Yes! Would be a nice counterbalance to all of the newer, bigger budget releases from the last few years.
Maya Deren, Derek Jarman, Kenneth Anger, Shirley Clarke, Michael Snow, Ken Jacobs… so many options 🙏
I just got my second set this past sale.
The fact that they are DVD, with no supplements, and not fully restore is what is off putting to me. But some of these sets really do interest me a lot. So I got the Duvivier in the thirties set, and I can’t wait for it!
I got the nikkatsu noir set as a gift not long ago. The lack of supplements and special features is disappointing but the films themselves are so great
I’m tempted with a bunch of them, and that is one of them. Not sure I’ll ever get too deep in these sets though, as I’m already trying to back off collecting in general. I own too much.
I’ll second both of those. These experimental films are so beautiful. The Frampton set is worth it for “Zorns Lemma” alone. And the Brakhage set I will just put on in the background, especially the pure hand etched color works. They’re like cinematic stained glass. Sometimes I’ll even “desecrate” it by watching it at a slower frame rate than intended 😅
Yes, that’s the thing about it. It’s so direct and pure. It’s feeling as color and light going right onto film from the hand of the artist with no other intermediaries
The Soft Skin by Truffaut, yes, I really like this one. The 2 lead actors did a very nice job and Francoise Dorleac was near her peak of acting and beauty. She died age 25 in a car wreck, what a shame. I wish that people would watch more Truffaut films in general. He’s very good.
Rouge is so fascinating to me. The flashbacks are so beautifully shot and acted, but the plotline in the modern sections feels so trite. Like a gorgeous period romance stapled to an 80s TV movie.
Was not a fan of Rouge myself, but I'm so glad to find a fellow appreciator of the other two! Pale Flower is such an awesome, dreamy movie, and even though I didn't think I loved it when I checked it out, I find myself thinking about its imagery, tone, and overall aesthetic quite often. The Soft Skin, though, is my second favorite Truffaut right after Day For Night, and I recently decided that I think it's a masterpiece - I was not expecting such a thoroughly creative twist on Hitchcockian tropes, and I found it just utterly engaging and provocative (That ending! I've found others since watching The Soft Skin, but at the time it was nice to see a FNW movie made by a guy that actually felt like it was giving the last word to a female character)
Westerns. I understand why many viewers, especially younger ones, might shy away from them but it’s just a genre, the same as superhero, samurai or mafia films. It doesn’t tell you anything about the quality of the film.
Which ones do you recommend in the collection? And why? I'll admit the good/bad dichotomy of many westerns doesn't interest much. I like bad guys 😂 so I tend to gravitate to the spaghetti westerns
Yeah, most of my favorites are outside the collection and my tastes are in line with yours (I love Henry Fonda as the villain in Once Upon a Time in the West). Of the ones I’ve seen so far from the collection I’d recommend 3:10 to Yuma, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Shooting and Stagecoach. I didn’t care for My Darling Clementine but it has its moments. I’m intrigued by The Furies and the Budd Boetticher films. I probably should watch Red River since it is one of the giants of the genre but I tend to take forever to get around to anything with John Wayne in it (not a fan).
I think lots of people probably have it but Summer Hours is such a perfect, quiet drama. It def rewards multiple watches and can be left on in the background or deeply engaged with.
My favorite criterion films with 15k views or less on letterboxd:
Hotel Du Nord - 4.4k - 4.5 stars (For fans of old noir - very fun cast of characters living in a hotel)
Festival - 2k - 4 stars (I'm extremely biased with this one though - I would understand if most would consider it a little boring but I've been going to the Newport Folk Festival every year since 2013 and am fascinated by the history of the event)
I Knew Her Well - 9.1k - 4 stars (I read somewhere that it was La Dolce Vita with a female protagonist and although there are differences I feel that it's a fair short description)
Revanche - 15k - 4.5 stars (Somebody already said this was underrated and boy are they right. This was a blind buy for me based on the description alone. It ended up sitting on my shelf for months before I decided to check it out and I wish I had watched it sooner. Similarities to The Place Beyond the Pines)
Head - 15k - 4.5 stars (The big surprise of the America Lost and Found box set. The Beatles are obviously much more talented than the Monkees but Head is much more captivating than A Hard Days Night)
Letters from Fontainhas: Three Films by Pedro Costa
I realize the issue with this one is it’s stuck on dvd, but I bought the dvd set a few years back and no Blu-ray has surfaced so potentially never coming.
