The Criterion Collection 50% off sale has begun at Barnes and Noble! Here are some recommendations for you. Can't make it to B&N? Buy sale prices on Amazon here - amzn.to/3NM47wZ
Elliot, nice recommendations! I will add Mr. Klein and Rouge to my list of potential pickups for the month. I agree with the thought of less is more and being more selective. Have a great week!
Finally. someone talks about 'Round Midnight, one of my favorite films of the 1980s. Perfect movie for fall and early winter, as well, with its somber and bittersweet mood. I used to show this to anyone who would watch it with me. Tunes of Glory has also long been a favorite. The acting in that film is phenomenal.
some underrated ones I'd recommend picking up >Death By Hanging (1968) >Mikey and Nicky (1976) >La Jetée/Sans Soleil (1962/1983) >Tampopo (1985) >Ali: Fear Eats The Soul (1974) >The Immortal Story (1968) >Black Girl (1966) >Twenty-Four Eyes (1954) >Detour (1945) >Night and the City (1950)
Some great rec's in there... Detour is one of the great noir masterpieces, absolutely - and one of the great female fatale performances. Just saw Death By Hanging last night, actually. _Mind-blowing!_ It's up there with Empire Of Passion as my favorite Oshima, so far. Black Girl is incredible. Has one of my favorite endings in cinema. The Immortal Story is classic Welles... and Ali is one of RWF's best.
What a set of recommendations Elliot! Tunes of Glory is my favourites as well. It’s a fabulous tale with Guinness and Mills at the top of their game. The film wants you to root for one of them but their power of performance makes that impossible.
I do need to get Round Midnight. It must be refreshing to see such a presentation. One collection title I find that's overlooked is Watership Down. Beautiful (warts and all) presentation. Great little chat with Guillermo del Toro too.
Great video! I just purchased ROUND MIDNIGHT and loved all of it . The performances of Dexter Gordon, Francois Cluzet and many others are fantastic( to say nothing about the music ).
Oh no! It’s that time again. I can’t spend, but I will …lol. Then you address that. I love Ikuru. I have not heard of Mr Klein - your description was great! Dang - I want to buy most of the ones you described. Great job!
I went a lil' silly... I got _The Ascent, L'Avventura, The Cranes Are Flying, The Cremator, Divorce Italian Style, Elevator To The Gallows, 5 Films Of Cassavetes, Harakiri, Letter Never Sent, Onibaba, Rules Of The Game, Mr. Klein, The Before Trilogy, Bitter Rice, Cat People_ and _Rififi._ And I'm not done. When Criterion fired 20% of its staff, I went a bit nuts lol Glad you recommended _Ikiru..._ an absolute masterpiece. Kurosawa is top 3 all time for me. I hadn't heard of _Mr. Klein_ til I watched it last week. Incredible! My favorite Delon performance.
@@MegaIkedog _Cat People_ is the only one I haven't seen yet out of those I bought. Looking forward to it! I've been meaning to buy it for a while now, since the supplements include the incredible documentary on Val Lewton that Kent Jones made for TCM. That's gotta be one of the best supplements in the collection! _Elevator To The Gallows_ is the one Blu-Ray upgrade in that order. I've had the DVD for many, many years. Louis Malle is so underrated, imo. Dying for CC to release the _3 Films By Louis Malle_ boxset on Blu already, so I can upgrade those, too.
Thank you for touching on Foreign Correspondent, it is a great thriller. I have been meaning to add Ikiru to my collection for the longest time, it is such an amazing experience. I have also been toying with buying Tunes of Glory for about a year, so that might have just sold it.
I’m not sure if you’ve talked about the Fellini box set but I’d love to learn more about that! Your criterion videos are always my favorite, happy collecting!
The thing I hate about these amazing sales is, as a Canadian, I can never take advantage of them. Shipping to Canada through Criterion is ungodly high, and B&N doesn't ship to Canada (at least during sales like this). There's a Canadian site called Unobstructive View, but the sale is only at 35%. It's never 50%.
Happy to see 'ROUND MIDNIGHT get some Elliot love. I'm a jazz fanatic so I saw it first run back in the day. My rather small haul this time around consisted of ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, THE HUMAN CONDITION, THIEF and (because great minds do think alike 😀), TUNES OF GLORY...
I didn’t spring for a lot this round but what I finally sprung for was the box set of Zatoichi, the Blind Swordsman. All 25 films from the original series for $100. Made my Christmas this year. Are they masterpieces? Not when set beside Kurosawa’s Samurai films but Shintaru Katsu is so charismatic in this role that they are just wonderful films. Nice to see the love for Round Midnight. One of my favourite movies of the 80s and a killer soundtrack
I love what criterion does for film and physical media, but they are way too slow with releases and upgrading to newer formats. For a while I thought they were never going to move to 4k
I’d say go ahead and get them now. At least the essentials like Seven Samurai and Ikiru. There’s some DVDs that you get and then they go on sale or get a 4K release and it’s like “ugh I should’ve waited!” But with movies like the 2 I named,,, just that first watch you’ll have your money’s worth. If I had to pay $40 everytime I had to watch Ikiru I’d say it was a good deal. (But don’t let me over hype lol it’s just one of my favorites.)
Love these recommendations, definitely going to add Mr Klein to the collection (big Alain Delon fan), would love a review on the Essential Jacques Demy boxset 🙌
Thanks as always for the excellent and fascinating reviews and recommendations Elliot! Am I right in thinking that these are only available as imports from the USA? Are they all region free?
