The Criterion Collection

Léon Morin, Priest

Jean-Pierre Melville

Gord: “Hate forced blind buys due to OOP panic, but this's Melville. As always elegant & achingly right in it's choices; camera, music, mise en scène, acting”

Ivan’s Childhood

Andrei Tarkovsky

Gord: “The 'Apple Cart' manages to capture a sense of antebellum abundance & vitality wonderfully (among other things); beauty early effort & distinctly A.T.”

On the Waterfront

Elia Kazan

Gord: “Wow what a beautiful package. Been a while since I've seen one of these lovely paper packages from Criterion. Congratulations on the title & great job”

The Man Who Knew Too Much

Alfred Hitchcock

In the Mood for Love

Wong Kar-wai

Gord: “Not as giving nor as vigorous as Chungking. It's restraint has teased & led me in sunder over the years; the theme music so perfectly captures longing”

The Thin Red Line

Terrence Malick

Gord: “"What's this war in the heart of Nature?" & so the poetry begins. An oneiric quality & poetic voice-over as with all Mallick & 2ndary only to Heaven.”

La promesse

Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne

Gord: “My love for Criterion has been reignited by these Dardenne discs; maybe it's not extras but their tendency to curate director's work that wins me over”

Rashomon

Akira Kurosawa

Gord: “Impression is of fleeting lives & the blur of the things we do. Remorse. Rain. Light & shadowleaves. Meshes of the afternoon. Fallen man & redemption.”

The Battle of Algiers

Gillo Pontecorvo

Gord: “2ᴺᴰ best political film after Rogosin's Come Back Africa - Morricone's music is great too - not sure if lack of internal character revelation hurt it”

The Passion of Joan of Arc

Carl Th. Dreyer

Gord: “If love, desire, innocence or numerous other intangibles comprising the human endeavor could be condensed to a strip of gelatin & shone thru w/ light”

Lonesome

Paul Fejos

Gord: “I wish a girl that cute would tell me to shut up that cutely. Not on par w/ Sunrise or Lucky Star, but a lovely gem w/ verve & love for its characters”

Rosetta

Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne

Gord: “Saw L'enfant in '05 & fell in love w/ the Dardennes; been hoping for Criterion to put this out I think it's perfect & now one of Criterion's very best”

Orpheus

Jean Cocteau

Gord: “The only film maker better at making the magical seem possible was Buñuel”

Make Way for Tomorrow

Leo McCarey

Gord: “The film creates a momentary interval of peace for the old couple in the last 30 min. of the film; to honor them b4 they meet their fate. It's perfect”

Blow Out

Brian De Palma

Gord: “Tacky, à la 80s mainstream; yet the cinematography, inventiveness, grace and Allen's subtleness are a wonder. I question not recognizing Allen”

Science Is Fiction: 23 Films by Jean Painlevé

Jean Painlevé

Gord: “A 95 min. Yo La Tengo video w/ those silvery or subtly tinted images of under water mystery & struggle & life & death - thinking bout stuff in th'dark”

The 39 Steps

Alfred Hitchcock

Gord: “Love these Brit. Hitchcocks. This one's well nigh perfect w/ its combo of humor, adventure, and romance. The MWKTM with Peter Lorre next please.”

The Gold Rush

Charles Chaplin

Gord: “Keaton may have dazzled with his acrobatics & delivered more laughs per minute, but the little Tramp taught us how to be human.”

The Red Shoes

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

Gord: “I have the Blu too ♡. A shout out to Scorsese is in order if I hadn't heard he loved this film there's no way I'd have given this "girly" pic a chance”

Seven Samurai

Akira Kurosawa

Gord: “This early issue is the first Criterion disc I ever bought (or was it Fellini's 81/2?); deep feelings for this movie, it's characters, & this object ♡”

The Royal Tenenbaums

Wes Anderson

Gord: “An elegant film by one of our best film makers of the last 20 yrs I first encountered Wes & Murray's talent through Rushmore & still hold that dearest”

Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom

Pier Paolo Pasolini

Gord: “As usu. love Criterion's DVD packaging. This forever changed how I view consumerism, porn, and power. Very surprised to see the MGM logo”

Paths of Glory

Stanley Kubrick

Gord: “Buñuel loved this film. The ending is amazing & an all too rare moment of tenderness in Kubrick's work. #8 on my Kubrick list; it is an excellent film”

Videodrome

David Cronenberg

Gord: “Shares look of many 80s films, but it's the ideas & cool FX that matter. Unique intellectual film with gore! When Woods twitches with tv static, whoa!”

