Building My Own Criterion Collection
I have gotten into classic films. I decided to build my own little Criterion Collection, which includes the book(*) and film adaptation. Please give me some good recommendations. So far I have:
M (1931)
Le Grande Illusion (1937)
North by Northwest (1959)
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)*
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)*
Beckett (1964)
My Fair Lady (1964)
Sound of Music (1965)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)*
Nicholas and Alexandra (1971)*
Theatre of Blood (1973)
Murder on the Orient Express (1974)*
Death on the Nile (1978)*
Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)*
Das Boot (1981)
Quartet (1981)*
Mephisto (1981)*
Gandhi (1982)
The Bostonians (1984)*
Colonel Redl (1985)
A Room with a View (1985)*
The Living Daylights (1987)
The Age of Innocence (1993)*
The Remains of the Day (1993)*
The Madness of King George (1994)
Richard III (1995)*
Nixon (1995)
The English Patient (1996)*
Hamlet (1996)*
Amistad (1997)
Gosford Park (2001)
The Departed (2006)
The Ghost Writer (2010)*
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)*
And Then There Were None (2015)*
| by Anonymous | reply 19 | August 13, 2022 8:30 PM
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Are you looking for titles that are adaptations of books only?
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | August 12, 2022 5:12 PM
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Nice, OP. Get some more from the 30s-50s.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | August 12, 2022 5:18 PM
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R1 Not always, but I have found that the best movies are based on books. If a movie is based on a book, I want to try and read the book first.
R2 I was thinking of adding The Rules of the Game, Children of Paradise, and Eyes Without a Face, all classic French films. What 30's-50's films do you recommend?
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | August 12, 2022 5:24 PM
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Absolutely add Rules of the Game. Children of Paradise is not as good but still worth seeing. I haven't seen Eyes Without a Face.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | August 12, 2022 5:29 PM
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Here are a few off the top of my head that are both great movies (imo) and have excellent Blu-ray releases as well:
Brief Encounter (1945)
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Belle de Jour (1967)
La Belle et La Bête (1946)
Black Narcissus (1947)
The Leopard (1963)
A Passage to India (1984)
I’ll think of a few more later
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | August 12, 2022 5:31 PM
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R6 Thanks! Brief Encounter, Barry Lyndon, and A Passage to India have been on my to-do list for a while now.
I'm not familiar with the others.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | August 12, 2022 5:37 PM
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Buy movies you will rewatch.
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | August 12, 2022 5:40 PM
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I love "Le Million", an early and very funny musical comedy from French director Rene Clair, which inspired the Marx Brothers "A Night at the Opera".
The Palm Beach Story - absolutely hilarious screwball comedy by Preston Sturges, also "Sullivan's Travels" and if they have it, "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" -- how Sturges got that film by the censors back in the 1940s is another miracle
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | August 12, 2022 5:41 PM
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I strongly recommend Fellini's "8 1/2" (1963).
The 1922 version of Nosferatu is also good.
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | August 12, 2022 5:42 PM
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You may or may not know that Criterion also has a streaming service. You could subscribe for a while and see what films you really like there and want to purchase. If you don't think you'd want to watch some more than once, but you think you'd enjoy watching other multiple times, it would be a better use of money.
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | August 12, 2022 5:44 PM
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"A Nous La Liberte" (Liberty for Us) also by Rene Clair - is also excellent by Rene Clair. Clair's film company (but not Clair himself) sued Charlie Chaplin for using similar scenes in his "Modern Times", which are indeed very similar.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | August 12, 2022 5:46 PM
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If you are interested in the films of Yasujiro Ozu, the best of the ones I have seen are Late Spring (1949) and Early Summer (1951).
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | August 12, 2022 5:49 PM
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I enjoy reading Tennessee Williams plays and then watching the movies.
Also, Truman Capote's " Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "In Cold Blood" are good books to movies.
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | August 12, 2022 5:56 PM
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R15 "Tokyo Story" has been on or near the top of the greatest films ever made. Very much worth seeing.
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | August 12, 2022 8:29 PM
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This is not my Criterion Collection, this is my neighbors btw. They are showing me classic films and letting me borrow them.
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | August 13, 2022 4:06 PM
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"Last Year at Marienbad" (1961) should be in everyone's home collection.
| by Anonymous | reply 19 | August 13, 2022 8:30 PM
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