The Criterion Collection

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by LordSummerIsle

I wish Criterion would start pushing out more samurai classics. There are so many great ones from the 1950s, and history shows us that samurai films are big sellers for Criterion. I don't know if it's because Toho is difficult to work with?

The crazy thing is that a lot of the samurai films Criterion has the rights too aren't even from Toho. A lot of them are from Shochiku who as far as I know isn't too hard to deal with.

While samurai films are good sellers, they aren't going to sell as much as say Marriage Story or the Great Escape unless it's Seven Samurai in 4K. I truly wish Criterion would start releasing more samurai films. They have so many great ones.

Hunter in the Dark is one I've been bugging them about for more than 10 years. At this point, I'm hoping they lose the license and Arrow picks it up.

[BaronVH]

Originally Posted by Reddington

October.

Ran the 15th-16th in 2019.

Damn, I saw this post and in my carelessness and stupor in these uncertain times thought that it said Ran was coming to the Criterion Collection again.

[joy-division]

Originally Posted by BaronVH

Damn, I saw this post and in my carelessness and stupor in these uncertain times thought that it said Ran was coming to the Criterion Collection again.

The Studio Canal version is a fine release

[NeoNical]

Originally Posted by joy-division

The Studio Canal version is a fine release

If we're talking about Region A Lionsgate version, you won't get good responses.

But I'm hoping you're talking about the Region B 4K restoration they did a few years ago. It does look good but is controversial. Some people may have preferred a warmer colored film rather than a brutally cold colored film. Some people may not like this new color and I'm not much of a fan of it but since this is basically what we're stuck with and no one did a restoration with different looking colors, I would say that the restoration is perhaps the best of this film and I don't think they can improve upon this. The only problem is the Blu-ray may have a little bit of contrast issue. Blacks do look a little too bright and the colors are a little imbalanced.

Still, if we were to talk about the Region B version, it definitely can be said that it's a fine release, perhaps the best release but with a few reservations.

[Luke B.]

Just received my copy of Che - and I can't believe the whole movie isn't subtitled. Is this common on Criterion releases? I thought the whole movie would be subtitled, but it seems that only the dialogues in spanish are (the english parts of the UN interview at the beginning aren't).

This is a problem cause I don't speak english fluently, so I need the subtitles.

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by Luke B.

Just received my copy of Che - and I can't believe the whole movie isn't subtitled. Is this common on Criterion releases? I thought the whole movie would be subtitled, but it seems that only the dialogues in spanish are (the english parts of the UN interview at the beginning aren't).

This is a problem cause I don't speak english fluently, so I need the subtitles.

With many films, usually only the foreign language will be subtitled in this case, Spanish, so if there are short parts where there is English dialog it usually won't be subtitled.

[Luke B.]

Originally Posted by StarDestroyer52

With many films, usually only the foreign language will be subtitled in this case, Spanish, so if there are short parts where there is English dialog it usually won't be subtitled.

For example: The Before Trilogy and Night of the Living Dead - both are on my wishlist and according to the website both include English subtitles. So, the movies are subtitled or not?

[NeoNical]

Originally Posted by Luke B.

For example: The Before Trilogy and Night of the Living Dead - both are on my wishlist and according to the website both include English subtitles. So, the movies are subtitled or not?

According to the reviews on this website, there ARE subtitles for both products that you are asking about. From the English films I have seen, most English films have subtitles unless if they aren't the primary language being spoken (For example: Americans speaking English in a Japanese film)

Interesting thing, though is that according to Dr. Svet Atanasov, there is apparently "optional English subtitles" for this film. However, on Criterion Forum, they only mention that English subtitles are used for the Spanish scenes. Which leads me to believe that Dr. Svet might be wrong on the choice of English subtitles. Very sorry about that my friend

EDIT: It has come to my attention that the WORK EDIT version of Night of the Living Dead DOESN'T have English subtitles.

[StarDestroyer52]

Originally Posted by Luke B.

For example: The Before Trilogy and Night of the Living Dead - both are on my wishlist and according to the website both include English subtitles. So, the movies are subtitled or not?

I'm saying that films that are say Spanish or French, but have small exchanges of English audio that the English audio won't be subtitled most of the time but the Spanish or French will be subtitled. Night of the Living Dead has English audio, so the English audio will have English subtitles. The Before Trilogy has English audio and English subs. Che only has subtitles for the Spanish audio not the English spoken parts.

[koberulz]

Criterion always includes exactly one English subtitle track, as far as I can tell. When the dialog is entirely in English, it's an SDH track. When there is foreign dialogue, whether it's the whole film or just parts, they subtitle only the foreign dialogue. People who can hear the English dialogue fine would obviously be annoyed at that also being subtitled, and the only alternative is to include a second subtitle track, but Criterion doesn't seem to do that.

