30 M

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psufootball07
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2008 2:52 pm

#51 Post by psufootball07 » Wed Apr 02, 2008 4:47 pm

Antoine Doinel wrote:Simply put - get the whole set. For me personally, my favorite is Stolen Kisses - and many people like different films in the series for different reasons. But the real benefit of the set is that you get different things out of each film as you get older/have more life experience and the relation with the Antoine Doinel character gets deeper with time.
I wish I had gotten the version with at least Antoine and Colette. I will look into the box set in the future, as of right now I am looking into getting the new Criterions Death of a Cyclist, The Fire Within, and the Janus children releases (Red Balloon, White Man, Paddle to the Sea). Ingmar Bergman is my favorite director, so I should probably get his Trilogy and Scenes from a Marriage to go along with his other work I have.

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Napier
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#52 Post by Napier » Wed Apr 02, 2008 4:52 pm

psufootball07 wrote:I wish I had gotten the version with at least Antoine and Colette. I will look into the box set in the future, as of right now I am looking into getting the new Criterions Death of a Cyclist, The Fire Within, and the Janus children releases (Red Balloon, White Man, Paddle to the Sea). Ingmar Bergman is my favorite director, so I should probably get his Trilogy and Scenes from a Marriage to go along with his other work I have.
TOPIC man! What the hell does this have to do with M.

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psufootball07
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#53 Post by psufootball07 » Wed Apr 02, 2008 4:55 pm

Got a little side tracked, relax man. The new edition of the M Criterion I feel is one of the best packages they have offered, up there with My Own Private Idaho and possibly The Seven Samurai re-release packaging.

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: 30 M

#54 Post by knives » Sat Dec 27, 2008 12:41 am

Did Lang shot some of the scenes silent? The reason I'm asking is the big raid on the bar, and a few small moments, go completely silent, not even sirens or music, on my DVD. Despite the sheer WTF quotient of this moment I thought the movie was absolute genius. Never be able to listen to Mountain King again.

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Tommaso
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Re: 30 M

#55 Post by Tommaso » Sat Dec 27, 2008 6:55 am

knives wrote:Did Lang shot some of the scenes silent? The reason I'm asking is the big raid on the bar, and a few small moments, go completely silent, not even sirens or music, on my DVD.
Actually, yes. In those early days of the transition from silent to sound films, many directors thought about how to use the new technology in a creative way, i.e. not necessarily just creating a 'realistic' aural backdrop, but using sound as a means of expression and 'highlighting' what was going on visually. The best example for this are the nerve-wrecking industrial sounds at the beginning of "Testament of Dr. Mabuse". But also consider that the silent bits of "M" wouldn't have appeared as irritating then as today on dvd. There would always have been the hiss and crackle on the soundtrack that would create a certain aural continuity, unlike the totally cleaned-up dvd audio.

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markhax
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Re: 30 M

#56 Post by markhax » Sat Dec 27, 2008 3:32 pm

knives wrote:Did Lang shot some of the scenes silent? The reason I'm asking is the big raid on the bar, and a few small moments, go completely silent, not even sirens or music, on my DVD. Despite the sheer WTF quotient of this moment I thought the movie was absolute genius. Never be able to listen to Mountain King again.
Not just "some of the scenes" but two-thirds of the film, as I read somewhere (I thought it was in Tony Kaes's BFI monograph, but I couldn't find the passage just now.)

Lang was the last major German director to hold out against sound film, and when he finally used sound, he did so brilliantly and creatively. Sound becomes not just a way of capturing speech but is a crucial factor in the narrative. It is delicious that Beckert, the child murderer in M, is identified and captured through sound rather than by sight. He is identified by a blind man, the balloon seller, who recognizes him through his whistling the Peer Gynt tune; and when Beckert is hiding out in the office building it is the scratching noise he makes as he tries to escape that leads his pursuers to locate him. Then there are also wonderful uses of the voice-over, as with Elsie's mother desperately calling her name as we look down the the empty stairway, or see Elsie's unoccupied chair at the kitchen table, etc.

There are similar brilliant uses of sound in "Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse."

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knives
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Re: 30 M

#57 Post by knives » Sat Dec 27, 2008 3:49 pm

Thanks alot. It does create a unique aura that is rare. I'm really liking what I've seen from Lang.

