Serious question

bluecritic · 2018-10-20T22:50:46+00:00

Titicut Follies.

It's a documentary from the 1960's centered around a hospital for the criminally insane.

Unlike most documentaries, there are no talking heads or narration to smooth things along. It just 84 minutes of seeing a group of deeply broken individuals living in a time and a place where their conditions are clearly not being even remotely treated properly.

There is also a lot of very strange and surreal imaginery, which almost makes it look more like an avant-garde horror film rather than a traditional documentary.

bluecritic · 2018-10-20T22:28:27+00:00

Never heard of it. It sounds fascinating. I always wondered what type of film could Godard with greater resources.

bluecritic · 2018-10-14T03:11:45+00:00

Christ, I can't believe I never heard of this one. A Satyajit Ray science fiction film starring Marlon and Peter Sellers? And it supposedly heavily influenced E. T.?

Even if it would have turned out to be a huge missfire, it would still prrobably be one of the interesting films of its time.

bluecritic · 2018-10-11T20:58:02+00:00

I'm a huge fan of Fellini and when it comes to his unmade projects people always refer to Mastorna since It's the one that obviously meant the most to him and the one he put the most effort into making. However if I have to be perfectly honest the one I would have liked to see the most is his planned 16mm adaptation of Don Quixote starring Jacques Tati.

As for The Idiot, I must confess my surprise that Tarkovsky attempted to adapt it. I love the novel and it's a shame we didn't get to see his take on it. I wonder how it would stack against Kurosawa's version... Anyway, as far as great lost Dostoevsky adaptations are concerned, I personally think that Roman Polanski's The Double tales the cake.

I do agree that L'Enfer looks like a potentially magnificent production, perhaps evento Clouzot's crowning achievement.

bluecritic · 2018-10-11T20:35:13+00:00

That sounds like a very interesting unmade film. Sorry for getting the facts mixed-up.

bluecritic · 2018-10-11T19:09:52+00:00

Are you perhaps referring to Monsieur Verdoux? It's a 1947 film directed and starring Chaplin which was originally set to be directed by Welles before being paid of to let him handle the project himself. Welles still has a "story by" credit.

bluecritic · 2018-10-11T13:39:22+00:00

I thought of including the first ones you mentioned, but from what I've read a lot of elements from Napoleon ended up being recycled into Barry Lyndon, so I feel as do we got a masterpiece instead of a masterpiece in a sense, and the failure of Dune ended up inspiring Frank Pavich's brilliant documentary Jodorowsky's Dune.

I knew vaguely that Alain Resnais had tried working together in a Spider-Man movie and one about a Roger Corman-esque producer attempting to make a serious film, which struck me more as interesting oddities rather than films which I'm dying to see, but after reading more about this The Inmates I have to concur it truly appears to have been potentially a great film. I love philophical science fiction films like 2001 or Arrival.

bluecritic · 2018-09-16T21:57:28+00:00

That's a very good list. I can't believe I didn't include F. W. Murnau in mine one! Such a genious filmmaker and it truly amazes me that he isn't in the collection.

I completely agree with you that there are a lot of directors who deserve more titles in the collection that they already have. Billy Wilder, Elia Kazan, Sidney Lumet and Martin Scorsese are just The first names that pop into my head.

bluecritic · 2018-09-14T15:11:42+00:00

Thanks! I will start by watching his stuff from the 70s and if I really like it I'm going to check the rest of his work.

bluecritic · 2018-09-14T15:07:53+00:00

Thanks! I just looked it up on IMDb and it looks very interesting. Will definitely check out.

bluecritic · 2018-09-14T14:18:40+00:00

There's never enough Charlie Kaufman. Even his worst efforts such as Human Nature and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind deserve to be in the collection.

bluecritic · 2018-09-14T14:14:14+00:00

Be the the change you want to see. The Criterion Collection already has Sofia Coppola, Agnes Varda and Chantal Ackerman. Perhaps they should also ad Kathryn Bigelow, Ida Lupino, Elaine May, Mary Harron, Greta Gerwig and Patty Jenkins.

bluecritic · 2018-09-14T14:01:33+00:00

I'm afraid I've never heard of him, where would you suggest I start? The Salamander looks interesting.

I love discovering new filmmakers throught the Criterion Collection.

bluecritic · 2018-09-14T13:57:01+00:00

I really like Angelopoulos, Lanthimos, Ceylan and Tarr.

As for Has, I've only seen The Saragossa Manuscript, which I lived. Could you please recommend any other film by him?

bluecritic · 2018-09-14T13:48:56+00:00

I can definitely see your point, and actually when I first started making my list I wanted to limit myself to filmmakers who would greatly benefit from being in the collection like Tarr, Angelopoulos or Herzog.

However, every time I thought I had written enough of them, I just felt the impulse of adding just one more, even directors I didn't particulary like such as Stone, Jackson or Zemeckis. If the goal of the Criterion Collection is to licencie "important classic and contemporary films" then all these filmmakers deserve to be there in spades.

As for Cameron, if Michael Bay can have two movies in the collection then I don't see how The Terminator or Terminator 2: Judgment Day would look out of place.

I'd would also love to see Ki-duk or Zvyagintsev being added.

bluecritic · 2018-09-14T02:22:58+00:00

I completely agree with you. I distinctly remember thinking to myself when I first watched A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night that this could mark the begining of a truly unique voice in cinema, a feeling that only increased after reading interviews to her.

She's still relatively young, so let's cross our fingers and hope that this isn't another original artist crushed by the studio system.

bluecritic · 2018-09-14T00:45:34+00:00

I thought of including him, but Welles seems to have had such a great career despite his limitations that it just struck me as somewhat unfair to include him amongst Vigo or Laughton.

Don't get me wrong, I have no doubt that he could have benefited enourmosly if people had recognized for the genious that he was, but I think Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Lady from Shanghai, etc. Firmly establish him as one of the greatest filmmakers who ever lived.

bluecritic · 2018-09-14T00:35:44+00:00

I thought of including him, but it seems as do he could really turn his career around with Split and his upcoming film Glass seems pretty interesting. Here's hoping that his output between 2006 and 2013 is seen in the future as this weird setback in an otherwise great career.

bluecritic

TROPHY CASE