It's 10 PM. Do You Know The Criterions Your Children Are Buying?

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gcgiles1dollarbin
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2010 3:38 am

Re: It's 10 PM. Do You Know The Criterions Your Children Are

#76 Post by gcgiles1dollarbin » Sat Apr 08, 2017 4:30 pm

My first Criterion purchase was a gift for my dad on Xmas in 1987: the VHS of Lady Vanishes in the old silver over-sized box, with the essay on the back of the crease-hinged front cardboard lid or cover. I don't recall seeing any other VHS producer using these cardboard proto-"digipaks" with the plastic molded well to hold the tape, but I never bought a lot of VHS tapes, so maybe they were used elsewhere at the time, unknown to me. I remember reading an account of Truffaut's admiration for the film in the essay printed on the cover, remarking that the director would get hopelessly distracted and engaged with the story each time he tried to watch the film in order to study Hitchcock's mechanics (I guess it was from the Michael Wilmington essay, as I look on the site now, meaning that that piece of writing dates back to at least 1987).

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Morbii
Joined: Sat Nov 27, 2004 3:38 am

Re: It's 10 PM. Do You Know The Criterions Your Children Are

#77 Post by Morbii » Sat Apr 08, 2017 5:49 pm

First I've heard about Criterion doing VHS!

Emilio
Joined: Sat Dec 05, 2009 8:38 am

Re: It's 10 PM. Do You Know The Criterions Your Children Are

#78 Post by Emilio » Mon Apr 10, 2017 8:49 am

My first Criterion was a laserdisc, back then. I'm not fully sure which one, though. Could be either CE3K, Akira or The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Lawrence of Arabia and others followed later...

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miless
Joined: Sat Apr 01, 2006 9:45 pm

Re: It's 10 PM. Do You Know The Criterions Your Children Are

#79 Post by miless » Mon Apr 10, 2017 2:59 pm

My first Criterion was the old DVD of Solaris, I picked it up when I was a senior in high school. I liked the artwork, and I loved 2001 (to which it was often wrongly compared). Tarkovsky very quickly became a favorite filmmaker (he is now my absolute favorite). Shortly after this I picked up Spartacus.

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The Fanciful Norwegian
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:24 pm
Location: Teegeeack

Re: It's 10 PM. Do You Know The Criterions Your Children Are

#80 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Mon Apr 10, 2017 6:35 pm

My first exposure to Criterion was when the Disney Channel aired Help! with the Criterion LD extras (including a bunch of still photographs) after the film. But I didn't really know what I was looking at, and at the time I probably thought that laserdiscs were nothing more than LP records with video. My dad may still have his off-air VHS copy somewhere. Much later I would browse through the laserdiscs at the local Virgin Megastore and notice that the Criterion editions seemed like pretty slick packages. At the time, my favorite film was Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and I thought the extras on that sounded great. This was around the time that DVDs were coming in, so there were people dumping their LD players and collections at fairly low prices. I was getting more into film in general, so I figured I'd get a second-hand player and start a collection just as a bunch of others were getting rid of theirs. For the next couple of years I spent a lot of time on eBay picking up Criterion LDs that interested me, plus some that didn't but were so cheap I figured I may as well bite—I'm pretty sure I still have an unopened Bodies, Rest & Motion, and I impulsively bought High Noon at a Half Price Books last year. And I did eventually get Help!, which I think is the oldest Criterion I own.

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Feego
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2007 7:30 pm
Location: Texas

Re: It's 10 PM. Do You Know The Criterions Your Children Are

#81 Post by Feego » Mon Apr 10, 2017 8:15 pm

Yes, the Disney Channel of the 80s/early 90s was yet another great discovery ground for budding film enthusiasts. This promo from 1990 advertises, among other classics, The Third Man and The Lady from Shanghai. On the freaking Disney Channel! I'm pretty sure I was familiar with Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, and many other classic stars when I was still in elementary school just from seeing them regularly on Disney.

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cpetrizzi
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2012 9:26 am

Re: It's 10 PM. Do You Know The Criterions Your Children Are

#82 Post by cpetrizzi » Sat Sep 23, 2017 11:36 pm

My first exposure to Criterion was the Brazil LD at 15. That's when my obsession started.

oh yeah
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2009 7:45 pm

Re: It's 10 PM. Do You Know The Criterions Your Children Are

#83 Post by oh yeah » Sun Sep 24, 2017 3:16 am

Huh, this was harder to figure out than I expected... it seems the first Criterion I bought was Last Year at Marienbad in 2010 - though I'd streamed a bunch of Criterions before that, as finally getting Netflix at the start of that year opened the floodgates for tons of art-house and foreign cinema to shape my taste in a big way. I'm surprised it wasn't earlier that I got a Criterion, though - I mean, why or how did I join the Criterion forum in Jan '09 and then not even own one of their releases for another year? Strange.

Noiradelic
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 12:45 am

Re: It's 10 PM. Do You Know The Criterions Your Children Are

#84 Post by Noiradelic » Sun Sep 24, 2017 6:01 am

Feego wrote:Yes, the Disney Channel of the 80s/early 90s was yet another great discovery ground for budding film enthusiasts. This promo from 1990[/url] advertises, among other classics, The Third Man and The Lady from Shanghai. On the freaking Disney Channel!
In the 90s, I remember ordering the Disney Channel so I could catch My Darling Clementine (had recently discovered Ford) and then canceled it the next day. Don't think premium cable channels let you order them for a day and pro-rate the monthly fees anymore.

Rupert Pupkin
Joined: Thu Oct 20, 2005 9:34 am

Re: It's 10 PM. Do You Know The Criterions Your Children Are

#85 Post by Rupert Pupkin » Sun Sep 24, 2017 7:19 am

Brazil (on DVD) was my first Criterion.
I remember I used to mail Jon Mulvaney to get the confirmation that a title was region ALL...
That's how and why my second Criterion was "Solaris" which had the tilme just came out and I was so excited to discover a DVD transfer. followed by Monterey box set and quickly many others when I found a way to dezone my pioneer DVD player...

flyonthewall2983
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:31 pm
Location: Indiana
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Re: It's 10 PM. Do You Know The Criterions Your Children Are

#86 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sun Sep 24, 2017 9:30 am

Feego wrote:Yes, the Disney Channel of the 80s/early 90s was yet another great discovery ground for budding film enthusiasts. This promo from 1990 advertises, among other classics, The Third Man and The Lady from Shanghai. On the freaking Disney Channel! I'm pretty sure I was familiar with Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, and many other classic stars when I was still in elementary school just from seeing them regularly on Disney.
I don't remember all that too much, but I definitely remember when the channel tried appealing to adults (presumably parents who were stuck watching whatever was on during the day). I wonder if whoever it was who made those programming decisions had a hand in getting Criterion involved in releasing some of their titles during the LD days.

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