The Criterion Collection

[Talleyrand]

Very happy about the Strangelove news, now I can complete my Kubrick Blu collction. I just really don't like gimmicky packagings at all, so I have been holding off for years now. This is just brilliant.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by LuckyDragon

List of Criterion Collection Laserdisc releases

DVD/BD spine # to the right; no # if no DVD/BD release.

Thanks for saving me the time and trouble.

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by jw007

Fascinating statistics.

Somewhere deep down, I wish Criterion would somehow just automatically upgrade all of their DVD titles (I don't expect anything upgraded from Laserdisc though). I guess that would take some of the fun out of announcement days though, to see which titles they upgraded. That is still the true mystery that we can't figure out as phantom pages only apply to new releases, not upgrades. Right?

Well, there's maybe 30+ titles out in other regions that Criterion released on DVD they have not upgraded yet. I would expect those to get some kind of first priority, but its been years for some of those titles and nothing. They still own the rights, but I would've expected the Antoine Doniel set by now, or Scenes From a Marriage, the Raymond Bernard eclipse set, Rossellini's war Trilogy, Cria Cuervos, Thief of Bagdad, This Sporting Life, Bad Timing, Pickup on South street, Naked City, etc etc.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by jayembee

Do you mean that you would never expect them to upgrade something that they'd released on LD but not DVD, or you wouldn't expect them to automatically upgrade those titles as a matter of course?

If the latter, I can see that, as their not releasing those titles on DVD (until releasing them simultaneously on BD and DVD) was probably because they lost the rights to them after LDs went bye-bye.

At a fairly short glance, though, I came up with over two dozen titles that were "upgrades" to LD releases, as they didn't appear from Criterion on DVD in between the LD release and the BD (and simultaneous DVD) release:

Chungking Express
The Magician
Paths of Glory
The Night of the Hunter
Five Easy Pieces
The Last Picture Show
The Killing
12 Angry Men
In Which We Serve
The Game
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Purple Noon
Life of Oharu
Breaking the Waves
A Hard Day's Night
The Big Chill
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Parade
Tootsie
Fellini Satyricon
Odd Man Out
The Fisher King
"Breaker" Morant
The Graduate
The Player
Here Comes Mr. Jordan
Dr. Strangelove

I may have missed some.

One of these days, I'll make up a list of the titles that Criterion released on LD, but not (or not yet) on BD/DVD.

Yes, it was the latter theory, because they prob. lost a lot of the rights to the LDs. But that's really cool that you found that list of movies that went from LD to BD without DVD in between.

Seeing that Laserdisc movies officially stopped being produced as recently as the end of 2001 (in Japan), it surprises me a bit (as it took at least 6 years for LDs to stop being manufactured after the advent of DVD manufacturing in the mid 1990s).

Does anyone know the very last Laserdisc Criterion made? Which movie was it for, and what year did it come out?

(going to consult Wikipedia now probably)

[hoytereden]

I noticed some of you folks have posted past Criterion releases by month and year like:
Title X. January '09

Where do you get that information? It would be helpful for me. Thanks.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by Bates_Motel

Well, there's maybe 30+ titles out in other regions that Criterion released on DVD they have not upgraded yet. I would expect those to get some kind of first priority, but its been years for some of those titles and nothing. They still own the rights, but I would've expected the Antoine Doniel set by now, or Scenes From a Marriage, the Raymond Bernard eclipse set, Rossellini's war Trilogy, Cria Cuervos, Thief of Bagdad, This Sporting Life, Bad Timing, Pickup on South street, Naked City, etc etc.

I still have my own list of Criterion DVD titles I'd like to see as upgrades. These are just favorites of mine:

The Last Wave - Peter Weir
Before the Rain - Milcho Manchevski
House of Games - David Mamet
Short Cuts - Robert Altman
Andrei Rublev - Andrei Tarkovsky
Stranger Than Paradise - Jim Jarmusch
Night on Earth - Jim Jarmusch
Le Samouraï - Jean-Pierre Melville
Wise Blood - John Huston
Kicking and Screaming - Noah Baumbach
Burden of Dreams - Les Blank

[Bates_Motel]

Originally Posted by jw007

I still have my own list of Criterion DVD titles I'd like to see as upgrades. These are just favorites of mine:

