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99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
Well, it depends on how much you like the movie. It's probably one of my favorites, so I bought it back when it was in print, and you can think of it as just spending 10 bucks more than if you'd bought most new Criterions at regular price at Barnes & Noble.

Of course, if you're looking to flip it, it's simultaneously a good investment and a terrible waste of one of Cotten and Welles' best roles.

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99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
Crossposting from general chat

Criterion just made a bunch of their movies on Hulu free for a few days as part of an Oscar celebration.

http://www.hulu.com/criterion?src=topnav

There's some great stuff - Breathless, Stagecoach, Hopscotch, Hoop Dreams, The Virgin Spring, seemingly all of the Zatoichi films. Yeah, it's on a computer screen, but maybe it'll be good for sampling stuff before what otherwise would've been a blind buy.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007

Origami Dali posted:

I get the feeling the B&N summer sale on Criterions wont be happening this year.

That would suck so hardcore. I did ask a DVD section guy if it was going to be in July, and he said he'd assumed so, but hadn't gotten any official notice or anything.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
^^^^ Definitely on The Lady Vanishes, and I'm partial to Blow Out

Ended up with

Throne of Blood
Wild Strawberries
Topsy Turvey
Harold & Maude
Last Year At Marienbad
Stagecoach (for my dad's birthday, but I'm probably stealing it)
Days of Heaven

I also lucked into an absolutely pristine copy of Black Narcissus for $2 at a big Italian church festival flea market in Brooklyn tonight, and I've long since fulfilled the cost of my B&N membership, so it's pretty good all-around with that 60% off.

I'm considering World On A Wire, Bigger Than Life, and Three Colors before the sale stops; if I did Fanny & Alexander, would I be alright with the smaller theatrical release they have, or should I spring for the bigger set?

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
Well, grabbed Andrei Rublev and The 39 Steps on this last day. I've never seen the former, and had it highly recommended to me, so I can't wait to bust it open.

Also sweet christ how did I never know about that 50 Years of Janus Films set? It's positively lovely.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
I'm excited by Altman on Criterion, and request more and more and more.

Also, I think the last thing I'm gonna pick up during this sale is the Olivier Shakespeare 3-set; how does it compare to the individual releases, if anyone has it? I love his Henry V and Richard III, and it'll definitely be less to get the box set.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
Alright, last gasp of the sale for me upon payday tomorrow. Which ones should I focus on of the following?

Rosemary's Baby
Island of Lost Souls
Kiss Me Deadly
Anatomy of a Murder
Three Colors: Blue, White, Red
M
12 Angry Men
Diabolique
Two-Lane Blacktop
In The Mood For Love
Tokyo Story
Young Mr. Lincoln
Bigger Than Life
Safety Last
House
Sullivan's Travels (already have the Sturgess box set, but still love this damned movie)

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
Yeah, I think at the very least I'll go with House and M, and maybe spring for Tokyo Story or In The Mood For Love if I'm feelin' zesty. Thanks bubs!

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
Well, first day of the sale I picked up The Uninvited, Flowers of St. Francis, and Passion of St. Joan of Arc.

I just know I'm going to spend a ton, I want those Early Fassbinder and Downey Sr. sets.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
Aaaaand there's Rules of the Game (why the hell didn't I have it previously?), Richard III (I can't wait for the other two Oliviers to get a new transfer), and the Yojimbo/Sanjuro two-pack.

I love this sale.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
Just got two membership "extra 20% off" coupons in the mail, and I'm wondering what box sets to pick up with it (not necessarily Eclipse, I know I'm probably getting Pearls of the Czech New Wave, Early Fassbinder, or Downey Sr. for Christmas).

I know the Zatoichi set comes out tomorrow, the Sternberg Silent Classics and Lean/Coward sets look cool, and I actually don't own Fanny and Alexander. Thoughts on any of those, as well as any you think are swell?

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
I had no problem using that extra 20% coupon on the Zatoichi set today in-store, with discounts and everything it ended up being $88. Remember that the 20% applies to the post-50% price, though, so you're not surprised by a higher price. It's more like a 66% discount, and then no tax if you're a member.

Zatoichi in general is a clever, likable character, and most of the films have stunning cinematography. I like the 4-ish I've seen, but I'm not sure if I would've bought if it I didn't get such a huge discount.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
Hooooooly crap the Zatoichi set is amazing. Supplements, book, I've watched the first two films, it's nutballs great.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
My coworker (who has at various times had every OOP Criterion) told me about this as soon as I got in today, so I got:

8 1/2
Anatomy of a Murder
In The Mood For Love
Life of Brian
The Music Room
Ugetsu
Z

several of which I can't believe I've held off on for this long.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
My place completely sold out of the Cassavetes 5 Films set, so phooey, but I picked up

A Hard Day's Night
Red River (for my dad, though I love it as well)
Persona
Repo Man
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Investigation of a Citizen Under Suspicion
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence

all on Bluray or the combo-packs (which I'll miss, it was great sharing movies with my quasi-Luddite dad, he used to review movies in the '70s and knew Lindsay Anderson pretty well, but only has a DVD player).

I think I want to snatch up the Pearls of the Czech New Wave and Late Ray sets, but I feel pretty complete with all the rest of my Criterions at present. Unless, of course, I suddenly come into enough money to buy EVERYTHING.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
This is nuts. I think I'm getting everything except The Vanishing, and that only because I've seen it so many times.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007

kaujot posted:

How have you managed to watch it more than once (or twice at the absolute most)?

