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Era, I'm signing up for The Criterion Channel. Recommend me some movies.
- Thread starter Quinton
- Start date
If you only watch a few Zatoichi films, watch 1-3. 1 and 2 essentially form a part one and part two, and act as a fantastic character study introduction. 3 is the first film to be in color and digs deeper into the character's soul
Folks, sorry but RAN is not available on the channel.
Pro tip: always check the "Leaving on [insert end of month]" playlist first if you intend on using the service often. Tons of great films go on and off the Channel every month, including quite a few with literally no other way to watch on streaming (let alone quality home video for a reasonable price). There's tons of major and minor stuff in there, so check it and the curated playlists for somewhere to start.
For example, a metric fuckton of newer Korean movies are leaving CC at the end of this month Definitely don't miss out on Joint Security Area (any of the Chan-Wooks leaving, really).
Mubi's improved a lot recently by switching from a forced 30-film limit to streaming just everything they have the rights to, but CC's got them beat in sheer variety and supplements from their releases/curators. I'm envious of anyone diving into these movies for the first time.
For example, a metric fuckton of newer Korean movies are leaving CC at the end of this month Definitely don't miss out on Joint Security Area (any of the Chan-Wooks leaving, really).
Mubi's improved a lot recently by switching from a forced 30-film limit to streaming just everything they have the rights to, but CC's got them beat in sheer variety and supplements from their releases/curators. I'm envious of anyone diving into these movies for the first time.
Yeah, great recommendation!A very good Brazilian movie. Don't watch any trailers and don't read any summaries. It's pretty wild.
I personally started with the Criterion Channel very recently. Some of my favorite films I've checked out on there:
Don't Look Now
Paris, Texas
Ghost Dog Way of the Samurai
Dead Man
Black Moon
Probably the greatest italian movie of all time. It would be very healthy for non-italian people to learn some directors not named "Leon" or "Fellini" for a change.
Il sorpasso: Italy, Dark and Light
The Italian cinema expert describes the immense popularity of Dino Risi’s film in its home country, and the way it deepened the commedia all’italiana genre.www.criterion.com
Just wanted to say I watched this because of you, and it was great!
Eraserhead - One of David Lynch's best films. A surrealist nightmare about the fears of an unplanned pregnancy.
Gojira/Godzilla - The original classic using a monster as a metaphor for Hiroshima, and the dangers of nuclear weapons. Tense, dramatic, and with great use of special effects, I think the original is the best in the series.
M - Fritz Lang's masterpiece about a child murderer in Berlin and the effect of his crimes on the city. How different levels of people in a society react to a crisis, and also an analysis of the killer himself.
The Manchurian Candidate - A political thriller with a unique plot of brainwashed P.O.W.'s sent back to America, with one being a sleeper agent to perform an assassination.
Persona - Ingmar Bergman's mind fuck of a drama about a nurse caring for an actress who has gone mute, trying to figure out what has caused this. With both getting to know each other on a remote house by the beach, past trauma and current hardships are revealed.
Police Story - Some of the best stunts, fights, and action sequences you'll see in a Jackie Chan movie.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Horror classic that even today feels all too real. Preying on the viewer's fear of being alone, isolated, and a stranger in a rural environment.
Wild Strawberries - Another Bergman classic. This one about an elderly man nearing death, looking back and analyzing his life. Touching, heartfelt, emotional, and relatable, this is a must see.
Gojira/Godzilla - The original classic using a monster as a metaphor for Hiroshima, and the dangers of nuclear weapons. Tense, dramatic, and with great use of special effects, I think the original is the best in the series.
M - Fritz Lang's masterpiece about a child murderer in Berlin and the effect of his crimes on the city. How different levels of people in a society react to a crisis, and also an analysis of the killer himself.
The Manchurian Candidate - A political thriller with a unique plot of brainwashed P.O.W.'s sent back to America, with one being a sleeper agent to perform an assassination.
Persona - Ingmar Bergman's mind fuck of a drama about a nurse caring for an actress who has gone mute, trying to figure out what has caused this. With both getting to know each other on a remote house by the beach, past trauma and current hardships are revealed.
Police Story - Some of the best stunts, fights, and action sequences you'll see in a Jackie Chan movie.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Horror classic that even today feels all too real. Preying on the viewer's fear of being alone, isolated, and a stranger in a rural environment.
