2010 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

[Napoleon]

Top Five
1) Night of the Hunter
2) The BBS Story
3) Bigger than Life
4) Roberto Rossellini's War Trilogy
5) Stagecoach

Best Reissue: Walkabout

Best Commentary: Only commentary I've listed to this year was 30 minutes of Close-Up. That was pretty good so I'll go with that.

Best Supplement: Tag Gallagher's War Trilogy video essay

Best Cover Art: Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence

Best Packaging: The BBS Story

Best [Re]Discovery: Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence (it'd been 15 years since I was last watched this and was under-whelmed. Revisiting thought it was a masterpiece)

Rescue: Stagecoach

Most Disappointing Release: No Blu for von Sternberg. There might well be a good technical reason for this but I'm too lazy to find out.

Forum Member of the Year: Colin

Richard Cranium Award: Been a quiet year

[feckless boy]

Best Classic Films/Sets of Films to Enter the Collection
1. 3 Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg
2. Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties
3. Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy
4. Stagecoach BD
5. The Only Son/There Was a Father

Best Eclipse Release
Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties

Best Reissue
By Brakhage: An Anthology BD

Best Commentary
Usually I'm an avid supporter of commentaries: Bordwell's on An Autumn Afternoon and Quandt's on Pickpocket are among my favorites. But the ones I've sampled this year haven't been any where close to the likes of those. Sorry.

Best Single Supplement
Bordwell & Thompson video interviews [The Only Son/There Was a Father]

Best Cover
Make Way For Tomorrow

Best Packaging
Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy

Best (Re)Discovery
The Sternberg Silents

Most Disappointing Release
L'Enfance-nue, the definition of slapdash.

Forum Member of the Year
Tommaso

Best Non-Criterion Release
1. Profound Desires of the Gods BD [MoC]
2. Ernst Lubitsch in Berlin [MoC]
3. The Only Son BD [BFI]
4. Gushing Prayer [Raro]
5. The Ultimate Summer: Bruce Brown Surf Collection [Monterey]

Hopes for 2011
Same as last year:
Night and Fog in Japan on Blu-Ray with a commentary by Jim O'Rourke
Georg af Klercker Eclipse-set

[Michael]

Top Five

1. America Lost and Found: The BBS Story
2. Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg
3. Darjeeling Limited
4. Bigger Than Life
5. Vivre sa vie


Best Reissue

The Red Shoes

Best Commentary

Vivre sa vie

Best Packaging

America Lost and Found: The BBS Story

Best Cover

Darjeeling Limited

[aox]

Best Eclipse Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg

This isn't an Eclipse set.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

When's the deadline for this?

[Michael]

Best Eclipse Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg

This isn't an Eclipse set.

A bit woozy from cold meds. Corrected. Thanks!

[aox]

Top 5 New additions to CC
1. Make Way for Tomorrow
2. The War Trilogy
3. Bigger Than Life
4. Paths of Glory
5. Che

HM: Modern Times, OZU set and Close-Up

Eclipse: Oshima (but man, I am sure it really is the Allan King set; I just haven’t seen it.)

Reissue: Walkabout

Commentary: Stagecoach

Supplement: The Traveler on the Close-Up BD

Cover: The Magician

Packaging: Che

(Re)Discovery: Make Way for Tomorrow

NOTE: I have to say, that I am not a huge Chaplin fan or slapstick in general. Tati is really the only one that gets a pass for me; however, seeing Modern Times for the first time in 15 years in gorgeous HD is making me rethink Chaplin. What a fantastic film, and I am looking forward to more Chaplin releases by CC in the future.

Best Bluray upgrade to catalog title: 8 1/2

Rescue: Bigger Than Life

Disappointing Release: L'enfance nue

Forum Member of the Year: swo17

Richard Cranium Award: Myself, for not putting much effort into the articulation of film discussion. I simply don’t have the time. But I enjoy reading all of yours.

Best Non-Criterion Release:
1. Apocalypse Now
2. Dr. Zhivago
3. Metropolis
4. Battleship Potempkin
5. LOST: Complete

[Steven H]

Best Release (top 10):

1. Oshima's Outlaw Sixties
2. 3 Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg
3. The Darjeeling Limited
4. The Night of the Hunter
5. Crumb

6. Louie Bluie
7. Two Films by Yasujiro Ozu
8. Night Train to Munich
9. Chantal Akerman in the Seventies
10. Close Up

Best Eclipse: Oshima's Outlaw Sixties
Best Reissue: Black Narcissus
Best Commentary: Anderson, Schwartzman, Coppola on Darjeeling Limited
Best Supplement: Charles Laughton Directs Night of the Hunter
Best Cover: Modern Times
Best (Re)Discovery: Night Train to Munich
Member of the Year: Cold Bishop (for the great noir thread posts)
Richard Cranium Award: "Adam"

[ambrose]

Three Masters of Cinema Blu-Rays:
Profound Desire of the Gods
Make Way For Tomorrow
The Burmese Harp

Two Gaumont Blue-Rays:
French Can-Can
Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut

Three Carlotta Blue-Rays:
Seventh Heaven
Street Angel
Lucky Star

Two from the BFI:
The Only Son
Late Spring

This round up of my releases of the year might look rather simplified in its form by comparison with the array of headings and subheadings devised by the contributors above!. I am either not as thorough in my film appreciation as others might be or perhaps they might be over-elaborating,who knows?; Oh and as a matter of personal curiosity who precisely is Richard Cranium?