The Last Wave - Peter Weir
Before the Rain - Milcho Manchevski
House of Games - David Mamet
Short Cuts - Robert Altman
Andrei Rublev - Andrei Tarkovsky
Stranger Than Paradise - Jim Jarmusch
Night on Earth - Jim Jarmusch
Le Samouraï - Jean-Pierre Melville
Wise Blood - John Huston
Kicking and Screaming - Noah Baumbach
Burden of Dreams - Les Blank

I forgot, the Jarmusch stuff is also out in region B. I just caved and imported most of it, since Criterion is taking so long. They wanted to put out Rublev, blu no HD master of the director's cut exists yet, only the shorter version , so until that happens, don't expect it. AE is putting out the 3 hour cut in region B.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by jw007

Seeing that Laserdisc movies officially stopped being produced as recently as the end of 2001 (in Japan), it surprises me a bit (as it took at least 6 years for LDs to stop being manufactured after the advent of DVD manufacturing in the mid 1990s).

DVDs started being released in early 1997. The first movie released in the format was Twister, which came out on the format on March 25. Ironically, Twister was apparently the last movie to be released in the HD-DVD format. So it was only four years later that LD finally died. But keep in mind that that was in Japan, where the LD format was more popular than it was in the US. And even then, the number of LDs being released decreased significantly after the introduction of DVD.

Does anyone know the very last Laserdisc Criterion made? Which movie was it for, and what year did it come out?

Criterion's last three laserdisc releases were:

High and Low (#382, 1998 09 23)
Picnic at Hanging Rock (#383, 1998 11 03)
Armageddon (#384, 1999 03 16)

Since their first LD release was Citizen Kane, and the last as Armageddon, it's the perfect example of the phrase "from the sublime to the ridiculous".

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by hoytereden

I noticed some of you folks have posted past Criterion releases by month and year like:
Title X. January '09

Where do you get that information? It would be helpful for me. Thanks.

Currently, the best option are the listings at CriterionForum.

Me, I've been keeping track of street date information for Criterion since I started buying LDs back in early 1988.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by jayembee

DVDs started being released in early 1997. The first movie released in the format was Twister, which came out on the format on March 25. Ironically, Twister was apparently the last movie to be released in the HD-DVD format. So it was only four years later that LD finally died. But keep in mind that that was in Japan, where the LD format was more popular than it was in the US. And even then, the number of LDs being released decreased significantly after the introduction of DVD.



Criterion's last three laserdisc releases were:

High and Low (#382, 1998 09 23)
Picnic at Hanging Rock (#383, 1998 11 03)
Armageddon (#384, 1999 03 16)

Since their first LD release was Citizen Kane, and the last as Armageddon, it's the perfect example of the phrase "from the sublime to the ridiculous".

Indeed. Although I haven't watched Armageddon in like 17 years, I think its time I revisit this ridiculous film again. The other night I caught a few minutes of Deep Impact (released the same year) and remember that movie being a tad better. I probably should make it a double feature one of these nights (both those 1998 movies). Ha.

[pedromvu]

Originally Posted by hoytereden

I noticed some of you folks have posted past Criterion releases by month and year like:
Title X. January '09

Where do you get that information? It would be helpful for me. Thanks.

A good one if you are only looking for blu-ray releases only:

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/movie...leasetimestamp

Or you just click on the small text that says Criterion below the one that says "The Criterion Collection" on any release page here, I gave it sorted by release date but it does give some more sort options which is nice for example:

The one that most people have collected here is: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Lowest people have collected (released up to 2015): Burroughs: The Movie

Highest Rating: 12 Angry Men
Lowest Rating: Tiny Furniture

Longest Runtime: Zatoichi set but Shoah for a single film
Shortest Runtime: A Day in the Country

Edit: Just found there is a way to get a dvd only too:

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/movies.php?dvd=1&studioid=70&sortby=releasetimestamp

[pedromvu]

Some trivia:

- Couldn't find the dates but it appears Citizen Kane was the first Criterion release ever (makes sense since it is spine #1 LD) released sometime in 1984

- Found this archived old school Criterion website from when they used to sell Laserdiscs: http://www.dvduell.de/criterion_webs...n/catalog.html

- The first ever Criterion dvd is 400 Blows spine #5 released March 31, 1998 instead of Grand Illusion spine #1 released until November 23, 1999

- The first ever Criterion blu-rays were Bottle Rocket, Chungking Express, The Third Man and The Man Who Fell to Earth all released on December 16, 2008

It seems Criterion released Laserdiscs from 1984-1998 so 14 years, Dvd's from 1998 up to now but started blu-rays in 2008 so 10 years, wonder if we will see UHD by 2018.

