The Criterion Collection

[CRASHLANDING]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

I don't want to spend $14.99 on a digital title when I can spend $20-30 for a physical.

Agree 100% on this. I've bought plenty of digital copies but rarely for more than $5 and almost never for Criterion-type films (art house, imports, etc.)

The Channel is a great option, with tons of great content for less than $100/yr. But the streaming model has obvious drawbacks, and I'll continue to prioritize physical copies to ensure my access is never subject to internet connectivity, changing license rights, politically correct censorship, etc. Unfortunately, in today's environment it seems the momentum for physical media has slowed to the point we can't expect that everything will ultimately get a worthy, HD physical release.

[themp3000]

The Channel has saved me so much money. It’s an asset I cannot live without now. I don’t have to blind buy unless I get the itch to. That goes for other things as well. I think I have avoided at least 30 blind buys over the course of the last couple of years. I feel like the only thing I lost was time. Which is pretty valuable itself but money and funds for this hobby more so. And shelf space. That’s pretty valuable too now.

[dvining]

Originally Posted by themp3000

The Channel has saved me so much money. It’s an asset I cannot live without now. I don’t have to blind buy unless I get the itch to. That goes for other things as well. I think I have avoided at least 30 blind buys over the course of the last couple of years. I feel like the only thing I lost was time. Which is pretty valuable itself but money and funds for this hobby more so. And shelf space. That’s pretty valuable too now.

I view all streaming as a rental service. It's where to check out things new to me. I don't blind buy very much. I don't have the money or the space to go all in on stuff I've never seen before. I think my last was War and Peace by Bondarchuk, and that was, what?, three years ago or so.

The stuff I want on physical isn't stuff to just check out, it's to add to the collection forever.

The Criterion Channel is great for what it is: a rental venue in subscription form.

[Rayjg]

Originally Posted by benoit blanc

anyone who already owns the arrow release of hotel du nord planning on double-dipping and getting the criterion one too?

:d

[ukulelemonster]

Originally Posted by dvining

I view all streaming as a rental service. It's where to check out things new to me. I don't blind buy very much. I don't have the money or the space to go all in on stuff I've never seen before. I think my last was War and Peace by Bondarchuk, and that was, what?, three years ago or so.

The stuff I want on physical isn't stuff to just check out, it's to add to the collection forever.

The Criterion Channel is great for what it is: a rental venue in subscription form.

Totally agree! While I admit to blind buying films, I usually only do so when I'm like 90% sure that I'll enjoy the film to a certain extent. Anything I'm feeling less confident in, I'm gonna want to watch first before buying.

Criterion Channel is great for that. There's a few films where watching them on the streaming service beforehand inspired me to purchase a physical copy and vice versa.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by Benoit Blanc

Anyone who already owns the Arrow release of Hotel du Nord planning on double-dipping and getting the Criterion one too?

Considering it, but I'd like to know more about Carne documentary in the extras first.

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by Aclea

Considering it, but I'd like to know more about Carne documentary in the extras first.

My guess is it may be Marcel Carné, ma vie à l’écran, which runs 53 minutes.

https://www.marcel-carne.com/marcel-...-d-bonan-1994/

[MifuneFan]

Janus recently tweeted about the world premiere screening of a new 4K restoration for The Devil and Daniel Webster (aka All That Money Can Buy). Have to imagine a BD upgrade will be coming sometime within the next year or so.

[bravelydefault]

Originally Posted by mifunefan

the film forum's june/july schedule (pdf) has been posted, and guess who's back by popular demand ..of those, i'll probably consider seeing high and low.

this is the 4k box set i want.

[BorisKarloffice]

Is it common for comments to get locked on news posts on this site? Because they're locked for the announcement about this slate of releases. I knew they were toxic AF but damn.

I'm laughing at all the declarations that this is proof Criterion is about to go belly-up because they announce one month of lesser-known titles immediately after dropping a ton of crowd-pleasers like Raging Bull and Okja.

And people complain when they release crowd-pleasers because they hog the spotlight from lesser known stuff!

[suspiciouscoffee]

I would imagine a month of lesser-known stuff would be a good sign for the health of the company, that they can safely fill a month with titles that won’t sell as well.

[BorisKarloffice]

Originally Posted by suspiciouscoffee

I would imagine a month of lesser-known stuff would be a good sign for the health of the company, that they can safely fill a month with titles that won’t sell as well.

My thoughts as well. Not to mention nobody would bat an eye if say, VinSyn or Arrow announced any of these. In fact Hotel du Nord was literally released by Arrow previously.

So if it's fine for those smaller companies to release lesser known stuff (and let's be real, they both regularly release MUCH lesser known stuff, VinSyn especially) I don't understand how it could spell doom for Criterion to do so.

If there's anything that would put Criterion out of business it would probably be ONLY releasing heavy hitter, fan favorite movies because so many of them have perfectly fine blu-rays already.

[Sifox211]

Criterion bashing is a monthly ritual on this site. You see the same names coming up time and time again posting incendiary comments of the type we all see regularly: too obscure, too mainstream, too woke, hate the artwork, Criterion is finished, etc. It's all just noise.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by Sifox211

Criterion bashing is a monthly ritual on this site. You see the same names coming up time and time again posting incendiary comments of the type we all see regularly: too obscure, too mainstream, too woke, hate the artwork, Criterion is finished, etc. It's all just noise.

You forgot "Why no UHD?"

[Rayjg]

With his Twitter deal pretty much dead maybe Elon Musk will sweep in and buy Criterion. When someone tweeted the recent slate he responded with a poop emoji and a winking face

[jkoffman]

Criterion is closing in on 40 years of releases. No idea why anyone following them would suddenly question their curation now. All I know is this is one of the drawbacks of giving a voice to everyone, especially those that have the time and energy to troll this hard. It's not a valid complaint.

[Rayjg]

Originally Posted by jkoffman

Criterion is closing in on 40 years of releases. No idea why anyone following them would suddenly question their curation now. All I know is this is one of the drawbacks of giving a voice to everyone, especially those that have the time and energy to troll this hard. It's not a valid complaint.

Well that's the problem, their curation was questioned in a major newspaper with the insinuation that they were not being inclusive enough. I don't ever remember that specific charge ever being lobbed at them before and I've been following the label for over 25 years. Any criticism used to be mostly technical stuff that all labels deal with. Criterion, and their fans, were dragged into this fight.

[trobrianders]

Originally Posted by Rayjg

With his Twitter deal pretty much dead maybe Elon Musk will sweep in and buy Criterion. When someone tweeted the recent slate he responded with a poop emoji and a winking face

Maybe Criterion could go the way of a co-operative? Be to digital video what Magnum Photos is to photojournalism.

[Mister_Kidd]

Originally Posted by Sifox211

Criterion bashing is a monthly ritual on this site.

It's getting to be almost as common as blindly defending Criterion no matter what.

[JonBTS]

Originally Posted by Rayjg

Well that's the problem, their curation was questioned in a major newspaper with the insinuation that they were not being inclusive enough. I don't ever remember that specific charge ever being lobbed at them before and I've been following the label for over 25 years. Any criticism used to be mostly technical stuff that all labels deal with. Criterion, and their fans, were dragged into this fight.

The last release I watched was World Cinema Project No. 3, so that inclusive remark is bouncing right off of me. Complaining about inclusion isn't going to change the fact that certain countries have a much more rich film history than others, or that films were stored better in some places. Then there's (allowed) access to materials or elements.