How many of you have heard of The Criterion Collection, I wonder? It’s a collection of films produced for home viewing with the utmost attention paid to both the image and sound quality, as well as special features and supplementary material. The first two films given this highbrow treatment for a home audience were King Kong and Citizen Kane in 1984. When I watched Gimme Shelter, the documentary I wrote about on this blog previously, that was a Criterion DVD. The quality of that production is astounding. Included in the DVD case is a booklet that provides insightful and intelligent essays about the Stones’ infamous and tragic concert at the Altamont Speedway in 1969. Right now, our catalogue is showing we have 824 Criterion Blu-rays and DVDs in our collection. That is a massive amount of high quality, curated titles at your disposal. Criterion also has a YouTube channel. Full of amazing content, it includes a series called Closet Picks where filmmakers and actors choose a swag bag of films (carried in a fancy, branded tote bag) to take home after a visit to Criterion’s offices. Hearing these luminaries of the industry give their reasoning as to which movies warrant a place in their haul is fascinating. Some of my recent favourites have been the father-daughter pairing of Maya and Ethan Hawke, Ayo Edebiri, Willem Dafoe, and Dan Levy. What follows are some classics — recently watched by yours truly — as well as a couple favourites of mine that just happen to be included in the collection. I hope one of them catches your eye!
A Room with a View
My first introduction to this classic film, based on the E.M. Forster novel, was a cutaway in an episode of Gilmore Girls. I have always been curious about the movie referenced in Season 5, Episode 2. Rory compares her travels in Italy with her grandmother to a scene from the film. It is a very English period drama. All parasols and swooning. An impossibly young Helena Bonham Carter is being chaperoned around Florence by her older cousin Maggie Smith. Florence has a special place in my heart, so it was lovely to see it on screen. The enchanting city captured in the 80s doesn’t look too different from the Florence I remember from travelling there as a kid. My favourite character in this film was Mr. Emerson. Hopelessly romantic, labelled a “radical” by his peers when there seems to be nothing particularly radical about him in the slightest. He is the father of Bonham Carter’s love interest, George. My favourite line is his as well. When tagging along behind a tour of a church by a reverend, he quips that the line “built by faith” just means the labourers weren’t paid enough for their efforts. I think he is purposely given all the best lines. He is earnest and childlike in his honesty and genuine emotion, bringing both out in those around him. Consequently, he brings about the romantic resolution of the picture. Undoubtedly, he’s a very lovable character indeed.
Being There
Here’s another classic, no doubt one of many in Criterion’s repository. This one has Peter Sellers taking on the role of Chance the Gardener, or “Chauncy Gardiner” as Shirley MacLaine mishears at one point. A dry, unique comedy with a slightly absurd premise unlike any other: a gardener who’s never experienced anything beyond his benefactor’s doorstep is suddenly thrust into 1970s Washington, DC when the aging man passes away. The greatest mystery of the film is the exact nature of the relationship between Chance and the man whose house he has lived in since he was a boy. Is he really the man’s son, perhaps out of wedlock? We are not given an answer throughout the run time. Everything Chance knows he’s learned from gardening and watching TV. The TV wakes him up in the morning and is his constant companion all day long until bedtime. Somehow, he knows enough to be vaulted into the upper echelons of society, even meeting the president. Truly a fish out of water, he reminds me of later protagonists like Darryl Hannah in Splash or Hugh Jackman’s anachronistic 19th-century gentleman falling in love with Meg Ryan in Kate and Leopold. The comedy in the movie stems from Sellers’ interactions with the outside world — the harsh landscape of a DC winter. Excellent performances make this definitely worth seeing, particularly Melvyn Douglas as a business mogul dying of Leukemia. Maybe the fact that Douglas was only a few years away from dying himself lent his acting a little more verisimilitude or truthiness, whichever you prefer. Either way, he ended up winning an Oscar for the role.
Sound of Metal
To be honest, I’ve been looking for a reason to write about this movie. I’m a big fan of Riz Ahmed’s, and it’s no wonder he received such acclaim for his portrayal of metal drummer Ruben Stone in this film. Alongside an Oscar nod for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for Ahmed, editor Mikkel E.G. Nielsen and the sound department won Best Achievement in Film Editing and Best Sound respectively. For a movie about a man who has sustained damaged to his hearing, it makes sense that the Academy recognized the attention paid to sound by the filmmakers. Over and over, the audience is immersed in Ruben’s aural reality. We experience how the world sounds to him as he progresses to total hearing loss. His response is a version of the five stages of grief. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. It’s a gripping performance and an excellent film. I would recommend it to anyone.
Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight
The Before Trilogy films are on my list of favourites. Period. Full stop. Perhaps not what first comes to mind when you think of the famous director Richard Linklater (revered for Boyhood and Dazed and Confused), Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight are nonetheless some of his best. It all starts with Before Sunrise and Jesse and Céline serendipitously meeting on a train to Vienna in the 90s, where we lay our scene. The dialogue will inevitably give you the impression of spontaneity and improvisation, but all of those witty quips, bon mots, delicate pauses, and digressions were meticulously scripted by writers Linklater and Kim Krizan. The pair decide to spend the rest of the day and the night together, walking around Vienna. There is an impression that all the flirting and chemistry between them is intense but casual, likely to burn brightly and then abruptly end. Before Sunset is the continuance of their story, however. I won’t spoil anything here, but my favourite scene in the whole trilogy takes place toward the end of this film. Well, maybe it’s two scenes. There’s a conversation in a car, and Jesse is meant to be headed toward the airport to catch a plane but ends up at Céline’s house, listening to Nina Simone. (Do yourselves a favour and listen to Nina Simone, by the way.) Céline quips something. I’m wrestling with the urge to write it here, but I think it’s best experienced while watching the film for the first time. Before Midnight is my least favourite of the three, to be honest. Writing this makes me want to rewatch it to see if that remains true. All three Befores are included in Criterion, however, and all three are worthy of a viewing.
I hope I have piqued your interest in at least one of these films. There’s a reason why they’ve been included in this esteemed repository of curated movies. These are good pictures. Give them a shot if you haven’t seen them. See you all again next month!