criterionforum.org

Posted: **Tue Dec 07, 2004 7:27 pm**

I don't know anything at all about Sara Driver's work, so this snarky comment has nothing to do with her, but brilliant artists marry hacks all the time. Love or whatever else it is that makes people marry each other sometimes, but seldom, has anything to do with professional admiration, I think.

A partial list of brilliant artists who married hacks:
Martin Scorsese
Stanley Kubrick
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway again
Bryan Ferry (almost)
Mick Jagger
Madonna
Guy Ritchie too
Dave Sim (not an endorsement)
etc.

Posted: **Tue Dec 07, 2004 7:52 pm**

How about Bigelow? Strange Days?

Posted: **Wed Dec 08, 2004 2:07 am**

Maedchen in Uniform (1931) would be a great one for Criterion to do. Home Vision put out the VHS.
A Question of Silence. The collection could also benefit from a few more Dutch films, too, and Marleen Gorris' debut feature would be a great addition.
About Vera Chytilova: I think the Facets transfer of Daisies is pretty good, actually. I liked that film quite a bit, and from what I've read about her other films, Criterion would be wise to investigate some of those.
The Maya Deren DVD put out by Mystic Fire includes not just all her "important" films as someone said but all the films she finished in her lifetime. Criterion could still clean up the dirt and scratches on them and perhaps find some great extras.
More Von Trotta would be very welcome, but I think New Yorker has most or all of them.
And I agree with those who suggested Shirley Clarke, Ida Lupino, Barbara Kopple, Varda, Trinh, and some others. Clarke's films in particular would make a great box set, but maybe she's not well-known enough for that to happen. Her films are probably even more underappreciated than Cassavetes' productions were.

Posted: **Wed Dec 08, 2004 8:28 pm**

One of the best discoveries I've made in the past couple of years is Sandra Kogut - a Brazilian documantarian whose works are in turn both hugely illuminating and very sharp, funny pieces. A collection of her work? For more info on her please check out: http://www.geraldpeary.com/essays/jkl/kogut.html

Posted: **Thu Dec 09, 2004 6:02 am**

Call me crazy, but I think that Strange Days would be a great addition to the collection. It certainly could use a little more care than the one currently available. Anyone here have a verdict on Blue Underground's treatment of The Loveless?

Posted: **Sat Dec 11, 2004 8:01 pm**

Another vote for Strange Days.

But more importantly: Liv Ullmann's Faithless

This film would be perfect in the collection: it's a Bergman script, directed by one of Bergman's best actresses. It's also flat out a masterpiece, really one of the best new films I've seen in ages. Plus the R1 edition is pan & scan (and maybe out of print?) and the R2 edition (Tartan) is of unaccepytable quality. We need this film on DVD in a decent edition and I see reason why Criterion shouldn't give it the treatment it needs.

Posted: **Sun Dec 12, 2004 2:41 am**

Strange Days would make for an awesome Criterion edition!

AMB wrote:Anyone here have a verdict on Blue Underground's treatment of The Loveless?

Beats the hell out of my old (now thrown out!) videotape – like discovering the film all over again. It has really nice commentaries with Bigelow, Montgomery and Dafoe. Such a vastly under appreciated film I think.

Posted: **Tue Dec 14, 2004 5:57 pm**

There's already a pretty good Image DVD of Lotte Reiniger's The Adventures of Prince Achmed, but it's something I could see Criterion releasing.

Posted: **Tue Dec 14, 2004 6:15 pm**

Kambei wrote:How about Bigelow? Strange Days?

Boy howdy did I hate that movie. I actually shudder at the memory of having to sit and watch it.

Posted: **Wed Dec 15, 2004 7:08 pm**

LOL

While I readily admit that Strange Days devolves into a plot-driven mess by the end, the point-of-view scenes were rivetting and a technical achievement. The murder POV is one of the most (deliberately) horrific scenes I have seen in any movie. However, perhaps you are right, not quite Criterion quality...(Although it is mentioned in the Sight & Sound article on films of the past 25 years. "Ridley Scott's 1982 Blade Runner (at number seven) stands alone here for the blockbuster cinema of spectacle that reshaped the world's media industries in the 1980s and 1990s. You'd have to go down to fiftieth place to find another example: Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days.")