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markhax
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Re: 30 M

#58 Post by markhax » Sat Dec 27, 2008 6:39 pm

knives wrote:Thanks alot. It does create a unique aura that is rare. I'm really liking what I've seen from Lang.
If you haven't seen it already, watch "Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse," with that brilliant opening sequence in the counterfeiters' machine room with its loud rhythmic pulsations. Two counterfeiters enter the room, and spot the foot of a police spy hiding behind a machine--they communicate to each other silently, through sign-language, as though in a silent film. They leave; after waiting a couple of minutes, the spy slips out behind them, out of the building onto the street. The counterfeiters await him at both ends of the block, and roll an oil drum full of explosives down the sidewalk, targeting the spy. As it bursts into flame at his feet the screen goes black, and five minutes into the film we finally hear the first words--disembodied speech against this black screen, "Feuerzauber mein lieber, Feuerzauber! (Fire magic, my dear, Fire magic!), like a commentary on what we have just witnessed. The voice begins to whistle, then to hum, the "magic fire" motif from Wagner's "Die Walküre." After we see an office directory, listing his name among others in the homicide department, we finally see the source of the voice, Police Inspector Lohmann, lighting his cigar, identifying the tune we have just heard to Müller, his assistant.

This kind of inventive interplay of sound and sight recurs throughout the film.

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aox
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Re: 30 M

#59 Post by aox » Sat Oct 24, 2009 2:39 pm

Coming to Blu:
Criterion Collection wrote: And yes, M will be a Blu-ray, but it hasn't been announced yet.

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dr. calamari
Joined: Fri Dec 14, 2007 11:55 pm
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Re: 30 M

#60 Post by dr. calamari » Tue Oct 27, 2009 3:49 am

markhax wrote:
knives wrote:Thanks alot. It does create a unique aura that is rare. I'm really liking what I've seen from Lang.
If you haven't seen it already, watch "Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse," with that brilliant opening sequence in the counterfeiters' machine room with its loud rhythmic pulsations. Two counterfeiters enter the room, and spot the foot of a police spy hiding behind a machine--they communicate to each other silently, through sign-language, as though in a silent film. They leave; after waiting a couple of minutes, the spy slips out behind them, out of the building onto the street. The counterfeiters await him at both ends of the block, and roll an oil drum full of explosives down the sidewalk, targeting the spy. As it bursts into flame at his feet the screen goes black, and five minutes into the film we finally hear the first words--disembodied speech against this black screen, "Feuerzauber mein lieber, Feuerzauber! (Fire magic, my dear, Fire magic!), like a commentary on what we have just witnessed. The voice begins to whistle, then to hum, the "magic fire" motif from Wagner's "Die Walküre." After we see an office directory, listing his name among others in the homicide department, we finally see the source of the voice, Police Inspector Lohmann, lighting his cigar, identifying the tune we have just heard to Müller, his assistant.

This kind of inventive interplay of sound and sight recurs throughout the film.
It's for things like this that Lang is quickly becoming my favorite director of the 1925-1935 era...not as crazy about his output once he got to America, but he still managed a few moments of absolute brilliance in films like Hangmen Also Die and Scarlet Street. Just nothing like M and the first two Mabuse films.

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HerrSchreck
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Re: 30 M

#61 Post by HerrSchreck » Tue Oct 27, 2009 2:26 pm

They're admittedly very different kinds of films versus the mammoth achievements of his silent masterworks, but films like Fury, You Only Live Once, Scarlet Street, The WOman In The Window, You Only Live Once, Secret Behind The Door, Hangmen Also Die.. these films represent the absolute apex of Hollwood golden era filmmaking. A film like Scarlet STreet alone-- the grey poetry of the ending is a thing of great beauty, a grim, open ended denouement that just shatters the screen with its statement of quiet desperation.

And I absolutely adore his Indian Tomb movies-- not to mention the Fantoma discs, which are masterpieces of transfers/encoding themselves.

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Ashirg
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Re: 30 M

#63 Post by Ashirg » Sun Nov 01, 2009 12:02 am

I was watching the extras and in the interview with Chabrol, he said that both Lang and Renoir had films that dealt with the same subject and that in his opinion, both of Renoir's film were better (probably a French bias). I was wondering if anyone knew which films he was talking about?
Renoir's La chienne (1931) and Lang's Scarlet Street (1945)
Renoir's La bête humaine (1938) and Lang's Human Desire (1954)

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Florinaldo
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Re: 30 M

#64 Post by Florinaldo » Sun Nov 01, 2009 9:44 am

Ashirg wrote:Renoir's La chienne (1931) and Lang's Scarlet Street (1945)
Renoir's La bête humaine (1938) and Lang's Human Desire (1954)
To clarify further Chabrol's words; in each of these couplings, both films are based on the same source novel. Georges De La Fouchardière wrote La Chienne (literally "the dog-bitch") and Émile Zola was the author of La Bête Humaine,

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zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: 30 M

#65 Post by zedz » Sun Nov 01, 2009 3:12 pm

And to be fair to Lang, he was remaking Renoir's films in relatively straitened circumstances, so Jean definitely has the advantage - and this didn't prevent Scarlet Street, at least, being a great film.

