The Criterion Collection

[Mister_Kidd]

Originally Posted by traths

Any chance Criterion will release David Lynch's Inland Empire? I know Studio Canal has the rights to it in France but I'm not sure who has the rights to it in the US. I would love to have that film in my collection.

I just imported this version:



It's only 7.99 pounds ($10.53) from Amazon UK. If you aren't region free you could also seek out the DVD release, it's OOP but you could snag it on ebay for the same price that you would pay for a Criterion. It was shot in SD so a BD wouldn't be a huge improvement over the DVD.

[nitin]

Originally Posted by Professor Echo

I've been considering the UK Blu for quite awhile, but just don't remember the movie very well. I only saw it once, on cable in the late 80's, and while I recall it not being a great movie, I also seem to think of it fondly as an interesting and compelling one. Am I off base? Does anyone here recommend it?

Absolutely! My comments re the films here:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...ostcount=33772

[TheMangyMoose]

I picked up Scorsese Shorts and War of the Worlds yesterday at B&N. As an old habit I always inspect the back of the discs for any defects. Both discs have a number of short hairline straches around the outer edge of the disc (one is about an inch long). These were brand new so I am assuming this happened during manufacturing. Has anyone else checked their discs recently? I don't remember any of my Criterion discs looking like this after opening them.

Good news is that playback was not affected on War of the Worlds, so I am hesitant about returning right now.

[hariseldon]

Originally Posted by UnionJackMix

Hm but what you are saying still results in this old stock: I ordered these all from DeepDiscount.

1) Ordered dozens of Criterions from them and this is the first with an alarm inside = DD is not that retailer that asks Criterion to include alarms

2) as it's the first on dozens of Criterions that has the alarm = this is old stock from another store that does get them with the alarm and was returned (and what happened to that release, repackaged, resealed, is up for debate)

Conclusion: it's returned stock.

DEEP DISCOUNT gets it's stock shipped from Alliance Entertainment warehouse (ALLIANCE is DD's Parent Company). Alliance is the monster main wholesaler for multiple stores including Amazon and actually directly ships a large proportion of non-Amazon web orders (including Criterion.com) regardless of the name of the Order Taker. Alliance Warehouse also supplies the majority of in-store stock to the few retailers that still carry Criterion In-store which these days is mostly B&N.

As far as I'm aware B&N Stock is not separated from DD or Criterion.com stock at the warehouse and come out of the same bin. It would be very easy for DD to send a disc that was supposed to come off the B&N shelf.

The security device unless it something the store applies externally is not an indicator of a reopened item. The rest may or may not be, but if it is that is going to apply to virtually every other place you can order from the US other than possibly Target which uses a different Wholesaler. I'm guessing Target no longer ships to UK

[xochipilli]

I'm not sure this is the best place to ask this question, but here goes. I live in Europe(Portugal) and since around March after the pandemic went into full effect, I've been avoiding purchases from Amazon US, though I did hear on the forums about horror stories regarding shipping. In fact, I mostly ordered from other boutiques through their sites, such as Eureka, Arrow, Indicator and Twilight Time. I did order a couple items through Amazon UK but there were no discrepancies in how shipping usually went for me.

With the current Black Friday Amazon discounts I was considering picking up my very first Criterion, and after waiting a couple days for the title I wanted to show up on the deals page I went to the product page and saw that the shipping cost on top of that of the product was insane! I get that shipping is more expensive now given the circumstances, but what's the deal with the "Estimated Import Fees"? That wasn't there before. Did I miss some new regulation being passed or is this just pandemic-related? Usually anything up to 30 euros is exempt from customs, so I'm not sure which extra fees they may be talking about. I read somewhere that maybe if the package isn't hit with tax you can ask for a refund, but I have no clue if that's true. Is there a way to avoid this extra cost, and if not is this expected to be the status quo now? If noone here can answer, can you redirect me to another more appropriate thread here?

[dcx4610]

Originally Posted by xochipilli

I'm not sure this is the best place to ask this question, but here goes. I live in Europe(Portugal) and since around March after the pandemic went into full effect, I've been avoiding purchases from Amazon US, though I did hear on the forums about horror stories regarding shipping. In fact, I mostly ordered from other boutiques through their sites, such as Eureka, Arrow, Indicator and Twilight Time. I did order a couple items through Amazon UK but there were no discrepancies in how shipping usually went for me.

With the current Black Friday Amazon discounts I was considering picking up my very first Criterion, and after waiting a couple days for the title I wanted to show up on the deals page I went to the product page and saw that the shipping cost on top of that of the product was insane! I get that shipping is more expensive now given the circumstances, but what's the deal with the "Estimated Import Fees"? That wasn't there before. Did I miss some new regulation being passed or is this just pandemic-related? Usually anything up to 30 euros is exempt from customs, so I'm not sure which extra fees they may be talking about. I read somewhere that maybe if the package isn't hit with tax you can ask for a refund, but I have no clue if that's true. Is there a way to avoid this extra cost, and if not is this expected to be the status quo now? If noone here can answer, can you redirect me to another more appropriate thread here?