Thanks Elliot. This time, I picked up (1) Lost Highway (4K+Blu ray combo), (2) They Live by Night, (3) À Bout de Souffle, (4) Le cercle rouge (4K+Blu ray combo), (5) Hotel Du Nord, (6) Exotica, (7) Devil in a blue dress and (8) Internal Affairs Trilogy box set from the BN Criterion Sale. I also managed to pick up (9) Gothic Fantastico box set, (10) Lies and Deceit - Chabrol box set and (11) Flatliners from the BN Arrow Sale. I did go little overboard this time, I must admit. Looking forward to enjoying these gems. If possible, I would like you to review and comment on Scorsese's World Cinema Project No. 4 box set. I loved No. 1 and 2 but couldn't connect with No. 3. On the fence with No. 4.
Thanks so much. I try and buy 50 Criterions each year and will add Mr. Klein and Tunes of Glory to my November haul. I'd like to humbly suggest "Cold War" which is one of my favorite films of the past few years. Thanks Elliot.
Wow, you have great taste. I have a few Criterion, but they're quite pricey for me. Always worth it, but the money just isn't there. Might I ask which you would choose to keep, if someone was taking all yours away, but one? 💿
If anyone doesn’t know the film and is in two minds, DESERT HEARTS (1985) is one of the most beautiful perfect little gems of a film I’ve ever seen, it’s a Top 10 entry for me. I can not recommend it enough.
Definitely going to get the Dexter Gordon film. I believe the story was based on the experiences of Bud Powell, the jazz pianist. Dexter, of course, was one of the great tenor players of his era, with a unique sound and style. I have many of his albums on CD. Highly recommend everyone check those out, too.
You're right, getting this one should be a priority. Maybe since Ghost Dog made it into the collection they might consider, Bird (1988) sort of a double bill.
I checked their website and found they're 50% off prices equal to Amazon's regular prices for all the films I would be interested in. Hopefully some people find good deals for themselves there.
Thanks a lot for your recommendations! I watched The Girl Can't Help It last week and I must confess I couldn't really connect with the movie. I don't think it's a bad film - actually I like other films of that genre, especially Marilyn Monroe's, some of which have similar plots... But this one wasn't what I expected so I decided not to buy it... However, all the other titles you mentioned sound very interesting. I'm hoping to get Foreign Correspondant, Ikiru and Mr. Klein soon. And I already ordered The Lady Vanishes and The 39 Steps (by Hitchcock), Swing Time (with Astaire and Rogers), City Lights (by Chaplin), Letter Never Sent (by Mikhail Kalatozov), Holiday (with Grant and Hepburn), Anatomy of a Murder (by Otto Preminger) and A Matter of Life and Death (by Powell and Pressburger). I know it sounds like a lot, but I've been saving for months! These are gonna be my Christmas presents, from me to me. 😂🤣
Great recommendations. I’m very curious/interested in the Qatsi trilogy. I love the first one, Koyanisqatsi, which I have in my streaming collection. I’m not familiar with the other two. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Hey Botique Blu-rays! Yeah, Ikiru is probably one of Kurosawa's best films. I have that Foreign Correspondent but have yet to dig into it. Also, have yet to dig into my Mr. Klein Criterion. I think I've seen that film before but I'm not sure. In reference to Eyes Wide Shut, that film was based on a novel by Arthur Schnitzler called Dream Novel and I think it sort of references anti Semitism within that book. I also have Rouge and Round Midnight but I have yet to dig into them as well.
Thank you for discussing Foreign Correspondent. I am becoming a big Hitchcock fan. Could you recommend other Hitchcock films from the 30’s to let’s say Saboteur. I know Criterion has other titles in that decade. Appreciate your work
If you haven't checked it out yet, give The 39 Steps a try (though it was shot after Saboteur, I think). Hitchcock's strongest British film in my opinion and a sort of proto North by Northwest.
I was wondering if you picked up “Cure” and if you have seen Brian De Palma’s “Blow Out” in 4K with John Travolta… I was also considering Kino Lorber’s new 4K restoration of Kubrick’s “The Killing”
I was interested in the Infernal Affairs Collection. The first one is just as good as it’s remake (the Departed) but I had literally no idea there were 3 in total. Has anyone got any idea if the series goes on with such tight storytelling and plot?
I would also enjoy Elliot's review of this set when it releases. I haven't seen the second and third films, but would love to pick the collection up in a future sale.
It's on Netflix (at least in Asia). Only the first film was good. Second was so-so to not that great. Third film got kind of tiresome. Not really a worthy Criterion addition.
As always pal, thanks for imparting your excellent recommendations on the masses. Rouge was one that caught my eye by the cover art alone, so will definitely pick it up at some point, now it has your seal of approval. Cheers pal 👍
Hello Elliot, can you please tell me if the criterion blu-ray of Brazil is the best option of the movie to buy and own? I really want to see it, but I want to make sure I get my money's worth.
Shame Barnes & Noble 1) don't do international shipping and 2) their website is slower and clunkier than a Spectrum ZX. I recommend WOWHD for UK buyers. With the sale on and free shipping to UK its a steal.
@@ElliotCoen I find it costs an average of $3.70-$4 per disc, which I'm reminded is pretty good when I see the prices for US Criterions on the UK versions of Amazon and eBay
@@matthewcharlton9649 Good tip - just had a look at their site and even with sales tax added, some prices do look competitive - I'll test this properly on Criterion's next sale!
@@stretcher5757 when you order the sales tax comes off when you select uk as it isn't applicable - plus they are doing 15% off the whole order at the moment with the code WOW15. Just put in my xmas order and they worked out £24 each all in that included some 4k steenboks
