Well it’s the beginning of August which means it’s also the end of the Criterion sale at Barnes and Noble. I would like to think that my single month record which I nearly doubled this month will not be beaten, but I could theoretically win the Powerball and then all bets are off. What’s truly astonishing, and something you might have wondered while reading this is how damn many films I’ve found to get. No one could say I was a slouch in the Criterion blu-ray department on July 9th before this sale started. Yet somehow every trip I find myself easily picking up ten new titles, often putting a couple back to restrain myself, aka get it next time. I did manage to make one final trip on the last day mainly to exchange my damaged copy of Love Streams, but crossed a couple extras off as well.
The Emmy nominations were announced last week and I do not watch enough television to bitch about it. I’m happy The Watchmen got the most nominations, and certainly pleased What We Do In the Shadows is up for best comedy series. Professional team sports ball also returned in the past week or so, and if the Marlins have anything to say about it, it will promptly get canceled before my next birthday (August 12). So there are new and exciting things to distract me from watching movies, but I did make it through another somewhat torturous Chantal Akerman film (four more to go). Thanks to the Criterion Channel I also checked out Secrets, a Frank Borzage film from 1932 and one of the last films Mary Pickford put out. It was fine, but it felt like a 3 hour film that was edited down to 75 minutes. Literal decades were skipped past and it was a bit all over the place. Not sure if Frances Marion had more ambitious ideas with her script or it was conceived to be that disjointed. Also a studio picture epic with what looked like a B-movie budget didn’t do it any favors.
If you’re curious, we did get through another Wes Anderson feature (Darjeeling Limited) with Hotel Monterrey to boot. I did resist the urge to upgrade my Darjeeling disc, but perhaps in a future sale when I knock off a few dozen others. What’s most alarming and amazing about this sale is how many damn Criterion releases I want. Even running through my checklist after I got home I noticed several titles that I probably would have purchased if they were at the store. Typically the end of the sale means one last online order for whatever wasn’t available, but barnesandnoble.com was very cleaned out.
So here it is, the final round of purchases, now I just have to put them in order in my bookcase:
Silence of the Lambs - FINALLY!!! Well I went to Old Orchard and dug around through the entire section, listening to an older gentleman exhale very loudly and whistle into his mask in a most distracting fashion. Then I overheard an associate say “I’ll be right there after I re-stock these Criterions.” My ears perked up, and I sauntered over to offer my assistance. He asked if there was any particular title I was looking for and I said Silence of the Lambs. He dug around, said “Here you go” and my excitement fell flat when I realized it was a DVD. He looked through it some more and said that was the only copy. Then he let me take a gander and after finding a few things, near the end of the box was another copy, this time on blu-ray. I did not think I would strike out so many times, but now I finally have this damn movie on blu-ray and I can relax and watch it again for the first time in nearly two decades. Or take another two decades to re-watch it, whatever happens first.
The Night Porter - For those that only know Charlotte Rampling from 45 Years, let me tell you something. That woman was a god damn dynamo in her youth. The Night Porter blurs the line between art film and sleaze in the best way imaginable, and Rampling holds it down with authority. It is both problematic and fantastic with so much grey area to wallow in.
Carnival of Souls - I’m not going to pretend I’m cool and say that I always loved this offbeat low-budget cult horror film. In fact I thought it was boring and kinda dumb. It was always a public domain title and I’m sure I watched it in that form. Being an early Criterion release I was at first perplexed it was deemed worthy of inclusion. Over the years though I’ve wanted to give it another go, and this obviously seems like the ideal method. I’ve garnered a lot more respect for the more moody and atmospheric horror films, especially the anomalies from the fringes. Maybe one day Spider Baby will join the collection.
Rashomon - You might be wondering, but I didn’t have this film already. My DVD copy of it was a Korean bootleg with English subs. I’ve meant to upgrade it for the past 18 years or so, and every sale I simply said next time. I’ve seen Rashomon more times than I can count, and even made Caroline sit through it, so I figured it might be a long while before I sit through it again. When I picked up High and Low and the Yojimbo-Sanjuro two-pack I figured I might as well knock this one out. There are a few Kurosawa blu-rays I still don’t have but do own on DVD, Dreams would be his only release I have no copy of other than maybe a VHS tape somewhere. I’m curious to listen to Donald Richie’s commentary because in my opinion he is the authority on Kurosawa’s work. Also that commentary might distract me from the baffling acting choices.
Woman in the Dunes - Hiroshi Teshigahara is never mentioned first among the great Japanese directors, but Woman in the Dunes is a certified masterpiece. A weird tale of Stockholm syndrome from a reversed gender perspective, it remains his most enduring work. Several of his films got released in a set on DVD, but this and his documentary on Antonio Gaudi are the only blu-ray offerings. This fell into the same boat as Rashomon as a Japanese classic that it was high time to upgrade.
Breathless - I’ve bitched at length about some of Godard’s Criterion releases, and I still don’t think this is a perfect release, but it’s a damn sight better. Like Rashomon this was another one-of-those-days releases that I’ve seen 5-6 times. Since I did make Caroline sit through this a couple of years ago I figured my own need to revisit it would be assuaged for some time. The selling point other than it simply being time however was the inclusion of Mark Rappaport’s Jean Seberg, a not too easy to find film before this release. It also includes Godard’s early short Charlotte et son Jules.
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters - Ever see a movie that is just phenomenal and then you never think of it again? That’s kinda how Paul Schrader’s masterpiece is. I saw this back in 2007 or so and loved it. Never thought about getting it, and pretty sure I even passed up on it a few times this month. Somehow with my other Japanese films I thought about how I actually enjoyed this film more than Rashomon and Woman in the Dunes. You really couldn’t ask for a better collection of extras, and if you haven’t seen or even heard of this film, check it out, one of the best 80s movies period.