Shipping is mostly back to normal. As for the fees, it's a gamble. It really depends on customs and there is no way of really knowing what will happen. From my experience, I've never had a customs/import tax but I know people that have.

I've also had really good luck with all of my intentional orders arriving in good condition. I think it's really going to come down to what you are ordering. Some Criterion releases have flimsy packaging while others in standard cases should be fine.

I'd say if you want something and the deal is good enough, go for it and if by some chance it arrives damaged, I'm sure Amazon can work with you on a refund.

[xochipilli]

Originally Posted by dcx4610

Shipping is mostly back to normal. As for the fees, it's a gamble. It really depends on customs and there is no way of really knowing what will happen. From my experience, I've never had a customs/import tax but I know people that have.

I've also had really good luck with all of my intentional orders arriving in good condition. I think it's really going to come down to what you are ordering. Some Criterion releases have flimsy packaging while others in standard cases should be fine.

I'd say if you want something and the deal is good enough, go for it and if by some chance it arrives damaged, I'm sure Amazon can work with you on a refund.

I'm not sure I follow. With the shipping and the import fees, the total comes out to almost 37 euros, which is ridiculous and kills the deal for me. Before the pandemic I only remember the shipping and cost of the product being in the total, I don't remember this import fees thing, and even if it did exist before the most I ever paid on top of the product was about 10 euros. Do I have to pay the full 37 euros or can I opt out of something? I know that I've almost never had an order get lost, and the one time was something from Italy, and unless things have changed the Criterion disc being 20 bucks means I won't be hit with tax. I really hope I don't have to consider spending almost 40 euros on a Criterion release from now on, as before it would run me 25-28 at most.

[UnionJackMix]

Originally Posted by xochipilli

I'm not sure this is the best place to ask this question, but here goes. I live in Europe(Portugal) and since around March after the pandemic went into full effect, I've been avoiding purchases from Amazon US, though I did hear on the forums about horror stories regarding shipping. In fact, I mostly ordered from other boutiques through their sites, such as Eureka, Arrow, Indicator and Twilight Time. I did order a couple items through Amazon UK but there were no discrepancies in how shipping usually went for me.

With the current Black Friday Amazon discounts I was considering picking up my very first Criterion, and after waiting a couple days for the title I wanted to show up on the deals page I went to the product page and saw that the shipping cost on top of that of the product was insane! I get that shipping is more expensive now given the circumstances, but what's the deal with the "Estimated Import Fees"? That wasn't there before. Did I miss some new regulation being passed or is this just pandemic-related? Usually anything up to 30 euros is exempt from customs, so I'm not sure which extra fees they may be talking about. I read somewhere that maybe if the package isn't hit with tax you can ask for a refund, but I have no clue if that's true. Is there a way to avoid this extra cost, and if not is this expected to be the status quo now? If noone here can answer, can you redirect me to another more appropriate thread here?

As far as I can tell amazon is now obliged to collect import fees on behalf of the EU so in addition to the absurd 17.98ish shipping charges they now make you pay for any order, you have to pay import fees for EU as you live in Portugal.
Use DeepDiscount from now on, my suggestion. B&N won't ship to Portugal, Criterion either, nor Best Buy or Target..

[fortil]

Originally Posted by xochipilli

I'm not sure I follow. With the shipping and the import fees, the total comes out to almost 37 euros, which is ridiculous and kills the deal for me. Before the pandemic I only remember the shipping and cost of the product being in the total, I don't remember this import fees thing, and even if it did exist before the most I ever paid on top of the product was about 10 euros. Do I have to pay the full 37 euros or can I opt out of something? I know that I've almost never had an order get lost, and the one time was something from Italy, and unless things have changed the Criterion disc being 20 bucks means I won't be hit with tax. I really hope I don't have to consider spending almost 40 euros on a Criterion release from now on, as before it would run me 25-28 at most.

If an order (item + shipping) costs more than 22 euros, you may have to pay customs taxes and amazon now knows about that. They only charge you import fees if your total order goes beyond that price. But you don't really have to pay them. When you checkout, you can choose the shipping method and if you choose the cheapest " Standard International Shipping - No Tracking", they won't charge you any import duties. They only charge you if you choose a " AmazonGlobal" type of shipping.

If you choose "standard shipping" you may still have to deal with customs later, and from my experience in ordering to Portugal, there's probably a 50% or more chance. If it is held in customs and you want Portuguese CTT to deal with the process (highly recommended), it's 12 euros of CTT fees + 23% VAT of your order + CTT fees. In summary, you will pay about 20 euros or more of customs taxes. If you choose Amazon's import fees deposit, you will pay less overall.

