Criterion + B&N = Excitement

...for me anyway.

Rumor has it the 50% off (maybe more depending on a few things) Criterion sale at Barnes & Noble will start July 12th. I, naturally, have been planning for this for months. The coupons seem to be running out (they have changed a lot of little fine print things to prevent coupon overuse) so I had to be a bit more creative. I bought a $25 gift card from the gift card exchange for 15% off, and then I earned 2 $25 cards by filling out surveys online. That makes $75 to use on the sale for about $20 (and time filling out surveys). My wish list this time is smaller, so that helps out as well.

Must gets:

-Eclipse Series 27: Raffaello Matarazzo's Runaway Melodramas (this sounds right up my alley)

-People on Sunday

-Zazie dans la metro

-The Music Room

-Leon Morin, Priest

After that:

-Diabolique (reissue)

-WR Mysteries of the Organism

-Fish Tank

-Children of Paradise

Maybes:

-The Great Dictator (this should be a "must" but that cover is god-awful)

-Crazed Fruit

-Red Beard

Can't wait!

Movie Time

Criterion announced their September titles yesterday, the two above being the most interesting to me. I already have the Madman edition of Les Cousins, but not Le Beau Serge, so I'm happy to get that one. I haven't seen The Phantom Carriage,but it looks good and one I'll try to get if Barnes and Noble has a sale in November.

Criterion also has a channel on Hulu, and it is great. They have a ton of films, many not yet in the collection proper (but hopefully will be). So far I've really liked the Korda films (both Zolton and Alexander) and hope they actually get to DVD at some point.

I actually went to the movie theater this week (!) and saw Midnight in Paris. It was excellent and well worth the trip out (and the really over priced popcorn). The Tree of Life's release date here is still a mystery--the official website said it should start playing here tomorrow, but the movie theater has no sign of it.

Criterion Announcement & Tree of Life

August seems to be a good month for Criterion. Though I haven't seen it, The Killing seems like it will be right up my alley and it has maybe the best cover in the collection. I don't know much about the Eclipse set other than that the director worked with Nikkatsu and is part of the Japanese New Wave (and really that's good enough for me). Secret Sunshine is getting excited reactions, so I might try that one later on. I already have L'Atalante on DVD, but I might be drawn into double dipping on the Vigo set for the other films.

Then, in case that wasn't exciting enough, The Tree of Life finally screened at the Cannes film festival. Reviews are mixed but mostly positive. The negative reviews were expected given Malick's style (the word "pretenious" gets thrown around a lot) but those don't seem to be the norm. Good news.

Just announced

Criterion revealed their July releases today. Fans of Blu-ray would be most thrilled with the Beauty and the Beast and High and Low upgrades, but for me the highlight is the addition of more Jean-Pierre Melville, Jean-Paul Belmondo, and a proper introduction to Satyajit Ray.

Hopefully there will be another Barnes & Noble Criterion sale in July and these will be available.