Criterion 10th Anniversary DVD Voting Thread

News on Criterion and Janus Films.
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Scharphedin2
Joined: Fri May 19, 2006 7:37 am
Location: Denmark/Sweden

#51 Post by Scharphedin2 » Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:10 pm

Sorry, for missing the deadline on this, Gringo. If it is still relevant, and writing from a hotel room without access to my DVD collection, these would be my votes:

All-Time Favorite Criterion Release
1. Seven Samurai
2. Orphic Trilogy
3. The Leopard
4. By Brakhage
5. In the Mood for Love

Best Non-box Set Release
1. Seven Samurai
2. By Brakhage
3. The Leopard
4. In the Mood for Love
5. Port of Shadows
6. Ugetsu
7. Early Summer
8. Mr. Arkadin
9. The Burmese Harp
10. Contempt

Best Box Sets
1. Orphic Trilogy
2. Late Ozu
3. BRD Trilogy
4. Dreyer Box
5. Eisenstein: The Sound Years

Most Disappointing Package
1. Kwaidan
2. High and Low
3. La Jetee/Sans Soleil

Worst Film
Generally, I do not think Criterion releases “bad” films. Some may not be as prestigious as others, and some may not spark my interest, but in and of themselves, I am sure that all the films in the collection have merit. I have purchased a lot of Criterion’s discs (most of them), and I would like to think that the “worst film(s)” are amongst those few that I do not have on my shelf. And, since I do not own these, I cannot comment.

Best Commentary
I have not had the opportunity to listen to enough to make a qualified list. I used to listen to them more back in the days of laserdisc. Generally I like the ones that I have listened to – Peter Cowie on the Bergman and Renoir films; Basinger on It’s a Wonderful Life. And, I remember thinking that I learned a lot from Jeck’s commentary on Seven Samurai, when I listened to it back in 1989.

Best Single Supplement (not a commentary)
1. Blood of the Beasts (Eyes Without a Face)
2. Shindo’s doc on Mizoguchi on Ugetsu
3. Neapolitan Diary on Rosi’s Hands Across the City
4. The multi-media intro to Wong Kar Wai’s films on In the Mood for Love
5. The short Sternberg doc on Scarlet Empress

Best Package Design
1. Rohmer Box
2. Ugetsu
3. Teshigahara Box
4. BRD Trilogy
5. Mr. Arkadin

Best Cover Art
1. In the Mood for Love
2. Yi Yi
3. Sansho the Bailiff
4. Floating Weeds
5. Army of Shadows
6. 8½
7. Le Corbeau
8. Seven Samurai (2nd edition)
9. Port of Shadows
10. The Leopard

Bonus List -- Favorite 5 Criterion Laserdiscs:
As I was typing up this list, I realised that it has been almost exactly 20 years, since I purchased my first Criterion disc (Blade Runner on laserdisc). To me, Criterion has been for all these years the closest thing to a personal art house/film school (in the last few years, several other DVD publishers have joined Criterion, of course), and Criterion’s project has been an on-going project that simply crossed into a new format along the way. These five were some of the discs that I viewed most (if memory serves correctly)

1. Seven Samurai (CAV)
2. Magnificent Ambersons (CAV)
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (CAV)
4. The Films of Charles and Ray Eames Vol. 1 and 2
5. Jules and Jim

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HerrSchreck
Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2005 11:46 am

#52 Post by HerrSchreck » Wed Feb 06, 2008 9:13 pm

Seoncded on the mini von Sternberg doc by Brownlow on Empress.

In answer to Michael (since I'm on the subject) regarding why Empress-- since its such a major favorite film of mine-- is not on my list, there's a few reasons. If I went simply in terms of favorite films, the list would look very slightly different. Certainly Rublev would have been on the list if I just went in those terms. As would Kwaidan. Brute Force without a doubt.

Certain CC's have a certain "magic" about them. The overall thing captures something about the film itself, even when its just sitting there on your shelf. The package & presentation, and improvement on previously available transfers is just so fantastic the dvd package is worth a million bucks. Eyes Without A Face is a package like that. You almost feel like you've started watching the film just by holding the keep case in your hands... when the art, the transfer-- and photochemical state of the elements prior to the transfer-- digital cleanup, folks contracted to provide articles, extras selected.. when these all come together in a very rare expression of (in my own personal terms) Rarified Good Taste (the Franju is another excellent example.. there are some cineastes who fail to appreciate the very special delicacy and pedigree that this film constitutes,) then you've got a candidate for my list.