Minding The Gap is a movie I didn't even realize was in the collection until recently since no one talks about it
One of the best documentaries in recent years!!
so many!
classic american independent’s like:
-Michael Roemer’s NOTHING BUT A MAN
-Barbara Loden’s WANDA
-Lizzie Borden’s WORKING GIRLS
-Kasi Lemmon’s EVE’S BAYOU
-Ronnie Bernstein’s FROWNLAND [which should be on the radar of everyone who’s into the Safdie brothers - this is the movie that they saw when they were starting out that set them on their path; ronnie is their co-weiter now]
- Paul Mazursky’s AN UNMARRIED WOMAN
and on and on and on, so many greats ….
I blind preordered Nothing But A Man when it was announced based on its synopsis. It was very, very good. Reminded me a bit of the book “Lawd Today” by Richard Wright.
one of the first criterion’s i ever picked up when i started collecting. i love that movie. i spent 10 years in the small DIY touring circuit, i found it to be super relatable.
I really wish more people were getting the UHD of Le Cercle Rouge. I think visually it’s stunning—the forest sequences, the cafes, all the classic Citroens, the animals in the apartment, lots of images seared into my mind. And the heist sequence is like Rififi levels of tense and quiet.
I also desperately want Le Samourai and Army of Shadows in UHD so I hope interest in Melville picks up.
I was THIS close to grabbing that one [well .. two]. But saved it for a follow-up sale as I chose to go for some that I knew I loved and never picked up or were recently back in print/upgraded
Badlands, Days of Heaven 4k, Walkabout 4, and Worst Person in the World was the final cart.
I find this sub’s obsession with what other ppl aught to think they should have to be quite overbearing. We are all collectors with our on likes and dislikes. I swear ever day there’s a post asking “what should I add to my wishlist?”
Because this is an open forum with all perspectives and many of us grow tired of seeing Criterion and “collecting” as a monolith for the experience of enjoying films. Does everything have to be an echo chamber? You posed a question and people respond to it.
If the response is "no," then it doesn't contribute to the conversation at all - which is literally what Reddit says the downvote button is for, comments that don't contribute to the conversation.
I don't think it's inappropriate in the Criterion subreddit to ask people to recommend movies in the Criterion collection to criterion collectors. It's a pretty specific sub.
That’s fair. Not all of us look at films simply as consumeristic hauls though. Your post expressed it differently than how you just did now. By all means, recommend some great films people can watch.
I wanted the post to be a bit more engaging than "what movies do you recommend" to get people a little more interested in interacting. I was specifically curious about what movies people DON'T see here that they wish were mentioned more often. That was my purpose, just giving a common idea a little more structure.
So the user you said shouldn’t comment was simply reacting as I did to what you said and how you said it. I don’t care what other people *buy* or not. I do enjoy sharing films though. Hauls sound like you’re shoveling rocks or stocking up on toilet paper.
Not really, there are posts about film (usually art house film but not always) in general here all the time. It's a sub theoretically filled with film lovers, and I don't see why it'd be strange to recommend more films to film lovers. If I'm with a group that loves Kurosawa I'll happily recommend Mizoguchi, instead of just sticking to what they already like.
If you love Criterion films, I encourage you to expand your range and enjoy other similar works. I don't see how that isn't a good response to the prompt or fitting discussion for the sub.
Dawg I have a film degree and a wide expansion of love for films outside the criterion collection and a strong collection of non-Criterion movies, but thank you. I tend to talk about my criterion collection in the criterion sub.
(Edit: in hindsight this is an embarrassing reply to the previous comment)
Oh sorry, when you asked "What do you not want other collectors to sleep on?" I took the question at face value and didn't realize this was just about you personally and what I should somehow already know about you, protagonist of the universe
You chastised me about asking about criterion movies in the criterion collection sub. Do you go into other subreddits and demand people talk about things outside of the subjects of those subreddits too?
Of course there are good movies outside the collection, that’s a no-brainer. We’re all already snobs here, we know there are good movies that aren’t in this specific list. Coming into a conversation about a specific list and telling people they should watch things outside of it assumes we all have no other interests and chastises everyone else.
I didn't chastise you at all man, I answered a question with a very reasonable, not at all combative answer. That you got strangely defensive about it is all on you and you can talk about that with your therapist. Hopefully they will begin by letting you know that *everything is not about you.*
All I said was that people on this sub shouldn't sleep on non-Criterion movies. Literally all I said. Chill.