How about the new Canadian film, Elles étaient cinq by Ghyslaine Côté? I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Posted: **Wed Dec 15, 2004 11:10 pm**

mingus wrote:
Jun-Dai wrote:Hmm. No one mentioned Maya Deren.
Her important films are already released by Mystic Fire Video.
Also the wonderful documentary on her life: "In the mirror of Maya Deren" was just released by Zeitgeist Video.

Still no one has mentioned Maya Deren
I can't find her work on Mystic Fire Video for love nor money!

Can anyone provide a purchasing link?

Posted: **Wed Dec 15, 2004 11:17 pm**

Try Mystic Fire Video website... or Amazon

Posted: **Wed Dec 15, 2004 11:25 pm**

Mystic Fire Video online charge $40.00 shipping to Europe. Bloody Crooks!
I shall try amazon though
Many thanks

Posted: **Thu Dec 16, 2004 7:33 am**

It's weird to me to read all the vitriol about Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days. While some of Bigelow's choices of material at times is rather funky, I think that The Loveless, Near Dark and Strange Days are all terrific works of art.

Given Criterion's penchant for releasing films with extreme psychosexual and perverted violence as evidenced by the likes of Peeping Tom, Straw Dogs, The Night Porter, The Silence of the Lambs, Man Bites Dog, etc. -- I think Strange Days fits in with this crowd quite comfortably. In fact, it goes far beyond the voyeuristic themes of any of these films to the point of literally making the viewer complicit in the crimes depicted on screen, which makes for a powerful, visceral experience. I can't think of another film like it. Can anyone?

One recently published book about Bigelow's work called The Cinema of Kathryn Bigelow: Hollywood Transgressor (edited by Deborah Jermyn and Sean Redmond) has one third of the book dedicated to Strange Days with these essays:

Strange Days: A Case History of Production and Distribution Practices in Hollywood by Romi Stepovich, Straight from the Cerebral Cortex: Vision and Affect in Strange Days by Steven Shaviro, The Strange Days of Kathryn Bigelow and James Cameron by Christina Lane and Rescuing Strange Days: Fan Reaction to a Critical and Commercial Failure by Will Brooker.

It's worth checking out if you're a fan of Strange Days!

Posted: **Thu Dec 16, 2004 12:21 pm**

A new banner for the Collection?

The Criterion Collection - A continuing series of classic and contemporary extreme psychosexual and perverted violence

Would certainly attract a different clientele!

In fact, it goes far beyond the voyeuristic themes of any of these films to the point of literally making the viewer complicit in the crimes depicted on screen, which makes for a powerful, visceral experience. I can't think of another film like it. Can anyone?

The Guinea Pig films? (or at least the first two)

http://www.unearthedfilms.com

Posted: **Thu Dec 16, 2004 10:02 pm**

Subbuteo wrote:Still no one has mentioned Maya Deren
I can't find her work on Mystic Fire Video for love nor money!

Can anyone provide a purchasing link?

I rented it from Netflix. I was unimpressed. My favorite thing on there was "The Private Life of a Cat" by her husband.

Posted: **Thu Dec 16, 2004 11:32 pm**

mteller wrote:I was unimpressed.

You ignoramus.

Maybe try and watch "In the mirror of Maya Deren" first, in order to get acquainted with her person and attitude.
That documentary impressed me so much that i immediately set out to watch all her films.

I have to say that i was really impressed by Maya's editing and storytelling.
My favourite films of her would be "At Land" and "Ritual In Transfigured Time".

Posted: **Fri Dec 17, 2004 12:52 am**

subbuteo wrote:Still no one has mentioned Maya Deren

You must have skipped my post.

Posted: **Fri Dec 17, 2004 1:05 am**

colinr0380 wrote: The Criterion Collection - A continuing series of classic and contemporary extreme psychosexual and perverted violence

I think Criterion already has that crowd covered!

