Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

Doh! I was wondering why a seasoned veteran like yourself was asking a newbie question.

I guess this is a special circumstance, and up to our moderator for an official ruling. I'd vote yes fwiw.

Either way, I think I'll watch it September 30th for (hopefully) double credit.

Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

Yes, it counts. I think we decided that anything officially announced by Criterion counts, including titles on their Hulu channel that don't have spine numbers. In this case, there's an official announcement, it has it's own page, spine number and release date, so it definitely counts.

I think the only time a film wouldn't count is when it comes to vague sort of unofficial announcements like, "Boyhood will see a future release on Criterion" or "Criterion will release The Grand Budapest Hotel in a few years." Those are essentially "official" statements from Criterion, but they don't have a release date, spine number, and an actual official announcement.

Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

I did now. I've always noticed the large number of "Summer" titles in the collection because I have four of them (Summer Hours, Summer Interlude, Summer With Monika, and Smiles of a Summer Night). There are ten titles containing "summer" by the Criterion search function.

Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

While we're noticing things, has anyone noticed Fishing with John doesn't really have much fishing, as he isn't much of a fisherman?

Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

It's on HULU already...

Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

I only watched one episode last year (didn't really appeal..), but I do remember thinking that, yes. :)

Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

And "Tokyo" is another of the surprisingly-common titular words, I think. Though barring a re-release I doubt I'll ever own Tokyo Olympiad. :(

I was pleased to notice the other day that Hulu has "Q Planes" and "X (something)" meaning an Alphabet of Criterion is easily possible..! ;)

Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

I started today's Criterion watching with another episode of Tanner '88, and so far, I am really enjoying the show.

Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

Fishing With John is definitely a strange little thing. I could see either loving or hating it depending on my mood.

Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

Agreed. Watched it last year and enjoyed it, this year, it was like a train wreck that I couldn't stop watching.

Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

Count me in the same group. The only episode that I remotely liked was something like the second to the last episode.

Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

Watching Dressed to Kill for the first time in years. The irony is that De Palma called his 1984 film "Body Double" instead of this one. :)

I was underwhelmed the first time I saw it as well. Need to revisit.

Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

Yesterday, I stayed home from work in an attempt to soothe my aching bones. I drove/rode for over fourteen hours on Tuesday, and I'm not accustomed to spending that much time in a car. So I settled on the couch with the cats and had myself a movie marathon after a week long hiatus.

I started with Seven Samurai, one of my favorite Kurosawa films. I've had the beautiful BD on my shelf for a long time, and a lazy morning of recouping seemed like the perfect time to watch. This time around, it reminded me of a pared down RPG. After some trial-and-error, a group of farmers hire Kambei who becomes the de facto leader and gathers six companions (side note: the video game Mass Effect has a central character find six allies to fight along side). We learn a bit about each of them; they establish a hierarchy and camaraderie; they train the farmers; they have a series of increasingly desperate battles. If you take out the side quests and minigames, this is essentially the template for the RPG plot.

Next, I watched La collectionneuse which is about very French people going to the countryside and indulging in a lot of sexual politics. While I'm typically a fan of such things, I have to be in the mood, and yesterday wasn't the right time for this film. Still, I enjoyed it enough despite wanting to throttle every character. I'm two-thirds of the way through Eric Rohmer's Moral Tales, and I find his films a bit cold and clinical, even though they are about excessive and messy human emotions.

After doing my unpacking, housework, and exercising, I watched Safety Last!. A couple years ago, I won a collection of Harold Lloyd shorts for participating in the Comedy Challenge and fell in love with his hapless character and brand of slapstick. This film deepened my appreciation. From the ingenious visual gags to the increasingly bombastic cons the main character attempts to pull, every thing here is a delight. I especially love how Lloyd builds a world; gags that seem to be one-offs have unintended consequences for the characters later in the film.

Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

The ice fishing one with Willem Dafoe, or Part 1 of the one with Dennis Hopper?

Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

The Willem Dafoe episode.

Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

Just watched Foreign Correspondent. It was my last Hitchcock film that qualified for the challenge that I haven't watched before. It was pretty good. I laughed a bit. The ending was a bit contrived, I thought, but I read that it was refilmed that way after the war had officially broken out, so I can understand trying to incite American audiences into wanting to take up arms to help his homeland. I'd recommend if anyone else hasn't watched it.

I am surprised at Criterion's subtitles in this film. I watch a lot of films with it and this one did not do a great job. There were a LOT of words missing. It's almost like the person who transcribed it didn't feel the need to add the last part of a sentence like every letter was costing them money or something. I've noticed a word here or there missing before, but nothing like this one. It was really bad...Ugh.

Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

On the 'mildly ironic titles' front, I watched Hitchcock's Sabotage, based on "Secret Agent" and then watched his... Secret Agent (based on "Ashendon"). Which left me mildly confused as to which was which when the source name popped up!

