The Criterion-Hulu Marathon (live-blogging)

In which the author watches as many Criterion uploads on Hulu (free for the last day) as possible in twelve hours, and logs his viewing as he goes. Read more here.

6am. It begins. After each film, I will upload a screen cap and compose a quick capsule at this spot. I will update this post accordingly, and retitle it each time until at the end of the day it assumes its final form. I'll also be tweeting. First up...

Tomorrow I will live-blog/tweet a Criterion marathon

 

I've decided to go ahead with my plan to watch all the Criterion uploads I can between 6am and 6pm tomorrow, in honor of Hulu hosting the online Collection for free between two holidays. This morning I offered my own suggestions, but tomorrow I'll be exploring uncharted territory and will only view films I haven't seen, focusing - at least initially - on those unavailable through Netflix, You Tube, or other online services. I'm excited to see what new films I discover, and as soon as I've watched one I will upload a screen-cap to Twitter and to a post on this blog which I will continuously update all day, along with a brief capsule capturing my immediate thoughts. A lot of the stuff is short, so I'm hoping I can fit in 7 or 8 films in my 12-hour session, but at bare minimum I'll watch at least 5 - the same number of films I viewed in all of January, so this will be a nice change of pace for me. If you haven't yet, follow me on Twitter to keep up. See you tomorrow...

Recommended Cinema: Hulu, Criterion & Beyond

Many of you know (and the rest of you should know) that The Criterion Collection has offered all of its content for free on HuluPlus between Valentine's and President's Day. This treasure trove of films includes many not available in their DVD catalog. With only two days left, choices must be made.

I add my voice to the cacophony of recommendations, with the proviso that I've chosen films a tad more overlooked than, say, Breathless, Modern Times, or Seventh Seal (that said, some of my picks are hardly obscure). Needless to say, I hope this guide remains useful long after the Hulu promotion has ended.

As for myself, I've flirted with the notion of a 12-hour marathon on Monday (I don't work until evening, my sad equivalent to a day off), exploring films that I haven't seen yet and live-tweeting screen-caps from each movie I view, perhaps with brief comments. Would anyone be interested in following this exercise? I have other tasks I should prioritize, but I hope you'll encourage me to be irresponsible. ;)

Anyway, on with my dozen recommendations for Hulu/Criterion bliss. I've included excerpts from previous reviews or fresh thoughts on films I haven't discussed before. It's up to you, of course, which ones you want to watch.

Except for Paris Belongs to Us.

That one's mandatory.