Also, some weeks ago, I had the bright idea of choosing "standard shipping" for an order because I thought amazon was charging too much for import fees. But amazon took a lot of time shipping then item and the sent it through a carrier (DHL) as means of compensation. The item was then held at customs and DHL asked for 37 euros of fixed taxes + the usual 23% VAT for the order. In hindsight, I should have played it safe and used the "Global Shipping" option and paid the import fees.

[cupboy]

Originally Posted by Mister_Kidd

I just imported this version:



It's only 7.99 pounds ($10.53) from Amazon UK. If you aren't region free you could also seek out the DVD release, it's OOP but you could snag it on ebay for the same price that you would pay for a Criterion. It was shot in SD so a BD wouldn't be a huge improvement over the DVD.

How did they manage to record it in SD -- Did they record it with a camcorder of some kind?

[Mister_Kidd]

Originally Posted by cupboy

How did they manage to record it in SD -- Did they record it with a camcorder of some kind?

Yeah, Lynch shot it himself on a Sony DSR-PD150.

[mediocre]

Just randomly bummed myself out thinking about 2021 likely being the first year without a New Year's drawing in a long time. Really miss Jason Polan's clues and especially the big one I'd always spend hours trying to decode while hungover on January 1st every year.

[bergman864]

Originally Posted by mediocre

Just randomly bummed myself out thinking about 2021 likely being the first year without a New Year's drawing in a long time. Really miss Jason Polan's clues and especially the big one I'd always spend hours trying to decode while hungover on January 1st every year.

Are they not doing the drawing next year?

[mediocre]

Originally Posted by bergman864

Are they not doing the drawing next year?

The artist passed away in January of this year so I'd assume no unless somebody takes his place.

[Bn43]

I think I'd like some of Bergman's lesser known movies more if he didn't cast the same actors in every one of them. The German cast made From the Life of the Marionettes feel a bit more unique. Some start to feel so similar after you've watched twenty-five of them.

I just realized I was wrong about Kurosawa being my most watched director. It's Bergman at 28 films.

[812crew]

Is there a list of criterions that have a feature-length film as a bonus feature? (I'm mostly speaking of narrative features, since I know many of them have long documentaries on them). These are the ones I know of - please let me know if you're aware of others. Thanks!

Close-Up - The Traveler
Certified Copy - The Report
The Killing - Killer's Kiss
His Girl Friday - Front Page
The Cameraman - Spite Marriage
The Brood - Crimes of the Future
Scanners - Stereo
Kes - Cathy Come Home
The Flavor of Green Tea - What Did the Lady Forget
Good Morning - I Was Born But..
King of the Hill - The Underneath

[mediocre]

Originally Posted by 812crew

Is there a list of criterions that have a feature-length film as a bonus feature? (I'm mostly speaking of narrative features, since I know many of them have long documentaries on them). These are the ones I know of - please let me know if you're aware of others. Thanks!

Permanent Vacation is on Stranger Than Paradise.

[sabdo]

Originally Posted by 812crew

Is there a list of criterions that have a feature-length film as a bonus feature? (I'm mostly speaking of narrative features, since I know many of them have long documentaries on them). These are the ones I know of - please let me know if you're aware of others. Thanks!

Close-Up - The Traveler
Certified Copy - The Report
The Killing - Killer's Kiss
His Girl Friday - Front Page
The Cameraman - Spite Marriage
The Brood - Crimes of the Future
Scanners - Stereo
The Big City - The Coward
Kes - Cathy Come Home
The Flavor of Green Tea - What Did the Lady Forget
Good Morning - I Was Born But..
King of the Hill - The Underneath

Criterion's edition of Stagecoach features one of Ford's earliest westerns, Bucking Broadway, and their edition of Lonesome features two other features by Paul Fejos: Broadway and The Last Performance.

Others include:

Creative Nonfiction (featured on Tiny Furniture)
Crook's Tour (featured on The Lady Vanishes)
Downhill (featured on The Lodger)
Holiday (1930) (featured on Holiday)
Homesdale (featured on Picnic at Hanging Rock)
The Lion Has Wings (featured on The Thief of Bagdad)
Magnificent Obsession (1935) (featured on Magnificent Obsession)
On purge bébé (featured on La chienne)
The Report (featured on Certified Copy)

[812crew]

Originally Posted by sabdo

Criterion's edition of Stagecoach features one of Ford's earliest westerns, Bucking Broadway, and their edition of Lonesome features two other features by Paul Fejos: Broadway and The Last Performance. There are definitely others.

Nice! I actually watched The Last Performance! Thanks for reminding me.

[BenOswald]

Forty Guns has A Fuller Life (2013), a feature-length documentary by Samantha Fuller about her father, Sam Fuller