Edit: I have just realized that this entire thread is primarily concerned with Criterion releases with Non-Criterion releases relegated to the end of the lists!. As there is no equivalent thread devoted solely to Any of the major European labels this forum is in danger of appearing somewhat isolationist.

[Tribe]

I have just realized that this entire thread is primarily concerned with Criterion releases with Non-Criterion releases relegated to the end of the lists!. As there is no equivalent thread devoted solely to Any of the major European labels' this forum is in danger of appearing somewhat isolationist.

Thanks for the heads up. What would we do without you.

[swo17]

Guess we can no longer call ourselves criterionbutwithequalrecognitiontomajoreuropeanlabelsforum.org.

[aox]

I hate how this forum also pointedly doesn't follow the achievements and advancement of neuro-science. There's a lot of great stuff going on guys.

[mfunk9786]

Hey, just found someone more worthy of the Richard Cranium award!

[ambrose]

Hey, just found someone more worthy of the Richard Cranium award!

I was merely trying to hide my embarrassment over just listing non-Criterion films by making a rather spurious political point.

[mfunk9786]

You wanna just skip ahead and call Matt and I fags so we can all wrap up early today?

[Tribe]

You wanna just skip ahead and call Matt and I fags so we can all wrap up early today?

Oh man, this is too fucking funny!

[ambrose]

You wanna just skip ahead and call Matt and I fags so we can all wrap up early today?

I was trying to apologize to the members of this forum .! (And I would never resort to homophobic language.)

[Tribe]

You wanna just skip ahead and call Matt and I fags so we can all wrap up early today?

I was trying to apologize to the members of this forum .! (And I would never resort to homophobic language.)

Smileys, man. Use those damn smileys.

I wonder if we should have a ready-made homophobe one (not saying you are, ambrose)?

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Best Releases
Difficult choice as this was a year of many released favorites:
1. Bigger Than Life
2. Oshima Outlaw Sixties
3. Roberto Rossellini War Trilogy
4. By Brakhage V.1 & V.2
5. House

Best Eclipse
Oshima Outlaw Sixties

Best Reissue
The Red Shoes

Best Commentary
Gary Giddins on Paths of Glory

Best Supplement
Emotion on the House disc

Best Cover
Two Films by Yasujiro Ozu (Adrian Tomine got the mood down perfectly)

Best Packaging
House

Best (Re)Discovery
The Monkees' Head on the BBS Story. I would've never seen it and just thought it was an anamoly by Rafelson with Zappa but it ended up being much more.

Most Disappointing Release
Hunger as Criterion wasted their time with this film. Antichrist is a close second.

Hopes for 2011
- Less IFC titles (except for Koreeda)
- More classic genre films from Hollywood (it seems they're coming)
- More Oshima

[aox]

I must have missed a ton of homophobia this year, and I am very happy about that.

[matrixschmatrix]

You wanna just skip ahead and call Matt and I fags so we can all wrap up early today?

I was trying to apologize to the members of this forum .! (And I would never resort to homophobic language.)

Smileys, man. Use those damn smileys.

I wonder if we should have a ready-made homophobe one (not saying you are, ambrose)?

8===>

[ianungstad]

Best Releases
Hopes for 2011
- Less IFC titles (except for Koreeda)
- More classic genre films from Hollywood (it seems they're coming)
- More Oshima

Could you be more specific about why you wrote "Less IFC titles"? Considering the titles they've licensed have been quite diverse and have little in common with each other, the only common thread I see is that they are contemporary films, which makes your comment seem a little narrow minded.

[Tom Hagen]

I must have missed a ton of homophobia this year, and I am very happy about that.

I get that sense as well. I suppose a lot of nonsense was deleted outright before it even made it to infighting and navel gazing.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Best Releases
Hopes for 2011
- Less IFC titles (except for Koreeda)
- More classic genre films from Hollywood (it seems they're coming)
- More Oshima

Could you be more specific about why you wrote "Less IFC titles"? Considering the titles they've licensed have been quite diverse and have little in common with each other, the only common thread I see is that they are contemporary films, which makes your comment seem a little narrow minded.

How is it particularly narrow minded? They can release many titles of many different styles and filmmakers, that doesn't stop the majority of IFC releases to have been mostly disappointing in my eyes. You are drawing to a complete generalization that I dislike contemporary cinema being released from Criterion which isn't the case. Seems that in place of releasing something like Hunger, Summer Hours, A Christmas Tale, Gomorrah, Fish Tank or Antichrist, they can focus their time and energy onto other titles. I'm sure they make money and the special features and transfers require less effort and money than let's say the UCLA restoration of The Night of the Hunter and all the substantial features, but my personal preference says I don't care for these films. This isn't to say I don't care for all the films as I though Che and Still Walking were fantastic and Everlasting Moments wasn't without it's charm. Besides, this is the wrong thread for this. If you were interested in my opinion, you could have easily sent a private message.

[Zazou dans le Metro]

I must have missed a ton of homophobia this year, and I am very happy about that.

I think it was one of the supplements on the Rossellini set