criterionforum.org

Also, glad to find Master Killer (The 36th Chamber of Shaolin) (1978) still streaming (and downloadable) for convenient access. Not much subtlety here and it definitely adheres to a rather simple-minded martial art narrative formula but the fighting and training sequences (35 chambers); art, set and costume design - and its historical justifications for combat (Han Chinese aquiring fighting skills to fight the occupying Manchu outsiders of the Qing Dynasty) have made it a classic of the genre.

The Narrator Returns wrote:

The Narrator Returns wrote:All of Albert Brooks' directorial efforts are coming to Netflix on July 1

Before you get too comfortable with them there, Brooks said on Twitter that they expire on September 1.

Okay, you should actually not get too comfortable with them there now. They all expire on New Year's.

The book, which I have put off reading, is undoubtedly an interesting read but Life Itself, the Steve James doc on the life and career of the late movie critic, Roger Ebert, is a must watch for anyone who writes about film. Not sure how long the streamer will be up.

And just to follow up on the heels of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Bruce Lee's best film - in my openly brazen opinion - Way of the Dragon (1972), is also streaming (w/an English dubbed soundtrack ). If anyone was influential in taking the ancient techniques of martial arts to the public - what the 36th chamber is supposed to signify - it was Bruce. It isn't a very good film, in general, but (as always) the choreographed sequences with Bruce remain some of the best ever put in a major film release. They do follow the general tone of the film; however; comic and deadly at the same time - not dances in any sense of the term except that the rhythm of every fight scene emanates from the persona (and philosophy) of the late legend.

I too find 36th Chamber archetypical to a fault. It's pretty much a secular liturgical drama The films surrounding it are much more thematically rich and complex.

I also agree that Way of the Dragon is Lee's best, if only by default: it's the only one where he isn't competing with his director's hackiness (although I've grown to appreciate Lo Wei's other work, and am a fan of Clouse's tobgue-in-cherk Black Belt Jones).

The Third Man (1949) as presented on Netflix US in 2017, has all the non-English dialog translated to subtitles which can't be turned off. It's the classic film as I've never seen it before, because all those other times I never completely understood the German dialog. I'll leave it to others to label this current Netflix streaming version as blasphemy or whatnot, I'll just say it's different.

Ha. So not being able to understand German and still enjoying it or understanding it and enjoying the fact that others don't is somehow keeping the faith? Gee, I hope not. What I hope you mean by blasphemy are the "hard" subs, which is rather unforgivable considering TTM is one of the greatest looking black & white feature films ever shot. I've long felt Odd Man Out was the better Carol Reed film but my fondness for that film has slipped somewhat. Time for a Third Man revisit. Thanks.

I haven't seen it in a long time to confirm but I assume the poster above meant the German dialog was not originally translated in Reed's film, therefore adding fixed subs for these sequences alters the film

A 3-part docuseries adaptation of Mark Harris' Five Came Back scripted by Harris is coming to Netflix on 3/31, along with a selection of films featured in the book/show

Ribs wrote:A 3-part docuseries adaptation of Mark Harris' Five Came Back scripted by Harris is coming to Netflix on 3/31, along with a selection of films featured in the book/show

That's great news; the book was quite good (as you'd expect from Harris) and struck me at the time as excellent documentary material.

Trailer for Five Came Back.

Some of the titles coming to stream alongside it are Ford's Battle of Midway, Wyler's Memphis Belle: The Story of a Flying Fortress, Huston's Report from the Aleutians, Capra's The Battle of Russia, Stevens' Nazi Concentration Camps, and Stuart Heisler's The Negro Soldier.

I noticed that, after a few years of either ignoring most Criterion releases or getting them only on DVD, Netflix has some of the more recent titles on Blu-ray: The Soft Skin, Muriel, The French Lieutenant's Woman, Satyricon and Roma, Chimes at Midnight and The Immortal Story, Story of the Last Chrysanthemum, Something Wild, Tree of the Wooden Clogs, two of the three Lone Wolf and Cub discs (sigh), and the upcoming Canoa.

Still no love for most of the other major catalog labels, though, even on DVD.

Andrei Rublev's long been my favorte of all time. My pop won't go near it. His favorite hasn't changed in years, either -



Back on Instant Watch.

No idea where else to put this, but I feel this is the closest to a relevant thread I can find

Amazon ridding themselves of several indie horror films, that smacks a little of censorship to some. Could be some sour grapes on the filmmakers' part or fishing for something by the writer, but it is slightly worrying in this current climate.

Though The Shining is the only Stanley Kubrick film streaming I'm psyched. Love it when the NF*ks (as an old friend used to call them) surprise me. And, yeah, it's even better after you've seen Room 237 or The Shining Code. Despite some of the hokey theories there's always more than meets the eye (initially) to any Kubrick joint. I do wonder why he decided to take this project on; just what it was about the Stephen King novel that presented a challenge to him.

ando wrote:...I do wonder why he decided to take this project on; just what it was about the Stephen King novel that presented a challenge to him...