Wild Strawberries - Another Bergman classic. This one about an elderly man nearing death, looking back and analyzing his life. Touching, heartfelt, emotional, and relatable, this is a must see.
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Happy to raise awareness of this masterpiece!
My favorite trivia is that to film in a desert Rome, they shot the credits at 5am in full summer.
I still have Bruno's damn car horn sound in my head! Also, I wondered how they pulled that off. It seemed way too big to be a set, so I figured it must have been a real city just didn't think they were actually filming in Rome.
Really enjoying this thread and people's suggestions, I'm really not a movie buff but been more and more curious about all these great movies that I've never even seen before. In just 7 days since I subbed to the Criterion channel I've already discovered so many great directors and movies, can't wait to watch more!
I watched The Student Nurses last night lol. It was pretty good and the story behind the film is somewhat interesting:
en.wikipedia.org
It's short and pretty ridiculous but I dug it, overall.
I am always a slave to the "Leaving this month" section. I've got a bunch more I want to check out, still.
Killing of a Chinese Bookie was added this month and I had that recommended to me from someone here. I liked it, but it was surprisingly hard ti follow. I had to learn some details from reviews / the wiki that I clearly missed. The characters were all wacky, though, so I liked that. Cosmo, the main guy, is very strange and I like that he has, in effect, an RPG Charisma score of 20. Everyone just loved him.
en.wikipedia.org
The Student Nurses - Wikipedia
It's short and pretty ridiculous but I dug it, overall.
I am always a slave to the "Leaving this month" section. I've got a bunch more I want to check out, still.
Killing of a Chinese Bookie was added this month and I had that recommended to me from someone here. I liked it, but it was surprisingly hard ti follow. I had to learn some details from reviews / the wiki that I clearly missed. The characters were all wacky, though, so I liked that. Cosmo, the main guy, is very strange and I like that he has, in effect, an RPG Charisma score of 20. Everyone just loved him.
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie - Wikipedia
Which version did you watch? The original, longer 1976 cut? Or the later, shorter '78 cut? There are quite a few differences between the two, enough to consider them two distinct takes on the same material.
I just watched A New Leaf (1971), directed by Elaine May and starring Walter Matthau (May also costars). It's a dark comedy about a lifelong NYC bachelor that spends the last of his fortune as the movie opens and takes some extreme measures to make sure he never goes poor again.
It's an early 70s film that has the heightened quality of films of that time. It's absurd, a bit goofy, a bit nasty, but fun and even a little heartwarming at times.
It's an early 70s film that has the heightened quality of films of that time. It's absurd, a bit goofy, a bit nasty, but fun and even a little heartwarming at times.
If you haven't seen it: The Passion of Joan of Arc. Watch it with the Voices of Light score (CC has multiple versions to select). Probably my favorite score for a silent film, and the movie itself is incredible. It just flies by.
I also recently enjoyed Le Million, a 1931 French musical comedy about a man who wins the lottery, yet loses his ticket after his girlfriend gives away the jacket it was left in to a criminal on the run. It was directed by René Clair, who at the time was weary of utilizing sound in film, but used it to great effect here:
I also recently enjoyed Le Million, a 1931 French musical comedy about a man who wins the lottery, yet loses his ticket after his girlfriend gives away the jacket it was left in to a criminal on the run. It was directed by René Clair, who at the time was weary of utilizing sound in film, but used it to great effect here:
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I believe Criterion has Chimes at Midnight which is a telling of Shakespeare's Henriad plays focusing on the character of Falstaff, played by Orson Welles.
OP
OP
Nuts! I just realized I never responded to this. Uber-appreciate all the suggestions! This is why I love Era. <3
The original; I saw there was a second one and figured OG was more "correct". I did read that it is quite a bit different... I'll make a point to check it out for sure.
I liked it, just was kinda bizarre at times. The long shots of the "acts" lol. I paused it once and just pondered how odd it was to keep the scene going... I read in the wiki that those were cut, mostly, in the later version :)
I personally prefer the '78 iteration, myself. It's a much less "objective" take on the material, which strikes a certain welcome chord for me. In the recut, Cosmo's experience seems more of a smoky, neon-lit fever dream, with that atmosphere of '70s grit and noir-fatalism colliding to utterly intoxicating effect. I could bask in those nighttime interiors and exteriors endlessly. The indelible images of the tiniest pinprick of light illuminating a scene inside a dark car; a yellow cab emerging from the San Francisco gloom as an infernal chariot conveying the hero to an assassination attempt; Timothy Carey's ghoulish mug in profile; etc.. This is one of the most vivid Neo-noirs of the 1970s.