[tisdivine]

I was watching the Rick & Morty season finale tonight and they had a Criterion reference. No lie I laughed out loud.

[Show spoiler]Rick says “I never thought this is how I would die. We’re nowhere near Venice and you’re not a dwarf in a raincoat.“

[latehong]

Originally Posted by koberulz

Criterion always includes exactly one English subtitle track, as far as I can tell. When the dialog is entirely in English, it's an SDH track. When there is foreign dialogue, whether it's the whole film or just parts, they subtitle only the foreign dialogue. People who can hear the English dialogue fine would obviously be annoyed at that also being subtitled, and the only alternative is to include a second subtitle track, but Criterion doesn't seem to do that.

That's their usual subtitle policy that really bugs me (The Wages of Fear, Paisan, Cronos, Phoenix...). That being said, there are a few exceptions with both English subtitles and English SDH such as:

[Sommerswerd]

Originally Posted by latehong

That's their usual subtitle policy that really bugs me (The Wages of Fear, Paisan, Cronos, Phoenix...). That being said, there are a few exceptions with both English subtitles and English SDH such as:

They do not subtitle their English language extras either, which really sucks when the audio quality of the extra is not so good or when the speaker has a hard-to-understand accent.

[jw007]

Thanks to all who responded to my query about good Criterions for chaotic times.

La Haine is one amazing movie and I'm glad softunderbelly suggested this one! I'm in the mood to see this one again (been many many years). Thanks my good human.

Medium Cool I'm gonna dust off too. I nearly forgot about this one.

Also Do the Right Thing is another solid one, but I might wait until mid-Summer to see this when its stifling hot outside (not quite hot enough yet here).

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by Sommerswerd

They do not subtitle their English language extras either, which really sucks when the audio quality of the extra is not so good or when the speaker has a hard-to-understand accent.

Most boutique labels do not subtitle English language extras because it's an added expense to generate and QC those tracks. It's only the major studios (and outfits like the BFI which are part public funded and have to follow some regulations in this regard) which offer SDH/HOH subs for extras.

[FragnitoM]

Originally Posted by Luke B.

Just received my copy of Che - and I can't believe the whole movie isn't subtitled. Is this common on Criterion releases? I thought the whole movie would be subtitled, but it seems that only the dialogues in spanish are (the english parts of the UN interview at the beginning aren't).

This is a problem cause I don't speak english fluently, so I need the subtitles.

Criterion should be subtitling all of their films if only for accessibility reasons--even if it does cost them money to do so. As someone who works with people with disabilities, this always got on my nerves

Imagine just the people with hearing disabilities alone, including people of old age, who can't enjoy these films...

[ravenus]

^ I think more of their customers need to directly address them regarding this to let them know there's a sufficient demand for this facility. Even the subtitles they provide for English films do not include audio cues which may be helpful to HOH people.

[regeyer]

Originally Posted by ravenus

^ I think more of their customers need to directly address them regarding this to let them know there's a sufficient demand for this facility. Even the subtitles they provide for English films do not include audio cues which may be helpful to HOH people.

I agree. Criterion is one of the worst in relation to providing English subtitles. I am deaf, and I rely on subtitles. Yet, if someone speaks English in a French film, the words are not captioned. Additionally, the extras are not captioned unless the speaker is speaking in a foreign language. Worse, often times the interviewer speaks in English, but the person being interviewed speaks in a foreign language. So Criterion provides subtitles only for the response, not for the questions. All the extras on American made movies (English) have no subtitles. For most movies, the extras mean absolutely nothing to me. And, as has already been mentioned, Criterion does not provided any verbal cues to identify sounds, such as gun shot, scream, etc.

I've talked with Criterion about this and they basically have said that they can't afford to caption everything.

I've thought about taking legal action against Criterion (I'm an attorney), but I've held off, hoping that the situation would get better. Sadly, it has not.

[regeyer]

Originally Posted by ravenus

Most boutique labels do not subtitle English language extras because it's an added expense to generate and QC those tracks. It's only the major studios (and outfits like the BFI which are part public funded and have to follow some regulations in this regard) which offer SDH/HOH subs for extras.

Disney is the only one I know who offers subtitles, usually, for everything. They've always been ahead of the game. Even back in the 80's, on the Disney Channel, they had closed captioning. They were one of the first to provide that.

[latehong]

One thing I noticed was that unlike their disc releases, the Criterion Channel sometimes do provide closed caption for their "supplements." For example, they uploaded Raging Bull with Martin Scorsese commentary and the entire commentary has its own closed captions, which was not the case with the Criterion laserdisc or other subsequent DVD/Blu-ray releases from MGM. Granted, their closed captions are far from ideal in general, often littered with misspellings, sync issues, bad line-breaking, etc, but it's certainly more than nothing.