The Games of the V Olympiad Stockholm, 1912, Adrian Wood, 2016
White Vertigo, Giorgio Ferroni, 1956

February 5
Lettres d'amour, Claude Autant-Lara, 1942

February 6
Five Miles Out, Andrew Haigh, 2009

February 13
Night of the Living Dead, George A. Romero, 1968

February 20
Bluebeard, Jean Painlevé, 1938

February 21
Festival, Murray Lerner, 1967
Francis Ha, Noah Baumbach, 2013

Jinnistan · Post by **Jinnistan** » Wed Jan 31, 2018 11:33 pm

And I thought that Vertigo was white enough already

Will definitely have to watch Visions of Eight.

Popcorn Reviews · Post by **Popcorn Reviews** » Tue Feb 13, 2018 8:55 pm

Criterion's holding a 50% off flash sale.

Popcorn Reviews · Post by **Popcorn Reviews** » Thu Feb 15, 2018 8:58 pm

The releases for next month should be up soon, but I just noticed that Cronenberg's Scanners was added to the coming soon page.

Captain Oats · Post by **Captain Oats** » Thu Feb 15, 2018 10:33 pm

Popcorn Reviews · Post by **Popcorn Reviews** » Fri Feb 16, 2018 12:33 am

Moonrise May 8, 2018
The Other Side of Hope May 15, 2018
Graduation May 22, 2018
Beyond the Hills May 22, 2018
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters May 22, 2018
Midnight Cowboy May 29, 2018
Au Hasard Balthazar May 29, 2018

topherH · Post by **topherH** » Fri Feb 16, 2018 2:36 am

Yes! Bresson.

Oxnard Montalvo · Post by **Oxnard Montalvo** » Mon Feb 26, 2018 7:08 pm

Filmstruck news: Warner Archive is shutting down and merging with Filmstruck. also Filmstruck will feature TCM Selects, a rotating bundle of movies from old-school Hollywood. currently on the lineup:

A Night at the Opera by Sam Wood
An American in Paris by Vincente Minnelli
The Best Years of Our Lives by William Wyler
Casablanca by Michael Curtiz
City Lights by Charles Chaplin
Forbidden Planet by Fred M. Wilcox
Foreign Correspondent by Alfred Hitchcock
From Here to Eternity by Fred Zinnemann
His Girl Friday by Howard Hawks
Marty by Delbert Mann
Night and the City by Jules Dassin
Now, Voyager by Irving Rapper
On the Waterfront by Elia Kazan
Rebel Without a Cause by Nicholas Ray
Seven Days in May by John Frankenheimer
Stagecoach by John Ford
Sweet Smell of Success by Alexander Mackendrick
The Misfits by John Huston
The Music Man by Morton DaCosta
The Thin Man by W.S. Van Dyke
To Be or Not to Be by Ernst Lubitsch
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Mike Nichols

not a lot of obscure stuff for now but presumably more will follow

Oxnard Montalvo · Post by **Oxnard Montalvo** » Wed Feb 28, 2018 2:36 am

list of movies coming to Filmstruck in March:

March 6
Art, Adrian Sitaru, 2014

March 13
Home, Daniel Mulloy, 2016

March 14
Science Is Fiction: 23 Films by Jean Painlevé

March 19
Frownland, Ronald Bronstein, 2007

March 20
The Colour of His Hair, Sam Ashby, 2017

March 22
Police Beat, Robinson Devor, 2005

March 27
Lira's Forest, Connor Jessup, 2017

March 29
Angela, Rebecca Miller, 1995
The Ballad of Jack and Rose, Rebecca Miller, 2005

Popcorn Reviews · Post by **Popcorn Reviews** » Fri Mar 16, 2018 8:03 pm

Manila in the Claws of Light June 12, 2018
Bowling for Columbine June 19, 2018
El Sur June 19, 2018
Female Trouble June 26, 2018
The Virgin Spring June 26, 2018

Jinnistan · Post by **Jinnistan** » Fri Mar 16, 2018 8:15 pm

Urgh. Michael Moore is not a Criterion-worthy filmmaker.

We should have gotten a full John Waters box set instead.

MadMan · Post by **MadMan** » Mon Mar 19, 2018 6:10 am

Jinnistan wrote:Urgh. Michael Moore is not a Criterion-worthy filmmaker.

We should have gotten a full John Waters box set instead.

Roger and Me should have been selected instead, but I am sure the recent mass shooting is why Bowling was selected. Also Michael Bay has two Criterions, so heh...

