Posts Tagged ‘Criterion Collection’

487 results.
Sep19

Mandabi / The Money Order (1968) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

by movieworld on September 19th, 2021 at 12:46
Posted In: .Other movies, Comedy, Drama

Mandabi 1968
Where Ousmane Sembene's 1966 debut feature, Black Girl, clearly reflects the dynamics of French neocolonialism in its front-and-center depiction of a Senegalese nanny and her white Parisian employer, the filmmaker scrutinizes the relationship between oppressor and oppressed in a more allegorical fashion in his 1968 follow-up, Mandabi.

The simple story is about the trouble that befalls an African man named Ibrahima who trys to cash a 25,000 franc money order that he has received from his nephew who is living in Paris.

The money order, of course, causes a problem because all of his relatives and vitually everyone he knows wants some of it; including the local grocer whom he is indebted to. But his real problem is that Ibrahima is unable to cash the money order because he has no ID card, and he can't get an ID card without a birth certificate and he can't get that without some kind of ID. As Ibrahima tries to get all of these he meets head on with a bureaucratic nightmare, which ends up making him more broke than he was before.

Director: Ousmane Sembene
Cast: Makhouredia Gueye, Ynousse N'Diaye, Isseu Niang, Mustapha Ture, Mouss Diouf, Christoph Colomb, Farba Sarr, Serigne N'Diayes
Country: France, Senegal
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Sep18

Beasts of No Nation (2015) Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

by movieworld on September 18th, 2021 at 17:24
Posted In: .Other movies, Drama, War

Beasts of No Nation 2015
The nightmare of war is seen through the eyes of one of its most tragic casualties — a child soldier — in this harrowing vision of innocence lost from Cary Joji Fukunaga. Based on the acclaimed novel by Uzodinma Iweala, Beasts of No Nation unfolds in an unnamed, civil-war-torn West African country, where the young Agu (Abraham Attah, in a haunting debut performance) witnesses carnage in his village before falling captive to a band of rebel soldiers led by a ruthless commander (an explosive Idris Elba), who molds the boy into a hardened killer.

Harrowing is a singular way to describe “Beasts of No Nation,” which takes viewers into the folds of African unrest and the birth of the child soldier. The portrait of innocence lost is almost unbearable to watch at times, as writer/director Cary Joji Fukunaga presents an unflinching look at the horrors of war and the disease of men, detailing murder, rape, insanity, and despair without pause, but not without some degree of hope.

Director: Cary Fukunaga
Cast: Abraham Attah, Emmanuel Affadzi, Ricky Adelayitor, Andrew Adote, Vera Nyarkoah Antwi, Ama K. Abebrese, Kobina Amissah-Sam
Country: United States
Genre: Drama, War
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Sep18

Popiol i diament / Ashes and Diamonds (1958) Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

by movieworld on September 18th, 2021 at 14:58
Posted In: .Other movies, Drama, War

Ashes and Diamonds 1958
Polish director Andrzej Wajda made scores of excellent pictures; the ones seen most in U.S. art theaters were his 1950s 'war trilogy'. The first two were straight tales of hardship and terror when resisting the Nazis. In A Generation, a young juvenile delinquent learns how rough things can get when he becomes involved in partisan activities. The appallingly grim but honest Kanal shows the last days of the Warsaw Uprising, when the Allies abandoned the Polish resistance. The surviving remnants make a last-ditch stand in the city’s sewers, finding loyalty, companionship, love, and obiliteration.

The third film in the trilogy Ashes and Diamonds is a different kind of movie. Rather than tell another moral tale of betrayal and sacrifice the screenplay by Wajda and Jerzy Andrzejewski adds a slightly updated, hipster tone to the proceedings. The setting is right after the victory, when anything is possible... especially for greedy opportunists, political turncoats and hard-fighting yet naive patriots like the main character.

The entire film takes place on 8 May 1945, when the war in Europe ended with Germany's formal surrender - but while other countries celebrated, Poland's postwar power struggle was only just beginning. In depicting the various factions jockeying for position, including ambitious Communists, aristocratic patriots, cynical journalists and anti-Nazi rebels recently emerged from the Warsaw sewers, Wajda brilliantly anatomises a riven country desperately trying to find its identity at a time when a fifth of its population had recently been killed and many more driven into exile. Maciek Chelmicki (Zbigniew Cybulski) embodies this conflict: outwardly a calculating assassin, his ultra-cool facade begins to crack when he badly botches a mission, falls in love with the barmaid Krystyna (Ewa Krzyzewska) and dares to dream of a life outside the armed resistance that's characterised his entire adult life. His all too human indecision makes him Polish culture's Hamlet, and Cybulski's performance remains iconic to this day.
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Sep17