[mja345]

Pedro, related to what you brought up as far as the Criterion in the most/least collections, I wonder which Criterion BD has sold the fewest copies? Speaking more of the discs that have been out for a while. I'd guess maybe either "La Cienaga" or "Forgiveness of Blood". Or maybe "Here is Your Life", which has an absurdly low 490 votes on IMdB. "Burroughs" will probably be in that conversation eventually because you would have to be a big William S. Burroughs fan to pick that one up.

I'd imagine "Benjamin Button" has sold the most just because of the lower price and the availability in brick and mortars. My sister-in-law owns a copy of the Criterion of "Benjamin Button" and, recently, when I was having dinner with her and my brother at their house, I commented that she owns a Criterion disc. She had absolutely zero idea what I was talking about.

[theater dreamer]

Originally Posted by LuckyDragon

Someday...

This is perma saved on my DVR until I can get it on Blu-ray. One of the greatest movies ever made, imho. A modern masterpiece.

I wanted it to win Best Picture, but 2003 was an interesting year. The Hours is great, The Two Towers is my favorite film of the trilogy, The Gangs of New York was really good, and then there was Chicago. I own it, I like it, and it was a good film. But I feel, respectfully, the argument could be made that Chicago was the least deserving of the nominees for Best Picture. I felt The Pianist was clearly the best picture of the year. When it won Best Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Director, I was sure it had won.

You can say what you want about Polanski the man (and I am not going to entertain that discussion here). But he's a transcendent filmmaker. Most great directors might have one masterpiece in them, and the historically great directors may have two. Polanski has three: The Pianist, Chinatown and Rosemary's Baby. Chinatown is, for me, where the list of great modern noir starts and stops. It is the film which all other attempts are measured against. And Rosemary's Baby is a must own in any cinephile's collection.

[jw007]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

This is perma saved on my DVR until I can get it on Blu-ray. One of the greatest movies ever made, imho. A modern masterpiece.

It's also in my opinion one of the greatest movies ever made... and it still amazes me this never received a proper U.S. blu-ray release. Why is this? Is America still creeped out by Roman Polanski or is it strictly licensing rights owned by Studiocanal?

[theater dreamer]

Originally Posted by mja345

I'd imagine "Benjamin Button" has sold the most just because of the lower price and the availability in brick and mortars. My sister-in-law owns a copy of the Criterion of "Benjamin Button" and, recently, when I was having dinner with her and my brother at their house, I commented that she owns a Criterion disc. She had absolutely zero idea what I was talking about.

This would be my guess, too, though I would wager a fair amount that Strangelove gives it a run for its money before too long. I have the Digibook of it, but if there are any worthwhile extras on the new release, I'll gladly double dip. There are not too many directors I would do that for, but Kubrick? Oh, hell yes.

[mja345]

Originally Posted by jw007

It's also in my opinion one of the greatest movies ever made... and it still amazes me this never received a proper U.S. blu-ray release. Why is this? Is America still creeped out by Roman Polanski or is it strictly licensing rights owned by Studiocanal?

I'd guess it's Studio Canal. Polanski's "What?", which is one of the most batshit crazy movies I've ever seen, is coming to BD soon. Kudos to Severin for releasing it. I thought that film would never reach BD. It never reached DVD and I thought, given its subject matter, it was somewhat due to ol' Roman's transgressions. "The Tenant" and "The Pianist" definitely need to be released on blu-ray. "The Tenant" is such an insane, brilliant movie.

[theater dreamer]

Originally Posted by jw007

It's also in my opinion one of the greatest movies ever made... and it still amazes me this never received a proper U.S. blu-ray release. Why is this? Is America still creeped out by Roman Polanski or is it strictly licensing rights owned by Studiocanal?

Good morning, Jonathan. I'm not sure why that is. I see Chinatown in every movie store I go into, so that can't be it.

But then again, what do I know? I see classics like The Exorcist, Dr. Strangelove, and Shane go out of print, and other truly great films like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Asphalt Jungle and modern favorites like True Lies and The Abyss, not get any release at all (though Virginia Woolf it is now finally coming out).

