Criterion's November slate (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Newcomb]

The Fallen Idol




The Double Life of Veronique




Pandora's Box

 

[Dan Wiltshire]

Man, I'm always struck by Criterion's artwork.
Just beautiful.

I'm most interested in PANDORA'S BOX, but I must find out more about THE FALLEN IDOL.

 

[Marc Colella]

Finally The Double Life of Veronique gets an R1 release... and a Criterion to boot.

I've stopped purchasing DVDs (in anticipation of jumping on the HD bandwagon) but I will make an exception for this.

 

[WadeM]

I'll just add The Fallen Idol to my collection... not that I've ever actually seen it, but it's from the same director who did The Third Man, so it can't be all that bad!

 

[Shawn.F]

"Veronique" and "Pandora's Box" from Criterion? YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Jeff Newcomb]

I highly recommend it as a blind buy. The Third Man is a masterpiece, but The Fallen Idol is a brilliant piece of filmmaking in its own right. I think that I can safely say that if you like one, you'll like the other. Not only do the films share Reed's directorship, they are both written by Graham Greene. Greene said that The Fallen Idol was his favorite adaptation of his work.

 

[Ray H]

The Double Life of Veronique! Holy shit!

 

[Haggai]

Wow, that's quite a slate! I'm definitely excited to see Veronique and Pandora's Box, neither of which I've ever seen. Though having FOUR different scores for Pandora's Box does seem a little much...

The Fallen Idol is an outstanding achievement of point-of-view filmmaking, most of it from the perspective of a young boy, and with brilliantly layered scenes all throughout that simultaneously show the "adult" POV as well. The cast features great performances by Ralph Richardson, Michele Morgan, and Denis O'Dea as an irrepressibly British police inspector, plus an excellent child performance and a lot of great character touches.

 

[Mike*HTF]

Finally! Pandora's Box!!

 

[Mario Gauci]

Now they're talking........

After a (mostly) shitty slate for October - excepting Francesco Rosi's HANDS OVER THE CITY (1963), of course - Criterion are back on track with a killer schedule for November. Definitely 3 must-haves for any self-respecting film fan.

I've watched all 3 films but only THE FALLEN IDOL (1948) has gotten more than one viewing from me over the years. There's no need to worry that it's going to be inferior to THE THIRD MAN (1949) - which film isn't? - but it can certainly stand on its own by way of two exceptional central performances (from Ralph Richardson and Bobby Henrey), a splendid cast (Michele Morgan, Jack Hawkins, Karel Stepanek, Geoffrey Keen, Bernard Lee, Dandy Nichols, Torin Thatcher, Hay Petrie) and a great ironic story. By the way, a Special Edition DVD of Carol Reed's third great film of the 1940s - ODD MAN OUT (1946) - is coming out on R2 in two weeks' time via a promising label, Network!

I've had the complete version of PANDORA'S BOX (1929) on PAL VHS for several years and even though it exceeded my high expectations - I found it to be a masterpiece and one of the greatest of Silent films - I couldn't bring myself to watch it again because its companion film, DIARY OF A LOST GIRL (1929) - which I also own on PAL VHS - was an inferior presentation: projected at the wrong speed (running for merely 74 minutes rather than the 116 minutes of the Kino DVD edition) and having no soundtrack whatsoever! Fortunately, a definitive version of this one is coming soon on R2 DVD by way of the UK's Criterion-in-all-but-name Eureka's "Masters Of Cinema" label! By the way, I did get to watch Walerian Borowczyk's French-language version of PANDORA'S BOX (albeit without the aid of English subtitles!) - entitled LULU (1980) - and, although it nowhere approaches Pabst's sublime original or even Borowczyk's best work, as with every Borowczyk film I've watched so far, it's full of visually interesting ideas.

I consider Krzysztof Kieslowski to be the last international film-making genius we've had and THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE (1991) is his most alluring and enigmatic film. Actually, it was through this film - when the beautiful Irene Jacob (mesmerizing in a dual role) won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival - that I first became aware of the great Polish film-maker. I still haven't picked up Miramax's 3-Disc SEs of Kieslowski's THREE COLORS trilogy but I'll certainly do so when I eventually acquire VERONIQUE.

 

[oscar_merkx]

I am intrigues by Pandora's Box!

 

[Jim_K]

The Fallen Idol at last!

 

[WadeM]

Now that's what I've been waiting for in R1--Odd Man Out really needs a re-release over here! (And a Criterion release wouldn't hurt!!)