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Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film and TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday. (The answer to the second, “What is the best film in theaters right now?”, can be found at the end of this post.)

This week’s question: Inspired by Baby Groot’s “Mr. Blue Sky” dance sequence at the beginning of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” what movie has the best opening credits sequence?

April Wolfe (@awolfeful), La Weekly

Hands down, it’s R.W. Fassbinder’s “The Marriage of Maria Braun.” I watch the opening sequence at least three times a year and show it to every filmmaker I can. I love any film that begins with a bang, and this one does quite literally: We open up on an explosion that rips out a hunk of brick wall, exposing a German couple in the middle of a rushed marriage ceremony.

(Sacha Guitry, 1951; Eureka!, PG)

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Directed by the prolific actor, screenwriter and playwright Sacha Guitry (1885-1957), a film-maker much admired by the Nouvelle Vague, La Poison is a calculatedly amoral black comedy set in an undistinguished, impoverished French village. He wrote it for Michel Simon (1895-1975), the plug-ugly, gravel-voiced, ungainly, infinitely expressive Swiss-born actor, France's Charles Laughton. Simon plays Paul Braconnier, unhappily married for 30 years to the noisome, charmless alcoholic, Blandine. Both are contemplating murder, Blandine using rat poison, Paul employing information craftily acquired from a lawyer celebrated for winning acquittal for murder suspects. It's a cleverly plotted film, wittily mocking the French legal system, conventional morality and horrors of small-town life. It was made at a time when divorce was almost unthinkable among the poor, and the guillotine was standard punishment for murder.

Simon's outrageously misogynistic Paul is a remarkable creation,...

Arguably the two most perfect British movies were made in the same year, 1949 – Carol Reed's The Third Man and Robert Hamer's Kind Hearts and Coronets. In Hamer's movie, Dennis Price, the gay, Oxford-educated son of a brigadier-general, gives his greatest performance as the aggrieved Edwardian shop assistant revenging himself on the establishment for his mother's humiliation, and he's certainly not overshadowed by Alec Guinness's protean virtuosity.

His sequence with Guinness as his senile, snobbish clerical victim is exquisitely funny and most beautifully lit by Douglas Slocombe. Equally good are Valerie Hobson and Joan Greenwood as the two women waiting for Price when he's released from the condemned cell.

Hamer had a particular liking for the late-Victorian/Edwardian world and was a great Francophile. Both passions are reflected by two classic black comedies that influenced the film: Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, which Oscar Wilde wrote just after reading Crime and Punishment,...

Criterion's December release announcement is brief, but sweet. David Cronenberg's Videodrome is coming to Blu-Ray while Guillermo Del Toro's Cronos will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray. 

 

The Videodrome Blu-Ray seems to be sourced from same master as the 2004 Criterion DVD.  Extras are largely same. Cronos is newly restored and packed with extras, including a previously unreleased short film called Geometria. Check the links in the calendar for full specifications.

Finally, as mentioned in the last Criterion Column, the DVD release of the America Lost and Found: The Bbs Story comes out on December 14th. The Blu-Ray will be released on November 23rd.

 

The Criterion Collection 2010 Release Calendar (January through December 2010, up-to-date as of September 16, 2010)

 

December 2010

 

David Cronenberg, Videodrome, Bd, 12/7/2010, Us & Canada

Guillermo del Toro, Cronos, 2-disc DVD & Bd, 12/7/2010, Us & Canada

 

November 2010

 

Charlie Chaplin, Modern Times, 2-dsc DVD & Bd, 11/16/10, Us & Canada

Charles Laughton, Night Of The Hunter, 2-disc DVD & 2-disc Bd,...

In November, The Criterion Collection is set to release an eclectic mix of American classics with a bit of European transgression thrown in. A newly restored version of Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times is planned for DVD and Blu-Ray. Charles Laughton's stunning black-and-white noir/horror tale Night of the Hunter (1955) is also on the schedule for DVD and Blu-Ray. Lars Von Trier's Antichrist will invade home video players everywhere.

Those are great releases, but highlight of the November list is the America Lost and Found: The Bbs Story box set, which features 6 films from Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider's production company Bbs during the 60s-70s.  Titles include: Head, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Drive He Said, The Last Picture Show, and The King Of Marvin Gardens. Think about the scope of this release for a second. This is six films by Dennis Hopper, Henry Jaglom, Jack Nicholson Bob Rafelson,...

