La Haine is a great unsung Criterion. Kind of like the French Do the Right Thing. Good extras and and great transfer.
I love the Terry Gilliam intro for Children of Paradise… it’s a great film that gets a good amount of appreciation, but the commentary and extras for it are great and the production designs are very interesting as well.
I Fidanzati by Ermanno Olmi. Very understated romanticism. Great dance hall sequence.
Le Bonheur by Agnes Varda. It’s weird for me to say a Varda film is “unsung”, but Le Bonheur has the kind of complexity that is often overlooked at first glance.
If… by Lindsay Anderson. Fascinating look at oppressive system. And McDowell’s prelude to Clockwork Orange.
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by Martin Ritt. B&W at night (and after rain) never looked this good.
I would say “Robinson Crusoe on Mars.” I can’t get enough of this film and no one watches it! Great special features too. I’m always humming the song of “Robinson Crusoe on Mars.”
I think that Children of Paradise is criminally underrated.
It is widely available in the US in-print from Criterion, and its one of the 10 best movies ever made.
Would definitely have to agree concerning Children Of Paradise and Robinson Crusoe On Mars.
My personal unsung Criterion is Forbidden Games. The film is a treasure, criminally underappreciated, and the booklet and supplements are fantastic. Sadly, it has been recently OOP’d by the fuckers at Studio Canal. Grab a copy if you can!!!
Oldskoolsi
I’ve spent the whole morning watching Young Mr Lincoln and all it’s extras. I bought it as I was on a Ford bender at the time. I’ve not heard much discussion about it, basically, a very good but less well known John Ford film.
I really enjoyed the film but was more impressed by the extras. Despite it being a 2 disc effort they were’nt that many. However I enjoyed them al.. The Omnibus narrated by Lindsey Anderson about earlt ford was great Fonda’s interview with Parky was fab. The short audio interviews also added something. Ford giving a story about how he first met Henry Fonda and then Fonda saying it’s all a lie (plus him finally using the language that he teased in the doc and the Parky interview that Ford said to him when Fonda initially refused the part). On top of that the radio version of the film being availbile as a mp3. Overall it’s a couple hours of extras that add something.
Are there any other unsung Criterions out there? Not the 5 star classics or the cult films chock full of extras. I’m thinking of good films with solid, interesting extra that don’t take forever and a day to go through.