I have last year's Criterion Challenge to thank for me finally exploring Bergman. I watched Smiles of a Summer Night, The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries and The Virgin Spring; I enjoyed each (though I confess Smiles wasn't as fulfilling). The Virgin Spring is pretty powerful stuff, and like mrcellophane, I needed a little time to fully digest it. Intellectually, I was with it while watching but I needed some time to sort out how I felt about what I'd seen and whether it was merely shocking or genuinely upsetting. I eventually determined it was a real reaction (at least, insofar as a reaction to a manufactured work of fiction can be real).

As for me, I just finished streaming The Naked City, one of the remaining Criterion titles available via Netflix Watch Instantly. My thoughts:

As a story, it's much more a "police procedural" than "crime noir," and from a production perspective it's more a guerrilla film than studio piece. New York City homicide detectives work the case of a young woman found murdered, and each step of legwork in their investigation is shown leading them across the city. Shot entirely on location, we get a strong feeling of what late 40s New York was really like and it's this atmosphere that makes The Naked City interesting to behold 63 years later.

It's easy to see The Naked City as a precursor to Law & Order. Dragnet also comes to mind, of course, largely due to the omniscient narrator (film producer Mark Hellinger). Though, it's worth noting, the narration I found detracted from the film--chiefly the instances where the narrator addressed characters on screen. For instance, he says as we see beat cops take their orders, "Go get 'im, boys; there's only half a million big guys in the city!" It's rather silly, and this MST3K-style running commentary sanitizes the film.

Oh, and Trevor: you should promote your story to the producers of Hoarders, or maybe a wedding-oriented reality show. They might at least cough up some money to help make all this happen for you.

I watched TALE OF ZATOICHI last week for this challenge and I was alarmed at the darkness of the image. I'm guessing it was a conscious decision on the part of those who engineered the DVD transfer to make the blacks richer. Which means we can't see anything in several scenes, e.g. the first fight scene, which comes at the 51-minute mark. We can only hear it! I don't believe this is what the filmmakers intended. I did not see this film in a theater, but I've seen dozens of other black-&-white Japanese films from that era on the big screen, including many with nighttime scenes, and we could always see what was going on. I found this very frustrating.

And I tried the disc out on three different monitors: two CRT's and one flatscreen: just as dark on all of them.

Mark Hellinger was a beloved Broadway columnist/theatre critic who went out to Hollywood in 1938 to become a writer at Warner Bros. and then a producer before moving to Universal in the mid-'40s. He died shortly after recording the narration for NAKED CITY and the film, his last production, was released posthumously. His signature line, "There are 8 million stories in the Naked City--and this has been one of them" was later employed in the TV series of the same name, which premiered ten years after the movie and was also shot entirely on location in the city. I don't remember what my reaction to the narration was the last time I saw this film (last year's Criterion Challenge), but I can see how it would come off as fairly intrusive.

I would disagree with this. "Guerrilla" implies shooting on the fly, sneaking shots in public without permits, etc. This was a full studio production with big crews and closing-off of streets and full cooperation with the city. It just happened to be shot entirely on location. And it wasn't the first big-studio film to be shot on location in New York: Two films directed by Henry Hathaway, THE HOUSE ON 92ND STREET (1946) and KISS OF DEATH (1947), were both shot largely, if not entirely, on location in NYC.

I enjoy the location work in NAKED CITY a great deal, but I have problems with the storyline and casting. It's a fairly routine and somewhat contrived crime story and I would have preferred a true crime story, something based on real life. And I really wish the main actors had been authentic New Yorkers instead of second- or third-tier Hollywood imports Barry Fitzgerald, Don Taylor, Dorothy Hart, and Frank Conroy. I'll give Howard Duff a pass because I've always considered him pretty cool. Fitzgerald's blarney act as the chief investigator really annoyed me. I did like Ted de Corsia as the object of the manhunt. He's very believable and his scenes really pump up the picture, especially in the chase sequence. As for the leads, if they were gonna pull stars from Hollywood, how about picking from those who grew up in NYC? Edward G. Robinson and John Garfield as the older and younger cop. How great would that have been? Or Cagney and Kirk Douglas?!! Or Humphrey Bogart and Burt Lancaster? Okay, okay, I'm just dreaming. I'll stop.