Jinnistan · Post by **Jinnistan** » Wed Mar 21, 2018 12:22 am

MadMan wrote:Roger and Me should have been selected instead, but I am sure the recent mass shooting is why Bowling was selected. Also Michael Bay has two Criterions, so heh...

Roger & Me wasn't bad, but his later films establish the kind of personality-centered documentary that is completely ethically at odds with the work of the Wiseman/Pennabaker/Blank/Kopple school, and led (inadvertedly or not) to a more propagandistic standard for the genre today. Even politics that I agree with can be turned into propaganda or scenes made up of manufactured stunts.

The nadir of Moore's style might have been in Farenheit 9/11, where he nearly knocks over a woman trying to get his camera in her sobbing face as she grieves her lost loved one. Moore also makes sure to get a second camera capturing his eager glee to concernedly rush to capture (exploit) this grief. He's like Maury Povich for the big screen.

Macrology · Post by **Macrology** » Wed Mar 21, 2018 12:54 am

Yeah, regardless of whether you consider Michael Moore a good filmmaker, he is a pivotal filmmaker who has shaped the contemporary documentary landscape, for better or for worse. Personally, I despise him and the half-educated liberals who indulge him.

Oxnard Montalvo · Post by **Oxnard Montalvo** » Thu Mar 29, 2018 3:22 am

list of movies coming to Filmstruck in April:

April 1
In a Lonely Place, Nicholas Ray, 1950

April 3
Monkey Love Experiments, Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson, 2014

April 4
Metropolitan, Whit Stillman, 1990

April 9
The Summer of Flying Fish, Marcela Said, 2013

April 17
Casus belli, Yorgos Zois, 2010

MadMan · Post by **MadMan** » Mon Apr 09, 2018 9:00 am

Jinnistan wrote: Roger & Me wasn't bad, but his later films establish the kind of personality-centered documentary that is completely ethically at odds with the work of the Wiseman/Pennabaker/Blank/Kopple school, and led (inadvertedly or not) to a more propagandistic standard for the genre today. Even politics that I agree with can be turned into propaganda or scenes made up of manufactured stunts.

The nadir of Moore's style might have been in Farenheit 9/11, where he nearly knocks over a woman trying to get his camera in her sobbing face as she grieves her lost loved one. Moore also makes sure to get a second camera capturing his eager glee to concernedly rush to capture (exploit) this grief. He's like Maury Povich for the big screen.

Oh I am well aware that his films are mostly propaganda. I prefer to enjoy them as such. I think Sicko is his best film, and while its horribly slanted it made me look into the idea of universal healthcare.

Jinnistan · Post by **Jinnistan** » Mon Apr 09, 2018 7:08 pm

MadMan wrote:Oh I am well aware that his films are mostly propaganda. I prefer to enjoy them as such. I think Sicko is his best film, and while its horribly slanted it made me look into the idea of universal healthcare.

I don't enjoy any prop as such. Moore is ultimately a demagogue, and I think that it's insulting to the issues (which I generally agree with) and to the audience to resort to base emotional cues. I understand that it isn't in Moore's interest to show a bit more complexity in the issues that he discusses, but it doesn't help the debate to reduce them to the smugly simplistic platitudes that at least he himself is able to understand.

crumbsroom · Post by **crumbsroom** » Mon Apr 09, 2018 8:43 pm

Jinnistan wrote: I don't enjoy any prop as such. Moore is ultimately a demagogue, and I think that it's insulting to the issues (which I generally agree with) and to the audience to resort to base emotional cues. I understand that it isn't in Moore's interest to show a bit more complexity in the issues that he discusses, but it doesn't help the debate to reduce them to the smugly simplistic platitudes that at least he himself is able to understand.

To me Bowling was at least an interesting movie when it just came to satirizing gun culture in the US. Whenever it tries to actually make a point though, it is cringe inducing. Insulting is maybe the better word.

And while I think Roger and Me has some funny moments, the footage and information that Moore selectively chooses to include or exclude is disgraceful.

Fahrenheit 9/11 is easily one of the worst films of that decade. It doesn't help having this load of disingenous information, selective editing and conspiracie theories narrated by Moore's 'empathy' voice for the entire runtime, you know, because we can't forget that he cares while he exploits everything that comes within range of his camera. I can't stand him. Even Maher's Religulous is better, and that's the fucking worst.

Jinnistan · Post by **Jinnistan** » Tue Apr 10, 2018 5:46 am

crumbsroom wrote:And while I think Roger and Me has some funny moments, the footage and information that Moore selectively chooses to include or exclude is disgraceful.

