The Criterion Contraption ~ NanoThoughts 1.0

Sunday, February 11, 2007

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

bill murray in rushmore
64. The Third Man

13. The Silence of the Lambs

52. Yojimbo

Toshiro Mifune as Yojimbo

7. A Night To Remember

12. This is Spinal Tap

40. Armageddon

44. The Red Shoes, My 30 word review is here.

Moira Shearer as Victoria Page in the Red Shoes

21. Dead Ringers

61. Monty Python's The Life of Brian

51. Brazil

Terry Gilliam's 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:

Unknown said...

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.

Rog said...

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.

Unknown said...

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.

Rog said...

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.

Anonymous said...

robocop?

Rog said...

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.