The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

[yoloswegmaster]

Additions to the Channel in November. I wish there was a larger noir series but the ones that are being added do look good. I'm also excited to see Jafar Panahi's Offside being added, alongside Volver and Nine Queens.

[fdm]

Nice to see some more jazz documentaries. I was just thinking yesterday it was time to give Fire Music another watch, although better yet I'd really prefer to have it available as a blu-ray.…

[criterionsnob]

Demy's The Pied Piper opens with Criterion and Janus logos on the Channel.

[yoloswegmaster]

Coming to the Channel in December

[Boosmahn]

Wasn't expecting The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales to stream on the Channel. I wonder if more GKIDS titles are on the horizon.

Do we know if the current versions of the Three Colors films will be replaced with the restorations once the 4K set is out?

[therewillbeblus]

Does Hail the Conquering Hero! open with Criterion/Janus logos?

[dwk]

No. It opens with Universal's logo.

[therewillbeblus]

Shucks

[dwk]

January's slate includes 2 by Johnnie To (Election and Election 2), 8 Mike Leigh BBC teleplays, 5 films by Fernando Di Leo, 3 by Skolimowski (The Shout, Deep End, and Moonlighting) and a 20-film cinema verité series.

[criterionsnob]

Not to mention, finally all of those Kiarostami childhood films, and the new Keane restoration.

[dwk]

I wasnt sure which of the Kiarostami films were new additions to the channel.

[ntnon]

Additions to the Channel in November. I wish there was a larger noir series but the ones that are being added do look good. I'm also excited to see Jafar Panahi's Offside being added, alongside Volver and Nine Queens.

Just watched Offside, and found it utterly riveting.

[Matt]

It won’t appeal to everyone, but I want to give my highest recommendation to Leigh Ledare’s THE TASK currently playing on the channel.

I had a whole appreciation typed up here and the app crashed, so I will just say if you’re interested in what it might look like if Lars von Trier filmed a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion discussion, this film is for you. It’s great. Read a little more about it here or just jump right into the chaos!

[Red Screamer]

Seconded! It was one of my orphans during the 2010s list. It’s a real feat of editing how Ledare crafts a study of group behavior and layman’s ideological discourse that’s as funny as it is incredibly frustrating. It’s a film I think about often, though I wish I wasn’t regularly in situations that bring it to mind!

[fiendishthingy]

I saw a comment on Instagram suggesting that the films in the Sony Pictures Classics collection had disappeared from the Channel, and that appears to be the case -- including Offside, which is still mentioned on the banners for two other collections (Three by Jafar Panahi and The Beautiful Game). I'm glad that I got around to watching that one last week, because I really enjoyed it.

[dwk]

That sucks as I wanted to watch Offside and a couple other titles in that collection, but, as usual, I have spent the first part of the month watching titles from the expiring list. It would have been nice if they could have added a note to the SPC collection indicating that they were expiring in the middle of the month.

[Matt]

The SPC showcase started on November 15, so it seems like the standard 3-month window for licensed films on the Channel, but yeah some advance warning would have been nice.

[fiendishthingy]

Here's the February 2023 programming.

[ryannichols7]

my girlfriend and her sister are having me watch Shaolin Soccer before its taken off the channel, and I want to note that not only did it still open with al the Miramax fanfare, it clearly has several English inserts instead of Chinese text in random parts of the movie. genuinely shocked it wasn't dubbed in English too

[Matt]

It won’t be available for another couple of weeks, but if anyone is looking for a good place to start with the James Baldwin films, I recommend Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris (Terence Dixon, 1970). It’s just 28 minutes, gorgeously shot in Paris on color 16mm, and it’s a great snapshot of Baldwin’s deep, righteous anger at America’s intractable racism. I strongly prefer it to the marquee title in this series, I Am Not Your Negro (which is still very much worth watching, despite its flaws).

[Black Hat]

Completely agree. Baldwin is in top form dismantling his interviewer, and by extension, white liberals. Sad how much of what Baldwin says still applies today. Perhaps more so.

[ford]

Completely agree. Baldwin is in top form dismantling his interviewer, and by extension, white liberals.

Ironically, his primary audience was white liberals.

[knives]

Do you have any data to support that?

[MitchPerrywinkle]

Dixon charges Baldwin with that very sentiment ford is expressing, and he dismisses that with a graceful answer which I happen to believe whole-heartedly. Just because white liberals read his books didn't mean he wrote for them, and he certainly wasn't under the assumption that they'd get the full scope of what he was attempting to communicate with his writing.

[Black Hat]

Do you have any data to support that?

Sadly, I think ford is correct. Especially now.

Dixon charges Baldwin with that very sentiment ford is expressing, and he dismisses that with a graceful answer which I happen to believe whole-heartedly. Just because white liberals read his books didn't mean he wrote for them, and he certainly wasn't under the assumption that they'd get the full scope of what he was attempting to communicate with his writing.

What's always been crazy to me is, much like Dr. King, few, if any, of the critiques sink in.