Stalker / Сталкер (1979) 2 x DVD RUSCICO, Blu-Ray Artificial Eye, 2 x DVD and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

by movieworld on September 17th, 2021 at 14:54
Posted In: .Russian movies, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery

Stalker / Сталкер (1979) DVD9 + DVD5 RUSCICO
Andrei Tarkovsky was a Russian director who made slow paced, hypnotic films filled with beautiful images and thought provoking themes. His masterpiece is Stalker, one of the most gorgeous and entrancing films ever made. This is really a film that defies description. A science fiction film, a philosophical drama, and a metaphoric excursion, Stalker is all of this and yet so much more. A film that is more experienced than just viewed, this is a must-see for anyone interested in film as an art. Based on the novel The Roadside Picnic (1972) by Arkadi & Boris Strugatsky.

Something happened. Maybe it was aliens landing. Or maybe it was a meteor strike. But something happened and The Zone was created, an area where things don't work as you'd expect them to, where the laws of physics are out of whack. People started disappearing in The Zone and so the government sent in the army to investigate. They were never heard from again. Ever since that time The Zone has been cordoned off with sever penalties for going into it.
People still go into The Zone however, mainly because of The Room. In the center of The Zone, as the story goes, there is The Room which will grant those who enter it their deepest wish. To get to this miraculous place is impossible without an experienced guide, known as a stalker. As the movie begins a famous author, burned out and cynical, and a scientist, quiet but rebellious, (who are known only as Writer and Professor throughout the film) hire Stalker to lead them through the dangers of The Zone. Each of them have their own reasons for going, including Stalker himself, and their journey isn't without peril and danger. Along the way this trio is forced to look at themselves and each other and examine their hopes, dreams, and beliefs. What is worth risking your life for?

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Sep17

The Princess Bride (1987) 2 x DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

by movieworld on September 17th, 2021 at 08:59
Posted In: .Other movies, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Romance

The Princess Bride 1987
A high-spirited adventure that pits true love against inconceivable odds, The Princess Bride has charmed legions of fans with its irreverent gags, eccentric ensemble, and dazzling swordplay.
A kid (Fred Savage), home sick from school, grudgingly allows his grandfather (Peter Falk) to read him a dusty storybook — which is how we meet the innocent Buttercup (Robin Wright, in her breakout role), about to marry the nefarious Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon) though her heart belongs to Westley (Cary Elwes). The wedding plans are interrupted, however, by a mysterious pirate, a vengeful Spaniard, and a good-natured giant, in a tale full of swashbuckling, romance, and outrageously hilarious spoofery. Directed by Rob Reiner from an endlessly quotable script by William Goldman, The Princess Bride reigns as a fairy-tale classic.

BD50, 2xDVD9 | 1080p AVC, NTSC | 01:38:38 | 44.3 Gb + 12.8 Gb
Language: English
Subtitles: English
Genre: Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Romance

Director: Rob Reiner
Cast: Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Robin Wright
Country: USA
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Sep12

Ukikusa monogatari / A Story of Floating Weeds (1934), Ukigusa / Floating Weeds (1959) 2 x DVD9 Criterion Collection

by movieworld on September 12th, 2021 at 22:41
Posted In: .Other movies, Asian, Drama

A Story of Floating Weeds 1934
“Floating weeds, drifting down the leisurely river of our lives,” has long been a favored metaphor in Japanese prose and poetry. This plant, the ukigusa (duckweed in English), floating aimlessly, carried by stronger currents, is seen as emblematic of our own journey. And sometimes this identity is made explicit—in the lives of traveling actors, for example.

It is with these that Yasujiro Ozu's 1934 A Story of Floating Weeds (Ukigusa Monogatari) and his 1959 Floating Weeds (Ukigusa) are concerned. Both films revolve around a recurring character type who appears in several other Ozu films: the lovable ne-er-do-well usually called “Kihachi” (though in the 1959 version he is called Komajuro). Here, we find Kihachi as the leader of an itinerant dramatic troupe, returning to a small town where he has a lover by whom he has a now-grown son. The boy does not know this but the leading lady of the troupe — the boss’ mistress — finds out and plans her revenge. Though both parents had hoped or some permanence, a family life, the end of both pictures finds the troupe leader again on the road. He continues to drift down the river and Ozu’s major theme — the dissolution of the family — is again demonstrated.

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Sep12

L’eau froide / Cold Water (1994) Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

by movieworld on September 12th, 2021 at 20:55
Posted In: .Other movies, Drama

Cold Water 1994
Olivier Assayas is one of contemporary France's most piercing, confident filmmakers. Cold Water, produced in 1994 but long unavailable due to music rights issues, can stake its rightful claim as one of his best films.