Broadcast News - It’s easy to think of James L. Brooks as a TV man. He produced some wildly successful shows, including The Simpsons, and if anything his brother Albert (who co-stars here) might have appeared to be the more interesting filmmaker. However James did take a stab at directing and won himself all of the awards for Terms of Endearment. In my opinion it is a no-brainer that his follow up Broadcast News was the superior film. It does feature William Hurt during his extremely impressive 80s run and Holly Hunter who can almost make you forget how great she was in Raising Arizona the same year.
Anatomy of a Murder - Nearly every Criterion sale for the past two years I look at my collection and think “I have Anatomy of a Murder right?” Well I do now. Perhaps it was the fact that I built a classic movie puzzle this week that featured Saul Bass’s iconic cover, but when the disc was sitting in that box of titles to re-stock I jumped on it. The film is worth it for Duke Ellington’s score and although it’s impact might have dulled a bit over time it was a rather boundary pushing landmark in it’s day. Preminger loved to be provocative and this might be his best work.
The Gold Rush - For now this seems like the last of the well established classics that I reluctantly added to blu-ray. On it’s own The Gold Rush remains one of the best films from the 1920s, this release is a massive upgrade from the public domain version I’ve had on DVD for the past 20+ years. Never been super keen on the narrated version but along with Limelight (which will be discussed shortly) this was the last of the major Chaplin blu-ray releases I didn’t have. I should make an exception for Monsieur Verdoux but that’s handled later. It does mean something to have a classic film in it’s definitive version. I’ve spent the past several years convinced that the next Criterion sale would be when I pick this up.
Repo Man - What’s wonderful about the Criterion Collection is the fact that they have obscure cult movies released right alongside the most pretentious art films. Alex Cox whose Sid and Nancy was one of the earliest Criterion releases hit pay-dirt with this earlier film. Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton are both perfection here. There are many stylized classic films worth owning and re-visiting on Criterion but those oddball cult classics seem to be the most interesting. Repo Man has arguably the single greatest product placement outside of Wayne’s World but it easily maintains it’s credibility. Being someone raised on cult movies, it is always appreciated when a significant film has such a great release.
La Notte - There are some directors who just seem to own a decade. Renoir in the 30s, Kurosawa in the 50s, but Michelangelo Antonioni can make a case for himself in the 60s. I still have L’Avventura on DVD, but all of his other classic work I had on blu-ray. The one exception was La Notte, the second film in his unofficial trilogy of existential ennui. I’ll give you one guess why I never got it, that’s right there is no audio commentary track. Nearly every decade I find it necessary to revisit all of Antonioni’s classic films and they are all different degrees of fantastic. Perhaps La Notte doesn’t quite reach the levels of the preceding and following films, but it’s a solid middle entry. Damn sight better than Bergman’s trilogy of the same era.
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion - So if memory serves there is a bootleg DVD of this somewhere in my possession. It was first brought to my attention by Jack Ellis’ History of Film book, which led me to track down my earlier version. When Ennio Morricone passed away a few weeks ago I saw this among his accomplishments. Whenever an obscure movie you have on DVD-R gets a proper blu-ray release it is a cause for celebration, so that means I probably should have picked up Death By Hanging. Italian cinema in the late 60s and early 70s was quite exciting. Although I watched that bootleg I have literally no memory of it. I definitely picked this up in tribute to Morricone but even then it was a last second addition.
The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant - Before I watched Berlin Alexanderplatz this was my favorite Rainer Werner Fassbinder film. As quarantine kicked in it got a little love as a great kammerspiel, or chamber drama. It is a fantastic example of cinema in an enclosed environment. Fassbinder used tons of long takes and a cast of all his regular females to make a thoroughly engaging melodrama. Like so many of my recent releases this was another film that I had kicking around on VHS. The special features are not some first ballot hall-of-fame quality stuff but it was certainly better than nothing.
Limelight - Chaplin’s Gold Rush falls into the same category as Rashomon and Breathless. Two essential classics that I revisited not too long ago that have Criterion releases I never got. Monsieur Verdoux I own on Image DVD so despite it being a better film than Limelight, I passed for now. Limelight though is the other other Chaplin blu-ray title I didn’t yet own. Hopefully some day A King in New York gets updated, so this will remain for a time his latest release. It is noteworthy as the only film to star both Chaplin and Keaton, and a nice bonus is two of his early two-reel comedies.
La Chienne - Did someone say Renoir? Well I did earlier, go ahead and scroll back. His first feature sound film is amazing. It was remade as Scarlet Street by Fritz Lang, and that version is also great. I wanted to update some Renoir titles this month, and this wound up being the only one I bought. I still get plenty of mileage out of my Rules of the Game DVD, but would love to see Boudu make the jump, which is a great joke if you’ve seen the film. A Day in the Country was also going to be mine this month but the disc was rattling around inside and I figured best not to take a chance it’s scratched. Unfortunately for this release the most prominent extra is On purge bebe, his first sound film which was used to help finance this. The reason I say unfortunately is because it’s an objectively terrible movie and arguably the only dud Renoir crapped out (another joke relevant to that film) during the thirties.
So that’s a lot for the month. I aim to write about a broader spectrum of topics going forward, but this little obsessive month crossed a lot off of my list. Until next time, keep watching movies.
*blogspot has changed their formatting a bit so if things look a little off, bear with me as I adjust.