I know my language was coarse and probably should have been cloaked with something delicate like "the daring exploration of modern sexual mores and the resulting physical devastation visited upon unfortunate victims of circumstance..." Make all that juicy sex and violence sound more academic and worthy of study. Where would we be without deconstructing more titillating intertextuality!

Staying on topic: another possible woman-directed candidate: Night Games (Nattlek), Mai Zetterling, 1966. It fits the Criterion mold perfectly – 1960’s, Swedish, directed by a Bergman alumni (Mai Zetterling), starring Bergman alumni (Ingrid Thulin, Jörgen Lindström) with loads of kinky sex and psychodrama.

Posted: **Fri Dec 17, 2004 1:17 am**

I wonder if Criterion would consider releasing Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi's My Twentieth Century, a beautiful black-and-white fantasy from 1989 that had a pretty widespread US video release with terrible, gigantic subtitles that blocked out large portions of the film. I haven't seen any of Enyedi's subsequent films, but this would be a fun left-field release.

Posted: **Fri Dec 17, 2004 2:14 am**

mingus wrote: My favourite films of her would be "At Land" and "Ritual In Transfigured Time".

Indeed. Ritual in Transfigured Time is one of the all time great short films: superb conception, choreography and execution.

I'm not sure exactly what's included on the Mystic Fire video, but some of her films only exist in fragmentary and unfinished form (or have been completed by other parties) and need to be assessed with that in mind.

Posted: **Fri Dec 17, 2004 9:56 am**

zedz wrote:I'm not sure exactly what's included on the Mystic Fire video

Meshes of the Afternoon
At Land
A Study in Choreography for Camera
Ritual in Transfigured Time
Meditation on Violence
The Very Eye of Night
Excerpts from Divine Horseman: The Living Gods of Haiti
Plus Alexander Hammid's short Private Life of a Cat

Posted: **Sun Dec 19, 2004 7:30 am**

The aforementioned Kathryn Bigelow book from Wallflower Press has some great essays on her work. Also good is the David Lynch book from the same publisher.

Posted: **Sun Dec 19, 2004 10:52 pm**

This set here below might be a good possibility:

http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/B ... 18-5553717

Posted: **Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:56 am**

matt wrote:I think after Criterion's last experience working with La Babs, there won't be another. Did she not want the discs recalled because there was a typo on the back cover?

I recently read an old archived thread from HTF that had an extensive story about this debacle. Here's the story:

Criterion worked hard with Streisand to create this disc. Eventually, everything was completed, Streisand gave her approval of the project (she had final approval on everything), and the disc was pressed, packaged and ready to be shipped to retail. About a month prior to release, Criterion sent out ~5 early review copies to the prominent LD reviewers of the day (myself included). They also sent Streisand her copies — and that's where the problems started. Streisand rewatched her LD and suddenly decided that she didn't like how she "sounded" on her audio commentary. She thought she sounded insincere in places, and wanted to change both the way she spoke and some specific details she was unhappy with. So, she demanded that Criterion allow her to re-record her entire commentary from scratch, and place that new commentary on the LD before shipping it out.

Except that it doesn't work that way. As you well know, you can't just "replace" the track on the already existing discs. You'd have to remaster, repress and repackage the entire production run. Criterion balked at this, since it would be an extreme waste of time and money, considered that B.S. has already approved the entire project and the discs were finished. Unfortunately, Streisand had the last say legally (due to her final approval rights, which were still in effect since the LD wasn't actually released yet) and they were forced to comply. In the end, Streisand redid her commentary, but she also went in a made a few other little minor changes to the supplementary material (and to the jacket). The title was repressed, repackaged, and that's the version that consumers saw in stores.

As for the original original version, all remaining copies in the warehouse were destroyed. All that remained were the 5 or so copies sent to us reviewers, a few copies given away at a Criterion Xmas party that same year, and a small box (~10 copies) that was stolen from their warehouse (by one of the workers) who sold the then-rare LDs at a local Los Angeles convention.

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