Chungking Express BD = beautiful
Cristopher Doyle’s work deserves the criterion hidef treatment
Pierrot Le Fou and Last Year at Marienbad
Rauol Coutard work on Pierrot is equal to his photography on Contempt which is saying alot.
Marienbad is the best I’ve seen a b&w film look since the blu-ray release of Casablanca.
I highly recommend Monsoon Wedding.
Chungking Express is a no-brainer. I’d also heavily recommend Yojimbo. Both are films I really enjoy and have gotten treatments that are far superior to any other copy I’ve seen beforehand.
“Lola Montes” is sumptuous on Blu-Ray.
The Days of Heaven BD is splendid. So is Paris, Texas. For black & white, the BD version of 8 1/2 is just amazing. Last Year at Marienbad looks great too. The Seventh Seal is a great example of what a complete home release should be: good transfer, and a shit-ton of great supplements (it includes the entire Bergman Island documentary).
Chungking is a must buy. Marienbad, Wings of Desire, and Paris, Texas would probably be what I buy first. If you can find a Third Man, buy that since those are becoming harder and harder to find on shelves.
Bottle Rocket is probably my favorite Criterion Blu-ray other than Chungking, but you probably don’t need to own that on Blu-ray.
“Chungking Express”, “Last Year at Marienbad” and “Pierrot le Fou” would be my recommendations.
I’ll second Chungking and the Yojimbo films. Looking to get Kagemusha if B&N does another half off sale. Hell, I’d own everything by Criterion if I had the money and the space.
I’m definitely getting Yojimbo/Sanjuro. I can afford one more and was trying to decide between Kagemusha, The 400 Blows, Wings of Desire, Paris Texas, or Pierrot Le Fou. What do you all recommend? :)
I’d go for wings of desire or pierrot le fou out of those. I’m pretty much doing the same thing you are and got all criterions blu rays on a wishlist on amazon. I’m just buying one every paycheck to slowly build without killing my wallet.
I just bought Pierrot Le Fou now.
Pierrot is outstanding.
Gomorrah looks pretty good as it was shot a year or two ago.
Che would also be another good one that was actually shot in high def and not just up-converted.
Nathan, no Criterion release is upconverted. In fact, most Blu-rays coming out now are not. Upconversion rarely happens these days (though sadly, I believe the European release of Spirited Away was one).
Nathan, film is a high definition format. In fact, film can be up to 4x the resolution of 1080p. We would never be able to tell the difference on the size of our TV screens but blown up on a theater screen you would. So, to say Che is shot in HD is true but so is every other film ever made.
Brian, I would go with either of the two Wenders films. I’ve probably watched Paris, Texas more than any of my other BDs. I bought “Pierrot le Fou” blindly on BD, since it was going out of print, but I wasn’t too pleased with it. I didn’t care for either of the characters at all. The film itself looks great though, of course, so if you’re a big Godard fan then go for it.
“400 Blows”, “The Third Man”, and “The Seventh Seal” are the one’s I own. Black and White films just look stunning on Bluray. And Criterion has sparred no expense in making these films look exceptional. Pure black and all the variations of grey are amazing. Buy them.
I myself have to buy every blu ray disc of criterion, The Third Man, The Seventh Seal, Hunger and
Revanche blew me away.
Sorry guys, your posts have a few errors. Che was not shot in high definition. It was shot in 4K on the Red and Super 16mm.
@Brian: Film is not a high definition format, and it can also “theoretically” be much higher than 4x 1080p. Baraka, for instance, was shot in 70mm and scanned at a resolution of 8K, which looks stunning on Blu-ray. And as I stated above, Che was not shot in HD, and every other film was not either.
why do criterion region-restrict their blu-rays – bit of a b#gg#r for all us non-US PS3 owners
thank god the likes of studio canal, bfi and axiom have upped their game to criterion standards
Brian
I am starting to build my blu ray collection and was wondering if anyone here could recommend some Criterion discs. I have no problem making a blind buy if the movie is really good. thanks! :)