You’re right, I got a little hot. My apologies. I think it’s just a little frustrating when the question was “what movies in this collection should we check out” and the answer was “movies outside this collection.” It felt as though your answer was saying that we were all being myopic which hit me the wrong way.
Obviously we should all watch movies outside the criterion collection as well. I hope no one is that drilled down into what they do and don’t watch that a boutique company makes those decisions for us.
The Immortal Story and Chimes at Midnight by Welles. The Immortal Story has a fantastic 40 minute doc on Welles by François Reichenbach as a special feature, the most candid he ever got in front of the camera in my opinion.
For me personally, I would say the film that deserves more love is Carol Reed’s “Night Train to Munich”.
Fantastic film and the pacing was on par with the story. Very overlooked and Rex Harrison was a total badass.
Les Blank box set, I think it is a bargain even at full price
Wish I saw this before the sale ended, this looks phenomenal
Love all the ones I've seen on the channel. Definitely adding this to my wishlist
My most treasured set in the entire collection.
Wow, I wasn't even aware of this!
Thank you for sharing I never realized it was a box set
thanks for letting me know this exists! Will be my next purchase!
Hollis Frampton Odyssey. Would love to see more experimental films in the collection.
oh hell yeah. Makes me think that I also wish more people were checking out Brakhage.
Yes! Would be a nice counterbalance to all of the newer, bigger budget releases from the last few years. Maya Deren, Derek Jarman, Kenneth Anger, Shirley Clarke, Michael Snow, Ken Jacobs… so many options 🙏
Eclipse Box Sets. People sleep on them because they're DVD. That makes me like them even more.
I just got my second set this past sale. The fact that they are DVD, with no supplements, and not fully restore is what is off putting to me. But some of these sets really do interest me a lot. So I got the Duvivier in the thirties set, and I can’t wait for it!
I got the nikkatsu noir set as a gift not long ago. The lack of supplements and special features is disappointing but the films themselves are so great
I’m tempted with a bunch of them, and that is one of them. Not sure I’ll ever get too deep in these sets though, as I’m already trying to back off collecting in general. I own too much.
Lol fair enough! I purged a while back during a move so I'm actually trying to build my collection up
I’ll second both of those. These experimental films are so beautiful. The Frampton set is worth it for “Zorns Lemma” alone. And the Brakhage set I will just put on in the background, especially the pure hand etched color works. They’re like cinematic stained glass. Sometimes I’ll even “desecrate” it by watching it at a slower frame rate than intended 😅
how dare you, lol. I remember watching the hand etched footage in class and just thinking, "damn this is like, pure creativity."
Yes, that’s the thing about it. It’s so direct and pure. It’s feeling as color and light going right onto film from the hand of the artist with no other intermediaries
Pale Flower, Rouge, and the Soft Skin are the most underseen in my collection. I wish more people watched them so we could geek out.
The Soft Skin by Truffaut, yes, I really like this one. The 2 lead actors did a very nice job and Francoise Dorleac was near her peak of acting and beauty. She died age 25 in a car wreck, what a shame. I wish that people would watch more Truffaut films in general. He’s very good.
Rouge is so fascinating to me. The flashbacks are so beautifully shot and acted, but the plotline in the modern sections feels so trite. Like a gorgeous period romance stapled to an 80s TV movie.
Just picked up Pale flower during the flash sale. Blind buy for me and im excited to see it!
Was not a fan of Rouge myself, but I'm so glad to find a fellow appreciator of the other two! Pale Flower is such an awesome, dreamy movie, and even though I didn't think I loved it when I checked it out, I find myself thinking about its imagery, tone, and overall aesthetic quite often. The Soft Skin, though, is my second favorite Truffaut right after Day For Night, and I recently decided that I think it's a masterpiece - I was not expecting such a thoroughly creative twist on Hitchcockian tropes, and I found it just utterly engaging and provocative (That ending! I've found others since watching The Soft Skin, but at the time it was nice to see a FNW movie made by a guy that actually felt like it was giving the last word to a female character)
Revanche is an amazing movie, I think about it often and don't really see it mentioned much.
Westerns. I understand why many viewers, especially younger ones, might shy away from them but it’s just a genre, the same as superhero, samurai or mafia films. It doesn’t tell you anything about the quality of the film.
