Weekend should be coming soon but don't have a timetable on it.

Not trying to hijack this thread...

But...

I noticed a few dozen pages ago that there was a couple members discussing/wanting to sell their copies of 'The Man who Fell to Earth', 'The Third Man' and 'Pierrot Le Fou' if you still are or clearly knows of someone who does please PM/Email me. Thanks, Charlie Howard

Unless that's changed in the last couple of weeks, Pierrot Le Fou could still be found for a reasonable price.

Is it a known fact that they will do 50% when they hit that magic number?

Likes stand at 99,804 right now

^
It would be Christmas in August if all pre-orders were included in such a sale.

No 50% after 100K likes on Criterion FB, btw, jsut a nice little thank you to us Criterion geeks.

Sooo...



Guesses?

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Sweet! That's definitely Heaven's Gate! I hope it's the director's cut!

It's been restored and will premier at the Venice Film Festival.

Thanks.
I'm curious for this one only if the extras are worthwhile.

First thing I thought of as well.

I had never heard of it before so I looked it up. Wikipedia says it's considered one of the worst movies ever and a complete failure in every way. Is it actually good? I'm a bit surprised Criterion is releasing it after hearing that.

It was a pretty notorious flop when it came out, and it got a lot of really negative press. Like Ishtar, its name has become synonymous with "huge budget flops." Many saw it as an example of the danger of letting a director have free rein over his own film, and studios may or may not have used it as an excuse to become slightly more conservative in their financing decisions.

However, it did have its defenders at the time of its release, and over time its reputation has improved quite a bit. Some critics now consider it an unfairly maligned masterpiece (it ranks in the 600s on the "They Shoot Pictures, Don't They" list, which is a ranked list of the top 1000 greatest films as compiled from hundreds of critics lists from around the world.) There are also various cuts of it that apparently improve on it.

I watched one version of it many years ago, and I remember feeling pretty ambivalent about it. It definitely wasn't "one of the worst movies ever" or anything - at the very least, it's very beautiful, and the production values are top notch. But the film never really seemed to come alive, which made the running time seem very long indeed.

I'll probably rent the Criterion release to see if my views have changed - or to see if the director's cut improves on it - but I kind of doubt I'll end up loving it or wanting to buy it (I also have mixed feelings about Cimino's more widely loved film, so I think I may just not like his style.)

It's definitely one of their riskier choices, but I can kind of understand their motivation for releasing it. At the very least, it's pretty important to Hollywood history. There was also apparently a lot of drama on the set, so they should be able to come up with some interesting extras.

So happy if it turns out to be Heaven's Gate!

There's no doubt about it.

Then I am overjoyed!!

This movie, more than any ever, has created the biggest change in opinion for me over the years. When I first saw it I was underwhelmed, but over the years it has become one of my favorites.

Does Wiki really say that? Sondheim is right. It's a really good film that got really bad publicity and word of mouth before anyone had even seen it. It was maligned for years. Then people actually fucking watched the thing and realized it was very good. Not great like The Godfather or anything, but certainly nowhere near bad.

The directors cut plays on HD Net movies and it looks beautiful.

here's an odd one: brie larson's top 10 criterions

sidenote: i think i'm officially in love with her

I'm sure it will include the director's cut. What will really be a coup is if we get the shortened studio cut. It has never been released on video. Comparing the two will be very interesting.

It's great seeing such a young actress being so into films of all kinds.

This is the one I've been waiting for for years.

I think it's safe to assume this will be the 219 min. cut(same as the MGM dvd that came out in 2000). That was the one that originally premiered in 1981, played for three days and was then pulled from theaters for a year and half while Cimino removed an hour of footage. The shortened version has never been released on video.

What would really be interesting would be the five hour rough cut that Cimino showed to United Artist executives. Steven Bach mentions it in his book Final Cut.

There's also a great documentary (in eight parts) about Heaven's Gate on youtube.

Heaven's Gate is certainly not one of the worst films ever made. Often when a film is labeled one of the worst ever, it has nothing to do with the film's quality. It's simply because the film has a rhythm that audiences can't appreciate or understand. They say it's terrible because it doesn't fit with the tiny cinematic palette that they're used to.

Look at 2001: A Space Odyssey. The film is long, slow and has huge sections where there's no dialogue at all. It's hard to explain the hypnotic feeling that makes 2001 so alluring to someone who thinks it's boring. Many critics and moviegoers had a very negative opinion of it in 1968. But 2001 stood the test of time.

Why was Heaven's Gate treated so unfairly? The director's preferred version only played for THREE DAYS on ONE screen before it was yanked from distribution. So many people had the opinion that it was one one of the Worst Films Ever Made, and yet almost no one had actually seen it.

It's known that the long director's cut is actually better. The documentary Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession discusses Heaven's Gate and how I think the long version was shown either on that cable channel or shown at a festival.

Speaking of films with more than one versions, any chance Criterion would be interested in/could get their hands on 1984? It would be nice to have both versions of this film as well.

agreed.