r/criterion

Over the last year I kept noticing that people trying to get deeper into film would eventually run into the same directors over and over again.

Not just because they’re considered “great,” but because they fundamentally shaped how cinema evolved across nearly 100 years of filmmaking: Hitchcock, Welles, Bergman, Kurosawa, Kubrick, Tarkovsky, Scorsese, Nolan.

Different eras, different philosophies, different styles, but all part of the larger evolution of cinematic language and film discourse.

I ended up building a curated collection around them as a kind of starting point for people wanting to explore film more seriously. Essays, criticism, interviews, and analysis organized around each director because I got tired of great film discussion disappearing into algorithms and scattered recommendations.

Curious who others would include in a “directors worth studying” introduction to cinema. Who are the directors that changed how you saw film?

This is partially a follow up to the post I made four days ago.

2001: A Space Odyssey is the one film I put off for the longest of any other so far. I had it in my collection on both DVD and blu-ray ever since I got into and started collecting film four years ago. I tried to watch it then when I was young, but stopped after 30 minutes. Years later, I learned about Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita and how Stanley Kubrick adapted the disturbing novel into a dark comedy, my sources of information made it seem as if because of Kubrick's film people missed the entire point of the novel, because of that I chose not to watch any of Kubrick's films as a sort of condemnation . I found out in the past four days through discussing this topic that I was actually misinformed, and my entire crux against Kubrick was made from a false pretence. (I even realised my own hypocrisy of condemning Kubrick for his Lolita adaptation, and at the same time being fine with Alejandro Jodorowsky, who has a much more sound argument against him for "immorality")
So I finally decided to give Stanley Kubrick an honest shot by watching 2001 and... wow.

I cannot believe I put off this film for as long as I did, it was incredible. 2001 feels like one of those films where it gets better after you watch it and sit with it in your head, and also an abstract film, one that can be interpreted in many ways with different themes which you can pick and choose.
My personal interpretation is that the film is about the advancement of man as well as technology. The obsidian slab (I found out writing this is called "the Monolith") represents the unknow and also advancement, and each time it appears eerie music plays. It first appears to the apes in prehistoric times, the apes are at first terrified of the slab but gradually calm down and inspect it wanting to figure out what it is, which continues to the scene where, to Strauss' I. Sunrise: Also, March Zarathustra, a puzzled ape realises it could use a bone as a weapon, representing the first ever blip of what would become human intelligence. The slab then appears again at the moon, discovered by the humans, which prompts the expedition into Jupiter, and appearing when David reaches Jupiter, finally when David becomes the infant, which advanced to such a level, we do not even understand as the viewers. HAL-9000 feels a lot more revenant today with the existence of chatbots and generative AI. My interpretation of HAL's action is of a computer that got too smart and started acting like a human. I believe that HAL was not intending on being malevolent, but was programmed too well, that it got rid of the other crew members because it saw them as a threat to itself, and by extension the mission, the downside of prioritising productivity over all else, like AI is programmed to. Probably my coldest take though, I did really like HAL's character. I really liked about 2001 was that, it did not necessarily have a "main character", that each segment of the film is almost something else, humanity's evolution from the apes, the technology and world humanity built, they voyage to jupiter and it's surreal arrival, all felt distinct.

The filmmaking itself is also really impressive to the point it holds up really well, especially for the standards of 1968! The film makes very good use of music, specifically classical music, the aforementioned I. Sunrise: Also, March Zarathustra by Richard Strauss has a a lot of leadup to a very impactful drop (I do not know my exact music terminology) plays when the ape realises it could use a bone as a weapon, the first major human advancement, and at the very end when David becomes the infant, and seemingly transcends humanity. I initially thought there were a lot of shots and scenes at the beginning, before the voyage to jupiter, that feel detached, but in the grand scheme came along incredibly and were not wasted, I realised it was like an abstract painting, where it's about about how it makes you feel.
The surreal visuals, like the scene where David reaches jupiter, the altered gravity scenes, and visual effects as a whole were also really good and impressively accomplished, once again especially for 1968, when digital effects did not even exist yet. The cinematography and editing were also very well done, with hard colours and the distinct symmetrical imagery that is a key part of Kubrick's style.

Overall, Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey was a wonderful film which I am so glad I have finally seen, and I am glad that I was convinced to finally give Kubrick a shot.

What do you think of the film, and even Kubrick as a director?

The title

When PlayTime was first released to cinemas, It had a runtime of 155 minutes including an intermission and exit music but due to poor reception, Jacques Tati decided to cut the film into around 120 minutes which is eventually the version we got now on home video. So what happened to the other 35 minutes? It wasn't even a workprint and other Jacques Tati films have their original versions released on home video like with Jour De Fete and Monsieur Hulot's Holiday yet there didn't seem to be any attempts at trying to restore the original. Even the original restoration is based on the 120 minute versions.

So what happened with the 155 minute version of PlayTime? I assumed it would be pretty sought since PlayTime is pretty famous but I rarely hear people talk about wanting to see it. I can't really find any information on searches for the 35 minutes online.

"The writer and director reminisces about seeing BLACK GIRL in the cinema with his mom as a child, shares how TRUE STORIES and ELECTION influenced his approach to filmmaking, and talks about the emotional truth behind the visual artifice of Pedro Almodóvar’s work."

Why did they only announce 2 new titles?
There were 3 upgrades and 1 eclipse title addition…but the actual new titles seemed very slim this month.
Was it just a slow month?