The supporting cast, though, has a ton of future name actors from New York's acting pool, including Carl Reiner, Paul Ford, James Gregory, John Marley, Arthur O'Connell, John Randolph, and four from Yiddish theater: David Opatoshu, Nehemiah Persoff, Molly Picon, and Celia Adler.

True enough. Though, I was merely trying to articulate how the movie felt to me as a viewer. The ambiance of the city never felt staged, except of course for those who specifically acted in accordance with the story.

I see what you mean and I agree. I was reading "guerrilla" too literally. I think a lot of the credit goes to director Jules Dassin (who grew up partly in the Bronx), who gave the street scenes a feel that was unusual for a Hollywood film of the era. I mean, compare his street scenes with those by Henry Hathaway (who'd been with the studios since the 1920s!) in the films I mentioned and you'll see a whole different approach. And NAKED CITY got a lot more press and critical acclaim for its New York location work than the Hathaway films did.

Quick checklist question: for the entry, "Watch an entire Criterion Collector's Set/Eclipse Box Set," does that mean we have to watch every movie in a set, or do we have to watch every movie and every special feature?

I've always interpreted that as just the features, as there is a separate checklist item for watching every special feature. And on that checklist item, one should choose a Criterion that actually has at least a few special features, and not one of the many bare bones releases. Just my personal opinions. CG?

Still there.
Great comments. I wish I could convey my thoughts on films but feel like the extent of my "review skills" are "i loved/liked/hated it."
Watching that as we type.
That would require effort, I'm not good at effort. Plus, hopefully, I'm not quite up to their standards.
Wait. I'm watching this to qualify for the Hulu-only part of the checklist. Criterion hasn't put or announced it on disc yet have they?

I have the HVE (Home Vision Entertainment) disc of TALE OF ZATOICHI which came out some years ago. I indicated that in my list in the list thread and my photo of the shelf with my Criterion titles has it in the picture.

Here, I'll paste it again. See it on the left?

Just FYI, Criterion has a sale on their website celebrating 75,000 fans on their FB page. 50% SRP until 1 pm ET.

Hanging Center in first post is fixed.

Last night I watched Dr. No with the LaserDisc commentary track. Being a rip, it was aggravating to keep synced because every time the LD was flipped to another side, there was an edit. I had it spot-on for about half of the movie. Anyway, I didn't learn much new, though I can't say I recall ever hearing about Zena Marshall's fascinating life story. This isn't to say I haven't; my attention span and memory aren't what they used to be. If the offending material that incensed "Cubby" Broccoli was from this commentary, then it almost certainly was Terence Young relaying how he chased Harry Saltzman off the set of the movie for being a "pain in the ass" insisting on a line for Connery to say as he recognizes the stolen portrait of Wellington. Likely, though, I figure I'll find franker comments in the other two Bond commentary tracks and I'm looking forward to those.

Agreed. I've always interpreted it that way and I believe others have interpreted it that way. There is an "entire disc" checklist item, so I think that is sufficient for encouraging watching a good deal of supplemental material.

Incidentally, if you were watching an Eclipse Series, you would likely be watching the entire disc (most are barebones).

Yep. Came on here to update that for everyone.

I'm thinking of putting in an order, but I'm not sure that I need more unwatched discs in my house right now. Especially considering that I have a whopping zero titles viewed so far. We'll see what happens in the next 66,000 seconds (that's the amount of time left for the sale).

Watch M the other day for the first time, amazing film.

Today at work watched Q Planes and started X From Outer Space.

Only then did I notice the trend. Perhaps I'll watch F for Fake next and see if there are more.

Interesting film. I knew the premise, of course, but I was a little surprised in how long it took to get there. It also went in different directions than I expected, which is a good thing. I saw the trailer for the remake and some of the look was strikingly similar. Dustin Hoffman was nicely cast. Only my second Peckinpah film and it's hard to measure up to The Wild Bunch, but I'm glad I finally saw it, and I'm still thinking about it days later.

Watching my non-anamorphic DVD of Silence of the Lambs. Great film.

