Criterion Does It Again

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

One more Godard for July.  Only one of his I've ever liked that much was Pierrot Le Fou.

I'm really glad to hear this from an actual film buff -- I can't tell you how many times I've almost had my beardo card revoked for not being that into Godard (though to be fair, I've only seen like 3 or 4 of his films).  I do love Truffaut, though.

[masterofsparks]

Dunno if I qualify as a film buff, but Godard never really did it for me, either. I really hated Alphaville, which I expected to love.

[Matt]

The only Godard film I've seen is Band of Outsiders. I liked it well enough. I'm a sucker for dancin', though.

[jbissell]

This thread has some great fake covers.

[Gilly]

Three of my favorites from that thread...

[nec13]

In the words of Chris Matthews: Ha!

[Pidgeon]

Hold on to your tacos!

[Chris L]

Really looking forward to this August box set, which also marks their first co-production with the Hart Foundation:

[nec13]

I just bought The Battle of Algiers after renting it from the library. What a fantastic film. Criterion really did a great job with that release.

[Joe Rogaine]

Criterion is teaming with Martin Scorsese to preserve and restore endangered film.

[Matt]

The Blu Ray line is really starting to heat up. Playtime, Repulsion and Last Year at Marienbad are all must-buys for me.

And yes, I nearly had a Hart Attack when the Nikkatsu Noir box was announced.

[nec13]

Although it will never happen, it would be cool for Criterion to get the rights back to "This is Spinal Tap." The Criterion version apparently has a bunch of stuff that isn't on the DVD that's out there now. I've heard that the commentary tracks are especially cool.

[cron]

Criterion is teaming with Martin Scorsese to preserve and restore endangered film.

This is great for many reasons, but particularly because it means that the nearly-impossible-to-see A Brighter Summer Day (dir. by Edward Yang who also did "Yi Yi"), which I often cite as my all time favorite movie when pressed, is finally coming to DVD in a restored version.  I only have it in a horribly degraded bootleg rip from an 15+ year-old Taiwanese laser disc, yet its so inexhaustibly powerful to me that I've watched it 3 times in this format (it's 4 hours long). 

[jbissell]

Criterion is teaming with Martin Scorsese to preserve and restore endangered film.

This is great for many reasons, but particularly because it means that the nearly-impossible-to-see A Brighter Summer Day (dir. by Edward Yang who also did "Yi Yi"), which I often cite as my all time favorite movie when pressed, is finally coming to DVD in a restored version.  I only have it in a horribly degraded bootleg rip from an 15+ year-old Taiwanese laser disc, yet its so inexhaustibly powerful to me that I've watched it 3 times in this format (it's 4 hours long). 

That's good to hear.  I love Yi Yi and recently downloaded a mediocre copy of Summer Day that I have yet to watch.

[Chris L]

Criterion is teaming with Martin Scorsese to preserve and restore endangered film.

This is great for many reasons, but particularly because it means that the nearly-impossible-to-see A Brighter Summer Day (dir. by Edward Yang who also did "Yi Yi"), which I often cite as my all time favorite movie when pressed, is finally coming to DVD in a restored version.  I only have it in a horribly degraded bootleg rip from an 15+ year-old Taiwanese laser disc, yet its so inexhaustibly powerful to me that I've watched it 3 times in this format (it's 4 hours long). 

That's good to hear.  I love Yi Yi and recently downloaded a mediocre copy of Summer Day that I have yet to watch.

I just recently bought one of those bootlegs and now I'm debating whether I should just sit tight for the Criterion.  Last time I checked one of the boots was also uploaded in two parts on Google video. 

The first four restored Scorsese world cinema movies are streaming free on the Auteurs website.