the first one was
the river by jean renoir, also one of the best!
the Last Temptation of Christ on DVD
Carrie on Laserdisc
Hard Boiled, when I was a kid, was the best movie ever. Now, meh. But I did fall in love with the brand.
First Crite DVD: The Third Man
First Crite LD: Victim
Wes Anderson’s Royal Tenenbams (sp?)
It was either: “Ran” #316, or “Throne of Blood” #190, or “Late Spring” #331. I can’t remember which. The library of the college I graduated from has them. At the time, I was looking for “free” movies to watch, and I checked the aforementioned three out one day. In fact, my college’s library has a number of Criterion titles. That’s how I was introduced to Criterion. In fact, I later bought my own personal copies of some of the titles I checked out from the library. So…if anyone is interested in seeing for themselves the “Criterion treatment,” cruise over to your local library or college library. They may have a few titles you can check out.
Royal Tennenbaum’s. I knew by the cover, it was going to be good.
Chasing Amy
Silence of the Lambs, then Chasing Amy…
even though I was probably a tad young to fully understand either.
The 39 Steps but it was not criterion at the time.
I think the first DVD I saw was M, but may have been Brazil, the first I purchased was 8 1/2. A while back a friend moved accross the country and left his copy of Brazil with me, score!
Nights of Cabiria. Can anyone deny Fellini as the perfect entry into Criterion?
i was 18. my father gave me Rashomon. The first one I bought was The Seventh Seal. Hooked ever since.
Lord of the Flies
I think it was The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Kevin Smith’s Chasing Amy…with my mom.
I think it was Casablanca or Citizen Kane on LASERDISC!!! I still have my Criterion Laserdiscs. It’s still the only way you can get Midnight Cowboy with John Schelsinger’s commentary. Also the Graduate Criterion Laserdiscs has on of the best commentaries I’ve ever heard. It’s by a Film Professor from UCLA and he really breaks down the film in a constructive way. I highly recommend it to any aspiring cinefile or filmmaker. That is if you can get your hands on it. Also the Some Like It Hot Criterion laserdisc with commentary by the same professor is great.
Jean-Luc Godard Une femme est une femme.
“I think it was Wes Anderson’s “Rushmore” before I even knew what the Criterion Collection was.”
Exactly the same for me. Thankfully my local library buys basically every new Criterion release as they come out (so I don’t have to).
Wow. This thread is disturbing.
Are you guys being paid for these posts or what?
The Seventh Seal. I was 13.
SEVEN SAMURAI. I wasn’t aware of what Criterion was at the time. It was the older, rather barebones release. The re-release was the first Criterion I bought and still my most treasured DVD possession.
Brazil was the first. I had already seen it in the theatre with my dad when I was 7, but I always wanted to see the real version. I had no clue what Criterion was, I just thought the package was really cool, and it had a bunch of extra stuff. 8 years later an addiction is raging on.
I saw a bunch of the non-criterion editions of films in the Criterion Collection. The first Criterion laserdisc or DVD I watched? DVD, Armageddon. Laserdisc, no idea.
I’d seen tons of the films in the collection before DVD’s even existed, but the first Criterion disc(s) I bought was Cocteau’s Orphic Trilogy.
M
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
My first criterion Film that I saw was Casablanca. What got me hooked was the way the film looked. Almost no specks, pops, or scratches on the transfer print. (This was before the “wonderful” work of Lowry Digital). It showed me how much Criterion loved film and wanted to preserve it for the ages. It was definitely worth the extra cost.
As for DVD, I think it was either Spinal Tap or Charade…Not sure but both prints were the best that I have ever seen.
David Cronenberg’s Videodrome. I was amazed by the quality of everything from the packaging to the look of the film, as well as the innumerable supplements. You have to be really stupid to dislike a film after watching a Criterion DVD with all its supplements. Those guys really make you love films, wish I could work with ’em someday.
Michael Gillett
Citizen Kane on laserdisc followed by King Kong about a month later. That was a long time ago. As I recall they had black covers. The first one I bought was Akira. My first Criterion DVD purchases and viewings were Samurai I, II, and III. On Blu-ray it will be The Third Man. I love that film.