My guess is that the average moviegoer today has little to no appreciation of classic film. When I inexplicably go to the imdb chat boards, and I see lists of "great ____ films", invariably, the lists don't go before 1970...ever. People have heard of Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and a small handful of others that are still pop culture icons. But they couldn't name three movies by Monroe, or two of Dean's three. They know Charlton Heston was the head of the NRA, but they couldn't name two of his films not named The Ten Commandments or The Planet of the Apes.

If I ever have kids (I'd adopt, likely), their first words are going to be "Billy Wilder". By age fifteen, they'll be asking daddy for Kurosawa on their birthday, and Bergman for Christmas.

I don't like to make generalities about large groups of people, my friend, but I think this younger generation has absolutely no appreciation for culture. To a lot of them, Nickleback is good music.

[theater dreamer]

Originally Posted by mja345

I'd guess it's Studio Canal. Polanski's "What?", which is one of the most batshit crazy movies I've ever seen, is coming to BD soon. Kudos to Severin for releasing it. I thought that film would never reach BD. It never reached DVD and I thought, given its subject matter, it was somewhat due to ol' Roman's transgressions. "The Tenant" and "The Pianist" definitely need to be released on blu-ray. "The Tenant" is such an insane, brilliant movie.

What and The Tenant are two of the Polanski films I know virtually nothing about. I kind of figured they would be pretty exceptional films just based on the ones he did in the same period.

One of the most attractive things, to me, about his oeuvre is the diversity of genres. He did horror, noir, romance, drama, war, suspense thriller, period. Too many directors have a comfort zone, as it were. They might occasionally work outside of it, but many times those experiments were less successful fare. Polanski can pretty much do anything he sets his mind to. That diversity of subject matter, and genre, is something he and Kubrick shared. From Paths of Glory and Full Metal Jacket, to Barry Lyndon, to 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, Spartacus and A Clockwork Orange, you don't ever get bored with Kubrick. He might not have as extensive a filmography as others, but what he did will stand the test of time.

100 years from now, people will still be raving about the works of Kubrick and Polanski.

[mja345]

Originally Posted by theater dreamer

Good morning, Jonathan. I'm not sure why that is. I see Chinatown in every movie store I go into, so that can't be it.

But then again, what do I know? I see classics like The Exorcist, Dr. Strangelove, and Shane go out of print, and other truly great films like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Asphalt Jungle and modern favorites like True Lies and The Abyss, not get any release at all (though Virginia Woolf it is now finally coming out).

My guess is that the average moviegoer today has little to no appreciation of classic film. When I inexplicably go to the imdb chat boards, and I see lists of "great ____ films", invariably, the lists don't go before 1970...ever. People have heard of Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and a small handful of others that are still pop culture icons. But they couldn't name three movies by Monroe, or two of Dean's three. They know Charlton Heston was the head of the NRA, but they couldn't name two of his films not named The Ten Commandments or The Planet of the Apes.

If I ever have kids (I'd adopt, likely), their first words are going to be "Billy Wilder". By age fifteen, they'll be asking daddy for Kurosawa on their birthday, and Bergman for Christmas.

I don't like to make generalities about large groups of people, my friend, but I think this younger generation has absolutely no appreciation for culture. To a lot of them, Nickleback is good music.

I definitely think it's more difficult for kids now to become film buffs without video stores. I'm in my late 20s and I grew up two minutes from an independently run video store. The guy who ran it had this insane VHS collection, tons of foreign films, just incredible looking back on it. My dad and mom would take me there all the time when I was very young. From about '91-2002, I spent an insane amount of time in this video store. I checked out movies I couldn't possibly comprehend at such a young age. I remember checking out "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" at 11 or 12 because I loved the cover. That video store, looking back, is the reason I became such a huge film buff.

I have a 15 year old nephew and he's square in the demographic who knows nothing but streaming. There's a real turn and burn philosophy among kids now as far as movies, music, books, etc. Very little is personalized because it's all digital. It's such a different philosophy than what those of us who grew up in the video store/book store age grew accustomed to. My nephew has seen very few movies pre-2000. When he was visiting my place last year, I showed him several Kubrick movies. And you could tell his mind was kind of blown because it was so different than what he was used to. I actually feel bad for kids born in the 2000s because they're susceptible to cultural bankruptcy in such a profound way.