The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

News on Criterion and Janus Films.
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aox
Joined: Fri Jun 20, 2008 12:02 pm
Location: nYc

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#451 Post by aox » Tue Dec 01, 2020 5:25 pm

I watched for the first time Bad Day at Black Rock today thanks to the channel. I don't know how that has slipped through the cracks all of these years, but that was one of the best movies I had seen in a while. I love the outsider in a rural small town setting (e.g. In the Heat of the Night; Yojimbo; Dogville; Harlan County, USA) and this utilized it really well. Open to any recommendations that follows a similar motif.

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hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
Location: NYC

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#452 Post by hearthesilence » Tue Dec 01, 2020 8:02 pm

aox wrote:
Tue Dec 01, 2020 5:25 pm
I watched for the first time Bad Day at Black Rock today thanks to the channel. I don't know how that has slipped through the cracks all of these years, but that was one of the best movies I had seen in a while. I love the outsider in a rural small town setting (e.g. In the Heat of the Night; Yojimbo; Dogville; Harlan County, USA) and this utilized it really well. Open to any recommendations that follows a similar motif.
I ordered this last week as part of Warner Archives "4 for $44 (or more for $11 each)" sale. I'm not a John Sturges fan and stayed away for a while, but I finally saw it during the pandemic and surprisingly enjoyed it. It can be too on the nose and clunky, and there are probably other faults that stuck out, but the strengths were more than enough to carry me along. In terms of the script and filmmaking, it felt a lot tighter and more potent than anything else I've seen from him.

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ando
Bringing Out El Duende
Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2004 6:53 pm
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Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#453 Post by ando » Wed Dec 09, 2020 1:05 am

Image

"...I'm not ready for this" encapsulates what I felt when I bought and initially starting watching Kon Ichikawa's An Actor's Revenge (1963) a few years back. Now that it's the forum's film club pick and currently streaming on the channel I've got no excuse not to watch it. Neither should you. :wink:

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schellenbergk
Joined: Fri Dec 21, 2018 12:03 pm

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#454 Post by schellenbergk » Wed Dec 09, 2020 4:05 pm

The “W.C. Fields Shorts” collection is up!

I dipped into “The Pharmacist” and the picture looks great. Has it been restored? But the sound was absolutely terrible. I couldn’t bear it, shut it off.

Anybody know why “The Dentist” was excluded? It seems an odd omission. Fields only made six short films, so why show five of them and leave out the best one?

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#455 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Dec 16, 2020 3:48 pm

criterionsnob wrote:
Tue Dec 01, 2020 2:04 pm
'My Sex Life . . . or How I Got into an Argument' opens with the CC logo and looks to be a beautiful HD scan!
Can anybody confirm the runtime of this new scan on the Channel? 178 mins is listed across the internet, but the only copies I've seen have been 172. I'm curious if those are missing footage or a misprint.

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modernmalaise
Joined: Thu May 18, 2017 10:12 pm

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#456 Post by modernmalaise » Wed Dec 16, 2020 3:53 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Wed Dec 16, 2020 3:48 pm
criterionsnob wrote:
Tue Dec 01, 2020 2:04 pm
'My Sex Life . . . or How I Got into an Argument' opens with the CC logo and looks to be a beautiful HD scan!
Can anybody confirm the runtime of this new scan on the Channel? 178 mins is listed across the internet, but the only copies I've seen have been 172. I'm curious if those are missing footage or a misprint.
It ran at 180 minutes. Included restoration notes at the end, all I could remember from that is it stating it's the 2014 Eclair restoration

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#457 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Dec 16, 2020 3:57 pm

Thanks! I haven't watched the R1 DVD in almost a year from a lib rental, so it's possible that it's actually 178 mins and the digital file I have is just shorter..

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The Fanciful Norwegian
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:24 pm
Location: Teegeeack

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#458 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Wed Dec 16, 2020 4:53 pm

It's most likely just 4% speedup. Even the HD copy that circulates on backchannels runs at 25fps, the master probably being made with European TV in mind. I don't know about the Fox Lorber disc but given their history I wouldn't be surprised if it was a PAL-to-NTSC job.

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#459 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Dec 16, 2020 6:02 pm

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:
Wed Dec 16, 2020 4:53 pm
It's most likely just 4% speedup. Even the HD copy that circulates on backchannels runs at 25fps, the master probably being made with European TV in mind. I don't know about the Fox Lorber disc but given their history I wouldn't be surprised if it was a PAL-to-NTSC job.
That's helpful, thanks- even if it does kill my dream of extra footage swimming around. I could watch a six-hour version of that movie.

