Oops, I stand corrected. I thought there's two soundtrack, one original Cantonese and the other Shanghainese.

Just wanted to bump this up to say thanks to you two for the recommendation. I bought George Washington over the holidays and watched it for the first time tonight.

Wow . . .

It's been a long time since I've seen such amazing cinematography. Between that and the soundtrack, Green could have almost gotten away without the dialog. But that and the acting (which was raw, but brilliant) were both icing on the cake.

I definitely need to watch it again to re-analyze some of it, but the first viewing was enough to make me want to do that anyway. I hope All The Real Girls is as good . . . it'll likely be in my next DVD order . . .

What? What?! I paid some $50 for the Criterion release of Brazil recently, and it's not even anamorphic?!

That's why I don't understand the orgiastic infatuation with Criterion. I have about a dozen or so of their releases because I like the movies and the transfers are usually fairly good, but half of them (of the ones I have) don't have commentaries or any other features, many of the commentaries are dull, they are at double or triple the price of other companies, and now I find out some of them are not anamorphic (not an issue for me today, but will be in about six months or so). Other companies release great films with outstanding restoration, commentaries, and exceptional special features.

If anyone understands the ending of "Diary of a Chambermaid," let me know. That's one movie that would have benefited from a commentary track.

On a positive note, a few weeks ago a PBS station aired "Most Dangerous Game" on tv, and I was struck to how poor the print was; e.g., the jungle scenes were so dark, you couldn't tell what was going on. For comparison I pulled out my DVD of the movie and lined it up to the same point in the movie that was being aired on tv and flipped back and forth. The Criterion transfer was brilliant compared to the PBS-acquired print; like night and day. Good restoration makes for a much more enjoyable film.

But, as for a Criterion-specific recommendation, my favorite film is available as a Criterion release: "Notorious"!

In the Mood for Love is a great movie but not one that'll "warm" you up as all Wong Kar-Wai's films tend to leave the viewers out in the cold.

I'd say go for some Fellini like Nights of Cabiria or La Strada or even Lang's M, which will make you feel good about an honest justice system (instead of vigilantism or tribunals).

You'll get no consensus on this one. But my pick would be RASHOMON.

Glad you enjoyed George Washington, talemyn! All the Real Girls is every bit as good (amazing soundtrack, as well); by all means, go ahead and order it without hesitation.

I'll have to check out George Washington.

I like several of the ones mentioned, so just a vote for some other titles.

I checked out The Grand Illusion recently out of my library and I was taken aback by it's quality and scope of influence. I had seen Rules of the Game, recently touted on several lists as being second only to Kane in Cinema history and was extremely let down, but saw some praising this. In wanting to know what the Renior hype was about, I can see it with this picture. Great release by Criterion of a film that's fallen between the cracks a bit.

Another on strong overal release, and definately filling your need for heart is Trouble in Paradise. Terrific release of a lost classic by Ernst Lubtishct(sp) and by every and all account, the prototype romantic/screwball comedy, but pre Hayes code, with a very vibrant, but still generally subtle sexuality pumping vitality into the picture. Very strong batch of extras on here as well.

And one of the Criterion lost classics in my book is Monty Python's Life of Brian. Not a pristine transfer but I'd imagine that's as good as the film could or will ever look(but after sharing a comprable quality with Holy Grail in it's VHS life, Holy Grail really sparkles in a non-Criterion release). But legitimately funny and intriguing extras, including two commentaries by the 5 Pythons.

And on my Criterion wish list, but things I've heard good things about:

Tokyo Story
Withnail and I
Ikiru(seen the brillant film, just want the extras)

hopscotch

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Reviving this thread to, once again, thank Cosmic Bus for a great recommendation.

I finally watched my blind buy copy of All The Real Girls tonight, and it was fantastic!! With every movie of his that I watch, I get more and more impressed with David Gordon Green. The films are stunningly beautiful and have an amazing feel of reality due to the rawness of the characters and their relationships/dialog. I truely find watching his films comparable (from a cinematography point of view) to viewing a photo exhibit. It's amazing how much it adds to the tone and feel of the movie.

