Amazon's Criterion Collection Holiday Gift Set...

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-12-15 05:14am

Stumbled on this while looking up info for Nanook of the North on the IMDB.

Amazon.com is offering an exclusive, which they're calling The Criterion Collection Holiday 2004 Gift Set. For $5000 (saving $2500 off the $7500 MSRP), you can own the entire Criterion DVD library as of October 2004, excluding 21 titles that have been taken out of print. That's 241 titles on 282 DVDs.

There's a complete list of the titles included in the first review further down on the first page.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... 47-8178429

Wow. Just wow...

Bob the Gunslinger · Post by **Bob the Gunslinger** » 2004-12-15 04:46pm

You need help.

Seriously, if you don't get help at Charter, get help somehwere.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-12-15 07:01pm

What?

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2004-12-16 09:42am

Damn. If they had come out with this last Christmas, I would have bought it.

But now I don't have the spare money.

KHAAAAAAAAANNN!!!

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-12-16 09:46am

You have $5,000 just sitting around to buy DVDs with? I want your job.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-12-16 09:50am

Ah, I figured Robert would at least be interested.

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2004-12-16 09:50am

Joe wrote:You have $5,000 just sitting around to buy DVDs with? I want your job.

Had. And no, you don't want the job I had. I was a manager at Hollywood Video, working over forty hours a week, not in school, and living with my parents. All that adds up to spending cash, but as you can imagine, that's not as great as it might sound.

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2004-12-16 09:54am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Ah, I figured Robert would at least be interested.

Fo sho. I've been slowly picking away at this collection for years now, and I'm only at about fifty of them (including, however, Salo, which I paid over four hundred dollars for, and a few other big ones, such as The Killer).

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-12-16 10:15am

You paid more than $400 for Salo? Jesus, that's a film I don't even ever want to actually see...

I'm progressing a lot slower than you are. I only have the Brazil set and Solaris, although I've asked for Seven Samurai for Christmas.

Bob the Gunslinger · Post by **Bob the Gunslinger** » 2004-12-16 03:37pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:What?

So, you're not buying 5,000 dollars worth of DVDs? Ok.

Considering your predilection for women's underwear, I think the 5000 would be better spent buying the panties off of hot showgirls. Get some real memories, man.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-12-16 03:43pm

First that now this. Christ, leave me alone...

No, I'm not. I just stumbled on it and thought "wow, look at that..." and thought it was worth sharing to my friends and associates here, so that they too can be wowed and amazed by such a sight.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2004-12-16 04:23pm

Robert Treder wrote:Fo sho. I've been slowly picking away at this collection for years now, and I'm only at about fifty of them (including, however, Salo, which I paid over four hundred dollars for, and a few other big ones, such as The Killer).

Salo damn why did you remind me? Damn now I am going to have nightmares about things to horrible to type down here.

I curse the day a pal an me rented that horrible stuff, only movie ever to make me physically sick for days after seeing it.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2004-12-16 04:48pm

That reminds me, I should ask for the Akira Kurosawa boxset for Christmas.

Bob the Gunslinger · Post by **Bob the Gunslinger** » 2004-12-16 07:29pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:First that now this. Christ, leave me alone...

No, I'm not. I just stumbled on it and thought "wow, look at that..." and thought it was worth sharing to my friends and associates here, so that they too can be wowed and amazed by such a sight.

Oh. Sorry. My mistake.

It is cool. I happen to know a movie nerd IRL who would seriously buy it right now. He went into serious (thousands of $$) debt buying DVDs he would never watch, like 5 copies of certain recent hip films. For a second, I actually thought that maybe you were him going online under an assumed identity...

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2004-12-17 05:04am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:You paid more than $400 for Salo? Jesus, that's a film I don't even ever want to actually see...

I wouldn't blame you if you never saw it, but I'm not sorry that I did. It really is a fascinating film, extratextually at least.
The thing that I find most interesting about Salo is the way the material is presented. What's happening in-universe is some of the most brutal, vile, degrading, horrible stuff imaginable (and I mean it - you could be rock solid unoffendable like I am and come away unsettled by this movie), but the straightforward, almost documentary style distances you from the subject. Also, it is not pornographic - it explores (in a way no other film that I know of does) the boundaries of what is and is not pornographic, to be sure, but it never crosses that line. Every sex act, every act of violence and depravity depicted is carefully edited and blocked so that nothing too explicit is shown - there's almost a sense of decency in the way the acts are depicted. If any one of the torturous acts were in a film, said film would be lauded for its brutal yet artistic portrayal of such an act - but the fact that Salo is act after act like this puts it over the top. I'm not saying that it needed to be made or anything - it certainly does go too far - but that in and of itself makes it all the more fascinating.
Salo is also inextricably connected to the bizarre life and death of Pier Palo Pasolini, the film's director, and one of cinema's most interesting and tragic characters. The film has caused such an uproar in its life (often, as is usually the case with such uproars, by people who have not even seen the film) that I feel it is worth preserving.
The Criterion Collection version of the film has an excellent essay on the film and on Pasolini's last years in the insert. I'm sure a copy of it can be found online (probably even at CriterionCo.com). Unfortunately, the DVD is exceedingly rare, hence my paying upwards of $400 for it.

I'm progressing a lot slower than you are. I only have the Brazil set and Solaris, although I've asked for Seven Samurai for Christmas.

As far as The Seven Samurai goes, that's a great buy. I recommend asking for the Kurosawa boxed set while you're at it (comes with Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Hidden Fortress, and Seven Samurai - Yojimbo is my favorite Kurosawa film).
I also have the first printing of The Seven Samurai Criterion DVD, which includes an interesting behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the DVD. Toho made Criterion cut it out of subsequent printings, because Criterion wasn't licensed to present the film outside of its original context. Which is a shame.

And Faram, I'm sorry, but it had to be done

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2004-12-17 05:10am

Here's that essay about Salo. By John Powers.

A good read. Here're my favorite quotes:

John Powers wrote:The happy perception suggested by [Pasolini's earlier works] was changed forever by his final film, Salò (1975), a one-of-a-kind project that takes no little defending, and may indeed be indefensible. It’s the cruelest, most obscene, and most intellectually toxic work ever made by a major director. Once seen, it is forever remembered.

John Powers wrote:At a time when movies are routinely called “shocking” and “controversial,” Salò not only lives up to these words but makes them feel childishly inadequate.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2004-12-17 05:40am

Discshop has Salo for 199skr or ~$28

Salo @ Discshop

Don't know if the sell outside Sweden

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-12-17 08:34am

The University of Iowa Library's Media Center also has it available for viewing and checkout on VHS and DVD.

Somehow though I think I'd rather view their holdings of THX 1138 and the Star Wars Trilogy (pre-SE, pre-THX restoration) on laser disk...