Suggestions and General Discussion

A film viewing and discussion club for Criterion Collection releases.
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Moe Dickstein
Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2012 11:19 pm

Re: Film Club Suggestions and General Discussion

#76 Post by Moe Dickstein » Fri Aug 09, 2013 5:39 pm

Thanks Matt. I have a list of all the OOPs from when I was working on that part of my collection, so I'm planning to just punch things into Amazon in turn to make sure they are available to be had for in print or reasonable prices, won't take long to do while I'm watching something that requires less than rapt attention.

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Moe Dickstein
Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2012 11:19 pm

Re: Vote For Your First Film Club Entry!

#77 Post by Moe Dickstein » Fri Aug 09, 2013 5:45 pm

I voted for Pygmalion though I'd be good with any of the choices except the Eclipse as I don't have any of those.

The reason I leaned that way was because of the lack of extras on the disc leave us perhaps more free to come up with our own thoughts on the film rather than starting from the point of someone else's analysis, and also the interest I have in remakes and adaptation which would apply to this title (though it would to Stagecoach as well)

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domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Film Club Suggestions and General Discussion

#78 Post by domino harvey » Fri Aug 09, 2013 5:56 pm

jindianajonz wrote:
Mr Sausage wrote:Next round swo17 will be picking the five as a guest curator thing as a token of my appreciation for his help. I'm sure at some point I'll let other members pick the five as well.
Please pick One:
( ) Bottle Rocket
( ) Rushmore
( ) Royal Tenenbaums
( ) Life Aquatic
( ) Darjeeling Limited?
Have you seen his yearly Top 10 lists? His tastes are more art house than most here even

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matrixschmatrix
Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 11:26 pm

Re: Vote For Your First Film Club Entry!

#79 Post by matrixschmatrix » Fri Aug 09, 2013 6:37 pm

Voted for Le deuxième souffle, then went and actually bought it- though I'd be pleased with pretty much anything on there except Stagecoach and the Akerman. Pygmalion seems like it's pretty well trod ground, critically, but it still might be interesting- but The Honeymoon Killers would be my second choice, if only for the Scorsese connection.

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Mr Sausage
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:02 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Vote For Your First Film Club Entry!

#80 Post by Mr Sausage » Fri Aug 09, 2013 7:18 pm

matrixschmatrix wrote:Voted for Le deuxième souffle, then went and actually bought it- though I'd be pleased with pretty much anything on there except Stagecoach and the Akerman. Pygmalion seems like it's pretty well trod ground, critically, but it still might be interesting- but The Honeymoon Killers would be my second choice, if only for the Scorsese connection.
Didn't you and I have a long discussion on Pygmalion in the 30's List thread a while ago?

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matrixschmatrix
Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 11:26 pm

Re: Vote For Your First Film Club Entry!

#81 Post by matrixschmatrix » Fri Aug 09, 2013 8:25 pm

Mr Sausage wrote:Didn't you and I have a long discussion on Pygmalion in the 30's List thread a while ago?
Ha, I'd completely forgotten that. It's funny, it's a movie that's actually aged really well in my mind, such that looking back at my posts I was surprised that I had panned it- though I'm not certain if watching again would put me back in the headspace into which it put me on my first viewing. It's funny how little the nature of my reactions and reactions to them have changed in the last couple of years, though.

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swo17
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Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
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Re: Film Club Suggestions and General Discussion

#82 Post by swo17 » Fri Aug 09, 2013 9:44 pm

I should think my choices would be pretty obvious by this point...

Please pick One:
( ) Maidstone
( ) Other Films by Norman Mailer
( ) All of the above

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mfunk9786
Under Chris' Protection
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 4:43 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA

Re: Vote For Your First Film Club Entry!

#83 Post by mfunk9786 » Fri Aug 09, 2013 10:33 pm

domino harvey wrote:La Chambre is all of eleven minutes long, not sure what lengths of discussion is possible there?
I sort of like that bit of randomness, I'm sure we could all have fun discussing an 11 minute film.

Anyway, I voted for the same film as you and zedz: Martyrs

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mfunk9786
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Re: Film Club Suggestions and General Discussion

#84 Post by mfunk9786 » Fri Aug 09, 2013 10:37 pm

I sort of like the way this is panning out. Randomly generating 5 titles out of such a broad list of options is exciting, and I think we're all voting in the right spirit of this thing, judging by the dearth of votes for what Stagecoach, which I can only assume is a pretty popular title that a lot of us already love.

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swo17
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Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
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Re: Vote For Your First Film Club Entry!

