Tag: purchases

My birthday is coming up, but since we will be in Boston celebrating it, I got my birthday present early. (OK that is just a lame excuse for the fact that I wanted it right now.) We all know that blu-rays are fantastic and I vow to only buy Criterion blu-rays from now on. Oh yeah they just had a sale recently! I purchased some of the films I did not get last time, and just like last time, I had tabs open for another bunch of films I did not get. (People on Sunday and Paris, Texas – ahhhh!) Perhaps another time… when Criterion has another sale. (They do give you 50 dollars when you spend more than 500 at their store… I would be terrified of myself for having spent that much, but I have a feeling that it will happen one day.)

• The Last Days of Disco: Besides the old Floating Weeds version, this is the only Criterion film I have not seen before buying.
• Harold and Maude: The film is associated with a somewhat unpleasant memory, but it does not deter from the fact that it’s one of the greatest films ever, or rather one of my favorite films ever.
• The Darjeeling Limited: I am one of those hipsters who adores Wes Anderson, but actually The Darjeeling Limited just happens to be his masterpiece.
• Yi Yi: Truthfully the film is a borefest and I even remember Gorp falling asleep to it. But I cry ever single time I see it, and I don’t think there is another film ever made with so much humanity.

That’s it for this time. I predict one day I will buy more – it’s just too tempting.

To some degree, one could say that using Netflix is like buying movies (and TV series) – you pay for the product, it’s just that you kind of get a flat rate. But streaming websites like Netflix and Hulu only give you the film itself, obviously there won’t be any extras. Well, extras are the very reason why I love DVDs and was glad that the old days of VHS were over. Luckily this tradition got carried over into Blu-rays, and now that I have finally purchased a few blu-rays I feel immensely motivated to get a player.

Criterion recently had a 50% off the SRP deal which lasted only a day. Normally I would never pay 40 (or roughly 31-32) dollars for any film, but now that they are priced at 20 dollars I figured there is no better way to get new Criterion DVDs. So these are the ones I got!

First, the Blu-rays I cannot actually watch yet:

• Mystery Train: An old favorite! I went to Memphis just for that… OK not really, but I was excited to be where they shot the film.
• Branded to Kill: I debated a long time about this one. I absolutely love the film but it’s incredibly random.
• In the Mood for Love: These days I have become more careful around relationship films. A lot of them don’t touch me as much anymore, but I doubt that will ever be the case for this one. It’s definitely Wong Kar-wai’s masterpiece.
• M: I’m not sure whether the blu-ray actually offers better quality, but oh I can’t wait to see this film again.

The others were only available as DVDs:

• Antonio Gaudí: Pip wanted this film, and I understand why. It’s definitely special.
• Teshigahara box: You can’t actually get the films on their own anymore, but that is fine since all three movies are awesome.
• Floating Weeds box: These are two movies in one package, and the older version is the only film amongst all of them I have not actually seen. Look forward to it!
• Scenes from a Marriage: A three-disc package with both the TV and the theatrical version, though I am not sure whether I ever would want to see the shorter version.

Finally, a shot of the Teshigahara box. It was pricey, but comes in an extremely stylish box – 4 DVDs and one pretty booklet. For a Teshigahara fan, it is almost impossible to get a better treatment of the material.

Of course I am not entirely going to hold to this; if I happen to see some really nice DVD that I find interesting and want to buy, I would go ahead and get it. But I bought so much lately that I know I am going to stop until I get out of the country.

At Zweitausendeins, I got:
The General: 3 euro

At Saturn, I got:
Punch-Drunk Love: 3,50 euro
Atonement: 5 euro
Le petit soldat: 4 euro

I am actually not super-interested in Punch-Drunk Love, but it still got me interested. And *tadamm* I just put a huge order on Amazon, namely:
Cactus Flower: 6,66 euro
Blow Up: 5 euro
Bug: 5 euro
Wait Until Dark: 5 euro
Time to Live and Time to Die: 8 euro
Jim Jarmusch Collection: 48 euro
I don’t usually spend 77,50 euro easily on things, and I perfectly know that this is a slightly irrational attitude. After all, I am sure that I have spent way more than this amount on DVDs until now, and with an average of just 5,5 euro per DVD I have no reason to complain. Nevertheless, I have accumulated over 40 DVDs to watch now

Killing your backlog is a psychologically difficult thing to do, but some postings are so simple that they are downright fun: Here’s the next bunch of DVDs I got!
– 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days: 7 euro
– Cruel Intentions: 7 euro
– Good Will Hunting: 5 euro
– Kontroll: 7 euro
I have spent a bit more money on these DVDs compared to my previous lot of purchases, but except “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” (which was brilliant!) they are films from my childhood that I used to absolutely love. And hey, 7 euro is not all that bad either, methinks.

While I was randomly browsing Amazon.de, I realized that the Jim Jarmusch box has become less expensive again. God knows why, and I am wondering (as always!) whether I should wait a little longer until the box becomes even less expensive, considering that I won’t be watching any of those movies anytime soon… If this is not exciting, I wonder what is!

It’s been ages since I bought DVDs, but now that the Saturn at Berlin Alexanderplatz has re-opened, it feels like my DVD collection has doubled in size. Here we are:
– Good Bye Lenin!: 3 euro
– Forrest Gump: 5 euro
– The Science of Sleep: 5 euro
– Blade Runner: 5 euro
– La Haine: 5 euro

Furthermore, Pixelmatsch has also bought a few movies, namely:
– Scoop: 6 euros
– Full Metal Jacket: 5 euros
– A Clockwork Orange: 5 euros

Later on, I went back to the shop to get myself:
– Closer: 6 euro
– L.A. Confidential (2-disc version): 3 euro
– Goodfellas: 3 euro

Since the prices were so low, I actually have not seen quite a few of these movies (while I usually tend to buy DVDs of movies that I really like). And so I still have to watch “L.A. Confidential”, “Goodfellas”, “A Clockwork Orange”, “Blade Runner” and “La Haine”.

Furthermore, right before going to sleep, I went to Amazon and got a few more DVDs which I will post about when they arrive… ahhh.

Well, I am particularily am thinking of the one particular film I have watched in my adolescence, ahahaha! When Shii and I were collecting things we want for this “Get 4 pay 3” and “Get 5 pay 4” special, I just had to get these. I actually also found a CD… I also got myself the Absolution Tour, why am I such a Muse fangirl?

As usual, here’s the run-down:
– Black Holes and Revelations: 6 euro
– Clueless: 4 euro
– Frida: 6 euro
– My Big Fat Greek Wedding: 6 euro

I actually completely forgot to blog about “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”! It was very funny and I liked it a lot for the little hilarious details. My favourite scene was the one in which the protagonist’s mother and aunt try to get her father to let her take over their travel agency. “We have to make him believe that it was his idea.” Hohohoho! I love this film.
“Frida” was an old favourite as well. I have never known anything about Frida Kahlo before, and when I watched it in the movie theaters back then I thought it was a good portrait of her life.

So, speaking of new things, I have also re-arranged the posters in my room and added two “posters” from the Babylon exhibition in Berlin. I have liked the floor plan that they gave out for the visitors so much that I decided to put them onto my walls :3 Actually this makes me want a floor plan of the Louvre now.
The blue rectangle is a poster of Yves Klein’s monochrome. I had it vertically in my room until I decided to re-interpret it: Now, it’s a blue screen. *hrr hrr* (Actually the idea of calling it a “blue screen” came after I had the poster over my door XD)