This monumental forty-film box set celebrates forty years of the Criterion Collection by gathering an electrifying mix of classic and contemporary films, and presenting them with all their special features and essays in a deluxe clothbound, slipcased edition. CC40’s eclectic selection includes the releases most frequently chosen by the hundreds of filmmakers, actors, writers, and other movie-loving luminaries who have visited Criterion over the years, as documented in our popular Closet Picks video series. Neither a historical survey nor a top-forty compilation, this exciting, personal, unpredictable anthology reflects the cinematic joys and inspirations of the creative community that makes the Criterion Collection possible.
The films: 8½ (1963), Tokyo Story (1953), All That Jazz (1979), Bicycle Thieves (1948), Repo Man (1984), Naked (1993), Jules and Jim (1962), Being There (1979), Weekend (1967), Yi Yi (2000), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Pickpocket (1959), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), On the Waterfront (1954), Do the Right Thing (1989), Ratcatcher (1999), Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), Mirror (1975), Barry Lyndon (1975), Safe (1995), Seconds (1966), His Girl Friday (1940), Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), Y tu mamá también (2001), My Own Private Idaho (1991), Love & Basketball (2000), Night of the Living Dead (1968), Ace in the Hole (1951), 3 Women (1977), The Red Shoes (1948), Down by Law (1986), La Ciénaga (2001), Wanda (1970), House (1977), Sullivan’s Travels (1941), The Battle of Algiers (1966), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Persona (1966), In the Mood for Love (2000)
The following is the introduction featured in CC40, a monumental forty-film box set that celebrates forty years of the Criterion Collection.
Over the past forty years, the Criterion Collection offices have played host to a huge network of directors, actors, writers, artists, musicians, technicians, and scholars of all kinds. Many come in to collaborate with us on Criterion special-edition releases, others to work on original productions for our streaming service, the Criterion Channel. Little by little, our offices have become a kind of unofficial hub for film folks visiting New York. Word spread, and soon people started stopping in just because they had heard there was something special about this place.
Whenever luminaries arrive, we like to give them a little tour. People seem to enjoy floating through corridors lined with huge vintage film posters and Criterion’s original work, then turning a corner into the art department, where the next, yet-to-be-unveiled designs are pinned up on the walls. Only a few steps away is a book-lined conference room that, on any given day, might have been transformed into a professional studio and set up for a two-camera shoot. Down the hall, past producers’ offices rife with the relics of previous releases, the editorial team works on essays, not far from the rooms where new video interviews and introductions are in postproduction and the finishing touches are being made to the picture and sound of a 4K master. Channel programming, social media, and customer service all work in the same space where a group of students or journalists might be waiting for a film to start in our screening room. We like showing that everything Criterion makes is a team effort, that it all emanates from this one place, that it all happens right here.
In the back of the office is a big, open, sunlit kitchen where there is a wall of hand-signed Fujifilm Instax portraits (like widescreen Polaroids) pinned on a white board in a huge grid. There’s Agnès Varda, Bill Hader, Barry Jenkins, William Friedkin, Willem Dafoe, Cate Blanchett and Todd Field, Juliette Binoche, Alexander Payne, Greta Gerwig, Bong Joon Ho, Aubrey Plaza, Anna Karina, Flying Lotus, Chloë Sevigny . . . It’s dizzying. The more you look, the more familiar faces you see. And while some of the photos were taken in the kitchen, most were taken in a tiny room, the inevitable last stop on the tour, the Criterion closet.
The people who visit us have one thing in common. They all love movies, and the Criterion product-storage closet is one of the most concentrated doses of cinephile inspiration anywhere on the planet. In something like sixty square feet are nearly two thousand gems of world cinema, from the silent period to the present day. And for as long as I can remember, we’ve wrapped up every visit to the office with a little offer: Is there anything you’re pining for? Would you like to visit the closet? No one leaves empty-handed.
We’ve had many memorable conversations in the closet over the years. Spurred by the presence of so much cinematic stimulation, our guests have opened up about their most formative film experiences in casual, intimate, off-the-cuff ways. Learning someone’s movie taste turns out to be a great way to get to know them personally: what breaks their heart or blows their mind, feeds their guilty pleasures or triggers their pet peeves. And then, of course, there are the stories, the behind-the-scenes tales and details too trivial to chase down for a formal supplemental feature but just delicious when shared between friends.
Guillermo del Toro was not the first person to raid the closet, but he was the first to do it on camera. The most passionate, generous, and hardworking film fan you’ll ever meet, Guillermo was excited to have us shoot his closet visit when he stopped by one day in September 2010. He was in and out in under three minutes, for the most part offering little more than brief exclamations of enthusiasm for each new choice. But watching the video after he left, we knew it was something special. “A very small robbery,” he said, before ducking out the door with a black Criterion tote bag full of his favorite films. And with this, the Criterion Closet Picks video was born.
Today, the Criterion Closet Picks videos have taken on a life of their own, accumulating millions of views on YouTube. Publicists have made the Criterion closet a stop on many art-house filmmakers’ publicity tours. Now, more often than not, the first thing people say when they come to the office is, “Where’s the closet?” and then, when they see it, “My gosh, it’s so small!” and then, “It really is just a closet!” Watching these movie lovers championing their favorites from the collection and discovering new things to watch has introduced a new generation to Criterion, and to the array of important classic and contemporary films that we have published over the decades.
When it came time to choose a theme for this commemorative collection in honor of our fortieth anniversary, in 2024, we struggled. How could we choose forty editions from among the 1,200 we had so carefully selected, each on its own terms, each for the story it had to tell? Gradually we realized that the answer was in the closet itself and all the passionate choices that had been made in that space. In a sense, the closet is the heart of the collection in the world, the sum of our work in all departments for forty years, gathered in one place—with all its potential energy intact and ready to be unleashed. No single curator could make this choice, but what if we were guided by the passions of all those inspiring visitors, by their curiosity and hunger to choose new film experiences or to tell the world about the films they love most?
