The Criterion Collection

[Mike0284]

Originally Posted by mja345

The closet videos have lost their charm IMO (not picking on Mike0284 as he's a great poster, just stating my opinion). It now feels like, "Let's get some rich celebrity in here and they can talk about movies for a few minutes." Six or seven years ago, it didn't feel that way. But a lot of shit has gotten worse in the last six or seven years. These videos have really sucked the last year or two, the people seem super detached, they should have some regular collectors in the f**king closet. They're the ones who drive their business. End rant, I apologize.

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by The Sovereign

You don’t say.

I love world cinema in general, but something about Japanese cinema just makes it stand out to me more. The quality of the films, especially during the 1950's-1970's was simply epic.

[BunyipPouch]

Originally Posted by mja345

The closet videos have lost their charm IMO (not picking on Mike0284 as he's a great poster, just stating my opinion). It now feels like, "Let's get some rich celebrity in here and they can talk about movies for a few minutes." Six or seven years ago, it didn't feel that way. But a lot of shit has gotten worse in the last six or seven years. These videos have really sucked the last year or two, the people seem super detached, they should have some regular collectors in the f**king closet. They're the ones who drive their business. End rant, I apologize.

Sorry but I'm getting very "old man yells at clouds" vibes from this. Just complaining to complain. The videos have still been great. I like the variety of actors/directors/etc they get in there. Everyone's usually got a personal connection to something in there or is at least entertaining/charming enough to leave an impression. I kind of like how the Closet has become a regular stop on promotional tours (when someone's got a movie coming out or something), like some kind of podcast/late night show appearance but specifically for us blu ray nerds.

Charlie Day was great. I don't see a downfall in quality at all.

Seeing one of us bumbling around nervously in the closet would get tiring real quick. It'd get 1000x more complaints.

[Cpt. Feeney]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

I love world cinema in general, but something about Japanese cinema just makes it stand out to me more. The quality of the films, especially during the 1950's-1970's was simply epic.

The Human Condition, Street of Shame, High and Low...
maybe the three biggest film highlights for me from the last two/three years. This is an amazing period to discover.

[SmittysGelato]

What I am really craving from Criterion at the moment is more Karel Zeman and Johnnie To.

The Heroic Trio being top priority number 1! Marry me Michelle.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by BunyipPouch

Seeing one of us bumbling around nervously in the closet would get tiring real quick. It'd get 1000x more complaints.

They'd probably say stuff like:
"Why doesn't Criterion upgrade this DVD trilogy as well instead of just sitting on the rights, those lazy malicious poltroons?"
"I'll pick this up even though the compression / grading is shite because this is the only available version, boo-hoo."

[MifuneFan]

The BFI will be getting an Ozu boxset, witth some remastered titles included. No word on how many titles they're including though. You're move Criterion

https://variety.com/2023/film/asia/o...235608480/amp/

In the U.K., the BFI will celebrate Ozu with: a 16-film retrospective at BFI Southbank from Sept 1 through Oct 3; a U.K.-wide theatrical re-release of “Tokyo Story”’; a box set of newly-remastered titles on BFI Blu-ray; and a collection of films on its BFI Player streaming platform. “Tokyo Story” is also being adapted as a stage play with Simon Friend (“The Father”) developing for London’s West End.

Credit to jackanderson in the BFI thread for the heads-up

[jshaide]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

The BFI will be getting an Ozu boxset, witth some remastered titles included. No word on how many titles they're including though. You're move Criterion

https://variety.com/2023/film/asia/o...235608480/amp/



Credit to jackanderson in the BFI thread for the heads-up

Much prefer Criterion's method of solo release once every 12-18 months---I love waiting over a decade to get every Chaplin or Wenders film they have!

[dkelly26666]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

The BFI will be getting an Ozu boxset, witth some remastered titles included. No word on how many titles they're including though. You're move Criterion

https://variety.com/2023/film/asia/o...235608480/amp/



Credit to jackanderson in the BFI thread for the heads-up

I'll make the sacrifice for everyone. I'll have to buy the BFI set and receive it. Then, and only then, will Criterion announce that they're doing one, as well....

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by dkelly26666

I'll make the sacrifice for everyone. I'll have to buy the BFI set and receive it. Then, and only then, will Criterion announce that they're doing one, as well....

I think you should also buy one for me, to really make sure the sacrifice hits.

