DVDs Film School or Criterion You Decide

SEO TEXT: Article Content for Search Engines

12/16/2015DVDs: Film School or Criterion? You Decide | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=219d2a3d-6725-4a63-8db9-00c9a549251c&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&1/4DVDs: Film School or Criterion? You DecideDVDs: Film School or Criterion? You DecideEvery once in a while, a great director or screenwriter will offer up a list of their favorite films. Martin Scorsesejust did it, sort of. (Actually, he gave an interview and talked at length or briefly or just referenced 89 films, whichwas immediately turned into The 89 Films Martin Scorsese Says Every Filmmaker Needs To See!) It's fun. Yousee the list, you check off the ones you've seen, make a note of the ones you haven't and scoff at a few youwouldn't include yourself. (Though of course Marty surely has some insightful reason for every film on the list --like maybe an innovative production design or great camerawork as opposed to, you know, the movie as amovie.)I actually prefer Scorsese's list of 39 international films everyone should watch; it seems less haphazard. AndAkira Kurosawa had a pretty great list of 100 classics that his daughter made available to the world.So people display the lists, name the directors like Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino and countlessothers who never went to film school or quit and basically educated themselves on VHS or laser disc or DVD bywatching the movies referenced by their favorite directors. As they say, you could do worse.... Mind you, I'malmost certain it would be useful to learn practical stuff like how a camera works and the different lenses andAvid and so on. Actually that's a good argument for learning everything from craft services to acting if you wantto direct (just like every reporter should start in copy or fact checking).But forget ALL of that. Forget film school. Forget lists by favorite directors. Forget reference books like The 136Films You Should See Before You Die. If you really want a great and eclectic film education, go to the School OfCriterion. Sure, the benefit of a quirky list by Scorsese is precisely that it's quirky. Anyone can make a list of 100movies most people would agree are classics. So you want some personality, some oddballs to give youreducation spark. Criterion has that: most of their movies are classics. But they also dig into the nooks andcrannies of cinema. They champion current directors. They reveal some passion projects. And literallyeverything released by Criterion is worth a look. (Except for The Rock. That was a mistake, but they could usethe money and it became their best-selling release ever, so shame on us. And at least it IS the best movieassociated with director Michael Bay.) But it gets better: Criterion releases often get released with commentarytracks, making-of features, brief celebrations of the film by admirers -- which is like having a major director comein and share what they love about a film before your class screens it -- and more. It's truly an education abouteach particular film. Yes, they've released hundreds and hundreds of titles by now. So to be clear that we're notcheating, start with the first one hundred, from Grand Illusion to a compilation of Beastie Boys videos and you'llsee what an awesome education it would be. Then watch the next one hundred. And then the next one hundredafter that.And when you're ready for your post-graduate level work, dive into the Eclipse series.SILENT OZU: THREE CRIME DRAMAS ($44.95 DVD; Criterion's Eclipse)Eclipse is the "no frills" line of releases by Criterion. What they lack in bonus features, they make up for ineclecticism. The prints are always of a solid quality and the range of offbeat, fascinating and downrightrevelatory movies that are included have me more excited for the latest releases from Eclipse than fromCriterion itself. I'm thrilled to get great new BluRay editions of classic films like The Thin Blue Line and recentmovies like Moonrise Kingdom. But Eclipse takes me to school in the best sense of the word.12/16/2015DVDs: Film School or Criterion? You Decide | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=219d2a3d-6725-4a63-8db9-00c9a549251c&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&2/4Here are three early films from Yasujiro Ozu, one of the greats. If you're like me, you know Ozu as a master ofquiet, contemplative family dramas. Now his earlier work is getting a better hearing in the West and we'rediscovering gems like I Was Born, But... and now three gangster-ish movies. How can you not get excited byThat Night's Wife, a noir all set during one fateful evening; seeing Kinuyo Tanaka of The Life Of Oharu getfiercely jealous over her gangster boyfriend's new female pal in Dragnet Girl (awesome title!); and watching aneveryman forced to commit a brutal crime in Walk Cheerfully? School is in session, the prints look solid and I'venever been happier to have homework.THE BABADOOK ($29.99 BluRay; Scream! Factory) THE MISSING ($54.99 BluRay; Anchor Bay)Nothing is scarier than a threat to your child. Two new works -- a horror film and a miniseries -- explore thatterror from different angles. The Babadook is more a work of suspense than a full-on horror film. Don't look formaniacal blood-letting from this one. The horror starts within as a single mother and her son struggle to make alife for themselves. You keep swinging in your sympathies and your suspicion: first the mother seems like she'slosing it and perhaps mentally unhinged; then the little boy seems disturbed. It kicks into high gear when amysterious picture book about The Babadook appears on their doorstep. Don't read it! Indeed, don't read anycreepy picture books that appear mysteriously; it's just good advice. As the mom, Essie Davis gives a very goodperformance and the project overall is an impressive calling card for director Jennifer Kent. I look forward towhat she does next.The Missing is very different. It's a UK miniseries about a family torn apart by the disappearance of their son. Asupernatural demon would actually be welcome to them; at least, they could name the terror and fight it. All theyhave is an absence, an absence that tears apart their family and haunts everyone, including the police involvedwith the case. A clever structure makes this drama especially compelling. It takes place over eight episodes andthis is a genuine miniseries, with a beginning and middle and end.COOLEY HIGH ($29.95 BluRay; Olive Films)I don't think Cooley High is on any of Martin Scorsese's lists of notable films. but Quentin Tarantino would besmart enough to include