I can't say that I neccessarily like Quai de Brumes better than Empress, (and the Brumes package is pretty bleak in terms of extras, even for the lower tier), but this was the my introduction to Brumes, and I love the presentation nonetheless; I start smelling the smoke they used as a stand-in for fog just by looking at the box. I look at the Brumes case and it conjures up a whole phaze of time in my life where I just popped that fucker in relentless. So it means more to me as a CC release-- the service Janus provided me in producing the disc-- than Empress, which I saw in the cinema prior to seeing it home home video. This is the reason why a total barebones release like the sublime Cranes, or Sword of Doom, is more "meaningful" to me as a dvd than say 3Penny Op, or 7Samurai, and other masterpieces which Id been very familiar with before CC got them out.

I dont know how much sense that all made, but it just boils down to a certain magic the overall release has for me. And its really retarded that Spirit of the Beehive is not on my list.

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

#53 Post by colinr0380 » Thu Feb 07, 2008 7:29 pm

HerrSchreck wrote:This is the reason why a total barebones release like the sublime Cranes, or Sword of Doom, is more "meaningful" to me as a dvd than say 3Penny Op, or 7Samurai, and other masterpieces which Id been very familiar with before CC got them out.
I can understand that - I've kept my VHS recordings of Solaris and Contempt despite having the Criterions just for sentimental reasons! And while they are my favourites both as films and as DVDs I can understand if people made a decision to limit a list to just the films Criterion introduced to them (especially if they didn't watch extra features so there might not be as much of a difference in picking up the Criterion because of that!). If I were to do the same thing I would probably rate Good Morning, for all the problems pointed out on the forum, over Tokyo Story simply because Tokyo Story was the only Ozu film I was familiar with before picking up the Criterion disc of Good Morning (and then, after a long gap, others!)

kevyip1
Joined: Sat Nov 06, 2004 7:07 pm

#54 Post by kevyip1 » Mon Feb 18, 2008 5:29 pm

My votes:

All-Time Favorite Criterion Release (ranked 1-10)

1. Pandora's Box
2. The Rules of the Game
3. Brazil (3-disc set)
4. The Passion of Joan of Arc
5. Dreyer Box Set
6. Rebecca
7. The Battle of Algiers
8. Tokyo Story
9. The Complete Mr. Arkadin
10. Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist

Favorite Non-box Set Release (ranked 1-10)

1. Pandora's Box
2. The Rules of the Game
3. The Passion of Joan of Arc
4. Rebecca
5. The Battle of Algiers
6. Tokyo Story
7. The Red Shoes
8. Do the Right Thing
9. In the Mood for Love
10. Spartacus

Favorite Box Sets (ranked 1-8)

1. Brazil (3-disc set)
2. Dreyer Box Set
3. The Complete Mr. Arkadin
4. Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist
5. John Cassavetes: Five Films
6. Eisenstein: The Sound Years
7. The Adventures of Antoine Doinel
8. Andrzej Wajda: Three War Films

Most Disappointing Package (ranked 1-3)

1. The Long Good Friday
2. High and Low
3. Fishing with John

Worst Film (ranked 1-3)

1. Fishing with John
2. The Rock
3. Armageddon

Favorite Commentary (ranked 1-10)

1. Solaris
2. The Rules of the Game
3. The Silence of the Lambs
4. Jules and Jim
5. Do the Right Thing
6. Notorious
7. The Red Shoes
8. Brazil ("Love Conquers all" TV edition)
9. Kagemusha
10. Wild Strawberries

Favorite Single Supplement (not a commentary) (ranked 1-10)

1. Audio clip of Hitchcock-Truffaut interview on "Rebecca"
2. Versions comparison on "The Rules of the Game"
3. "It's Wonderful to Create" documentaries on various Kurosawa discs
4. "Entr'acte" (silent short film on "A nous la liberté")
5. "Gasman" (short film on "Ratcatcher")
6. Philip Glass opera for "Beauty and the Beast" music-only track
7. Richard Einhorn’s "Voices of Light" music-only track for "The Passion of Joan of Arc"
8. "Shadowing The Third Man" documentary on "The Third Man"
9. "Blood of the Beasts" (short film on "Eyes without a Face")
10. "I Lived, But..." (documentary on "Tokyo Story")

Favorite Package Design (ranked 1-5)

None. Nowadays, "great packaging" means squeezing as many discs into as tiny a box as possible.

Favorite Cover Art (ranked 1-11)

1. Hoop Dreams
2. Jules and Jim
3. Ice Storm
4. The Passion of Joan of Arc
5. Carnival of Souls
6. Playtime
7. Rebecca
8. In the Mood for Love
9. Honeymoon Killers
10. Le corbeau
11. Yi Yi

Worst Cover Art (ranked 1-5)

1. Armageddon
2. Henry V
3. Good Morning
4. Notorious
5. Mouchette

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