Just got to the part when Jodie Foster says

We have 34 lists going in the list thread. I know this isn't the horror challenge, but that's pretty good.

Yeah, we've got good participation this year. I wish I had been participating up to this point. I started to rewatch Rashomon, got 24 minutes in, and got distracted.

I will finish my viewing early this week, along with all the materials on the disc, and post my feelings on the list thread. It's amazing how much I remembered (Ha!) from the single viewing years ago.

My one difficulty with this challenge is that I can't gobble up these films as I would with sci-fi and horror movies. I need to take time and reflect on the film I just watched.

There's nothing wrong with reflecting a bit on the sci-fi and horror movies as well. Whatever the genre may be, you should be able to get something from a movie. I often think about how a movie follows, and how it varies from, its genre. Most movies aren't as deep as The Rules of the Game, but if I just slide from one movie to another without any reflection, they just become a blur for me.

I found Yukio Mishima's Patriotism to be morally reprehensible, despite its aesthetic beauty. It seems to be only of interest as a historical artifact, in light of the crimes which followed.

I haven't seen Mishima, so I don't know how much it may add to the experience of that movie. Many years ago I read (and liked) Mishima's The Sound of the Waves, but now I'm wondering if I was wrong.

I watched Aki Kaurismaki's Proletariat Trilogy and the (non-Criterion) The Man Without a Past ,and continue to be impressed with the Eclipse releases. I enjoyed the deadpan humor and humanism of these movies, and am looking forward to the Leningrad Cowboys set.

I've seen 52 movies from 17 Eclipse sets and I've never been disappointed, even though it is rare for any of these movies to reach the level of the best of the main line Criterion releases.

I just finished all the supplements on the 8 1/2 Blu-ray, which I picked up used at Half Price Books back in late Spring for, like, $12. I posted comments on each feature in my list thread post (link in signature). Suffice it to say there are quite a lot of gems to be found. In the interest of context, it's worth noting that this is the only Fellini film I've seen to date and only the second Italian feature (the other was Divorzio all'italiana [Divorce - Italian Style], which I watched for last year's challenge, so those who are familiar with Italian cinema and/or Fellini, or composer Nina Rota, may be less enthralled than me. I'm now exhausted and going to bed. Will get to the commentary track later.

With the B-movie, Sci-fi and Animation challenges, I could always find stuff to watch, either movies or TV shows, that weren't too demanding and didn't take a lot of time. My strategy would be to start something at night before going to sleep, either a 90-minute-or-less movie or a disc with four TV eps. and stop somewhere in the middle when I nodded off and then continue after waking up in the morning and finish off an entry before getting ready to go to work. I'd save the more demanding material in each of those challenges for the weekend or vacation days.

With Criterion, it's much harder. I can only watch an Ozu, Kurosawa, or Mizoguchi when I have a lot of time and a full stomach, clear head, empty bladder and sufficient energy. I can't knock one off on a weeknight when I have to work the next day. I can only do those types of films on the weekend and only when I don't have a lot of chores or have not had a stressful work week--unlike this past weekend. I watched only two Criterion movies this weekend--one early on Saturday morning and the other early on Sunday, having started both the nights before--neither being particularly noteworthy. (Early morning is a good time to finish lesser films because my resistance is low and I can just lie in bed till it's finished.) I tried watching a Kurosawa on Saturday afternoon and after the first 40 minutes (of a 151-minute movie) I realized I was in no condition to give it the attention and patience it deserved. So I stopped. I tried watching AKIRA for the umpteenth time--and I'd read volume 1 of the manga a few days earlier--and even that was too much. So I put in a Japanese pop music concert instead. (If only Criterion distributed those!)

Sure, there are plenty of shorter, less-demanding films that are eligible, or ones I've seen plenty of times so I don't have to take notes, and build up my tally that way, but then it defeats the purpose of this challenge for me--which was to go through all the unseen Criterion box sets in my collection. So I'm having less fun with this one.

Care to share your favorites?
I've seen 10 1/2 sets, my favorite by far is the William Klein one.
I just watched the Larisa Shepitko set for the challenge, and The Ascent is a true masterwork. I haven't been that taken by a film in a long time.