The Criterion Collection

[rock, stone]

Originally Posted by tenia

You can do all the comparisons you want.
The only real one is about competitors.

So yes, you can't draw an exemple like this, just because they only have the rights for North America.
The matter is not only having the rights for there, it's "does anybody having the rights for somewhere else want to prevent me to be able to sell my stuff there ?"

The only point up for debate on this example is if having the license to sell only in North American means that you have to lock to Region A, which someone suggested. TT doesn't lock. CC always locks. Everything else is a straw man.

Originally Posted by tenia

It's the case for numerous independant editors.
Twilight Time is not concerned, because they buy stuff from majors, and thus, the majors in the end are their own competitors. So they don't really care.

Criterion, on the contrary, usually faces other independants, who pay their own rights to right holders, and they love not to be in competition with Criterion.

MoC doesn't seem to mind, for what it's worth.

Originally Posted by tenia

On the other end, I'm quite sure that some CC releasess could have been region free, but now, they are just used to lock everything and don't even think about it, certainly because they are very happy with their current sales.

Which is quite literally my whole point: CC decides to lock every release, even if they are not legally required to lock every release.

Is there anything better than having your only point refuted by those who do so by agreeing?

[Show spoiler](yes. most things)

[shadedpain4]

As far as the region locking goes, if the owner a film knows they can make more money on licensing if they license a film seperately in different regions, then I would imagine that Criterion knows they can negotiate a better price on the licensing if they agree to region lock the release as part of the licensing agreement. The lower the price they negotiate, the more money they have for other films, restorations, special features, etc. I imagine they make a point of including this in every agreement to keep the price as low as possible.

Not to mention, if the Criterion release is region locked it leaves the door open for other great companies (like MOC) to also make a profit from the same movie by releasing their own version, possibly with different special features. (I know other companies could still license in other regions even if the Criterion release was region free, but obviously it makes more business sense to license a film that is not yet available in your region, and doesn't have region free copies already on the market.)

All of this means more options for us film lovers. Sounds great to me.

[joie]

If Criterion has exclusive rights to anything in Region A, they are not serving the market well. Spanish, French and several Asian languages are the native languages of many people living in Region A, so if Criterion were interested in serving the region's market and making its releases accessible to a broader audience, they would endeavour to include more than English subtitles.

Edit: An example of a distributor serving its market well is Studio Canal -- Check-out the subtitles available on their Region B releases.

[nametag]

Even if Criterion didn't lock every release, there'd still be plenty which were which in some ways might be more frustrating. And then there are the other studios which region lock as well.

I can sort of understand their more clear-cut stance where they don't have to even think about it.

Moral of the story: get a region free player.

[Fellini912]

Has criterion released any stop motion films? Masters of stop motion films such as Jan Svankmayer and Quay Brothers would be great releases, very surreal films. BFI has released Alice and Institute Benjamenta region free.

I hope in the future criterion can release their short films.

[Yami]

Originally Posted by Fellini912

Has criterion released any stop motion films? Masters of stop motion films such as Jan Svankmayer and Quay Brothers would be great releases, very surreal films. BFI has released Alice and Institute Benjamenta region free.

I hope in the future criterion can release their short films.

Nope, no stop motion or animation of any kind*, unless you count some of the stuff in By Brakhage.

* On DVD/Blu-Ray. They released Akira on laserdisc.

[Fellini912]

Originally Posted by Yami

Nope, no stop motion or animation of any kind*, unless you count some of the stuff in By Brakhage.

* On DVD/Blu-Ray. They released Akira on laserdisc.

Thanks for the response. Akira looks and sounds great on blu ray. The surround sound is one of the best. I was fortunate to get it for 15 dollars, two years ago.

I am very pleased with BFI blu ray transfer of Alice. If they are going be responsible in releasing Svankmayer's other films region free on blu ray, I will be a very happy cinephile.

[rkish]

Originally Posted by nametag

even if criterion didn't lock every release, there'd still be plenty which were which in some ways might be more frustrating. And then there are the other studios which region lock as well.

I can sort of understand their more clear-cut stance where they don't have to even think about it.

Moral of the story: Get a region free player.

Yessir!

[paulgeneacepeter]

Which Criterion blu ray releases come with large booklets? I'm talking about the really thick ones like

Seven Samurai
The Battle of Algiers
Salo
Dazed and Confused

I originally thought it was all cardboard packaged releases but The Last Emperor only came with a small booklet.

