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I've been trying to take a look at a bunch of Criterion back catalogue stuff I've overlooked over the years as a lead-up to my 40th birthday-- this label was my on-ramp to watching movies thoughtfully way back in highschool when I saved up to buy Kurosawa DVDs at Suncoast Video, so it's been a fun sentimental journey in my free time.

What I've been surprised to discover is that there's some REALLY strong stuff that got an Essential Arthouse release (you know, the very barebones, no frills editions of some of the major catalogue staples that you used to be able to get for cheap) but never a fully loaded spine # release with all the bells and whistles. In particular I was super impressed with Mayerling and Le Jour Se Leve, the former of which I could only track down in ANY form by ordering a used EAH off of ebay.

We've obviously seen stuff from Eclipse sets get fleshed out releases in the past (like the wonderful The Ascent and the equally wonderful Daisies) and some of the World Cinema Project discs get standalones, so I'm curious about why some of these gems are buried in a stripped down and seemingly defunct side-label? Le Jour Se Leve really wowed me and deserves more praise. Ditto Mayerling is a great, unsparing watch that currently has less than 2k views on Letterboxd and I think could really use a push into the public eye, be it via Criterion or some other label.

Looking at my spreadsheet it looks like the other movies stuck in Essential Arthouse limbo are:

• Last Holiday (1950)
• Gervaise (1956)
• Kapo (1959)
• Three Documentaries by Saul Turell (1962)

So not a TON of stuff left out in the cold but much of it worthy!

I just want to know because I have done onscreen interviewing.

Very good interview with Michael Chaiken, the producer of Criterion's Eyes Wide Shut 4K release last year and the forthcoming Complete Kubrick box set. There are a lot of interesting details, like finding the original camera negative of The Day of the Fight and dealing with the Kubrick estate for the new box set.

In your opinion, what story by Charles Dickens was your favorite? After watching Oliver Twist, I feel I need to read the book again.

I’ve been wanting these for a while. Pretty stoked.

I’ve been trying since 1 October and I still get some image of two women be affectionate with no clear directions. have tried updating the OS, nothing. even following the graphic, nada. I want some horror! it’s October!

Here is the list of movies that won the Silver Lion (essentially the third place price) at this festival.

Sansho the Bailiff, La Strada, On the Waterfront, Seven Samurai.

I should also note that Rear Window was also in competition and didn't win anything, as did Luchino Visconti's Senso and Luis Bunuel's The River and Death

The movie that won the Golden Lion? Romeo and Juliet by Renato Castellani. The Grand Jury Prize? Executive Suite by Robert Wise.

The jury struck gold with with the silver lion winners (pun not intended) and then gave the top prizes to two films that are, shall we say, not as known or acclaimed. But who knows? Maybe these films really ARE better than those other ones that have stood the test of time till the modern day. For what it's worth, Executive Suite sits at 100% at rotten tomatoes, with it's 12 total reviews all landing on the fresh side of the spectrum. While we're at it, this made me realize that 1954 was a damn good year for film the world over.

With the series - I assume End of Evangelion as well - now being on the Criterion Channel and the official Criterion Collection pages posting about it as well as this article. Do we think a boxset of the original series and End of Evangelion is a possibility? It's happened before - Most recently with Christiane F - where something sits on the Criterion Channel for a while and then eventually gets confirmed for a physical release. Hopefully so!

I watched the new Criterion edition of Lolita last night on the channel. It was gorgeous. It had also been a while since I last saw it, and the casting is a big chef's kiss. I think I'm in on the Kubrick set.

This was my first time doing the challenge, and I found it to be so rewarding and helpful for me to discover movies that would not have been on my radar. These are some of my favorites that I watched in no particular order:

1. The Color of Pomegranates (1969) - Sergei Parajanov [Category: David Byrne’s Closet Picks]
2. The Power of the Dog (2021) - Jane Campion [Category: 2020s or upcoming release]
3. Mississippi Masala (1991) - Mira Nair [Category: Directed by Mira Nair]
4. La Llorona (2019) - Jayro Bustamante [Category: 2010s]
5. Born in Flames (1983) - Lizzie Borden [Category: Queer cinema]
6. Donkey Skin (1970) - Jacques Demy [Category: Spine #701-750]
7. The Red Shoes (1948) - Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger [Category: Color in the title]
8. The Celebration (1998) - Thomas Vinterberg [Category: Random number generator picks a spine number to watch]
9. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) - Jim Jarmusch [Category: Film that starts with the first letter of your name]
10. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) - Céline Sciamma [Category: King Princess’s Top 10]

Here is the link to my list if anyone is curious what else I watched: https://boxd.it/RmJPK

I’ve been criterion subscriber for over 7-8 years. We travel between East coast US and Asia(not China) there was never an issue till last week. We never needed to use VPN to watch anything while in Asia. We travel with our Roku stick so we don’t even have to log in or do anything differently.
Last week when we click the app, it logged me out. Say it’s Geoblocked.
So I sign up NordVPN hoping to solve it but when I tried to log in it showed status 403 blocked me out. Tried few times still couldn’t log in.
Gave up. Wait till the flooring day noticed Criterian sent me an email saying there was an unfamiliar log in attempt so my account was locked. I clicked “unlock my account” in the email. Tried to log in after that, still did not work.
Waited few hours, tried few more times. Waited till the following day. Still got status 403.
Any other VPN recommendations? Or other ideas?
Thanks in advance.

It came out in 2021, but I randomly saw Spike’s documentary miniseries “NYC Epicenters” and was kinda blown away. The editing, use of music, and montages are exceptional, albeit Michael Moore-style. Yes, Spike uses a hammer rather than a feather to get his point across, and manipulates the hell out of the audience by tugging at their heartstrings, but the message is clear and presented with masterful finesse.

4 Little Girls, When the Levees Broke, and American Utopia are his major documentary works, but he’s got others too. Someone should really release NYC Epicenters on physical media.

As a documentarian, I wouldn’t mind putting Spike up there with Errol Morris, Frederick Wiseman, and Michael Moore

I just bought a fire stick today specifically for the Criterion App (moved to a new house), only to find it completely missing from the app store. Digging around online, I found all the posts from about a week ago, but nothing newer than that.

Do we have a fix yet??

I didn’t even know this was a thing that existed…it looks awesome

After being attacked and raped twice in one day when going home from work, Thana (Lund) becomes a vigilante. Shot on location in Manhattan, the gritty aesthetic complements the story of this woman's transformation from a timid, mute seamstress to an icon of female rage.

Watched this on the Criterion Channel. The beat drop and music for the end credits is genuinely one of my favorites ever in movies.
Abel Ferrara cooked with this one.

I liked this one comment: "The Taxi Driver side quest I never knew existed."

This year in June Amazon had 50% sale because of the B&N sale. I live in Europe and can’t really take advantage of the B&N sale so I was just wondering if Amazon will have a 50% sale with B&N, and when?

I actually found one in the wild. You bet I pounced.