The charm helps a lot, being an underdog independent effort. I think that it makes it a lot more forgivable in that context.

I was already getting apprehensive with The Big One, where I started to notice how generously Moore was allowing his own cutaway shots, showing him looking concerned and indignant in the kind of performative emoting that the slicker politicians have perfected. It became clear then that this was really about him, which is precisely why I can't stand this brand of personality-based documentary.

Even someone like Jeremy Scahill, whom I admire enormously for his journalism, fell prey to resorting to these cutaway cliches of histrionic concern during his Dirty Wars doc. It's just become an aspect of the genre that's expected now.

Apex Predator · Post by **Apex Predator** » Tue Apr 10, 2018 5:07 pm

On Moore:

I think he's good at rabble-rousing. He can craft a good narrative.

But his films are not documentaries. They probably has as many holes as conservative ones and are bad at manipulation.

One thing that stuck with me was during Bowling. Remember the scene where he gets a bank account and walks away with a gun? Well, in real life, it was supposed to be a certificate. But I have to assume that Moore didn't find it dramatic enough so he talked the bank into giving him a real gun.

BL · Post by BL » Tue Apr 10, 2018 5:41 pm

This is always the moment I go back to for evidence of how despicably manipulative Moore is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0ELuyJ12D4#t=6m26s

Setting aside the fact that Moore is pestering an Alzheimer's patient to score cheap virtue points, just look at how the scene is staged. It's a shot of Heston over Moore's shoulder and a reverse shot on Moore holding up the dead kid's photo. Except notice in the over-the-shoulder shot that there's no camera visible to be capturing that reverse shot. So the scene had to have been done in two takes. And notice that the audio syncs to Moore's lips in the reverse shot, which means it didn't come from the over-the-shoulder take. And this raises some big questions about what Heston was actually seeing and hearing when he walked away, since we know Moore isn't above staging scenes. But he usually requires you to do at least do some light Googling to catch his bullshit. Here, the bullshit is just transparent in his shoddy filmmaking.

Oxnard Montalvo · Post by **Oxnard Montalvo** » Tue Apr 17, 2018 12:22 am

new releases for July

July 03 - Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood*
July 10 - Bull Durham by Ron Shelton, Dragon Inn by King Hu
July 17 - sex, lies, and videotape by Steven Soderbergh
July 24 - A Matter of Life and Death by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger

*includes Morocco, Dishonored, Shanghai Express, Blonde Venus, The Scarlet Empress, and The Devil is a Woman all by Josef von Sternberg

topherH · Post by **topherH** » Mon Apr 23, 2018 11:22 pm

Oxnard Montalvo wrote:new releases for July

July 03 - Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood*
July 10 - Bull Durham by Ron Shelton, Dragon Inn by King Hu
July 17 - sex, lies, and videotape by Steven Soderbergh
July 24 - A Matter of Life and Death by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger

*includes Morocco, Dishonored, Shanghai Express, Blonde Venus, The Scarlet Empress, and The Devil is a Woman all by Josef von Sternberg

That is a pretty solid month especially the Sternberg who I tried to find sometime last year but didn't have much available.

MadMan · Post by **MadMan** » Wed Apr 25, 2018 6:45 am

Oxnard Montalvo wrote:new releases for July

July 03 - Dietrich & von Sternberg in Hollywood*
July 10 - Bull Durham by Ron Shelton, Dragon Inn by King Hu
July 17 - sex, lies, and videotape by Steven Soderbergh
July 24 - A Matter of Life and Death by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger

*includes Morocco, Dishonored, Shanghai Express, Blonde Venus, The Scarlet Empress, and The Devil is a Woman all by Josef von Sternberg

Wow. Sweet list.

John Dumbear · Post by **John Dumbear** » Wed Apr 25, 2018 12:30 pm

Jinnistan wrote: Roger & Me wasn't bad, but his later films establish the kind of personality-centered documentary that is completely ethically at odds with the work of the Wiseman/Pennabaker/Blank/Kopple school, and led (inadvertedly or not) to a more propagandistic standard for the genre today. Even politics that I agree with can be turned into propaganda or scenes made up of manufactured stunts.

The nadir of Moore's style might have been in Farenheit 9/11, where he nearly knocks over a woman trying to get his camera in her sobbing face as she grieves her lost loved one. Moore also makes sure to get a second camera capturing his eager glee to concernedly rush to capture (exploit) this grief. He's like Maury Povich for the big screen.

Moore is the stench off a steaming pile of shit on a humid day.