Grade: The Story Of A Cheat: A; The Pearls Of The Crown: A-; Désiré: B; Quadrille: B Sacha Guitry made a name for himself in the French theater in the early 20th century as an actor, director, and playwright, and when cinema entered the sound era, he reluctantly tried his hand, first by turning out stagey adaptations of his plays. Then in 1936, he wrote, directed, and starred in The Story Of A Cheat, and his approach to the medium changed. Working from his own novel, Guitry recounts the multiple rises and falls of an orphan turned croupier, and ...

The October 2010 batch of Criterion titles brings a few surprises. Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory is hitting DVD and Blu-Ray as is Ingmar Bergman's film The Magician. Criterion continues its relationship with Wes Anderson by releasing The Darjeeling Limited on Blu-Ray and DVD. Ok.

Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai is headed for Blu-Ray with a new restored high-def transfer. If the quality of Criterion's other Kurosawa Blu-Ray discs (e.g. Kagemusha, Sanjuro and Yojimbo) are any indication, it is time to ditch the DVDs. This one should look spectacular.

Finally, Nobuhiko Obayashi's House is making its way to Blu-Ray and DVD just in time for Halloween. There are a few things to note here. First, the fact that Criterion is releasing this on Blu-Ray with a restored transfer and uncompressed mono sound is kind of a surprise. This is a very good thing. The other curious thing is the extras.

The September releases of Breathless on Blu-Ray and The Thin Red Line on Blu-Ray and DVD aren't so much of a surprise. A high-def Breathless release was inevitable and the Malick title leaked out a while ago. Also, Charade is the sort of classic Hollywood auterist fare that Criterion often deals in. No, the big surprise here is Oshima's Happy Birthday Mr. Lawrence. Both this release and the recent Oshima DVD box indicate that Criterion is seriously intent to digging deeper into the director's filmography. Finally, it would be a mistake not to mention the Eclipse box set of Allan King films. The Canadian director's documentaries have never been readily available in the U.S. so this box should expose his work to an entirely new audience (including this writer). 

The Criterion Collection 2010 Release Calendar (Covers January through September 2010, up-to-date as of July 7, 2010)

September 2010

Jean-Luc Godard, Breathless, DVD & Bd, 9/14/10, Us...

Fall 2010 brings very interesting news and rumors about releases from The Criterion Collection. First, the label has issued the official list of films for August release. These include two essential documentaries by Terry Zwigoff, Black Orpheus, a box of Josef von Sternberg silent films, and 4 early Akira Kurosawa films that originally appeared in the Ak 100 25 disc box set.

Lots of unofficial information has also begun to surface about future releases. In late April, The New York Times confirmed rumors that Criterion will release Nobuhiko Obayashi's Hausu will in September. Additionally, pre-order pages for Criterion Blu-Rays of Antichrist, The Darjeeling Limited, The Seven Samurai, The Thin Red Line, and Videodrome have popped up on Amazon. Look for official updates in the next Criterion Column. 

The Criterion Collection 2010 Release Calendar (Covers January through August 2010, up-to-date as of May 23, 2010)

August 2010

Akira Kurosawa, Eclipse Series 23: The First Films Of Akira Kurosawa 

(Sanshiro Sugata...

Another month brings another set of titles from The Criterion Collection. July 2010 releases include two early films by Yasujrio Ozu, Secrets of the Grain, a Sacha Guitry box set, and long awaited digitally-restored versions of The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

An earlier column mentioned the availability of 6 Zaitoichi films for free streaming on Hulu. Within the past few days, Criterion added 12 more Zaitoichi titles as well Roman Polanski's Knife in the Water to Hulu. The link to all of the free Criterion Hulu titles is featured in the "Related Links" section of this post.

The Criterion Collection 2010 Release Calendar (Covers January through July 2010, up-to-date as of 4/19/2010)

July 2010

Yasujiro Ozu, The Only Son/There Was A Father: Two Films By Yasujiro Ozu, 2 DVD Box, 7/13/2010, Us & English speaking Canada

Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, Black Narcissus, DVD & Bd, 7/20/10, Us & Canada

Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, The Red Shoes,...

Well all you lucky tax-payers, you have all new Criterion Collection releases to spend that hard earned tax return on. It feels like only yesterday we were posting the June 2010 new releases from Criterion, and here we are with July’s!

First up, we’re getting two Powell and Pressburger films that have been long rumored: The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus. The Red Shoes restored print that has been making it’s way around the country has been of much talk on our podcast over the last several months, and has even found it’s way onto Netflix’s Watch Instantly feature. Soon to be available on DVD and Blu-ray, these are two titles that are clearly worth a revisiting. The restored print of The Red Shoes screened last December in Austin at Butt-Numb-a-Thon, and our own James McCormick joined us on this early bonus episode, to discuss his thoughts on the screening.