I'm very excited about this!

Watch one film from every decade covered by Criterion.
--- 1920 - (insert film title here)
--- 1930 -
--- 1940 -
--- 1950 -
--- 1960 -
--- 1970 -
--- 1980 -
--- 1990 -
--- 2000 -

Watch films in at least five languages.
--- First language, (insert language), (insert title).
--- Second language, (insert language), (insert title).
--- Third language, (insert language), (insert title).
--- Fourth language, (insert language), (insert title).
--- Fifth language, (insert language), (insert title).

Watch something from spine number range:
--- 001-050 -
--- 051-100 -
--- 101-150 -
--- 151-200 -
--- 201-250 -
--- 251-300 -
--- 301-350 -
--- 351-400 -
--- 401-450 -
--- 451-500 -

Watch a film from the following genres:
--- Comedy
--- Drama
--- Horror
--- Science Fiction
--- Action / Adventure
--- Musical
--- Epic / Historical
--- Mystery / Thriller
--- War / Western
--- Documentary

--- Watch a film which won an Academy Award -
--- Watch a film with commentary -
--- Watch a short -

Oh, what the hell! Put me in the September camp.

That's my minor quibble. I just like having that option of including everything without having to stockpile certain titles for the next month.

I assume the list thread will go up a few days before the challenge starts? I have a dozen or so Crits, so I might give it a go.

that is 36 checks no?

I expect the Challenge god himself to watch them both months.
Yep, I'll put up the "official" discussion thread and the list thread soon. Or just keep this as the discussion thread.

And just to keep things totally open to change, anyone want to argue for keeping the lists inside the discussion thread?
That's just a rough draft put up for debate/additions/deletions.

I'm still up in the air on the whole "scoring" thing.

The awesome new Criterion Club has changed things a bit. We no longer need a "film a day group schedule", we'll just point people to the Club.

So I'm still leaning towards, in terms of points/totals/scoring, one point per day of watching, plus the checklist.

Or we can scrap all that and just count movies, with 30 as the goal of the Challenge.

What the hell. I'm in.

I don't think I could possibly *not* participate in a DVDTalk challenge, so count me in whenever, I really have no preference.

These movies always seem to be on my "to watch shelf," but for some reason I never seem to watch them: Bottle Rocket, The Third Man, Naked Lunch, 5 Hitchcock Thriller Collection, Beastie Boys Video Anthology , Life of Brian, Seven Samurai, Solaris, and Spartacus.

I know my Criterion titles are more "mainstream," but most of those movies above I haven't seen before, so I am excited.

Any comments on the "scoring options"? Or the checklist?

Checklist will probably be fun (if I actually do it). Maybe leave out some of the genres (like Horror since a lot of people want to save that) if you wanted to cut it down a bit.

I was thinking I'd try (but probably not succeed) to do 30 movies and about 30 extras (more or less) just to keep it simple but not such a mad dash. I'll try to check out one extra for at least each movie that has extras. Except for the first time I did the horror one, I don't really try to hit the goals usually, I don't have that much time but I think 30 movies might be manageable, and I think someway to encourage at least some watching of extras is cool.

So this is on for September, right? I just want to make sure, as I was out of town last week and may have missed some updates. I know there's been talk of other challenges as well....

Yep September 1st.

Still looking for feedback on how to do the scoring and/or checklist.

As I've mentioned before, I really only have a handful of Criterions, but I am looking forward to this challenge, because I get really excited when I buy some of my Criterions, but don't end up watching them right away.

I would say keeping the checklist simple, as you have it, is definitely good. I don't know how many titles cross some of the decade spans that you have, but that may want to be investigated just so people aren't cornered into 1 or 2 titles for some of the earlier decades.

One other comment I would have on the checklist is fitting the Beastie Boys Anthology into one of the categories. I'm not saying making it a different category, but perhaps adding it to one of the existing categories.

I honestly don't think a film schedule would work for this challenge. I just doubt many people have enough of the titles (including myself) to have any sort of daily film schedule. Not that I wouldn't participate for the titles I have, but I'm just questioning the amount of participation.