I remember thinking it was excellent the first time round... maybe it's all about timing?

Slightly-similarly, I remember enjoying but being only mildly amused by The Importance of Being Earnest last time around. This year, I was in stitches! "Do you know this lady?" "Good Heavens! Gwendoline!" "Yes - GoodHeavensGwendoline." :D

Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

It is my very sincere hope that a collection of Lloyd's Short Films - maybe the 'Glasses Character' series - will one day be a full part of the CC. Especially as Eureka put Buster Keaton's shorts into the Masters of Cinema collection, and there's Pierre Etaix and others in the CC already.

And now that I read two more have been found that were formerly lost... so much the better!

Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

This article on the reunion of the Warriors tomorrow at Coney Island makes me wonder why Criterion doesn't take on THE WARRIORS (1979) and do a full-bore release of the two different versions and any behind-the-scenes footage and docu's that may exist:

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/rem...lassic-7607043

I haven't seen the film in a long time (I did see it when it came out) and I'm getting a hankering to see it again. I taped it off TV twice, but those would be the only copies I have. Don't recall when or what channel.

Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

I just watched Jack Tanner get his first political scandal in 'Night of the Twinkies', on Tanner '88 on Hulu. It was also a pleasant surprise seeing Cleavon Little guest star in the episode.

I lost one source of my viewing, as while I decided to keep the DVD plan, I let my streaming plan lapse on Netflix.

Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

When I watch movies, I don't usually consider how deeply directors are influenced by their elders, it was obvious today, when I watched Terrence Malick's Badlands, which clearly influenced Quentin Tarantino's films, especially True Romance, and Persona, where you can tell how deeply Bergman affected David Fincher's style. Fincher lifted the penis shot for Fight Club, as well as the theme of blended personalities.

Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

It's not from the novel?

Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

I'll give you Badlands to some extent, but I think that the Bergman/Fincher connection is shaky at best.

Badlands has an entirely different tone to it than Tarantino's films. While it's entirely possible that Tarantino has based several of his cinematic couples on the one in Badlands, it's just as likely that he also took into account the couples in films such as The Honeymoon Killers, Bonnie and Clyde, and Pretty Poison--all of which predate Badlands by several years.

I don't know that you can attribute the blended personality theme of Fight Club to Fincher, as it's based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk, and that theme is central to the plot. As for the penis shot, what connection are you seeing between the two, other than some full-frontal male nudity being shown on screen? That would kind of be like saying that Hedy Lamarr's nude swim in Ecstasy influenced Jamie Lee Curtis's topless shot in Trading Places. If you're seeing a more causal relationship between Bergman and Fincher, I'd like to know what you're seeing, so that I can re-evaluate based on your evidence. You may be entirely right, but I don't see the relationship at first glance.

Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

We all know Tarantino as a fellow film nerd likes to lift elements of films he admires for his own movies, which he did with True Romance. Let's start with the music. Malick used Carl Orff's Gassenhauer as the recurrent love motif on the Badlands soundtrack. And here is Hans Zimmer's love theme from True Romance. . Malick uses narration from the female protagonist, as does Tarantino. Sheen's character models himself after James Dean; Slater wants to be Elvis; both couples are on the run after the antihero commits a murder to "liberate" his girl, and so on.
Come to think of it, Oliver Stone borrowed those ideas for Natural Born Killers as well.

And somebody already beat me to listing the similarities between the Badlands/True Romance here.

The connections between Persona/ Fight Club are more tenuous. I'm aware that the split personality is an important element of Palahniuk's novel. I'm talking about the visual composition, how the themes are represented on the screen. I can't find good comparison shots from Fight Club, so perhaps it is just the late hour when I watched Persona that made me think I saw more similarities in shot composition.

However, the subliminal penis insert at the end of Fight Club (0:43) is an homage to the opening of Persona (0:38) (Obviously NSFW)

Re: 7th Annual Criterion Challenge - Discussion Thread
 

I see your point as to the specific references to Badlands in True Romance, but I still can't give you the music selection in toto, since Tarantino only wrote True Romance and didn't direct it. Tarantino may have indicated certain source musical cues that he wanted used, but I feel pretty sure that hiring Zimmer for the underscore was Tony Scott's decision. That's not to say that Tarantino didn't discuss music with Tony Scott; Scott might very well have shepherded Zimmer toward trying to get an Orffian feel into the score after discussions with Tarantino. I think what has yet to be determined is, how much involvement other than writing the screenplay did Tarantino have in the production of True Romance? At the time of its production, he was still a relative newcomer to Hollywood, and his clout was far from established. It took Pulp Fiction for him to become deified.

Your subliminal shot comparison between Persona and Fight Club is dead-on; I thought that you were referring to an earlier shot in Fight Club that was not subliminal.

Thanks for taking the time to give the explanations; I think that I'm now seeing what you're seeing...and it makes a LOT more sense to me.