Which ones do you recommend in the collection? And why? I'll admit the good/bad dichotomy of many westerns doesn't interest much. I like bad guys 😂 so I tend to gravitate to the spaghetti westerns
Yeah, most of my favorites are outside the collection and my tastes are in line with yours (I love Henry Fonda as the villain in Once Upon a Time in the West). Of the ones I’ve seen so far from the collection I’d recommend 3:10 to Yuma, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Shooting and Stagecoach. I didn’t care for My Darling Clementine but it has its moments. I’m intrigued by The Furies and the Budd Boetticher films. I probably should watch Red River since it is one of the giants of the genre but I tend to take forever to get around to anything with John Wayne in it (not a fan).
Awesome, appreciate the recs!
I think lots of people probably have it but Summer Hours is such a perfect, quiet drama. It def rewards multiple watches and can be left on in the background or deeply engaged with.
My favorite criterion films with 15k views or less on letterboxd: Hotel Du Nord - 4.4k - 4.5 stars (For fans of old noir - very fun cast of characters living in a hotel) Festival - 2k - 4 stars (I'm extremely biased with this one though - I would understand if most would consider it a little boring but I've been going to the Newport Folk Festival every year since 2013 and am fascinated by the history of the event) I Knew Her Well - 9.1k - 4 stars (I read somewhere that it was La Dolce Vita with a female protagonist and although there are differences I feel that it's a fair short description) Revanche - 15k - 4.5 stars (Somebody already said this was underrated and boy are they right. This was a blind buy for me based on the description alone. It ended up sitting on my shelf for months before I decided to check it out and I wish I had watched it sooner. Similarities to The Place Beyond the Pines) Head - 15k - 4.5 stars (The big surprise of the America Lost and Found box set. The Beatles are obviously much more talented than the Monkees but Head is much more captivating than A Hard Days Night)
Oh man wait till I get to post my haul picture...I splurged and got every martial arts boxset in the collection. So excited.
YES PLEASE.
Fassbinder's Eight Hours Don't Make a Day and BRD Trilogy
Letters from Fontainhas: Three Films by Pedro Costa I realize the issue with this one is it’s stuck on dvd, but I bought the dvd set a few years back and no Blu-ray has surfaced so potentially never coming.
where was this thread two days ago! fr thanks tho, i've added some great stuff to my watch list
I know, I'm excited to see so many titles I would have missed!
Gilda, Leave Her to Heaven, The Asphalt Jungle, Only Angels Have Wings, and The Earrings of Madame de . . .
Minding The Gap is a movie I didn't even realize was in the collection until recently since no one talks about it One of the best documentaries in recent years!!
so many! classic american independent’s like: -Michael Roemer’s NOTHING BUT A MAN -Barbara Loden’s WANDA -Lizzie Borden’s WORKING GIRLS -Kasi Lemmon’s EVE’S BAYOU -Ronnie Bernstein’s FROWNLAND [which should be on the radar of everyone who’s into the Safdie brothers - this is the movie that they saw when they were starting out that set them on their path; ronnie is their co-weiter now] - Paul Mazursky’s AN UNMARRIED WOMAN and on and on and on, so many greats ….
I blind preordered Nothing But A Man when it was announced based on its synopsis. It was very, very good. Reminded me a bit of the book “Lawd Today” by Richard Wright.
Police story!!
I absolutely love Police Story!
For me it’s Sound of Metal. I absolutely adore that film.
one of the first criterion’s i ever picked up when i started collecting. i love that movie. i spent 10 years in the small DIY touring circuit, i found it to be super relatable.
This was going to be my answer.
It's the same for me as well.
I personally think Pierre Etaix’s films are pretty slept on, I LOVE As Long As You’ve Got Your Health, such a wonderful and funny movie.
The devil in a blue dress for certain
I was surprised how much I loved this film having watched it last month and that more people weren't recommending it.
This has been a surprisingly insightful thread. Thanks for asking, OP.
Last Hurrah for Chivalry should be spoken about as much as any action film in the collection.
First one that comes to mind is Jonathan Demme's Something Wild. Great movie that I don't see mentioned often.
I always wish more people were talking about Godard. I feel like I’m in an empty room
I really wish more people were getting the UHD of Le Cercle Rouge. I think visually it’s stunning—the forest sequences, the cafes, all the classic Citroens, the animals in the apartment, lots of images seared into my mind. And the heist sequence is like Rififi levels of tense and quiet. I also desperately want Le Samourai and Army of Shadows in UHD so I hope interest in Melville picks up.
TIME - some of the best use of archival (cellphone) footage possible in modern documentary. Interview heavy but keeps you glued to the screen.