I'm looking forward to Undertow coming out later this year, but am a little wary of A Confederacy of Dunces since 1) it's not his story, and 2) it'll be his first "big budget", "under studio control" movie. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Anyway . . . thanks again for the rec . . . I'm gonna check out Love Liza next (thanks to the trailer on the ATRG disc). If anyone knows anything about it, I'd love to hear some reviews.

Love Liza is excellent... the dissection of Philip Seymour Hoffman character to the nitty-gritty of his persona is immensely well-done as his psychological state is affected by his newly found “habit”. By the way, I try to see everything that Philip Seymour Hoffman is in, and I too loved George Washington and I liked All The Real Girls.

Well, I was going to recommend Hitchcock's great films Notorious and Rebecca, but just checked the Criterion website ( http://www.criterionco.com ) and found out that they are now both Out-of-Print (when did that happen?)

I'd be careful about Love Liza. I thought it had a lot of promise, and the acting was good, but it was very poorly written and wasn't a very good film overall.

Love Liza was a very well made, extremely well acted movie, but I found it to be ultimately unsatisfying. (I decided to put this in spoilers, though it's not really going to ruin anything for you):

I'd still recommend Fear and Loathing..has some cool special features as well (like all Gilliam movies).

I don't mean to potentially derail this thread, but I already had a decent-sized list of Criterions I want to purchase and these posts have made me want to check out even more. So does anyone have an idea of upcoming Criterion sales we can expect coming soonish? I don't think there has been any since "Rules of the Game" and "Ikiru" were released.

Rent first, buy later if you think you would watch it again.

3 WOMEN. Coming soon.

Robocop

Hard Boiled

Silence of the Lambs

Rushmore

Hitchcock films (especially Rebecca)

Straw Dogs

"I don't mean to potentially derail this thread, but I already had a decent-sized list of Criterions I want to purchase and these posts have made me want to check out even more. So does anyone have an idea of upcoming Criterion sales we can expect coming soonish? I don't think there has been any since "Rules of the Game" and "Ikiru" were released."

The last time new Criterions were announced, was indeed a week or so after RoTG was released. I'd expect May's lineup to pop up at the end of this month; sometime after Salvatore Giuliano and Richard III, this coming Tuesday. There was a chat held recently with Lee Kline of the Collection, however, and numerous titles were spoken of...seven of them with a Summer '04 release date, others confirmed as being in the works, and a few titles and directors only hinted at.

This thread . . . http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=347819 . . . has some info from as recent as Monday night and then, of course, there is always the Criterion Collection website which should have all of the news on upcoming releases that they have announced.

I recently got a bonus here at work which always means more Criterion DVDs! I tried to stay around $100 so I opted for

Red Beard
Throne of Blood
Do the Right Thing
In the Mood for Love

I just got done devouring my new In the Mood for Love DVD. I was very impressed with the subdued mood and cinematography of the film. The DVD is packed/loaded/jammed with interesting extras. I really feel that I got my money's worth on this blind buy spending something like 6-7 hours going through everything. I've got to see more this Wong Kar-wai's movies now.

I also spent the better part of Sunday going through Do the Right Thing. The movie is fantastic, (we already knew that) but the extra's were also amazing. I particularly liked the script read-through with the majority of the cast members. The "making of" documentary was also very good. Again, great value for the money.

I had previously rented Throne of Blood and Red Beard so there were are no surprises for me here. These are two of my favorite Kurosawa movies. I'm pretty close to owning all of his available R1 stuff now.

I'm probably going to spend about another $50 bucks in the near future. I'm probably going to finally pick up Spartacus and something small but may pick up the Fassbinder Box Set instead.

Good choices.

I really like The Devil and Daniel Webster and Fiend Without a Face - but I wouldn't recommend Fiend unless you're really into 50's sci-fi/horror.

The recent CC edition of Fritz Lang's The Testament of Dr. Mabuse is my current all-time favorite. A near-perfect DVD of a great film.

Looking forward to the upcoming Videodrome to complement the excellent edition of Cronenberg's Naked Lunch!