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yoloswegmaster
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2016 3:57 pm

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#460 Post by yoloswegmaster » Mon Dec 21, 2020 10:03 pm

List of films coming to the Channel in January 2021

Excited to see the trio of Raj Kapoor films!

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Roscoe
Joined: Fri Nov 14, 2014 3:40 pm
Location: NYC

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#461 Post by Roscoe » Mon Dec 21, 2020 11:05 pm

I'm intrigued by the listing for 4 restored jewels of the 1920s, including HE WHO GETS SLAPPED, which is in dire need of a clean up and a new score, and I hope that's what we'll be getting in January.

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HinkyDinkyTruesmith
Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2017 10:21 pm

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#462 Post by HinkyDinkyTruesmith » Tue Dec 22, 2020 12:08 am

Aside from HE WHO GETS SLAPPED (one of my favorite silents), the John Stahl collection is exciting. Although two of the films are only so-so and have blu-ray releases, the other two, BACK STREET and especially WHERE TOMORROW COMES, are both masterpieces and have never received proper releases.

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ando
Bringing Out El Duende
Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2004 6:53 pm
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Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#463 Post by ando » Tue Dec 22, 2020 1:20 am

Well, I'm gonna have fun with Afrofuturism.

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jwd5275
Joined: Tue Jun 08, 2010 12:26 pm
Location: SF, CA

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#464 Post by jwd5275 » Tue Dec 29, 2020 6:16 pm

Roscoe wrote:
Mon Dec 21, 2020 11:05 pm
I'm intrigued by the listing for 4 restored jewels of the 1920s, including HE WHO GETS SLAPPED, which is in dire need of a clean up and a new score, and I hope that's what we'll be getting in January.
Hope springs eternal that we could get a Sjostrom in Hollywood set...

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Jean-Luc Garbo
Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2004 1:55 am
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Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#465 Post by Jean-Luc Garbo » Thu Dec 31, 2020 7:05 pm

I was really impressed by how Elephant Man looked on the channel. Is that how the Criterion blu looks or was this a streaming version from Studiocanal?

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Roger Ryan
Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2010 12:04 pm
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Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#466 Post by Roger Ryan » Tue Jan 05, 2021 6:16 pm

Jean-Luc Garbo wrote:
Thu Dec 31, 2020 7:05 pm
I was really impressed by how Elephant Man looked on the channel. Is that how the Criterion blu looks or was this a streaming version from Studiocanal?
The Blu-ray transfer looks as good to me as the streaming version, if not a little better due to streaming compression (I know, Criterion discs themselves suffer from compression issues, but this title holds up better than some).

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ando
Bringing Out El Duende
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Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#467 Post by ando » Mon Jan 18, 2021 1:49 am

Japanese Noir looks great but I've been into the Jane Fonda retrospective, supplementing it with films not included like Coming Home and Agnes of God. Like her or not most films she appeared in are worth seeing at least once.

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Michael Kerpan
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Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#468 Post by Michael Kerpan » Mon Jan 18, 2021 12:41 pm

I strongly recommend that people check out Nomura's Stake Out -- possibly his best film (along with Zero Focus). Too bad they didn't include Yoji Yamada's Flag (Banner?) in the Fog (Mist) (Kiri no hate) -- based on another novel by Seiicho Matsumoto (whose stories were the source for many of Nomura's best films).


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Shrew
The Untamed One
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 2:22 am

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#470 Post by Shrew » Thu Feb 25, 2021 9:10 pm

March Criterion Channel Titles
Some interesting stuff, but most notable to me: Ann Hui's Boat People!

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willoneill
Joined: Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:10 am
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#471 Post by willoneill » Thu Feb 25, 2021 9:27 pm

My favorite part of the Criterion Channel is all of the great Canadian content that's never accessible to Canadians.

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#472 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Feb 25, 2021 9:49 pm

The Black Westerns program sounds interesting. Someone in mid-March should report back here if Hail the Conquering Hero opens with a Criterion logo

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chatterjees
Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2013 6:08 pm
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
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Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#473 Post by chatterjees » Fri Feb 26, 2021 1:52 am

5 films by Bimal Roy - Do bigha zamin (1953), Devdas (1955), Madhumati (1958), Sujata (1960), and Bandini (1963) - what are the chances of these getting physical media releases? has a surprising inclusion of a film on their channel ever got translated into a physical media release before? Do we have any example? A box set may be asking too much but I would kill for a Do bigha zamin blu-ray.

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Blutarsky
Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2017 10:09 pm

Re: The Criterion Channel -- Film and Content Discussion

#474 Post by Blutarsky » Fri Feb 26, 2021 3:02 am

I am most excited for A New Leaf. I am hoping since May did supervise Mikey and Nicky two years ago her preferred version will see the light of day on Criterion.


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