Set in 1972, the film stars non-professional actors Virginie Ledoyen and Cyprien Fouquet as teenage lovers Christine and Gilles. They have hardly anything other than their love and even less to lose, turning first to petty shoplifting, then to running away in search of something unknown. Assayas poignantly captures their relationship — and their social struggles at school and with family — with a restlessly roving camera, to a score of music crucial to the times, including tracks by Leonard Cohen, Nico, and Bob Dylan.

Assayas says the film is partially autobiographical, as he was 17 in 1972, shoplifted records, and had conversations with his father that mirrored those Gilles had with his.

Director: Olivier Assayas
Cast: Virginie Ledoyen, Cyprien Fouquet, Laszlo Szabo
Country: France
Genre: Drama

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Sep07

Dip huet seung hung / The Killer (1989) DVD5 Criterion Collection, Blu-Ray Vivendi Ent.

by movieworld on September 7th, 2021 at 14:36
Posted In: .Other movies, Action, Asian, Crime, Drama, Thriller

The Killer 1989
“The Killer” is a tale of friendship, blurred moral lines, revenge, guilt, and lots and lots of bullets. This 1989 Hong Kong action thriller revolves around top-notch assassin Ah Jong (played by the iconic Chow Yun Fat). When he accidentally blinds beautiful singer Jennie (Sally Yeh) in a shootout, he decides to retire after one last job to pay for Jennie’s eye surgery. But when Ah Jong becomes the target of police detective Li Ying (Danny Lee), things become complicated. Foot chases, car chases, stand-offs, and massively epic shoot-outs are present all throughout this intense action classic.

John Woo is known for his symbolic imagery and his over-the-top action scenes, both of which are present all throughout “The Killer.” Woo has had such an influence on stylistic violence in film that we may now find it cliche to see a hero sliding across the floor on his back while firing double pistols in slow motion. However, back in 1989, Woo was creating these tropes. His stylistic take on violence has inspired countless action films and directors, including Quentin Tarantino.

Director: John Woo
Cast: Yun-Fat Chow, Danny Lee, Sally Yeh, Kong Chu, Kenneth Tsang, Fui-On Shing, Wing-Cho Yip, Fan Wei Yee
Country: Hong Kong
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
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Sep06

The Parallax View (1974) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection, DVD9 Paramount

by movieworld on September 6th, 2021 at 13:47
Posted In: .Other movies, Mystery, Thriller

The Parallax View (1974) DVD9
Perhaps no director tapped into the pervasive sense of dread and mistrust that defined the 1970s more effectively than Alan J. Pakula, who, in the second installment of his celebrated Paranoia Trilogy, offers a chilling vision of America in the wake of the assassinations of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King Jr. and about to be shocked by Watergate.

The film opens up at the Space Needle in Seattle where a prominent senator is killed by a deranged assassin during a highly publicized public event. Reporter Joseph Frady (Warren Beatty) then begins investigating the assassin and discovers that he might be connected to a giant organization that could be behind some of the most talked-about political executions. Frady digs deep to gather information that can expose the organization and its dealings, but gets lost in a massive rabbit hole where people are dying like flies.

The intense sense of paranoia that permeates this film is its greatest strength. As Frady looks for answers, you get the feeling that the real world is nothing but a playground for extraordinarily powerful shadow figures that have the ability to manipulate every single aspect of it. Sadly, this actually seems like a pretty accurate summation of the reality we face today as well.
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Sep03

Yaju no seishun / Youth of the Beast (1963) DVD9 Criterion Collection, Blu-Ray Eureka – Masters of Cinema

by movieworld on September 3rd, 2021 at 18:13
Posted In: .Other movies, Action, Asian, Crime, Mystery

Youth of the Beast 1963
Japanese director Seijun Suzuki has been a cult hero in the film world for years thanks to his odd mixture of pulp and art in his crime films. Creatively stifled for years within the Japanese studio system, Suzuki rebelled the only way he could, by taking the mundane B-picture scripts that fell onto his desk and making them as offbeat as the studio would allow. Suzuki’s minor reign of terror lasted only a few years as, after multiple warnings, he was finally fired after directing what many consider to be his masterpiece “Branded to Kill”. If “Branded to Kill” was the culmination of a decade’s worth of rebelling then “Youth of the Beast” was his first shot fired.

Joji Mizuno, a ruthless assassin-for-hire, recently released from prison, takes an interest in the dead officer we learn about at the film's beginning. His personal, unsolicited investigation into the facts of the matter that led to his death uncovers the role that rival gangs played in setting up the morbid scenario that led to his demise. Driven by his internal demand for justice, and personal loyalties that are gradually revealed over the course of the film, Joji proceeds, to exact his revenge in an elaborate scheme that pits the two yakuza factions against each other, both of them easy prey as he manipulates their jealousies and greed to put them in attack mode.
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