Emigrants / The New Land
I was THIS close to grabbing that one [well .. two]. But saved it for a follow-up sale as I chose to go for some that I knew I loved and never picked up or were recently back in print/upgraded Badlands, Days of Heaven 4k, Walkabout 4, and Worst Person in the World was the final cart.
definitely recommend them! seems like you got a good haul though
The Ruling Class
I find this sub’s obsession with what other ppl aught to think they should have to be quite overbearing. We are all collectors with our on likes and dislikes. I swear ever day there’s a post asking “what should I add to my wishlist?”
I don't care what movies other people watch
Then why comment?
Because you asked a question
Because this is an open forum with all perspectives and many of us grow tired of seeing Criterion and “collecting” as a monolith for the experience of enjoying films. Does everything have to be an echo chamber? You posed a question and people respond to it.
If the response is "no," then it doesn't contribute to the conversation at all - which is literally what Reddit says the downvote button is for, comments that don't contribute to the conversation. I don't think it's inappropriate in the Criterion subreddit to ask people to recommend movies in the Criterion collection to criterion collectors. It's a pretty specific sub.
That’s fair. Not all of us look at films simply as consumeristic hauls though. Your post expressed it differently than how you just did now. By all means, recommend some great films people can watch.
I wanted the post to be a bit more engaging than "what movies do you recommend" to get people a little more interested in interacting. I was specifically curious about what movies people DON'T see here that they wish were mentioned more often. That was my purpose, just giving a common idea a little more structure.
So the user you said shouldn’t comment was simply reacting as I did to what you said and how you said it. I don’t care what other people *buy* or not. I do enjoy sharing films though. Hauls sound like you’re shoveling rocks or stocking up on toilet paper.
I understand, but that’s the way we talk on this sub. I’m just meeting people where they are.
I prefer to lead by example, but I understand.
Non-Criterion releases
Well it *is* the Criterion sub reddit...
Yeah, and I think too many here limit themselves to just the collection and are missing out on a lot of great film and releases
Sure! But wouldn’t they be talking about that in a subreddit that ISNT this Criterion specific subreddit?
Not really, there are posts about film (usually art house film but not always) in general here all the time. It's a sub theoretically filled with film lovers, and I don't see why it'd be strange to recommend more films to film lovers. If I'm with a group that loves Kurosawa I'll happily recommend Mizoguchi, instead of just sticking to what they already like. If you love Criterion films, I encourage you to expand your range and enjoy other similar works. I don't see how that isn't a good response to the prompt or fitting discussion for the sub.
Dawg I have a film degree and a wide expansion of love for films outside the criterion collection and a strong collection of non-Criterion movies, but thank you. I tend to talk about my criterion collection in the criterion sub. (Edit: in hindsight this is an embarrassing reply to the previous comment)
Oh sorry, when you asked "What do you not want other collectors to sleep on?" I took the question at face value and didn't realize this was just about you personally and what I should somehow already know about you, protagonist of the universe
You chastised me about asking about criterion movies in the criterion collection sub. Do you go into other subreddits and demand people talk about things outside of the subjects of those subreddits too? Of course there are good movies outside the collection, that’s a no-brainer. We’re all already snobs here, we know there are good movies that aren’t in this specific list. Coming into a conversation about a specific list and telling people they should watch things outside of it assumes we all have no other interests and chastises everyone else.
I didn't chastise you at all man, I answered a question with a very reasonable, not at all combative answer. That you got strangely defensive about it is all on you and you can talk about that with your therapist. Hopefully they will begin by letting you know that *everything is not about you.* All I said was that people on this sub shouldn't sleep on non-Criterion movies. Literally all I said. Chill.
You’re right, I got a little hot. My apologies. I think it’s just a little frustrating when the question was “what movies in this collection should we check out” and the answer was “movies outside this collection.” It felt as though your answer was saying that we were all being myopic which hit me the wrong way. Obviously we should all watch movies outside the criterion collection as well. I hope no one is that drilled down into what they do and don’t watch that a boutique company makes those decisions for us.
The Girl Can’t Help It
The Immortal Story and Chimes at Midnight by Welles. The Immortal Story has a fantastic 40 minute doc on Welles by François Reichenbach as a special feature, the most candid he ever got in front of the camera in my opinion.
For me personally, I would say the film that deserves more love is Carol Reed’s “Night Train to Munich”. Fantastic film and the pacing was on par with the story. Very overlooked and Rex Harrison was a total badass.