Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project (Touki Bouki / Redes / A River Called Titas / Dry Summer / Trances / The Housemaid) (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray + DVD]

just arrived, very good! thank Martin for good Movies

Once more m.Martin Scorsese AND criterion made possible to us to discover 6 greats movies that for some we probably never heard of in magnificent hd masters.

What's not to love. Scorsese is a Master Director. He knows great cinema. The films were awesome. I love Criterion anything!!!

come on people. i dont get what problems you have with the price of this boxset. you get 6 master pieces of cinema history from CRITERION on bluray and DVD here. retail price = 120$ / 6 movies = 20 bucks each. thats what you pay @ B&N in a criterion sale for a single movie. and now you get these 6 movies for 65$ ... something is really wrong with people if you keep complaining about a price like this. and if you hate the DVDs so much, sell them, give it to a friend that has no bluray player... doh.

Six quality films from around the world and over several decades, all restored and given the excellent Criterion treatment. Martin Scorcese must be commended for his efforts with The World Cinema Project. I suspect that many of these films received the new-found attention and subsequent restoration due in large part to Scorcese's active involvement and influence. Hence some real gems have been rescued from obscurity. I am purchasing this box set in hopes that Criterion will release a further set(s) of these World Cinema wonders. I checked out the WCP website and notice a variety of very interesting titles that have been restored, if not yet released, in high definition format. Among these is the Sergei Parajanov masterpiece 'The Color of Pomegranates', and the outstanding 'Kalpana' from India, 1948.

Below is the description of a Turkish film that, after all is said and done, sounds almost identical to JEAN DE FLORETTE and MANON DU SOURCE. I know that the films were made a few years later, but was DRY SUMMER based on the Pagnol novel? Anyone want to do some detective work for me? DRY SUMMER Winner of the prestigious Golden Bear at the 1964 Berlin International Film Festival, Metin Erksan’s wallop of a melodrama concerns the machinations of an unrepentantly selfish tobacco farmer who builds a dam to prevent water from flowing downhill to nourish his neighbors’ crops. Alongside this tale of soul-devouring competition is one of overheated desire, as a love triangle develops between the farmer, his more decent brother, and the beautiful villager the latter takes as his bride, resulting in a Cain and Abel–like struggle. A benchmark of Turkish cinema, this is a visceral, innovatively shot and vibrantly acted depiction of the horrors of greed. 1964

If you're wondering why these movies haven't been available until now, let me clear up the mystery. Like most people who buy this set, I was expecting to see buried treasure unearthed by master filmmaker, Martin Scorsese. Well, these films were buried for a good reason, they stink. Only half of them appear to have be made by people acquainted with linear story telling. The best of these, and of the whole sad lot, was "Dry Summer," a hackneyed tale of landholders fighting over water rights. "World Cinema" is code for Third World. Four of these movies are about peasants. Of the other two, one is a documentary of a band of poor musicians who play to crowds of young, violent Arab men ("Trances"). The other is a lurid morality tale played out in middle class Korean society ("The Housemaid"). Unfortunately, Mr. Scorsese's liberal Hollywood politics seep through in his choices. There is some Marxism ("Redes") and some anti-Americanism ("Touki Bouki"). Too bad, thought he was above that. There will be no shortage of snobs to rave about these "masterpieces," and lickspittles to praise Mr. Scorsese for giving them to us. I, myself, owe the gentleman a debt of gratitude for championing the restoration of "El Cid." He has had some magnificent successes, but this is not one of them.

My main reason for buying this set was to own "Touki Bouki"(1973 Senegal), which Sight and Sound listed at #93, for greatest films of all time. This film is about a young couple who seek to escape their poverty stricken life by heading for Paris. The set also comes with five other interesting films. My favourite of the later probably being the Kim Ki-Young film, "The Housemaid" (1960 South Korea), which is a drama/horror film. The films all offer something if one is looking for rare films from other cultures. Ahmed Maanouni's film "Trances" (1981 Morocco) is a music documentary about a Moroccan band (Nass El Ghiwane) that became popular in the Arab world in the 1970's/1980's. "Redes"(1936 Mexico) is a film about fishermen who rebel against the wealthy, which was important with its docudrama realism and its influence on Italian neo-realism. "A River Called Titas" 1973 India/ Bangladesh)(158min) was for me the hardest to appreciate given what I saw as weaknesses in acting and a sprawling plot.Two of these films had some strong violent scenes involving animals which some may find hard to watch:"Touki Bouki", which begins early with a scene of a cattle slaughterhouse, along with other later scenes of farm/rural images of chickens or goats being killed before preparation for meals, and "Dry Summer"(1964 Turkey) with similar farm images. All in all the movies in this set have many arresting images that will likely haunt one for many years to come. This set comes with short intros for each movie from Martin Scorsese, special features on each film and a 64 page booklet with informative essays about each movie.

Martin Scorsese es sin lugar a duda el más grande autor norteamericano trabajando en la actualidad. Dejando a un lado esto, la labor que lleva a cabo en aras de la preservación de obras cinematográficas universales en peligro de desaparecer, su fundación rescata películas de diferentes partes del mundo para ser restauradas y preservarlas para las futuras generaciones. El medio fílmico es tan importante como cualquier otra obra de arte como la pintura, la plástica, la arquitectura, la música y la obra literaria. Estas seis películas son un digno ejemplo de esta labor. Buen trabajo de Criterion, como siempre[...]

An unusual collection of strange, but well produced films. It's especially refreshing to see an African film in the mix. African cinema doesn't get the attention it deserves.