Saturday, November 2, 2024

The Discreet Hypocrisy of the Bourgeoisie

Nothing defines Champagne Socialist so exemplary than a successful multi-millionaire actor, surrounded by overpriced blu-ray discs, and moaning about capitalism

While in the Criterion closet, Andrew Garfield ought to have protested about inequality instead of filling his totes bag; like the range of Criterion UK releases being absolutely pitiful compared to its corporate big brother across the pond, and why the latest 40% off discount sale in HMV has as much choice as an Eastern Bloc supermarket.

Here is a selection of UK Criterion titles which ought to have been part of the sale:

Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)
Repulsion (Roman Polanski, 1965)
Happiness (Todd Solondz, 1988)
Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)
Menace II Society (Allen Hughes, Albert Hughes, 1993)
The Irishman (Martin Scorsese, 2019)

Severin’s cellar will always outshine the Criterion closet. Always. All the lucky folk invited into the hallowed basement appear more enthusiastic there than Cate Blanchett and Todd Field being poncey and boring like their film Tár (2022). The cellar has director Sean Baker geek out on giallo films and gushing over Laura Gemser  that's way more relatable to me. Pick of the lot is seeing Gaspar Noe going Supermarket Sweep.

4 comments:

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

So I bought the Cymande documentary from HMV yesterday thinking it's the DVD and it's the damn Blu-Ray which I can't play. Have the BFI stopped doing dual-format releases?

Spartan said...

From the looks of the BFI's shop, dual format (Blu-Ray + DVD) has not been supported for their recent releases.

Made a similar (and expensive) mistake earlier this year and copped the entire Psycho box set in the wrong format.

Kelvin Mack10zie said...

Bastards. HMV had The Appointment in too but it looks like that isn't dual-format either ☹

Spartan said...

It's a bit strange. Not sure why the BFI would distribute their very recent film Starve Acre in dual format, while Getting it Back: The Story of Cymande doesn't get the same treatment.