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dr. calamari
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Re: 30 M

#66 Post by dr. calamari » Mon Nov 02, 2009 1:49 am

HerrSchreck wrote:They're admittedly very different kinds of films versus the mammoth achievements of his silent masterworks, but films like Fury, You Only Live Once, Scarlet Street, The WOman In The Window, You Only Live Once, Secret Behind The Door, Hangmen Also Die.. these films represent the absolute apex of Hollwood golden era filmmaking. A film like Scarlet STreet alone-- the grey poetry of the ending is a thing of great beauty, a grim, open ended denouement that just shatters the screen with its statement of quiet desperation.

And I absolutely adore his Indian Tomb movies-- not to mention the Fantoma discs, which are masterpieces of transfers/encoding themselves.
I just watched Fury last night, and it was pretty good, especially compared against other American films of the era. Lang's scenes of small town Americans working themselves into a frenzy over hearsay was reminiscent of similar (but better) scenes in M. The acting was pretty good, with the exception of Sylvia Sidney. Lang must have been exceptionally harsh with her during filming...you can almost see it in her performance.

Still, Fury isn't prime Lang; I plan to watch it a few more times to see if it grows on me. As time and my budget permits, I'll collect the Lang films I haven't got yet so I can see how each stacks up against the others. I'm sure it will be time well spent.

Thanks, Herr Schreck...your comments are always insightful and worth reading.

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swo17
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Re: 30 M

#67 Post by swo17 » Fri Feb 12, 2010 12:51 pm

Coming to Blu-ray May 18.

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TMDaines
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Re: 30 M

#68 Post by TMDaines » Fri Feb 12, 2010 1:19 pm

If you've already got the two disk Criterion DVD why would anyone upgrade to the Blu over importing the MoC? I'll be surprised if the other extras will be in HD and that way you have no overlap and all the extras and both booklets. If you're region locked you're a fool.

I may be tempted to double-dip in a sale eventually as I've got the MoC Blu waiting at home already.

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swo17
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Re: 30 M

#69 Post by swo17 » Fri Feb 12, 2010 1:23 pm

a Blu-ray exclusive: The long-lost English-language version of M

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triodelover
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Re: 30 M

#70 Post by triodelover » Fri Feb 12, 2010 1:31 pm

swo17 wrote:a Blu-ray exclusive: The long-lost English-language version of M
It's on the MoC release in 1080p. It appears, at least at this point, that the Crit will be SD. I think TM is right. If you own the SD Criterion, buy the MoC and keep both (assuming you are region free and have the space).

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eerik
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Re: 30 M

#71 Post by eerik » Fri Feb 12, 2010 1:36 pm

Isn't it upscaled on MoC's disc?

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triodelover
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Re: 30 M

#72 Post by triodelover » Fri Feb 12, 2010 1:37 pm

eerik wrote:Isn't it upscaled on MoC's disc?
Yeah, I believe it is. Thanks for the correction.

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eerik
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Re: 30 M

#73 Post by eerik » Fri Feb 12, 2010 1:38 pm

I'm sure that Criterion will also upscale it. At least they like to upscale other SD features...

Bleddyn Williams
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Re: 30 M

#74 Post by Bleddyn Williams » Fri Feb 12, 2010 2:38 pm

TMDaines wrote:If you've already got the two disk Criterion DVD why would anyone upgrade to the Blu over importing the MoC? I'll be surprised if the other extras will be in HD and that way you have no overlap and all the extras and both booklets.
It's a fair point - I already have the two-disc Criterion and have been itching to order the MoC blu, but wanted to hear what Criterion might be offering in HD before ordering. Now we know, I've ordered the MoC for the exclusive features (their extra commentary sounds very promising), lovely cover and three month lead.

My initial reaction was to sell my Criterion DVD and later pick up their blu, but if the extras are simply upscaled, you've made a good case to simply hold onto the DVD. In any case, having M in blu from MoC means there's no rush to buy Criterion's blu the second it comes out.

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TMDaines
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Re: 30 M

#75 Post by TMDaines » Fri Feb 12, 2010 5:24 pm

Indeed.

Part of me is surprised they aren't re-releasing the DVD version as didn't they bugger up the picture in the last release? It was the right aspect ratio but was matted incorrectly or something.

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