it on one of his lists, not to mention rattle off facts about the making of the film or detailthe careers various actors went on to have that would enlighten me. Churned out by the exploitation label AIP in1975, it was clearly an attempt to cash in on the success of American Graffiti by creating an all- black version.Set in Chicago in 1964, Cooley High is episodic and sweet and sad and -- though it was probably the last thingon AIP's mind -- a gem. Screenwriter Eric Monte went on to help launch the TV shows Good Times and What'sHappening!! (nominally a spin-off of the film). Director Michael Schulz did Car Wash and Greased Lightning andgod help us the Bee Gees movie Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band (plus a lot of TV). This is the onethey'll all want to be remembered by.THE STEPHEN SONDHEIM COLLECTION ($129.98 DVD; Image)Every season on Broadway, the highest compliment a new show can get is to be compared to composerStephen Sondheim's work. Just check out the reviews for Fun Home! Classics are rethought in his honor aswell. The King And I, critics say, is revealed to be complex and a worthy precursor to Sondheim. (Needless tosay, Sondheim would extoll the greatness of Rodgers & Hammerstein before anyone else could beat him to it.)Off Broadway, a stripped down and acclaimed new production of Into The Woods just received some end of theseason nominations for top awards while the feature film version just became one of the highest grossingmusicals in North American history. Gypsy just opened in London starring Imelda Staunton to such raves I'mthinking of selling a kidney so I can fly over and check it out.In other words, anyone who loves Sondheim can't get enough of him. So buy them this: it's a six disc collectionof six stage productions filmed for TV, concert productions and a birthday celebration. You get the legendary12/16/2015DVDs: Film School or Criterion? You Decide | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=219d2a3d-6725-4a63-8db9-00c9a549251c&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&3/4performances of Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters in Sunday In The Park With George from 1986. You getthe recent 2011 edition of Company with Neil Patrick Harris and Stephen Colbert. I'll take the 1990 Into TheWoods capturing of that show over the feature film any day. Like most people (that's the nature of theater), Ididn't get to see Patti Lupone and George tackle Sweeney Todd, so the 2001 concert with the San FranciscoSymphony is a treat. (Sometimes, cast albums aren't enough.) Toss in the all-star performance of Follies from1985 that may be the show's ideal version and a tribute to the composer with countless legends, such as ElaineStritch doing "I'm Still Here" and you've got yourself a whole lot of Sondheim. It's not enough. It never is. But it'sa start.JAG: THE COMPLETE SERIES ($119.99 DVD; CBS TV?Paramount)The TV drama JAG haunts the dreams of every TV executive. Whenever they pull the plug on a TV show, somelittle part of them hesitates and wonders with fear if someone else will pick the show up. Will it win Emmys? Willit hang on long enough somewhere else -- maybe in first run syndication -- to be considered a hit? Will cancelingit make them look bad? One has to pity the poor fools at NBC who kicked JAG to the curb. It was a solidperformer but decidedly uncool and NBC was still very cool in 1995: it was airing Frasier, NewsRadio, Friends,Seinfeld, ER and Homicide: Life On The Streets. It had Law & Order as a durable programmer and that one atleast got good reviews. No one paid attention to JAG. It ranked 79th and NBC cancelled it and CBS picked it up,probably thinking the show might provide some good filler come mid-season when the inevitable holes appearedin its schedule.So CBS picked it up and the show found a home on Friday night. Critics still ignored it (think Tom Selleck's BlueBloods, also a big hit on Friday night now). But it grew and grew and became a massive hit around the world,airing for ten seasons and producing 227 episodes that made everyone a LOT of money. As if that weren't badenough, it spun off NCIS, which became the #1 show on primetime and spun off NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS:New Orleans and counting. Dumping JAG was literally one of the biggest and most expensive blunders in TVhistory. So don't give this boxed set as a gift to any executives at NBC. It's the sort of show that doesn't reallyneed to be seen in order (which is why it was so successful in syndication). But for fans -- and JAG has many --this compact, less expensive boxed set is not as fancy as the original collection put out in 2005 but it's a lotmore affordable. And JAG was always a meat and potatoes show anyway.ANTARCTICA: A YEAR ON ICE ($34.95 BluRay; Music Box) THE RIVER ($39.95 BluRay; Criterion)Sometimes you just want to wallow in beauty and both these films offer that, to say the least. Antarctica is adocumentary film about life at the bottom of the world. You'll like it more if you haven't already seen directorWerner Herzog's typically quirky project Encounters At The End Of The World, which covers the same territoryin a more quixotic, offbeat manner. This one has a fair amount of humor as well, not to mention some stunningimages. Similarly, Jean Renoir's first film after World War II and his awkward time in Hollywood is a visualstunner. It tells a simple tale about life on the river for three young women in India who all fall hard for ahandsome soldier now home minus a leg and his self-confidence. Renoir captures an entire world with thisgorgeous film, a paean to man and nature that looks particularly stunning on BluRay. Typically, Criterion pulledthis print from an excellent 2004 restoration and includes extras like a one hour documentary, comments fromRenoir and even comments from Martin Scorsese (again!). I can't wait for the restored Satyajit Ray Apu trilogy toopen up in May. The River is the perfect movie to tide me over until then.Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the founder of BookFilter, a book lover's best friend. Looking for the nextgreat book to read? Head to BookFilter! Need a smart and easy gift? Head to BookFilter! Wondering what newtitles just hit the store in your favorite categories, like cookbooks and mystery and more? Head to BookFilter! It'sa website that lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensiveinfo on new releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal recommendations every step

DVDs Film School or Criterion You Decide

📄 DVDs Film School or Criterion You Decide

SEO TEXT: Article Content for Search Engines