#85 Post by swo17 » Fri Aug 09, 2013 10:52 pm

Note that La Chambre has its own page on Criterion's website, which is why it was included in the mix. Other shorts like the Leningrad Cowboy music videos and Vigo's Taris do not and weren't.

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AlexHansen
Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2008 10:39 pm
Location: Idaho

Re: Vote For Your First Film Club Entry!

#86 Post by AlexHansen » Fri Aug 09, 2013 11:23 pm

mfunk9786 wrote:
domino harvey wrote:La Chambre is all of eleven minutes long, not sure what lengths of discussion is possible there?
I sort of like that bit of randomness, I'm sure we could all have fun discussing an 11 minute film.
As someone who has written 1,000 words on a 13 minute film (and could probably muster more), I think at least some discussion can be wrung out of just about any film.

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zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: Vote For Your First Film Club Entry!

#87 Post by zedz » Sat Aug 10, 2013 2:33 am

Emak-Bakia wrote: Am I missing some other outlet of discussion?
Westerns list.

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Moe Dickstein
Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2012 11:19 pm

Re: Film Club Suggestions and General Discussion

#88 Post by Moe Dickstein » Sat Aug 10, 2013 3:36 pm

Here is the situation with OOP Criterions. The ones available on Amazon are a grey area case, they are either there to rent or buy, some even free to Prime members, but some may object to having to stream, so those might get left out as well.

Available in New Edition
1 - Grand Illusion
8 - The Killer
9 - Hard Boiled
12 - This Is Spinal Tap
13 - The Silence of the Lambs
20 - Sid and Nancy
21 - Dead Ringers
23 - Robocop
26 - The Long Good Friday
27 - Flesh For Frankenstein
37 - Time Bandits
55 - The Unbearable Lightness of Being
64 - The Third Man
81 - Variety Lights
83 - The Harder They Come
107 - Mona Lisa
119 - Withnail and I
120 - How to Get Ahead in Advertising
135 - Rebecca
136 - Spellbound
137 - Notorious
143 - That Obscure Object of Desire
171 - Contempt
182 - Straw Dogs
316 - Ran

Available on Amazon to stream/download
25 - Alphaville
49 - Nights of Cabiria
102 - The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
117 - Diary of a Chambermaid
150 - Bob le Flambeur
218 - Le Cercle Rouge
238 - A Woman is a Woman
304 - The Man Who Fell To Earth
357 - The Fallen Idol
385 - Army of Shadows
421 - Pierrot Le Fou
424 - Mafioso

Unavailable in New Edition
28 - Blood For Dracula
58 - Peeping Tom
67 - The Blood of a Poet
69 - Testament of Orpheus
78 - The Bank Dick
79 - W.C. Fields 6 Short Films
106 - Coup de Torchon
110 - Monseiur Hulot's Holiday
111 - Mon Oncle
112 - Playtime
121 - Billy Liar
129 - Le Trou
155 - Tokyo Olympiad
189 - The White Sheik
193 - Quai des Orfevres
204 - The Marriage of Maria Braun
205 - Veronika Voss
206 - Lola
222 - Diary of a Country Priest
227 - Le Corbeau
245 - Port of Shadows
271 - Touchez pas au grisbi
290 - The Phantom of Liberty
317 - The Tales of Hoffman
318 - Forbidden Games
325 - Kind Hearts and Coronets
402 - The Milky Way
439 - Trafic
441 - The Small Back Room
447 - Le Doulos (still low price)
453 - Chungking Express
478 - Last Year at Marienbad
572 - Leon Morin, Priest (still low price)

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matrixschmatrix
Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 11:26 pm

Re: Film Club Suggestions and General Discussion

#89 Post by matrixschmatrix » Sat Aug 10, 2013 3:41 pm

The Bank Dick is in print in this box set.

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Gregory
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 pm

Re: Film Club Suggestions and General Discussion

#90 Post by Gregory » Sat Aug 10, 2013 3:52 pm

Moe Dickstein wrote:Unavailable in New Edition
What about all the non-North American releases of many of the films you list there? Those films should still be up for discussion. Aside from the matter of those who aren't region-free for blu-rays, many of those are nonetheless easy to get hold of on DVD or in other forms.

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Moe Dickstein
Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2012 11:19 pm

Re: Film Club Suggestions and General Discussion

#91 Post by Moe Dickstein » Sat Aug 10, 2013 4:04 pm

I went solely by North American release as CC is a North American company for release.