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Terry Gilliam

Gord: “OK I admit to owning the Universal Blu-ray; great picture quality on that one. Criterion extras are A+ I hear. Once in hotel room the film flourishes.”

Sawdust and Tinsel

Ingmar Bergman

Gord: “I've slowd w/Bergman after getting the famous ones. I'm amazd to love each "obscure" film I pick up. He made 1 so-so film in '77 than he makes Fanny! ”

The Lady Eve

Preston Sturges

Gord: “Perfect like only the Golden Age of Hollywood could do it. Light yet profound, sexy, witty, breezily subtextual, and entertaining. Her toes ARE swoony”

Island of Lost Souls

Erle C. Kenton

Gord: “Thought I'd be slumming. It's a disturbing gem DVD has nice menus "There's no twilight in the tropics night falls like a curtain" - great in every way”

The Killing

Stanley Kubrick

Gord: “A fine, quick & witty noir with only a touch of Stanley's stylized dialogue. A fine heist film with experimental corners. Wish he'd done more like it”

The Milky Way

Luis Buñuel

Sweet Smell of Success

Alexander Mackendrick

House

Nobuhiko Obayashi

Gord: “Watching this it seems weird, goofy, dumb and spun. Why then, in my memory, does this become unsettling, profoundly sad, other-worldly, and spooky? ♥♡”

Withnail and I

Bruce Robinson

Gord: “Should I be worried that I feel completely at home with these two guys? The ending is devastating, but required I suppose. Funny, wise, dirty, and sad”

3 Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg

Josef von Sternberg

Gord: “These are beautiful works of art - Docks of New York is yet another new love. And Sternberg is a path I'll happily wend for the next 5 to 50 years.”

The Leopard

Luchino Visconti

Trafic

Jacques Tati

The Phantom Carriage

Victor Sjöström

Gord: “I don't have a large film library (quality over quantity), but of the approximately 350 I own my 20 or so silents are the crown jewels. True high-art.”

The Third Man

Carol Reed

Gord: “The architectural rightness of ea. element is a wonder. I've grown to love this film; BLU- OOP before I knew it! I have remastered DVD & I feel lucky!”

The Fallen Idol

Carol Reed

The Tales of Hoffmann

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

Gord: “The PQ sucks. An HD remaster is coming I hear. The film is a wonder: the sword fight on the gondola! The music! The fantasy! I love The Archers!”

Peeping Tom

Michael Powell

I Know Where I’m Going!

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

Gord: “P. found the numinous moments that limn ordinary life. This is one of his best films. I'm unable to point to the magic moments, but there they flicker”

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

An Autumn Afternoon

Yasujiro Ozu

Gord: “This makes it a dozen Ozu. You'd think I'd be getting my fill of O. No. And he's funny! It's obvious in the early silents, but now I see it everywhere”

The Only Son/There Was a Father: Two Films by Yasujiro Ozu

Yasujiro Ozu

Lola Montès

Max Ophuls

Gord: “This is a film for women who like soap operas and daytime tv. So why in hell do I find myself watching it a couple times a year with great pleasure?!”

The Earrings of Madame de . . .

Max Ophuls

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs

Mikio Naruse

Army of Shadows

Jean-Pierre Melville

Le cercle rouge

Jean-Pierre Melville

The Night of the Hunter

Charles Laughton

Gord: “One of the CC's best Blus. You know how your legs don't work in nightmares? See the kids running up the stairs. An Urtext of childhood anxiety.”

Playtime

Jacques Tati

M. Hulot’s Holiday

Jacques Tati

M

Fritz Lang

Days of Heaven

Terrence Malick

The Double Life of Véronique

Krzysztof Kieślowski

Gord: “Also bought the Bluray edition from iTV. Irène Jacob's sweet face thrust up against the rain singing with joy...what an introduction to Kieślowski ! !”

Ikiru

Akira Kurosawa

Gervaise

René Clément

Gord: “I fell in love with Maria Schell here; she's so magical. Her soul seeps from the screen.”

Forbidden Games

René Clément

Modern Times

Charlie Chaplin