It was on IFC like every week a few years ago, so it was on in the background a lot during college. I've also seen the terrible American remake once and change, just to show the awful ending to someone who didn't believe me about it.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
Noooo don't buy them full-price, the second of the year's Barnes and Noble sales is in November! You can wait three weeks!

And yes, The Vanishing is an amazing, tense, slow crawl of a movie.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
There's a lot of amazing Eclipse sets; some of them are cheaper and worth it for one or two films, and some of them are almost uniformly great. The ones I would definitely recommend are:

The Documentaries of Louis Malle
Late Ozu
Postwar Kurosawa
Lubitsch Musicals
Rosselini's History Films
Nikkatsu Noir
Chanttal Akerman in the Seventies
Oshima's Outlaw Sixties
Pearls of the Czech New Wave
Up All Night with Robert Downey Sr.
When Horror Came to Shochiku
Early Fassbinder
Late Ray

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
Alright boyos, I'm feeling one more buy for this sale. Do I go for the Jacques Demy set, having only seen Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Le Demoiselles de Rochefort? Those both feel like enough reason for me.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
I'm a huge Sturges fan, and they did a tremendous job on Sullivan's Travels, so I'm very looking forward to Palm Beach Story.

Hell, I'd love as many Sturges upgrades and releases as they could manage. Miracle of Morgan's Creek is one of the funniest comedies I've ever seen, and probably his second-best-well-known film, and I think even the bare-bones poo poo release from another company it got a decade ago is out-of-print.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
Sounds like scrubtalk from someone who ain't seen The Umbrellas of Cherbourg! That's probably the best thing in that set.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
Picked up F for Fake, George Washington, The Innocents, My Darling Clementine, Macbeth, and because the one I went to only had the DVD version of the Tati set, I picked that up for my mother-in-law while I look for the Blu.

Healthy mix of old stuff I had trouble finding last time and newer releases. I think I should cut myself off, with Christmas and my birthday coming up, so that people can actually get me presents.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007

friendo55 posted:

I rarely hear any talk about the 3 Rossellini / Bergman films and would like to put my 20% coupon to good use with this sale. Are those worth the blind buy?

Eh, they're fair-to-middling. I'd say it depends how much you like either of them, but it's probably not a blind buy, especially with it missing two of their collaborations (Fear and Joan of Arc). See if you can watch one or two and then buy it depending on how you feel - it's supposed to have very strong extras.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
Nthing the love for Pearls of the Czech New Wave - it was a really fertile/unique time for films in a country experiencing a revolution in political ideas, and they're all very different.

Late Ray is another I picked up recently, and it's a great display of a master of film showing everything he's got.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
Red River is illin' as hell. It's almost a proto-The Searchers in the character dynamics/atmosphere, though I don't think it's as good as the latter (it's still great).

It IS the movie where, after watching it, John Ford said (regarding Wayne), "The son of a bitch never told me he could ACT!"

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
Eh, best I've ever managed is an unopened blu-ray of Black Narcissus at a church sale for $2, but that's not out of print, so it's not terribly impressive beyond the super-value!!

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
I would 100% recommend Charulata and The Big City from the other Rays I've blind-bought.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
That box set is so amazing. I hadn't seen Jour de Fête since I was like 7 and it was on PBS, and it was just as magical

And yeah, I have the Playtime DVD from before Criterion lost the license for like two years there, prior to making the box set. I should probably offload that and my DVDs of M Hulot's Holiday and Mon Oncle onto my best bud or something.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007

Dr.Caligari posted:

Any word on when the B&N sale is? I can't remember if it is the same time every year or not, and I'm too lazy to look.

It usually starts about a week into July.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
Gotta keep it relatively cheap this year, so I sprang for Eraserhead, La Dolce Vita, Kagemusha, Sword of Doom, and The Palm Beach Story.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
I was looking over the list of OOP Criterions just last night and man, most of them would be Day 1 full-price buys if they ever reissued them. Grand Illusion, The Man Who Fell To Earth, Ran, the like 6 Godards and Melvilles that went out of print, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Bank Dick, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Diary of a Country Priest, Chungking Express.

It's a big ol' poop situation is what it is.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
Nah, I still dig it. Might be a family thing, though - it's one of my dad's favorites, and we used to watch his VHS of it a ton when I was a kid. I think it's the Ur-Fields film in a way.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
I would say it's one of the best filmed Shakespeare adaptations ever with tremendous performances from Mifune and Isuzu Yamada.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
Aargh I just bought tickets to the Bowie tribute at Carnegie Hall in March, I can't be tempted like this.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007

bobkatt013 posted:

How about fucken Shane?

With those eyes? Sure.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007

Hector Beerlioz posted:

Is Hopscotch any good?

It's funny, yeah. As a point of comparison, I'd put it up against The In-Laws. It's definitely not as funny as The In-Laws, but it's good, and has a similar vibe to it. If you can get it for cheap (I don't think there's a Bluray, just the DVD), go for it.

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
Maybe Broadway Danny Rose?

99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
Bull Durham is the greatest film about baseball, and I'm going to buy copies for both myself and my father.

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99 CENTS AMIGO
Jul 22, 2007
I never got to experience Filmstruck because they dragged their feet on apps for Sony or Xbox after chopping off their own feet, mimicking future Criterion release Saw (2004).

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