I also excluded anything like The Bank Dick where you had to buy a big set to get the one film, because I thought the purpose was that people could get the movie itself cheaply and easily without dealing with Multi-Region issues or large expenses.

If people want to spend whatever to watch a title then why are we excluding ANY OOPs?

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jindianajonz
Jindiana Jonz Abrams
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 8:11 pm

Re: Film Club Suggestions and General Discussion

#92 Post by jindianajonz » Sat Aug 10, 2013 4:51 pm

I still think as long as its open to a vote, we should be ok- if there's a significant portion of people who can't get it, then it won't get voted on. I would also guess that a good number of people would have some of the bigger films on that list (The Tatis, the Fassbinders) despite their OOP status, so it seems unfair to exclude them. The only problem would be the unlikely event the voting list is stacked with OOP titles.

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Gregory
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 pm

Re: Film Club Suggestions and General Discussion

#93 Post by Gregory » Sat Aug 10, 2013 4:53 pm

Moe, I don't think matrix or I were suggesting that cost should be no object.
Still, that R1 W.C. Fields set is available for not that much more than the Criterion Bank Dick originally cost, but even better, it's also in a UK set that's a much better bargain—10 discs for £20—which people voting for the Bank Dick could easily seek out of they don't already own the film.
I would think anything available for, say, less than about $30 to $35 should not be excluded. For DVDs at the very least, multi-region issues should hardly be an issue. While there are some on the forum who are R1 locked for DVD, we may end up discussing some films that exclude members who are Region B locked, so I don't know that it's fair to make Region 1/A availability the be-all and end-all.

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Moe Dickstein
Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2012 11:19 pm

Re: Film Club Suggestions and General Discussion

#94 Post by Moe Dickstein » Sat Aug 10, 2013 5:21 pm

Well personally I don't care since I own every OOP, I just made the list to try to help out.

Mr. Sausage will make the final call as to what's "legal" and not for the purposes of this club, but while I know we have an international audience, I do feel that if we're doing a "Criterion" film club then NA availability should be a legitimate metric, just as UK availability would be the preferred metric for an MoC discussion club, and the onus would be on me as an overseas person to have something that plays region 2/B discs.

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Emak-Bakia
Joined: Tue Apr 26, 2011 11:48 am

Re: Vote For Your First Film Club Entry!

#95 Post by Emak-Bakia » Sat Aug 10, 2013 5:36 pm

Thanks for pointing that out, zedz. There is obviously much more to discuss about the film, but it's understandable that people don't want to select a film that has already been written about so extensively. I was initially thinking we should go for something that's sure to create a lot of discussion, since I know this whole film club idea was unsuccessful last time, though it looks like people are really enthusiastic about it this time around. I'm going to admit defeat and change my vote to Le deuxième souffle. I've been meaning for some time to watch more Melville, so this should be a good opportunity to get started.

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swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
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Re: Film Club Suggestions and General Discussion

#96 Post by swo17 » Sat Aug 10, 2013 5:59 pm

Another thing to consider: Many films that are technically OOP in R1 may still be readily available at Netflix or perhaps your local library.

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Moe Dickstein
Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2012 11:19 pm

Re: Film Club Suggestions and General Discussion

#97 Post by Moe Dickstein » Sat Aug 10, 2013 6:29 pm

I'm all for ALL out of prints being eligible for discussion

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zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: Film Club Suggestions and General Discussion

#98 Post by zedz » Sun Aug 11, 2013 3:42 pm

If we're going to be voting for each film, I don't see any problem with OOP titles being included in the shortlist. Who knows, maybe the film that's technically unavailable is the one everybody wants to talk about?

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Mr Sausage
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:02 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Film Club Suggestions and General Discussion

#99 Post by Mr Sausage » Sun Aug 11, 2013 3:51 pm

zedz wrote:If we're going to be voting for each film, I don't see any problem with OOP titles being included in the shortlist. Who knows, maybe the film that's technically unavailable is the one everybody wants to talk about?
The majority perhaps, but far from everybody. My concern would be excluding people from the conversation. I would much rather exclude OOPs than members. It's not as tho' we're otherwise lacking in good in-print Criterions to talk about.

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Black Hat
Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2011 5:34 pm
Location: NYC

Re: Film Club Suggestions and General Discussion

#100 Post by Black Hat » Sun Aug 11, 2013 4:05 pm

I get that this only applies to US dwellers but considering many of us do live here, Criterion an American company and the goal I would imagine being getting as many people as possible to participate, selecting films available on Hulu would be of huge help. Le Deuxième Souffle is not.

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