The Criterion Contraption
Over on one of my favorite film blogs, Matthew is watching every film in the Criterion Collection. Every film. In numerical spine order. And his reviews aren't pithy. Or dull. He's up to number 65 so far and only has 318 to go (I think.) Check it out.
Just for the record, here are the ones in that group of 65 that I've seen. (in unidimensional order of awesomeness* from most to least.)
65. Rushmore
64. The Third Man
13. The Silence of the Lambs
52. Yojimbo
7. A Night To Remember
12. This is Spinal Tap
40. Armageddon
44. The Red Shoes, My 30 word review is here.
21. Dead Ringers
61. Monty Python's The Life of Brian
51. Brazil
23. Robocop
11. Seventh seal
5. The 400 Blows
*what is "awesomeness"? Well, it's hard to say, it's a multifactorial trait that combines how much I liked it (i.e. would I watch it again if I had to), how much I appreciated it (i.e. good production/filmmaking/screenwriting etc.) and that je ne sais quoi (that lets me cop out if anybody complains about my rankings.)
6 comments:
I don't know if I can be friends with a person who thinks Armageddon is more awesome than The 400 Blows.
Maybe it was adolescent melancholy, but I watched 400 Blows twice (maybe three times?) in the same weekend the first time I got it.
To be fair, I've never seen Armageddon but I'll never forgive it for inflicting that Aerosmith song on me.
Well, you need to see Armageddon then. Yes, it's a popcorn movie, but I also contend that it's the greatest disaster film ever made. What can top an asteroid demolishing the Earth? Maybe a film on a group of scientists saving us from the heat death of the universe.
Anyway, the 400 blows I just couldn't get into. I'll watch it again sometime, but there are other French New Waves films I enjoyed so much more, like Breathless, Last Year at Marienbad etc.
I think I should see Jules et Jim or some other Truffaut first though.
I enjoyed Breathless, but I had a much more personal connection with 400 Blows. I fell asleep during Last Year at Marienbad.
To be fair, I went through a phase of always trying to watch movies too late at night. I also fell asleep during "The Italian Job" and "Grand Illusion", so it's not necessarily a reflection on Marienbad. I do remember it being really boring, though. Fortunately, I have a DVD drive for my PC now, so I can just time-shift stuff that I don't get a chance to watch during its designated checkout period. That is to say, I could... although I certainly never would.
Full disclosure: I fell asleep during Last Year at Marienbad as well, but that movie is much more about the aesthetics and images and ideas instead of any real story in my opinion.
robocop?
As for Robocop, yes, some more "popular" films have been included in the Criterion Collection. I think that's due to package deals they do with various studios or something. Matt has posted on that, I just need to find the post and link to it.
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