When we gathered the list of the films most frequently selected from the closet, there was a palpable sigh of relief. Here was a selection we could all get behind, at once iconic and adventurous, not obvious in any way, featuring many of the finest films ever made, handpicked by nearly two hundred of the most creative and thoughtful people we know. These movies are accompanied by all of the special features from their stand-alone editions, including the essays that follow in this book. The result is the collection you have in your hands, a labor of love, an archive of the work of our community, and a very partial record of four decades of dedication to cinema.
This monumental forty-film box set celebrates forty years of the Criterion Collection by gathering an electrifying mix of classic and contemporary films, and presenting them with all their special features and essays in a deluxe clothbound, slipcased edition. CC40’s eclectic selection includes the releases most frequently chosen by the hundreds of filmmakers, actors, writers, and other movie-loving luminaries who have visited Criterion over the years, as documented in our popular Closet Picks video series. Neither a historical survey nor a top-forty compilation, this exciting, personal, unpredictable anthology reflects the cinematic joys and inspirations of the creative community that makes the Criterion Collection possible.
The films: 8½ (1963), Tokyo Story (1953), All That Jazz (1979), Bicycle Thieves (1948), Repo Man (1984), Naked (1993), Jules and Jim (1962), Being There (1979), Weekend (1967), Yi Yi (2000), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Pickpocket (1959), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), On the Waterfront (1954), Do the Right Thing (1989), Ratcatcher (1999), Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), Mirror (1975), Barry Lyndon (1975), Safe (1995), Seconds (1966), His Girl Friday (1940), Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), Y tu mamá también (2001), My Own Private Idaho (1991), Love & Basketball (2000), Night of the Living Dead (1968), Ace in the Hole (1951), 3 Women (1977), The Red Shoes (1948), Down by Law (1986), La Ciénaga (2001), Wanda (1970), House (1977), Sullivan’s Travels (1941), The Battle of Algiers (1966), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Persona (1966), In the Mood for Love (2000)
Good for anyone desperate for shelf space. Other than that, not sure what the point it is. Most people intersted in this would have more than half if not all of these releases in their collection with proper packaging and supplementals. On the positive side, it is always good to have options.
Good for anyone desperate for shelf space. Other than that, not sure what the point it is. Most people intersted in this would have more than half if not all of these releases in their collection with proper packaging and supplementals. On the positive side, it is always good to have options.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dig311dug
not sure who this is marketed towards... criterion subscribers perhaps?
Not even in 4k and most criterion die-hards already own alot of these.
The pricing for it isn't actually horrible. It works out to $15.99 a movie, which is no doubt a bargain. The problem is, unless you're completely new to Criterion, and/or you don't own any of these and were planning to pick most/all of them up, I'm just not sure who else this would be geared towards.
Kinda sad that Criterion only seems to care about "Closet Picks" nowadays. Hell, it seems the past few years, all they've cared about is appealing to the social media crowd.
For me it’s beyond belief how unbelievably lazy this edition is and what a giant opportunity they missed. Sure, for people starting out to collect this is fantastic but them simply recycling all their old BDs is a stab in the heart for all longtime collectors / fans and physical media enthusiasts. Would all of these be UHDs… my God what a statement that could’ve been to all those in doubt about where physical media is going and what kind of films could end up on the format beyond the usual genre fare and new blockbusters. They could’ve “slapped” whatever 4K restoration they had available on these discs, be it SDR or HDR and make something special just by doing this. Now we’re probably left waiting at least another year for one of the many long overdue mega-collections of an iconic director.
When I saw the e-mail in my inbox with the title "A monumental 40-film box set, coming in November", my heart started racing as I thought it might be the Kurosawa boxset I have been hoping for for years.
The pricing for it isn't actually horrible. It works out to $15.99 a movie, which is no doubt a bargain. The problem is, unless you're completely new to Criterion, and/or you don't own any of these and were planning to pick most/all of them up, I'm just not sure who else this would be geared towards.
Though if bought at a half-off sale (at $400), $10/title seems kind of appealing...
Yeah, I'm curious how well this set sells. It has to be aimed towards new collectors, but what new collector have you ever known would be willing to spend that much on, most likely, blind buys?
And then the crowd Criterion has already drawn in for decades, already has pretty much everything they want from this set.
When I saw the e-mail in my inbox with the title "A monumental 40-film box set, coming in November", my heart started racing as I thought it might be the Kurosawa boxset I have been hoping for for years.
What a disappointment when I opened the e-mail.
It is interesting tho how this set has no Kurosawa at all.
When I saw the e-mail in my inbox with the title "A monumental 40-film box set, coming in November", my heart started racing as I thought it might be the Kurosawa boxset I have been hoping for for years.
When I saw the e-mail in my inbox with the title "A monumental 40-film box set, coming in November", my heart started racing as I thought it might be the Kurosawa boxset I have been hoping for for years.
It is curious that it doesn't have a single Kurosawa title in there. I wouldn't expect Seven Samurai of course, but there are others, especially Rashomon, but also Ikiru, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Hidden Fortress, Throne of Blood, or High and Low that could have been included. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up with that though.
Kinda sad that Criterion only seems to care about "Closet Picks" nowadays. Hell, it seems the past few years, all they've cared about is appealing to the social media crowd.
I wondered why Criterion increased the amount Closet Pick videos in the past year. They pretty much stripped mystique around the closet when guys like Paul Scheer and Ben Gibbard make the cut. I guess all the viral videos were leading to this boxset? Surely fans of the Closet videos already own the most popular picks, then who is this set for...?
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