[jshaide]

https://www.criterion.com/current/po...EbcYY304xcbZ8k

"Starting this fall, Criterion will proudly join Janus Films in presenting Janus Contemporaries, a new line of home-video editions of first-run releases, fresh from theaters, following their streaming premieres on the Criterion Channel.

Kicking off with Jerzy Skolimowski’s Cannes Jury Prize winner and Academy Award nominee EO, the 2023 slate of the Janus Contemporaries line will feature Jafar Panahi’s No Bears, Louis Garrel’s The Innocent, Hlynur Pálmason’s Godland, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s Tori and Lokita, and Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch’s The Eight Mountains.

The Blu-ray and DVD editions will include new interviews with the filmmakers produced by Criterion as part of the Criterion Channel series Meet the Filmmakers, and will retail for $29.95 (Blu-ray) and $24.95 (DVD).

Known for more than sixty-five years as the premier U.S. distributor of international art-house cinema, Janus is home to many of the greatest movies ever made, from such vaunted masters as Chantal Akerman, Michelangelo Antonioni, Ingmar Bergman, Jean Cocteau, the Coen brothers, Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Akira Kurosawa, David Lynch, Yasujiro Ozu, Satyajit Ray, Ousmane Sembène, François Truffaut, Melvin Van Peebles, Agnès Varda, Wim Wenders, and Wong Kar Wai. Last year, when Sight and Sound revealed the results of its once-a-decade poll, the critics’ and directors’ lists of the top hundred films of all time each included more than fifty entries from the Janus library.

After premiering many key works by Antonioni, Bergman, and Fellini in the 1960s, Janus largely stepped away from first-run theatrical distribution. Following the release of Kurosawa’s Dodes’ka-den (1970), the company focused on theatrical runs of restored classics from its library until 2009, when it distributed Götz Spielmann’s Revanche.

Over the past decade, Janus has released a steady stream of celebrated art-house hits, including Academy Award winners like Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car, which marked the start of Janus’s landmark partnership with bespoke theatrical specialist Sideshow.

With a more robust first-run lineup than it has had since the 1960s and powerful partnerships with theatrical specialists Sideshow and the Criterion Channel streaming service, Janus is uniquely well positioned to bring the best films from around the world to theaters and homes across North America. The launch of Janus Contemporaries completes that picture."



Perhaps this will rectify the common complaint of too many contemporary titles per month in the mainline? Love the lower price point too!

[CelestialAgent]

Not actually a fan of the budget price point as sounds like the only extra will be Meet the Filmmakers (also on the Channel) and the BFI release of EO will probably end up having more extras. Missed opportunity.

[MifuneFan]

Very interesting development. Only downsides being that the discs won't have much in the way of extras, and it's unlikely we'll see any 4K releases from the line. 4K was probably unlikely for these titles anyway, though I've heard great things about the visuals in EO, and The Eight Mountains.

A couple other things I wonder about is how will their packaging be for it. Just the standard plastic Criterion-style case, or something else to distinguish it from the main line. And finally, will these releases be separate from the montly Criterion slate, or will they take up one of the slots in any given month?

[mclellandj]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

Not actually a fan of the budget price point as sounds like the only extra will be Meet the Filmmakers (also on the Channel) and the BFI release of EO will probably end up having more extras. Missed opportunity.

I'd rather have zero extras if more people can afford to watch the movies. The price creep of this hobby is bad enough as it is. I'm happy that Criterion is still putting out affordable arthouse film to combat Disney brain.

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by mclellandj

I'd rather have zero extras if more people can afford to watch the movies. The price creep of this hobby is bad enough as it is. I'm happy that Criterion is still putting out affordable arthouse film to combat Disney brain.

Haven’t Criterion releases stayed at $40 MRSP/$30 on the website and most retailers/$20 on sale for at least the past decade though? And $30 MRSP for a release with limited extras is still $10 more than a lot of new studio releases.

[HighScore Valerie]

Criterion has both, Balthazar and EO now lol

[DimitriL]

I mean, that price point means that people will be able to often get them from Amazon and others far below a $20 price point, maybe $15. I’d love extras but that kind of price of entry makes a lack of extras real justifiable.

[MifuneFan]

It's mostly a $5 difference between the releases, assuming the JC releases also drop during the half-off sales.

[regeyer]

Until Criterion starts providing English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing for the extras, I couldn't care less whether a new release even has extras. Criterion only provides subtitles for extras spoken in "foreign" languages. You would think that in 2023 that Criterion would finally provide such an accommodation for the disabled. Yet they refuse to.

[koberulz]

It costs a ton of money.