Criterion News and Discussion

[Pwaybloe]

Have any of you seen those 3 movies Samsong posted?  Do you know what they are even about?  Would you even watch those movies if Criterion didn't put them out?

I'll answer all these questions for you: "No"

[MacGuffin]

Have any of you seen those 3 movies Samsong posted?  Do you know what they are even about?  Would you even watch those movies if Criterion didn't put them out?

I'll answer all these questions for you: "No"

Actually, I've seen Night And The City. It's a film noir classic and was the original movie that the Deniro/Lange remake was based on.

[NEON MERCURY]

Have any of you seen those 3 movies Samsong posted?  Do you know what they are even about?  Would you even watch those movies if Criterion didn't put them out?

I'll answer all these questions for you: "No"

i agree...
sometimes almost always do people buy criterions b/c of the name.
i think that if criterion released "the core" then film geeks would be like "well, if criterion releases it then it must be good/overlooked/avant-garde/missunderstood masterpiece,  i think i'll give the core a second chance"

my philosophy is buy what you know is for you.

[RegularKarate]

So... Criterion is "overrated" because they put out films that you haven't seen?  Brilliant logic there.

They bring films that not everyone has watched to people's attention and make films most people haven't seen on anything but a full-screen VHS available in the best quality possible.  How is broadening horizons make a company overrated?

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

Have any of you seen those 3 movies Samsong posted?  Do you know what they are even about?  Would you even watch those movies if Criterion didn't put them out?

I'll answer all these questions for you: "No"

What I do is scope out the Criterion collection, then go to my library and pick up a VHS version of it (their DVD's usually skip, and they dont' have many foreign DVD's) and I watch them.  If I like them, I go pick up the Criterion if it has a lot of features.

In a sense, Criterion serves as a gateway for me to find movies that don't get a lot of press until they're Criterioned.

You can say that film geeks just buy Criterions to say they have them (which, I know those people.  I told my friend that Pulp Fiction was released on Criterion on laserdisc, but when they made the SE DVD, it had all the same features, my friend said he still wishes he could see the word Criterion on it) but to me, Criterion helps bring foreign movies to the light for me (since I have no idea where to start).

[NEON MERCURY]

its all about the name.

i will agree 100% that criterions do offer exellent audio/visual/supplements and nice cover art , yadda yadda.

but what i am saying is that people will buy these films because criterion puts them out.  if kino  put these out or some other distributer put them out instead of critrerion then none of us would still have newer heard of them or soon enough-buy them.

we are slaves to criterion.

[cine]

We're totally going against our banners, which praise The Criterion Collection. Now we're saying maybe it's just for 'assholes'? Oh... my...

[Alethia]

yeah man, i've never even actually watched the movies i bought from criterion.

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

yeah man, i've never even actually watched the movies i bought from criterion.

Gotta keep them mint, man.

[Just Withnail]

Actually, Pwaybloe, I'm happy because, 1) There's a Bertolucci I've been dying to see, 2) There's a Godard I already love, and one of my very favorite films; My Own Private Idaho. No other studio would give any of these the treatment Criterion does, and if they did, I'd buy them. And as a few posters already mentioned, how does bringing generally unknown quality films to the public make them overrated?

[Alethia]

and yes, seriously, i've heard that tout va bien is teriffic, criterion or not i'd spend money on it .

and yea sure, perhaps some people buy them simply because they're criterions, but why do we need to talk about them?  it's not me and i doubt it's any of the better people on this board.

[Pwaybloe]

Ha ha.  I'd never expected to garner this kind of response.  

My initial response was to Withnail's goofy reaction to the 3 announced Criterion releases.

My fault for not taking it to PM.

[Just Withnail]

Goofy or not, that was what I felt. Let's not spend any more time on this.

[SiliasRuby]

Goofy or not, that was what I felt. Let's not spend any more time on this.

Amen to that.

[Ernie]

going back to what mercury said for a second, let me just say that lots of people have completely forgotten the simple idea that movies are either good, bad, or ok regardless of their label. i think that was, maybe, what he was trying to say, in pertience to criterion, specifically. there are of course those that are a whore to criterions, for whatever reason. usually a completely understandable reason, like the guarantee for good quality. there are those that are a whore to art houses, starbucks, gap, tic-tacs...there's all kinds of label whores. i myself am a whore to hot pockets and mountain dew.

the bottom line is that every label has its whores. we can only be thankful that the only thing we're all guilty of is being xixax whores, really, as a whole. i think some of us actually might have heard about "nigeria's election", after all.