Barnes & Noble 50% Off Criterion Sale 2014! Top Titles to Buy!

It’s that time of year again and it’s time to update the list for the second half of 2014 as Barnes & Noble has just kicked off their 50% off Criterion sale and as impossible a task as it is to cut things down to just a few titles, I have done my best to break Criterion’s titles down into a few categories. Hopefully those looking for box sets, specific directors or what I think are absolute musts will find this makes things a little bit easier.

Let’s get to it…

First Picks

I was given the Zatoichi collection for Christmas last year and being a collection that holds 25 films and another disc full of supplementary material it is the absolute definition of a must buy when it comes to the Criterion Collection. It is, once again, on sale for $112.49, half off the MSRP of $224.99, and worth every penny. I spent the entire year going through it.

Criterion also added new box sets this year, the most appealing of them being The Complete Jacques Tati, which includes Tati’s six feature films — Jour de fête, Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, Mon oncle, PlayTime, Trafic and Parade — along with seven Tati-related short films. Add to that the box set for Jacques Demy and you have some decisions to make.

• The Complete Jacques Tati
• Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman
• The Essential Jacques Demy

A Selection of My Absolute Favorites

• Persona
• Breathless
• 8 1/2
• Seven Samurai
• Yojimbo and Sanjuro
• The Battle of Algiers
• The Seventh Seal
• Sweet Smell of Success
• The Wages of Fear
• The Night of the Hunter

New Recommendations for 2014

2014 offered plenty of new titles to consider from top directors and classics in desperate need of a proper upgrade. Here are a few of my favorites.

New David Lynch and David Cronenberg

• Eraserhead
• Scanners [read my review here]

New Federico Fellini

• La Dolce Vita (read my essay on this one here and my review of the Blu-ray here)

New Ingmar Bergman

• Persona (read my essay on this one here)

More New 2014 Titles to Consider

• It Happened One Night
• The Hidden Fortress [read my review here]
• Throne of Blood [read my review here]
• Thief
• Red River [read my review here]
• Rififi [read my review here]
• [bn url=”http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dvd-fantastic-mr-fox-george-clooney/11780069?ean=715515111416″ text=”Fantastic Mr. Fox”]
• [bn url=”http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dvd-breaking-the-waves-emily-watson/3636715?ean=715515114714″ text=”Breaking the Waves”] [read my review here]
• [bn url=”http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dvd-the-great-beauty-toni-servillo/26273890?ean=715515113014″ text=”The Great Beauty”]

And a Few More 2014 Titles

• All that Jazz
• The Vanishing
• My Darling Clementine
• Macbeth [read my review here]
• The Big Chill
• A Hard Day’s Night
• It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
• The Uninvited
• Vengeance is Mine
• Y Tu Mamá También
• Picnic at Hanging Rock

More Favorites

You have all those above? Well how about these including films from Martin Scorsese, Roman Polanski and Alfred Hitchcock.

• Dazed and Confused [read my essay here]
• The 400 Blows
• Three Colors Trilogy
• The Last Temptation of Christ
• Godzilla
• Safety Last!
• The Samurai Trilogy
• Fanny and Alexander
• Beauty and the Beast
• Repulsion
• Mystery Train
• Stagecoach
• Amarcord
• Anatomy of a Murder
• Naked Kiss
• Shock Corridor
• Kiss Me Deadly
• Days of Heaven
• The Lady Vanishes
• Au Revoir Les Enfants
• Diabolique
• Vivre Sa Vie
• Crumb
• Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy (DVD Only, but wonderful)
• Belle de Jour
• [bn url=”http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dvd-on-the-waterfront-marlon-brando/3626791?ean=715515101516&itm=5&usri=on+the+waterfront” text=”On the Waterfront”]

Even More

Oh, you need more? How about some movies by Stanley Kubrick, David Cronenberg and Guillermo del Toro?

• Brazil
• Videodrome
• Band of Outsiders
• John Cassavetes Collection
• The Devil’s Backbone
• Blow Out
• The Red Shoes
• La Notte
• The Killing
• Rosemary’s Baby
• Paths of Glory
• Scanners
• Red River
• Broadcast News
• Frances Ha
• Being John Malkovich
• The 39 Steps
• Ace in the Hole
• A Hard Day’s Night

And now here are some titles from some of my favorite individuals in the collection that haven’t yet been mentioned specifically.

Charlie Chaplin

• City Lights
• Modern Times
• The Gold Rush
• The Great Dictator
• Monsieur Verdoux

Wes Anderson

• Bottle Rocket
• Rushmore
• The Royal Tenebaums
• The Life Aquatic
• The Darjeeling Limited
• Fantastic Mr. Fox

Akira Kurosawa

• Seven Samurai
• Yojimbo and Sanjuro
• Throne of Blood
• Kagemusha
• High & Low
• The Hidden Fortress
• Rashomon

Michelangelo Antonioni

• L’eclisse
• L’avventura
• La Notte

Hopefully you find something that fits your taste and thanks for purchasing through these links, every purchase helps support the site.