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Suggestions and General Discussion

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 2:21 pm
by Mr Sausage
There's been some discussion about resurrecting the old Criterion Film Club. If there is significant interest in this, I'm willing to set-up and moderate this club.

So here's your chance to vote. I don't care so much about the negative votes, just the amount of interest suggested by the positive votes. Obviously if only five people care there's no point bothering.

The format is still to be decided, but it may end up being something like another vote based on some nominated films or something. I don't know. We'll decide when/if we get there.


EDIT: We're doin' this.

Re: Film Club

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 2:24 pm
by mfunk9786
I'd be interested if it were films in the Criterion Collection only. Perhaps even with spine numbers randomly selected with a random number generator of some kind. Yes, swo, I know they're not perfectly random. ;)

Re: Criterionforum Film Club

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 2:26 pm
by Michael Kerpan
Why random? Why not pick films that a fair number of people are actually interested in discussing?

Re: Criterionforum Film Club

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 2:26 pm
by Mr Sausage
We tried it with only Criterion films last time and it went nowhere for reasons that might apply your idea: the format (taking it numerically from spine 1) meant that we rarely ever landed on the films people were eagre to discuss.

Re: Criterionforum Film Club

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 2:27 pm
by domino harvey
I think it should be Criterion-based too-- makes it easier to decide what's picked and is relevant to the board's supposed affiliation! Plus a lot of Criterion threads could use some post-release discussion!

Re: Criterionforum Film Club

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 2:27 pm
by Drucker
If it amounts to this:

Long ago, there was an attempt to designate a film in the Collection that forum members would watch and plan to discuss, sort of like a reading group, and the results were fairly dismal despite the best of intentions..

I would love that. It'd be a great excuse to watch films I haven't watched in a while, as I find myself always watching films for the first time with such a big kevyip.

Re: Criterionforum Film Club

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 2:28 pm
by swo17
mfunk9786 wrote:I'd be interested if it were films in the Criterion Collection only. Perhaps even with spine numbers randomly selected with a random number generator of some kind. Yes, swo, I know they're not perfectly random. ;)
I have nothing against random number generators. I'm sorry if I ever gave that impression.

Re: Criterionforum Film Club

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 2:28 pm
by Moe Dickstein
Maybe some mixture of the two methods, pick say 3 at random then let the members vote on which of the three they'd most like to discuss? That saves a Border Radio ghost town situation from happening

Re: Criterionforum Film Club

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 2:28 pm
by domino harvey
Michael Kerpan wrote:Why not pick films that a fair number of people are actually interested in discussing?
Isn't the idea to pick films that people might otherwise not be interested in seeing? Like any book club, you're exposed to a title and then you discuss it, which can be illuminating especially if it's something out of your traditional wheelhouse

Re: Criterionforum Film Club

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 2:29 pm
by Mr Sausage
Right, well, if this goes through we can have another vote on whether it should be Criterion only.

Re: Criterionforum Film Club

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 2:30 pm
by domino harvey
Can we vote on the voting though

Re: Criterionforum Film Club

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 2:33 pm
by Mr Sausage
domino harvey wrote:Can we vote on the voting though
Ok, new vote: do we want to have votes or do we want to have me run this show with an iron fist?

Re: Criterionforum Film Club

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 2:33 pm
by mfunk9786
What's the harm in randomly picking Criterion films on a Criterion forum? Folks here constantly flap their gums about worthiness of being in the collection, etc - wouldn't filling out a thread like the one for, say, The Last Wave or some other under-seen Criterion release with some more attention and discussion be the whole idea of doing something like this?

Re: Criterionforum Film Club

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 2:36 pm
by domino harvey
I say let's go through the threads numerically and the first one with three or fewer responses is picked, then the next, and so on til we have our list corpus

Re: Criterionforum Film Club

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 2:39 pm
by mfunk9786
Some threads are filled with scintillating discussion like
Morbii wrote:Did anyone else find this movie amazing?
So maybe instead of three overall posts, three overall paragraph length or longer impressions/reviews?

Re: Criterionforum Film Club

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 2:44 pm
by swo17
What about just going with the thread that has the oldest latest post? First up then would be The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, followed by Sullivan's Travels, etc.

Re: Criterionforum Film Club

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 2:46 pm
by matrixschmatrix
Aw, I like spine number- that way, we can all get stuck talking about, like, Sanders of the River, instead of just having the whole Robeson box set as a thread.

Re: Criterionforum Film Club

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 3:02 pm
by MichaelB
Presumably people wouldn't be restricted to actual Criterion versions? For instance, there are quite a few Criterions I haven't bought because I have perfectly good (sometimes superior, often drastically cheaper) alternative European editions.

Re: Criterionforum Film Club

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 3:04 pm
by Mr Sausage
That would be pretty damn anal to insist that you can only talk about the film if you've watched it on a Criterion DVD.

Re: Criterionforum Film Club

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 3:06 pm
by mfunk9786
These sort of semantics are the reason why I figure we could just do it by spine number - sometimes get a popular film, sometimes get, like Matrix said, Sanders of the River.

Re: Criterionforum Film Club

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 3:14 pm
by MichaelB
Mr Sausage wrote:That would be pretty damn anal to insist that you can only talk about the film if you've watched it on a Criterion DVD.
That's what I assumed, but you never know!

Re: Criterionforum Film Club

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 3:18 pm
by Mr Sausage
MichaelB wrote:
Mr Sausage wrote:That would be pretty damn anal to insist that you can only talk about the film if you've watched it on a Criterion DVD.
That's what I assumed, but you never know!
When it comes to this forum I guess you never can tell.

Re: Criterionforum Film Club

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 3:19 pm
by swo17
I'm not sure I'd always have time to participate in discussions, but I'd be willing to be an objective third party that randomly determines which film is up for discussion next. Through, you know, math. Question though: Would films on Eclipse/EAH be in the running? What about spines like Science Is Fiction or by Brakhage--how would they be handled?

Re: Criterionforum Film Club

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 3:29 pm
by domino harvey
I would suggest excluding OOP titles, titles only available in large boxed sets (including Eclipse), and non-film titles (Beastie Boys, Fishing With John, etc)

Re: Criterionforum Film Club

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2013 3:31 pm
by Gregory
Mr Sausage wrote:We tried it with only Criterion films last time and it went nowhere for reasons that might apply your idea: the format (taking it numerically from spine 1) meant that we rarely ever landed on the films people were eagre to discuss.
Was that indeed how it was done? I've been trying to remember this, and my clearest memory is that 8 1/2 was one of the few chosen and discussed before the thing was abandoned. If my memory about that is accurate, then I'm thinking perhaps we were going alphabetically by title (that was back when there were only a couple titles starting with numerals in print from Criterion) or by nomination or something.