I suspect this had a lot to do with the relatively lackluster box office results for Barry Lyndon and Kubrick's desire to retain complete creative control in his future work. He sensed, or Warner Brothers suggested, that he should take on a more commercial project his next time out. The Exorcist had been a big hit and a critical success so he probably thought the horror genre was something new he could take on and make a big splash with. Commercial success was important to him both as personal validation and as a guarantee of creative freedom. In the end, his choice to make The Shining did more to keep him in the public consciousness than anything else he did...which is why it's his sole film available to stream on Netflix these days!

But its also the era of rather prestigious Stephen King adaptations, David Cronenberg's adaptation of The Dead Zone was only three years later.

(I like to think the 'prestigious period' ended, albeit in the most fun manner possible, in 1986 when Stephen King directed his own adaptation of his short story Trucks, Maximum Overdrive!)

Roger Ryan wrote:

ando wrote:...I do wonder why he decided to take this project on; just what it was about the Stephen King novel that presented a challenge to him...

I suspect this had a lot to do with the relatively lackluster box office results for Barry Lyndon and Kubrick's desire to retain complete creative control in his future work. He sensed, or Warner Brothers suggested, that he should take on a more commercial project his next time out. The Exorcist had been a big hit and a critical success so he probably thought the horror genre was something new he could take on and make a big splash with. Commercial success was important to him both as personal validation and as a guarantee of creative freedom. In the end, his choice to make The Shining did more to keep him in the public consciousness than anything else he did...which is why it's his sole film available to stream on Netflix these days!

Yes, you're probably right about the commercial incentive but Kubrick always set challenges for himself (and others) that would daunt and often perplex most people. I just wondered what it was about this material, in particular, that appealed to his baroque sense of play.

Must say, I'm not digging the new NF rating system (if you care to call it that). It certainly eliminates one of the main functions of a site like Instantwatcher, a reliable and far superior search engine than the NF search function. Glad to hear I'm not alone in this regard: even more kinks.

Anyone here have an opinion about NF vs. Amazon Prime's Streaming Option? I've been thinking about switching to APrime as they seem to have films that I've been interested in watching lately. (Been wanting to catch up with Game of Thrones, for instance; a series I could have sworn NF had in its library ).

They're all bad, and generally for movies they're all pulling from the same central libraries but alternating which titles are available where. Game of Thrones is 3 years behind, as that's HBO's contract with Amazon.

That includes Filmstruck Plus? At least that includes Criterions. May just stay with NF.

No, I was speaking on behalf of the big three (Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu). Any of the specialty sites tend to be good so long as you like their libraries (somewhat obviously) - Filmstruck's got an absolutely fantastic selection and I've really appreciated a lot of the non-Criterion esoterica on the Filmstruck mainline that I'd otherwise never get around to seeing, but I can see some of the still pretty notable technical hurdles putting people off in the near term (even though I use a HTPC and can access it easily, I expect I'll use the service twice as much once one of my TVs or consoles can use the app natively)

Ribs wrote:No, I was speaking on behalf of the big three (Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu). Any of the specialty sites tend to be good so long as you like their libraries (somewhat obviously) - Filmstruck's got an absolutely fantastic selection and I've really appreciated a lot of the non-Criterion esoterica on the Filmstruck mainline that I'd otherwise never get around to seeing, but I can see some of the still pretty notable technical hurdles putting people off in the near term (even though I use a HTPC and can access it easily, I expect I'll use the service twice as much once one of my TVs or consoles can use the app natively)

ive started using FilmStruck almost ten times as much since getting an Apple TV, right before I did, chromecast support came out and made me almost not get an Apple TV.

Per FilmStruck support they're adding a resume watching function to the web portal like the app, and Apple TV already have, not that either remember where the other device was watching nor even that said device was watching anything at all, but support said there was a big update dropping for FilmStruck this month

Well, looks like Filmstruck trumps 'em all. Down to watching Hitler, A Career on NF. I've yet to see an intelligent film account, save the superlative BBC World at War series (though I believe this is a British production as well), that would at least give a feeling of what it was like to be under his spell. His brand of angry passion had long since disappeared in American politics on the national stage by the mid-20th century. So naturally he appeared to many Americans as a kind of lunatic. Good reviews.

Prime Video is a nice boon for having Prime, but not sure I'd ever look twice at it otherwise. All the Amazon Studios TV shows that we've watched so far have been a hit though.

I'm big into Amazon Prime, especially since now they have available (with paid subscriptions of course) live feeds from HBO, Cinemax, Showtime and Starz. I got the Amazon TV box for Christmas and am digging all of it's functionality, which works especially with a Prime membership.