My Criterion Christmas Wishlist

 Dear Santa,

I’m writing from Québec, near the North Pole, you know me, I like films, movies, talkies, well I’m passionate about Cinema. Above all that, there is a collection that I cherish more than any other: the Criterion one. In fact, they are the perfect Christmas gift for cinephiles if you ask me. Their catalog is vast of quality classics, foreign masterpieces, and contemporary rarities. In the sets you have the film itself but with that it’s packed with juicy extras like interviews, documentaries, shorts, and amazing color booklets.  

In 2012, I think I’ve been a really good boy, I helped a lot around the house, I was pleasant with the people I love, I tried to make things well with my family, and I almost never swore. Since you have a lot to do on Christmas night, you can deliver this in your early run because I live near your workshop and you can make a big fat package for me...

Here’s what will make me freaking happy to have under the tree this Christmas:

First, I recently bought a Blu-Ray player, finally you would say, but I can now play the finest films of the collection on my new player.

Otto Preminger's Anatomy of A Murder

 

Akira Kurosawa’s Rashômon

Because Kurosawa’s masterpiece recently returned with a new edition. 

Jean Renoir’s La Règle du jeu

If you remember correctly, Jean Renoir is one of my favorite directors of all time and La Règle du jeu is almost favorite film of all time!

Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Berlin Alexanderplatz

This behemoth adaptation of Alfred Doblin’s novel is one of the most intriguing entries in the collection and having never seen a Fassbinder film this one might be very great for a beginning.

Late Ozu: Eclipse and Yasujiro Ozu’s An Autumn Afternoon

Being a fan of Ozu’s cinema this boxset is a must for an enthusiast like me. The five films included are Early Spring, Tokyo Twilight, Equinox Flower, Late Autumn, The End of Summer. With another great film (And Autumn Afternoon) from the man who almost never moved the camera. 

Fritz Lang’s M

The template for Thrillers, film noirs. Fritz Lang is one of my favourite directors and I hope to get rid of my old version of M and get the Blu-Ray to have a nicer view of the film.

Ingmar Bergman’s Summer With Monika/The Seventh Seal

Since I discovered The Seventh Seal, I wanted to see every Bergman film available. Well, let’s hope Wild Strawberries gets the Blu-Ray treatment as well. With Summer With Monika, a film I’ve never seen, Bergman made himself a reputation of erotic filmmaker. I am intrigued to see it since the poster is so beautiful.

...and finally,

Claude Jutra’s Mon Oncle Antoine

First, because it is the only film from Quebec in the collection. Second, it is the best Canadian film of all time and Mediafilm lately ranked it as a masterpiece amongst the 145 films it recognized as the ultimate list of the cream of cinema. Last, it is a film set during a traditional Christmas day of my region of the world. 

Thank you in advance Santa, I'm sure I will be very happy of the gifts you'll bring me this year! Please, don't forget my friends cinephiles Kevyn Knox,  Bonjour Tristesse, Chip Lary, John LaRue, Barry P., Dan, and many other readers they all need goodies and I'm sure they'll put their lists in the comments section.