Criterion Collection

W.R. Mysteries of the Organism includes a new essay by our man Jonathan Rosenbaum.

I notice Criterion has also put out Fires on the Plain, one of my favorite films.

They just keep outdoing themselves. I LOVE THAT COMPANY

Originally posted by Johann
WR- Mysteries of the Organism includes a new essay by our man Jonathan Rosenbaum.

Excerp from Rosenbaum's artcle on W. R:

"It's surprising how much radical cinema in the late 60s and early 70s was concentrated in East European communist countries. The English, French and American cinemas may have prided themselves on their countercultural fervor, but the Czech Daisies went further in matters of gender and nonnarrative experiment, while the Hungarian Red Psalm was singular in marrying radical form with radical politics. No less revolutionary was WR-Mysteries of the Organism, made by Serbian filmmaker Dusan Makavejev.

What captured Makavejev's attention was not so much the politics of sexuality as the sexuality of politics_the marriage of Marx and Freud represented by Wilhelm Reich, the Austrian psychoanalyst who proposed the importance of regular orgasms for mental health and ended up as a martyr of both sides of the Cold War."

Time to celebrate, oscar:

Cria Cuervos is now a Criterion Collection release.

And so is Mamet's House of Games, one Stanley Kubrick's favorite pictures.

Hooray!
Thanks for the wonderful news Johann.
I simply can't wait.
These are the extras:

New, restored high-definition digital transfer

Portrait of Carlos Saura, a documentary on the life and career of the Spanish auteur

New interviews with actresses Geraldine Chaplin and Ana Torrent

Original theatrical trailer

New and improved English subtitle translation

PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film scholar Paul Julian Smith

I'm actually glad there's no commentary. It's grand fun to constantly have to figure out in which of three distinct temporal states each scene is taking place, and whether Geraldine Chaplin is playing the adult Ana, Ana's dead mother seen in flashback, or Ana's dead mother as she appears in Ana's dreams. Perhaps the essay will help with the allegorical and symbolic readings of the film that you mentioned on another thread ( meanings that require a bit of knowledge of Spanish politics). Then again, a strictly psychological approach to the story is enough to sustain interest over several viewings. Yes, Cria is that rich.

The Criterion SANSHO THE BAILIFF is simply amazing. It's been in my top 10 all-time along with Mizoguchi's Ugetsu since I watched them 25 years ago.
Dave Kehr said it best in one sentence: "This is one of the greats, and I'm too much in awe of it to say much more than: See it--as often as you can."

Dvdbeaver on the Criterion release:

"The Criterion image exceeds expectations. It is again pictureboxed but many of us incorrectly assumed that because Ugetsu came out first that Sansho, frequently cited as a more lauded Mizoguchi favorite, had elements in worse condition. If they were of lesser quality you wouldn't know it by this Criterion DVD."

The commentary on this dvd doesn't cover Kenji Mizoguchi's career or spends a great deal of time on his filmmaking style (the commentary in Ugetsu's disc does that quite well and interviews with a film critic, Mizoguchi's Assistant Director, and actress Kyoko Kanaga deal with production aspects). The commentary here is provided by Jeffrey Angles, a Japanese-literature professor and it deals almost exclusively with how a medieval tale, part of an oral storytelling tradition, became a book by Ogai Mori in 1915. And then how the book was adapted to create a screenplay, and ultimately how the screenplay was altered in the process of shooting the film. An invaluable resource for anyone interested in Japanese culture and the adaptation of literature into film.

Jeffrey Angles is Assistant Professor of Japanese at Western Michigan University

The details of how Kurosawa's Rashomon is constructed out of two stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa are also very interesting and already well known. I don't know if they're on a DVD though.

It is on dvd, courtesy of Japanese cinema specialist Donald Richie.

Good!

Awesome oscar.
I wanna see Sansho on Criterion bad.
I'll be getting a bunch more Criterion's after the Toronto film fest.

Check your e-mail buddy!

Some heavy duty releases are coming soon:

-Berlin Alexanderplatz
a 7-disc set (941 minutes) The long-awaited release of a classic by Rainer Werner Fassbinder

-Sawdust and Tinsel
My favorite Ingmar Bergman film, it has close affinties with Fellini's La Strada

-Breathless
Godard's debut Masterpiece from 1959. Still exciting, still fresh, still groundbreaking


check out the website for more info:

www.criterionco.com

Yet more treasure coming soon.

Carlos Saura Flamenco trilogy: (Eclipse Series)
El Amor Brujo
Carmen
Blood Wedding

A "pre-war" Kurosawa box
and
An Agnes Varda 4 DVD set


Does it get any better than that?

Criterion has done an excellent job restoring Georg Wilhem Pabst's THE THREEPENNY OPERA (1931), which includes amazing commentaries by Brecht, Weill and Pabst experts. I consider the film a must-see, but not a masterpiece. It's not that the film is flawed but that its vision is somewhat compromised. Still a very smart and entertaining film that looks a lot better in this restored version than when I watched in the 80s.

CRIA still my favorite domestic dvd release of '07 even though Criterion could have easily put the extras on the same disc as the film and dropped the price by $10.