[tenia]

Originally Posted by rock, stone

MoC doesn't seem to mind, for what it's worth.

I'm not sure to understand you fully : MoC's BD are close to all Region B locked since M.

But anyway, it's probably not them who don't mind : it's the competitors. Because the only subs they have is English, which is also a way to block the inclusion on other markets.

shadedpain4 and joie explains very well the other way or reasons to have an independant market well splitted.

[Variable_Star]

Originally Posted by paulgeneacepeter

Which Criterion blu ray releases come with large booklets? I'm talking about the really thick ones like

Seven Samurai
The Battle of Algiers
Salo
Dazed and Confused

I originally thought it was all cardboard packaged releases but The Last Emperor only came with a small booklet.

The Blu-Ray release of The Last Emperor includes a truncated version of the booklet the DVD version received, which is why I kept both copies.

[KRW1]

Originally Posted by paulgeneacepeter

Which Criterion blu ray releases come with large booklets? I'm talking about the really thick ones like

Seven Samurai
The Battle of Algiers
Salo
Dazed and Confused

I originally thought it was all cardboard packaged releases but The Last Emperor only came with a small booklet.

Amacord, Fanny and Alexander, Night of the Hunter, Carlos, Sweet Smell of Success, The Leopard, Breathless and Godzilla, I think. Some of the box sets, like the David Lean ones also have large booklets but slightly different packaging.

[Scottie]

I think The Thin Red Line has a huge book, too.

[Hawkguy]

Originally Posted by CoopFilm

Ooooh, I was planning on going tomorrow, I hope they have them here. Following is the only one I don't have, and I'm interested in getting it. Thanks.

Picked up Following today

[octagon]

Originally Posted by CoopFilm

Picked up Following today

Dammit, I knew there was something else I wanted to look for while I was at Best Buy.

[KJH6926]

finally ordered the Phantom Carriage ....can't wait to watch this...now if I can just get a copy of Häxan on blu. Might have to just go with the dvd eventually though

[Jr7936]

i think it was a year ago or 2, i found a seller who was selling haxan on amazon for 99 cents. so 3 dollars shipped for the criterion dvd of haxan which isn't bad at all

[KJH6926]

Originally Posted by Jr7936

i think it was a year ago or 2, i found a seller who was selling haxan on amazon for 99 cents. so 3 dollars shipped for the criterion dvd of haxan which isn't bad at all

that is a great deal...iv'e never paid any less than $12 for any criterion

[Grethiwha]

Originally Posted by Grethiwha

So Criterion seems to have hand-picked the most interesting films from Kobayashi's early period. The set is called "Masaki Kobayashi Against the System". His first feature film "The Thick-Walled Room" from 1953, featured on this set, was considered controversial at the time for its politically-charged subject matter and went unreleased until 1957. Between 1953 and 1956 Kobayashi directed mostly innocuous, studio-friendly domestic dramas. While I'd be interested in buying a "Masaki Kobayashi Respects the System" collection of these, to see them (I wish I had Hulu+ cause a lot of them have become available there recently), what's here is far more interesting.

All Kobayashi films free on Hulu this week!!! This includes all his well-known films, two of the films from the upcoming Eclipse set (they're the two I'm less excited about, and besides, I'd rather wait for the set to watch them without commercials), but most importantly, four films that will probably not be available in any other way... for a very long time.

Like I say, these are probably lesser films of his that he did for the studio, but how I've wanted to see them anyway! I suppose I could've gotten a months subscription to Hulu+ or something, though I'm in Canada with an unblocking thing so I don't know if that'd pose a problem, but anyway, I was holding out for them to come on free. I know what I'll be doing this week!

Though I think of "Thick-Walled Room" as his proper directorial debut, "Youth of the Son" is a 44-minute film he made even before it, with heavy influence from his mentor Keisuke Kinoshita. Can't say much about the other 3 films, except they came out in the period between "Thick-Walled Room" and "Black River" and are therefore probably the more innocuous domestic drama-types.

Anyway, just thought I'd point it out, after people here replied to my over-long post about the Eclipse set.

[Jr7936]

that is a great deal...iv'e never paid any less than $12 for any criterion

oh i've paid 12 or less for a lot of them some of the out of print ones on dvd's
such as harder they come which was 10.99, spinal tap which was actually 14 dollars before shipping, and even a few blu ray ones which were used.
the harder they come and spinal tap are some of my favorite criterion dvd's