I wasn't at all surprised to later discover that the great Frederick Elmes (largely uncredited) was responsible for much of the film's buzzy look.
Dietrich/Von Sternberg films
Dishonored (1931)
Shanghai Express (1932)
Blonde Venus (1932)
Marlene Dietrich made a bunch of films with director Josef von Sternberg, all of them available on Criterion and interesting in their own way; I highlighted three of those: from an Austrian-set World War I spy drama to the kinda bonkers Blonde Venus.
Wooden Crosses (1932) - A great, underseen French drama about World War I.
The 39 Steps (1935) - Alfred Hitchcock kind of invents the modern "man on the run" thriller.
Preston Sturges comedies
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
The Lady Eve (1941)
The Palm Beach Story (1942)
There are a few other films of Sturges' on the service, but this trio is him at his peak. Palm Beach Story may be my favourite film of 1942.
Brief Encounter (1945) - early David Lean, much slimmer than the epics he'd become known for from the 1950s onward.
Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger films
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
Black Narcissus (1947)
The Red Shoes (1948)
Known for their Technicolor epics, these are all just marvelous films to look at, and Colonel Blimp especially is a really fascinating wartime document given its highly sympathetic German character (even though he's very expressly anti-Nazi, apparently Churchill himself was made about this); and the ballet sequences in The Red Shoes really need to be seen to be believed.
Dishonored (1931)
Shanghai Express (1932)
Blonde Venus (1932)
Marlene Dietrich made a bunch of films with director Josef von Sternberg, all of them available on Criterion and interesting in their own way; I highlighted three of those: from an Austrian-set World War I spy drama to the kinda bonkers Blonde Venus.
Wooden Crosses (1932) - A great, underseen French drama about World War I.
The 39 Steps (1935) - Alfred Hitchcock kind of invents the modern "man on the run" thriller.
Preston Sturges comedies
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
The Lady Eve (1941)
The Palm Beach Story (1942)
There are a few other films of Sturges' on the service, but this trio is him at his peak. Palm Beach Story may be my favourite film of 1942.
Brief Encounter (1945) - early David Lean, much slimmer than the epics he'd become known for from the 1950s onward.
Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger films
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
Black Narcissus (1947)
The Red Shoes (1948)
Known for their Technicolor epics, these are all just marvelous films to look at, and Colonel Blimp especially is a really fascinating wartime document given its highly sympathetic German character (even though he's very expressly anti-Nazi, apparently Churchill himself was made about this); and the ballet sequences in The Red Shoes really need to be seen to be believed.
Watch Elmer G. Ulmer's Detour if you want to see Ann Savage's other memorable film role -- filmed more than 60 years before.
Fuuuuuuccckkkkk, how could I forget Francois Truffaut's The 400 Blows? A great semi-autobiographical character study of a rebellious youth living in a society that doesn't care to understand him. Very dramatic and so well captures the perspective of a child. Another must-see.
I love a good mistery story, here's a couple:
"Caché" by Michael Haneke
I found the mistery setup very gripping from the start. I was very surprised by it.
"The Conversation" by Francis Ford Coppola
Again, very intriguing from the start, not as subtle, but very good.
I also saw "Benny's Video" from Haneke, which is quite grim, depressing and a bit fascinating; but not as much as "Come and See" by Elem Klimov.
For a bit of horror\thriller, "The Vanishing" is so good.
I've seen it several times, the characters are so real it makes the plot even more frightening.
"Caché" by Michael Haneke
I found the mistery setup very gripping from the start. I was very surprised by it.
"The Conversation" by Francis Ford Coppola
Again, very intriguing from the start, not as subtle, but very good.
I also saw "Benny's Video" from Haneke, which is quite grim, depressing and a bit fascinating; but not as much as "Come and See" by Elem Klimov.
For a bit of horror\thriller, "The Vanishing" is so good.
I've seen it several times, the characters are so real it makes the plot even more frightening.