I still have not catched the Criterion editions of Makavejev's WR: MYSTERIES OF THE ORGANISM or Van Sant's MALA NOCHE.
Keeping me busy: the three amazing documentary series by BBC agent provocateur and former Oxford political science professor Adam Curtis (copied onto dvd-r off the BBC2 by a British political activist as the films are not on home video anywhere due to rights issues), and 38 Spanish dvds including Naruse, Mizoguchi, and de Oliveira collections.

A lot of people are about to fall in love with the 15-hour German series BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ, which I watched 25 years ago and only remember how great it was.

The Varda box will include two I haven't seen: LA POINTE COURTE and LE BONHEUR.

Dave Kehr describes new Criterion releases of Godard films on DVD (February 26, 2008).

Criterion's edition of High and Low has just been released, July 25, 2008.

Criterion are moving warehouses and they are offering
40% off EVERYTHING.

My spidey-senses tell me that I should take advantage...

Apologies for not posting this sooner (I've known about it for a while now), but STANLEY KUBRICK'S PATHS OF GLORY is now a Criterion release. I'll be buying it without question.

Ingmar Bergman's The Magician ( a Masterpiece in my humble) is also out now, along with Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited (one I haven't seen).

I'm happy that two old Sam Fuller Criterion titles are getting a new release: Shock Corridor and The Naked Kiss- both are mandatory films.

Criterion is always pushing forward, making many cinephiles VERY happy indeed...

THE MAGICIAN and PATHS OF GLORY are great choices for Criterion.

My choice is the magnificent box of "3 Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg", which proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Sternberg was Sternberg before Dietrich.The visual essay is the preferred format of film criticism in this digital times, as opposed to the audio commentary or the essay without screen captures. There are two truly insightful visual essays in this Criterion release, and a good interview with the director, but no audio commentaries.

Quote:

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The visual essay is the preferred format of film criticism in this digital times, as opposed to the audio commentary or the essay without screen captures.

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That is certainly true, though they can all still coexist. Now the professor of cinema must master the art of film clip manipulating as professors of art in the Fifties had to master the art of multiple slide projection.

Did you know that Ray Manzarek and Jim Morrison had von Sternberg as a teacher at UCLA?
True. He taught them to "watch the lighting in my films"
Ray says in his book "LIGHT MY FIRE: My Life with the Doors" that it was supposed to be Jean Renoir paying the campus a visit to teach, but they got Josef instead. Not bad for a teacher...

and Lars von Trier's AntiChrist is also a new Criterion.

Criterion just keep on forging ahead with glorious releases.

Aki Kaurismaki`s LENINGRAD COWBOYS films have received an Eclipse box set treatment. I saw all of those films at a Kaurismaki retrospective at the Pacific Cinematheque. I love the Leningrad Cowboys. Some people despise them. Some think it`s over-the-top trash.
I highly disagree.
The Total Balalaika Show concert with the Soviet Red Army choir is worth the price of the box alone.
Jim Jarmusch has a cameo in the "Cowboys Go America" film.

Jean Vigo also gets his due, with a COMPLETE box set. Hallelujah!

Polanski`s Cul de Sac and two Seijun Suzuki classics get re-released: Branded to Kill and Tokyo Drifter.

Check out the Criterion website. It has news of coming soons and new Blu-Ray releases, like Pasolini`s SALO, which arrives next week.

Criterion mentioned in an e-mail newsletter that I got today that Abel Gance's NAPOLEON may be released by them someday.
I also mentioned it in the Napoleon thread in the Classic Film forum.

Huge news to me.
Can't wait to see that DVD set on the shelf.

"Pearls from the Czech New Wave" is the newest Eclipse series from Criterion.
I know Oscar might want that box set...

Link, Johann, link.

http://www.criterion.com/boxsets/870...czech-new-wave

Since I don't seem to have seen anything, it might be of interest to me, if I had the time.

I'm lazy today. Links are for suckas. LOL

It's a beautiful box set. On sale too.

Those titles are essential. Thanks for the link.

I guess you had a change of heart about links. Links are my life. It wouldn't be the Internet without them. It would be a blank tube.

I watched a criteriorn film lately, Whit Stillman's Metropolitan

For 24 hours only, TONIGHT (and until noon tomorrow) all Criterion Blu-rays are 50% OFF.

Get 'em while they're cheap...

Martin Scorsese is a saviour for film afficianados.
Criterion are releasing his "World Cinema Project" box set soon ($99.99)
I think we'll all check it out, no?
These films are all considered gems by Marty, so they must be great.
I've seen not a one.

http://www.criterion.com/boxsets/102...cinema-project

For decades, fans of world cinema have been waiting for these films to be released, or to be released in versions that are in good shape and have decent English subtitles. I am lucky to have seen Redes, A River called Titas (has been available only in PAL DVD which I have), and The Housemaid. All three are remarkable, original, highly accomplished films. It is simply the most important video release of 2013, at least in Region 1, with the Rossellini/Bergman set coming in second, in my opinion.

Scorsese is the Ultimate Film Buff.
Seriously. He puts all of us to shame.
His passion for the medium is so total, so Absolute, it makes me emotional.

Hey Marty, Kurosawa may be your Sensei, but to film buffs, you are Ours. :)