Mirrors

Perhaps the most fantastic element of Lewis Carroll's Alice stories - not to mention the most obviously Cabbalistically inspired - is the notion that any female would actually decide to pass through a looking-glass when they could be changing and re-changing clothes, primping hair, or applying cosmetics in front of it instead.
"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To speak of many things: of shoes and..."
"...Hang on." Alice shouted. "I've just got to run to the bathroom and re-apply. I won't be a minute ... honestly."

Another example of the surreal and bizarre is the ridiculous amount of money the pretentious Criterion Collection think they can charge for a DVD movie: $39.99 - what planet do they think they are on? That belonging to the Apes!
Criterion Collection film to video transfers are generally no better restored or color corrected than those supplied by many other companies whose films cost half the price: Brand new High Definition transfer! Who cares? Even if you have a HD television the DVD in your hand is still only Standard Definition.
And what about those boring commentary tracks they provide. So-called film historians merely relating the bloody obvious in dreary monotone voices: "The protagonist crosses the room. Hitchcock's camera frames a two shot and focuses on the killer's gun." Yawn.
And what of some of the titles they choose to make available. Now I happen to think that Withnail And I is a very funny film. But important and groundbreaking? Oh come on.
They have just released a new copy of Visconti's brilliant The Leopard, but I damned if I'm buying it. Why can't they leave good films alone and just do their forty dollars worth of fannying around with Ingmar Bergman, Fassbinder, Godard and all the other Euro tedium that no-one in their right mind wants to watch.

Comments

[The Misspent Life]

I could not agree with you more on the Criterion collection. A few years ago, around Mother's Day, my eye was caught by their My Man Godfrey release. This happens to be one of my mother's favorite films and I grabbed it from the shelf thinking that this would surely enhance my status as the good son. Spying the price tag, however, it was immediately dispatched back to the shelf. My mother was to receive the $6.00 VHS version put out by Crappy Transfer Company. She doesn't need clear picture or commentary and wouldn't know the difference anyway.

It Is Outrageous!

[stephenesque]

Your dear mother has excellent taste. That is a fine movie, especially the part
where the Italian guy starts pretending to be a monkey.
There is, actually, a cheaper DVD version of "My Man Godfrey" available whose
quality is equal to that of the Criterion Collection, and again it costs about
a quarter of the CC price. Same is true of "The Third Man" also.

[KHH]

I did like the Criterion version of the Seven Samurai however. And the audio commentary was actually informative and learned a few things about Kurosawa and how he filmed. I do agree that the Criterio is overrated which is why I only get those from Netflix unless there is no other version to buy.