F for Fake has excellent special features. The documentary on Welles later career ‘One Man Band’ is something you should definitely watch. It’s composed mostly of clips from his unfinished projects. I’d watch that first if I were you since you seem to be a pretty big Welles fan.
you know…the one thing I always look forward to in Criterion releases is the packaging and graphic design. yea i know its not really an extra, but its sort of a small little bonus to me whenever I pick one up.
the various docs on Videdrome are really terrific, esp. the roundtable discussion with Croenberg, Carpenter, and Landis about censorship. And CP the packaging for Videodrome is a tour de force I think.
I have yet to find a special feature or interview item that wasn’t relevant or informative, so I watch ‘em all. I would suggest you do the same for whatever film you are watching. You don’t need to see it again, or at least not for a while, but I have gotten some pretty good insights into the films, directors, actors from them. I just saw Criterion’s L’avventura, for example, and there is a great short interview with Jack Nicholson about working on The Passenger with Antonioni and a good quotation read by Jack from Antonioni’s writing. The booklets always have good, well thought-out essays, as well. I sometimes, after I have seen a film, listen to the commentary, too. It’s all good!
If your time is quite limited, don’t waste your time on special features, see more films.
My time is limited due to all the films I’m watching!
Plus I love learning about film just slightly less than watching so I love special features.
that documentary on the “breathless” dvd really impressed me. the french documentary shot in black and white digital video. the one thats a love letter to “breathless”. it really had a great feel and mood to it. i highly enjoyed it.
The re-release of Seven Samurai has great special features, as does the re-release of The Third Man. But perhaps the greates gem is the documentary “The Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry,” featured as a supplement in John Huston’s “Under the Volcano,” which is in and of itself one of the greatest documentaries ever made.
Oh, I also recall Rules of the Game having some excellent special features that really amplified the film for me. I think the commentary would be a good place to start there as it explains the innovation of Renoir’s deep focus photagraphy and the significance of the ‘hunting party’ scene.
You should get Godard’s Le Mépris and watch the interview Jean-Luc did to Fritz Lang.
Two masters of cinema, in one room, speaking for a while…
simply amazing!!!!!!!!!
The Last Emperor has so many incredible supplements. In a lot of ways, I think it would be hard to truly appreciate that film without watching some of them – of course this isn’t true, but my appreciation and love for the movie increased immensely after watching the extras – definitely check them out.
I have another Criterion special feature question:
Which Criterion DVDs have commentaries from other filmmakers? I know Scorsese has done a few (which ones?), and Soderbergh is on The Third Man DVD. I think this is an awesome idea and am curious which films have which director’s commentaries.
From the ones I recall, Scorsese has commentary on Red Shoes, Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Black Narcissus and Tales of Hoffman. In the latter one they also have an interview with George Romero which claims Tales to be one of his favorite movies. Scorsese credits Tales as being the inspiration for his soundtracks on Goodfellas and Casino. As usual I found his comments on this movies to be quite interesting. He also has comments on La Strada where he says that he actually prefers I Vitelloni.
Battle of Algiers has comments by a bunch of directors (I recall Spike Lee and Oliver Stone but there are more) and a great interview with the director.
Peter Bogdanovich comments on the Third Man, Lady Eve and Trouble in Paradise.
Please watch “One Man Band” on your F for Fake disc 2, as well as the Toho Masterworks/Kurosawa interview on discs 2 and 3 of Seven Samurai. All of these are very informative, and “One Man Band” has clips of unreleased Welles films!!
(I know that’s already been said, but I thought I’d add to the hype and really convince you to watch it…)
Drew Gregory
I previously asked what everyone thought were the best special features and didn’t get the answer I was looking for so I’m going to be more specific why I’m asking the question. I own about 40 Criterion DVDs but have watched very little of the special features. On many of the 2 disc Criterions there are documentaries that are around an hour or more. Eventually I would like to watch them all but due to time I want to know what were the most interesting ones. I will list a random few of the Criterions I own so judge from them and others you own.
-L’avventura
-Wild Strawberries
-The Last Emperor
-Children of Paradise
-La Strada
-8 1/2
-Seven Samurai
-The Rules of the Game
-The Leopard
-F for Fake