It took me a while to find the posts dealing with the points. It sounds like what you are suggesting is 1 point per checklist item and a maximum of 1 point per day for viewing "something" Criterion. I can only speak from my personal experience, but in general I have little time during the week to watch many movies, so I may watch 2 or more movies Fri/Sat/Sun depending on my schedule. In addition, I listen to commentaries separately on another computer and it usually takes 2-3 days for me to listen to a commentary because I listen to it while I'm doing other things. It would seem a shame to not let me count 2 Criterions if I watch 2 on a Saturday or happen to finish a commentary the same day I watch another title.

I'm going to just assume that commentaries count as a "point" when they are finished? Commentaries, for me, are a whole new experience for a movie and should definitely count as a separate "point."

Looking forward to it!

Maybe I'll add music to the documentary category.

There are only 5 choices for the 1920s category, at least on their single title releases, there might be more in the Eclipse sets or other boxsets. So that decade will be difficult for many to fill in on the checklist. But all the other decades should be easy. The checklist is supposed to be sort of difficult, not for the casual viewer. It shouldn't be too easy to complete, but more for the obsessed among us. But I think I've left it extremely easy actually, as this challenge is more low key than others.
Yep, I had already abandoned the film schedule idea. We have that weekly Criterion Club now, so that will be our focus for "group discussion of specific films".
We were experimenting with a radical change to the "point" or scoring system, being completely different from any other challenge. Don't think of it as one movie one point, but more a methodology to get people in the mode to watch and discuss something Criterion each day, even if only a one minute trailer.

But I think I'll scrap that whole plan, as few people want change.

So no scoring at all.

Just list your films or items any way you want. No counting necessary, because they are no winners or losers, no prizes.

The checklist is competely optional and just for structure/fun.

Discussion is encouraged, and mini-reviews are encouraged in your lists.

We should make a list of people with xbox live and netflix subscriptions so we can do a Netflix Party. Someone is a host and invites people to watch a movie together. Everyone watches it at the same time, and we can communicate w/ voice during the movie.

Good place to search for movies is http://instantwatcher.com/ and there's got to be something Criterion's put out at some point on there.

My gamertag is chemosh6969

I tend to like or dislike these arthouse-type movies for the wrong reasons, so try not to look too dumbfounded if I let my comments loose!

You're not alone there. Usually if when someone describes how one is good by talking about scenery or other things that aren't the plot, it's a good hint the movie has no plot and sucks, at least for me.

I watch movies for entertainment and the fact that Citizen Kane is the first movie to show a ceiling does absolutely nothing for me in my enjoyment of the film. It's nice trivia but when I see someone say the movie was lacking in the acting department and someone replies, "but you could see the ceiling", I just have to roll my eyes.

But that's just me

I haven't searched yet, but I imagine they have some Criterions for instant view. Maybe not the Criterion "disc", but the movie at least.

Gamertag Trevor.

Here's a few Jean-Luc Godard titles already in my instant queue:

Pierrot Le Fou

Breathless

A Woman Is a Woman

And some others:

Kicking and Screaming

Monsoon Wedding

Hoop Dreams

Metropolitan

Vampyr

The Lady Vanishes

The 39 Steps

Flesh for Frankenstein

Blood for Dracula


I really wish the Roku player or PS3 had that capability.

I thought the PS3 had it now?

On the group watch thing, I think it would only make sense to do that if you've already seen the film, right? I don't think I'd want to have any talking during my first time viewing most films, except during the B-movie Challenge of course...

PS3 only has 3rd party support for Netflix.

I think it depends on the movie. Something like Equinox, Armageddon or Robocop, wouldn't be too bad. Comedies would probably work well also for first time viewers.

With everyone having different schedules, I think the easiest way of doing something is to just post that you're going to watch some movie at this time. Do it a day in advance or something. If people want to jump in they can.

I'm assuming that those 40/60-minute documentaries count, correct? Rather than just a 5-minute interview with somebody.

Current plan is for no counting.

So no lists?

Oh certainly no. Just not numbered. The lists will be important to this challenge. I think the point is for people to put a lot more thoughts/comments into their lists as to promote discussion.